Seems every magazine or newspaper I’ve picked up in the last two weeks has an article about him. We have several threads (which I’m not following) going about him here. I was a Beatles fan as a teen, and I remember the newsflash about his death. Even at the time, it was pretty much a non-event to me. I didn’t cry or feel depressed. I expected my life to to on without just as it would have with him…and there’s no reason for me to think that hasn’t been the case.
Technically, I’m a baby boomer (b. 1962), but the whole fixation on Lennon’s death smacks of more 60’s boomer self-absorption. Everything is about them.
Clearly, it affected some people at the time far more than it affected you. Funny that you talk about self-absorption when you are essentially saying that since you weren’t affected, no one should be.
No, Brynda, I didn’t say that at all. I said I wasn’t affected emotionally at the time and that I’m tired of hearing about him now. I never said how you should feel.
Just let it be, man…
Yeah, I’ll admit it’s starting to grate on my nerves a little. I was three when he died, so obviously I had no idea who he was at the time and did not care that he was dead. I’m not a Beatles fan, though I do like Lennon’s solo work. Basically, the anniversary of his death affects me in no way whatsoever.
I think some people just react to this type of thing differently. You f ind it with any major tragedy, be it assassination or earthquake. Some people will cry their eyes out and hold candlelight vigils, while others will just say, “Gee, that’s too bad,” shrug their shoulders, and move on. Twenty-five years later, those people who held candlelight vigils will remember exactly where they were when they learned the news, while the latter will remember, but not as a life-changing moment or anything. Though it does seem a tiny bit silly when people get so upset over the deaths of celebrities we don’t even know personally. YMMV, of course.
The media are always obssessing about something. If it wasn’t this, it’d be something else even more inconsequential.
We’re never going to hear about something exactly as much as we feel is appropriate, it’s always gonna be more or less.
It’s pandering to the boom. And it’s done all the time. You don’t see the coverage of Cobains death anniversery, and you don’t see the coverage of Lawrence Welk’s death anniversary. I think the reason the boom generation often can appear to have the level of self absorbtion of which you speak is that the media panders to it.
I honestly think as head producers and editors retire and move off into their golden years, and entire generation will wonder why the hell everything isn’t about them anymore.
I’m with you. I’m very tired of this obsession over dead celebrities. I can’t understand how people can get all choked up over the death of people whom they do not know.
Kennedy had just been assassinated and the entire US had been in a perpetual state of shock and mourning. For young kids at the time, it was a life-altering experience to live in homes and see your parents and grandparents in a funk for so long. So when the Beatles came to America - fresh, long-haired, upbeat and wildly offensive to the morals of the establishment, we latched on like white on rice. The Beatles weren’t just a band, and it wasn’t just their music - they were the first media breakthrough at the time where kids could forget the recent past.
The Beatles rode the moment and millions of kids, like myself, vicariously rode their fame with them. They became a focal point - suddenly fashions changed - long hair, bell bottoms, free love, sex, drugs - and this wave of fashion led to a wave of political awareness and a few years later, these kids were protesting the war and once again, there was John Lennon.
So it wasn’t just a guy who could sing well and write well and play well, it was the beginning of a sea of changes that still effect people my age, The death of John Lennon was more the death of an era than the death of a man.
I don’t expect anyone who wasn’t there to fully understand, but when you meet those old codgers who are still able to look past your clothing and styles and treat you like a human being and respect your opinions - you can thank a group from England who changed the way a lot of people think to this day.
So if it seems there is too much emphasis on John Lennon, you are probably right. But for people like me, it is a sad reminder of an era that has passed, and at the same time, reminds me of who I used to be and hope to continue to be.
Much as I like Nirvana’s music (actually probably more than the Beatles based on their general style), Curt Cobain didn’t live long enough to develop to his full potential. I suspect that’s why you don’t hear of his deathday every year. I’d say the Beatles did have more influence on the culture and music of their time.
But yeah, there have been quite a few things in the news about John Lennon and the Beatles. That’s partly because a couple of new books came out recently, and the media do like to snap that sort of thing up because its an easy day’s work.
Lawrence Welk? You can’t be serious.
I don’t read about Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, or any other crap that I don’t want to read. I don’t know who half the people in these “celebrity” shows and tabloids even are.
True, I didn’t personally know John Lennon either. I’m the same age as the OP. But I did grow up listening to The Beatles – the best pop/rock group there will ever be – and loved a lot of John’s solo work: thought some was crap too, BTW.
He wrote some very beautiful songs. His oversimplified message was all about love and peace, and so the irony of the way in which he died, coupled with the fact that he had just made it back onto the music scene after taking a few years to “watch the wheels go 'round” made it a very emotional experience.
If you don’t want to hear about it, or read about it then don’t. Works for me with the other stuff.
Hell, I was just trying to pick a name to represent the pre-boom generation. But the media has so polluted my mind with boom bands, that I couldn’t think of any.
I’m a Beatles-Lennon fan (although much of his solo stuff ranged from mediocre to outright embarassing), and I can’t help but think about him and his music today.
Having said that, I think the manner of his death plays a big role in how the event is memorialized. I think that if he had died in a car wreck (like Paul), or something like that, there wouldn’t be candlelight virgils, media tributes, etc., to the degree that we see now.
Plus, his death was announced on Monday Night Football and word spread quickly, allowing people to form that “I remember where I was” moment, much like Kennedy’s murder by the CIA in Dallas.
+1 - well said. No, I am not tired of it. I was a baby when the Beatles were hot in the '60’s, so have the thinnest of personal connections with the time.
But let’s stop for a sec: In a few hundred years, the Beatles will be one of the very few artists talked about by history classes when discussing this era. They are all the things you hear about them - one of the most influential artists ever - both popularly and critically.
Lionizing Lennon and piling on from a media standpoint on his death - look, this isn’t like the latest Paris Hilton non-event. This is someone who is clearly a historic figure.
Bottom line: I personally don’t mind it - I love the Beatles. But objectively I don’t mind it either for the reasons I laid out above…
double take
Paul died? 
Yes! You didn’t hear? 
Then let me suggest a mysterious and tragic pre-boom death we do not celebrate: Glenn Miller. Also, we do not celebrate the tragic deaths of Janis Joplin or Mama Cass or a whole bunch of other boomer celebrity singers. It’s just the damn Beatles, all the time.
I am also sick of hearing about John Lennon and the Beatles and how they’re the best band ever in the history of the world and everything for all time until the universe explodes.
They were a good band. They were in the right place at the right time at the conjunction of a population boom of people then detatched and disillusioned and at the explosion of mass media. They balanced the highwire of celebrity for longer than most bands would have done. They pioneered some things — as did many at the cutting edge of developing audio technology — and they popularized things already invented by others. They recorded some good songs, and they recorded some crap which I can’t listen to.
I remember reading in AARP magazine (hey, I was at the doctor’s office) a column complaining that TV and radio advertisers were deliberately ignoring the largest segment of the population. The tone of the column was whiny and self-important, look at us, look at us, the world isn’t focused on the boomers any longer, why are we being ignored?
The media has had it very easy, for very long, in having a huge market to bend over for. God knows what they’re going to do when the boomers start to vanish; they’ll be at a loose end. I’ll be 60 before anybody remembers my generation even exists. They’ll probably be celebrating “the last Baby Boomer” until the last one keels over at 114, the way they now honor the few remaining war veterans.
I sincerely hope you’re not suggesting that we stop honouring war veterans? Please tell me you’re not.