In the late 1990s, I fell in love. He was so sweet, so cute, so caring.
He was a Backstreet Boy.
I literally bought into the bubblegum pop music craze of the era, shelling out my hard-earned money for import CDs, posters, concert tickets and more. Today I blush at the memory, but at least I was not alone. From 1997 to 1999, the Backstreet Boys' debut album went platinum 12 times over, while its second release went platinum 11 times. The music of the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin and 98 Degrees was sugary enough to send an otherwise-healthy teenage girl into diabetic shock.
Lucky for me, the economy was booming and I had an entry-level job at a movie theater. The cash I earned scooping popcorn funded my obsession, keeping my stereo blasting classics like "If You Want It To Be Good Girl (Get Yourself a Bad Boy)."
And then the dot-com bubble burst.
As a skilled popcorn maker and theater cleaner, I had a certain amount of job security. Others did not. In March of 2001, we officially entered a recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. The economy is still in a funk today and, though there are encouraging signs of recovery, Americans are clutching their dollars tightly out of a combination of pragmatism and fear. Jobs are going overseas, healthcare costs are soaring and college graduates are moving back in with their parents.
A silver lining does exist, though: The music is getting better.
The top hits of today have developed far beyond the late '90s fare. Modest Mouse, The Shins, Velvet Revolver, The Killers and more indicate a maturing of our collective music taste (well, mine, at the very least) and a willingness to change all of our habits. These artists and others are expanding our musical palates, letting us hear new ways of approaching music and more intricate, innovative lyrics.
The same trend holds true throughout the last 50 years or so. Musical innovations are closely tied to economic recession. The recession from August of 1957 to April of 1958 coincides with the emergence of Buddy Holly and Elvis, two musicians who changed modern music forever. Van Morrison emerged right after the 1969 to 1970 recession, and Pink Floyd released The Dark Side of the Moon during the 1973 to 1975 period of economic downturn. The Sex Pistols formed in England in 1976, during a time of heavy job loss. Of course, Nirvana found success during the troubled early 1990s.
The list goes on and on: Major musical developments seem to occur under the shadow of economic crisis. It makes sense. As times become more difficult, people need new outlets to express themselves. The status quo does not work. The bubblegum music does not empathize with the pain of financial insecurity.
Furthermore, beyond the musicians themselves, everyday people begin questioning the state of things when the economy turns sour. Happy times lull us into an apathetic complacency. Wallets are full, songs are happy, protests are rare and people stop going to the polls to vote.
Economic problems do not merely shake up our musical tastes, but make us question everything. When the Backstreet Boys were at the top of its game in 1998, former President Bill Clinton bombed Iraq in an effort to force the nation to submit to UN weapons inspectors. Clinton thought that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Many people died in the bombings that followed, but protests against the military action were few and far between.
When President George W. Bush initiated action against Iraq for similar reasons, Americans gathered across the nation to protest in numbers unseen since the Vietnam War.
Economic problems similarly prompt us to rebel against societal norms. Debates over gay marriage, stem cell research and more have rocked the nation over the past year; such discussions were far less common when the stock market was high and Enron was a solid investment.
Disaster forces us to face reality. When the financial bubble burst at the turn of the millennium, it also popped the shield that protected us from the less attractive truths of the world and our country. We are all scrambling to find new ways to pay our rising tuition and find a post-graduation job, but hope exists. A desire to change things has replaced our prior complacency about music, politics and social norms.
Thanks to the recession, our stock as a generation will rise.
And 20 years from now, when we're subjecting our children to the music of our day, we'll be able to subject them to better tunes than 'N Sync.
