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RUSH and the Teen Years


thelocator

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I'm wondering if there's still many young, wild-eyed teenage boys of say, 13 14, 15, 16 yrs of age, here in the modern era, like maybe over the course of the last five years time, who are still able to embrace and then totally get lost inside of some of the older, EPIC RUSH albums like 2112, Kings, Hemispheres & Permanent Waves. Does this sorta thing still happen? I wouldn't expect them to be ALL 70's Prog Rock, all the time...but maybe mixing the stuff in, alongside whatever modern musics that the individual young dude does in fact dig.

 

I wasn't a teen of the 70's, where sitting at home and listening to Epicocous Album Sides on the family stereo was the 'in thing' to do, all while futzin' with a bowl of ice cream in one hand and the LP cover with the double gate-fold art work in the other.

 

But, I was indeed a teen of the 80's, where occasionally sneaking in an side-long piece with an especially high epicosity rating was still a cool and freeing thing to do...It's the staying in with friends that facilitates such a practice. It was the nights at a friend's house with a few guys playing board games, video games and cooking up french bread Pizzas that created the environment where we could enjoy a really lengthy RUSH or YES album...

 

But, then I'm thinking that teenage boys spend even more time inside doing those sorta things now than we did back when...I don't know what the exact numbers are, but the average teen today spends a much larger degree of his time indoors than 10, 20, 30 years ago. There's just so much more technology at the average person's fingertips...and, many hours in the day, especially weekends to discover new music.

 

So, what I guess I'm trying to figure out here is whether the more 'musically-inclined' and 'intellectually-inclined' (just for you, bro) younger dudes out there still make the time to totally get involved with some of the mega-epic-works of the past...CAN a Teen of today become a RUSH FANATIC to the same degree that kids of the past got totally mesmerized and pulled into the world of RUSH?

 

 

 

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that's what happened to me.

 

I'm 19 now but i first got into RUSH when i was 15 and it was 2112 that did it. I definitely prefer to listen to a whole album at a time, and that's what i generally do if i have the time.

 

Now to answer your question I'm not sure if it's just as easy today as it was in the 70's, probably not. i'm the only person I know who likes em sadly.

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QUOTE (thelocator @ Sep 13 2010, 07:10 PM)
...
I wasn't a teen of the 70's, where sitting at home and listening to Epicocous Album Sides on the family stereo was the 'in thing' to do, all  while futzin' with a bowl of ice cream in one hand and the LP cover with the double gate-fold art work in the other.
...

I'm not a boy, but I was a teen in the glorious '70's. As I recall, we didn't necessarily sit at home and listen to jams on the family stereo... we did have muscle cars with 8-track players in which we could go on tour in search of our Uncle's country place that nobody knew about, ya know. cool.gif

 

And, I'll guarantee you it wasn't a bowl of ice cream I held in one hand as I perused the liner notes on the double gate-fold LP cover... angel.gif

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I am almost 15, and prog bands like Rush, Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd are some of my favorites. I like modern bands also but these are my favorites. 2112, Close to The Edge, and The Wall are some of my all time favorite albums to listen to. I get REALLY into these albums. I'm the only one I know that really likes that music and its hard to find people my age that like prog.
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I was exposed to 2112, CoS, and FBN at age 8 back in 1976 and ATWAS a little later. I became and full fledged fan at age 13 and tried convincing most everybody I knew that Rush was the greatest band alive at the time. Most of my teenage friends thought that Rush was cool but none were really big fans and pursued all of their albums like I did.
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I teach high school and I am surprised at the number of juniors and seniors that are in to Rush, Maiden, and Dream Theater. I was talking to a few of them about Hemispheres and PeW and was blown away that they were discussing Free Will, Circumstances, and The Trees. I was trying to get the attention of one of my juniors and it appeared that he was asleep. I pulled the headphone jack out of the psp? and TSOR came out of the device. He woke up and a girl in the back yelled "Yeah, Rush." They almost fell over when I told them I had not missed a tour since 85-before they were born.
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It's great to hear all these replies from the next generation...The strange thing to contemplate here is the differences in time perspective between generations...

 

When you're a teen, you really have no ability to accurately measure 'time' because you haven't lived long enough to have established any'context' concerning what's truly 'old' and what's not.

 

The whole idea of time measurement is 'relativistic'...Who's to say whether something 'one day old' or a thousand years old is actually, truly an 'old' thing...It's all perspective. And, that perspective is especially 'relative' to how much experience you've had with the substance of time itself...The more milestones, the more 'anchor' points you've established, the better you are at gauging the passage of time.

 

When I was 15 years old in 1985, I thought an album like 2112 was a very 'old' recording...and the thing had been around for barely nine years at that point. The music scene had changed so much, so many times over those nine years...and those changes made this Progressive Metal made by three Canadian men in long, flowing robes look like it came from a totally different century...let alone from another galaxy. Again, it was barely nine years old at that point.

 

So, now, for this current generation, add another twenty years of time onto the clock, and I can't even imagine how 'old' a recording like 2112 must 'seem' to a teenage male just now getting into the music for the very first time...It must truly feel like you've unearthed something from an ancient, holy site...like the character in 2112 when he finds the guitar.

 

Funny thing about time though is that the LONGER you live, and the more experience you establish with the substance of it, the SHORTER the intervals between events actually seem...It's true. Ask anyone over the age of 30 and they'll tell ya that your perception of time alters as you age.

 

So, I actually feel that the distance between me, now, living in the year 2010, and the recording of the 2112 masterpiece is actually a SHORTER span of time, than what it FELT LIKE about it twenty years ago and I was a 15 year old, looking at a merely nine year old album...Did I explain that correctly? Did that make sense?

 

The point is that Teens, because of their altered time perspective, often feel like anything longer than a year's time is 'old'...and I would hate for that to be a deterrent, to be a determining factor at all in them discovering some righteously cool music. And, RUSH is some righeously cool musc despite what numbers are posted up there on the calendar...

 

 

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I'm 16 and I'm a HUGE prog fan. I love listening to music and getting lost in a song. But i think the problem with a lot of people is they don't "listen to music". Its more of a background in my ipod kinda thing. No one sits down to listen to music anymore. and people attentions spans. I don't care about age with music. Rush is Immortal musically anyways!
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19 here. I've been listening to the band for a few years now. Got started with Moving Pictures (go figure) and just finished up the entire discography. I'm especially in love with some of the epics like 2112 and The Camera Eye and songs like The Trees and Closer to The Heart. I could list all the songs that I really enjoy listening to but it would take too long to list.

 

I got interested in the band when Rock Band came out, and I feel that I got more connected to the music with actually "playing it" in the game. Especially playing it on the drums on Rock Band can really get you into the rhythm of the song.

 

In answering the question asked in the original post, fanaticism for groups like Rush could only increase with the technology at our disposal today which makes information much more accessible.

 

For your second post thelocator, I generally enjoy listening to classic rock compared to rock music today so I feel right at home with the music in terms of how old it is. When I listen to 2112 for example, It feels natural and worrying with how old the song never really crosses my mind. I just enjoy the music for what it is, a work of art.

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QUOTE (FoG @ Sep 14 2010, 10:39 PM)
19 here. I've been listening to the band for a few years now. Got started with Moving Pictures (go figure) and just finished up the entire discography. I'm especially in love with some of the epics like 2112 and The Camera Eye and songs like The Trees and Closer to The Heart. I could list all the songs that I really enjoy listening to but it would take too long to list.

I got interested in the band when Rock Band came out, and I feel that I got more connected to the music with actually "playing it" in the game. Especially playing it on the drums on Rock Band can really get you into the rhythm of the song.

In answering the question asked in the original post, fanaticism for groups like Rush could only increase with the technology at our disposal today which makes information much more accessible.

For your second post thelocator, I generally enjoy listening to classic rock compared to rock music today so I feel right at home with the music in terms of how old it is. When I listen to 2112 for example, It feels natural and worrying with how old the song never really crosses my mind. I just enjoy the music for what it is, a work of art.

I've never played the game myself, but I've heard a bunch of teens now speak of how the game got them into a lot of Classic Rock that they wouldn't have otherwise known about.

 

Then I thought about the mechanics of the game and it makes perfect sense why this phenomena occurs...And, it precisely for the reasons you mention here in your post.

 

When you're playing the game, you're plugging directly into the song's rhythm, with the melody line and lyrics right there before you...It's 'active' involvement in a piece of music, whereas listening to a Classic Rock tune on the radio is merely 'passive'...

 

With the active involvement, you can probably get into a song on just the first listen, or rather first 'play'...whereas you might have to hear a song multiple time on the radio before the tune even catches your attention.

 

So, yeah, the whole Rock Band/Guitar Hero thing has completely revolutionized how people get turned onto music...influencing outside record purchases and concert attendance. It's awesome...Ya now got bands signing on for their own 'individualized' versions of the game.

 

I assume that you get acquainted with a pretty large segment of a band's catalog with such a game...How much of a band's discog do you gain access to with one of these 'special edition' Rock Band games that only focus on a single group?...I now got the itchy urge to try this dang thing. ahahaha lol.

 

 

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QUOTE (thelocator @ Sep 15 2010, 12:05 AM)
QUOTE (FoG @ Sep 14 2010, 10:39 PM)
19 here. I've been listening to the band for a few years now. Got started with Moving Pictures (go figure) and just finished up the entire discography. I'm especially in love with some of the epics like 2112 and The Camera Eye and songs like The Trees and Closer to The Heart. I could list all the songs that I really enjoy listening to but it would take too long to list.

I got interested in the band when Rock Band came out, and I feel that I got more connected to the music with actually "playing it" in the game.  Especially playing it on the drums on Rock Band can really get you into the rhythm of the song.

In answering the question asked in the original post, fanaticism for groups like Rush could only increase with the technology at our disposal today which makes information much more accessible.

For your second post thelocator, I generally enjoy listening to classic rock compared to rock music today so I feel right at home with the music in terms of how old it is. When I listen to 2112 for example, It feels natural and worrying with how old the song never really crosses my mind. I just enjoy the music for what it is, a work of art.

I've never played the game myself, but I've heard a bunch of teens now speak of how the game got them into a lot of Classic Rock that they wouldn't have otherwise known about.

 

Then I thought about the mechanics of the game and it makes perfect sense why this phenomena occurs...And, it precisely for the reasons you mention here in your post.

 

When you're playing the game, you're plugging directly into the song's rhythm, with the melody line and lyrics right there before you...It's 'active' involvement in a piece of music, whereas listening to a Classic Rock tune on the radio is merely 'passive'...

 

With the active involvement, you can probably get into a song on just the first listen, or rather first 'play'...whereas you might have to hear a song multiple time on the radio before the tune even catches your attention.

 

So, yeah, the whole Rock Band/Guitar Hero thing has completely revolutionized how people get turned onto music...influencing outside record purchases and concert attendance. It's awesome...Ya now got bands signing on for their own 'individualized' versions of the game.

 

I assume that you get acquainted with a pretty large segment of a band's catalog with such a game...How much of a band's discog do you gain access to with one of these 'special edition' Rock Band games that only focus on a single group?...I now got the itchy urge to try this dang thing. ahahaha lol.

For games like The Beatles and Green Day Rock Band, they come with 44 songs on the disc and offer full albums for downloadable content for The Beatles. Although they've only done 3 albums of dlc for The Beatles with no more planned at the moment (Green Day only completes 21st Century Breakdown), it's still a lot of fan service for the games.

 

Rock Band has over 1500 songs for dlc and growing daily with a bunch of full albums including Moving Pictures and some singles like Working Man Vault Edition, Closer to the Heart with The Trees on Rock Band 2 disc.

 

With Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock coming out at the end of the month with 2112 playable (the epic split into 6 parts iirc) it will be a great edition with The Spirit of the Radio on Guitar Hero 5s disc for the Guitar Hero series.

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QUOTE (FoG @ Sep 15 2010, 06:47 AM)
For games like The Beatles and Green Day Rock Band, they come with 44 songs on the disc and offer full albums for downloadable content for The Beatles. Although they've only done 3 albums of dlc for The Beatles with no more planned at the moment (Green Day only completes 21st Century Breakdown), it's still a lot of fan service for the games.

Rock Band has over 1500 songs for dlc and growing daily with a bunch of full albums including Moving Pictures and some singles like Working Man Vault Edition, Closer to the Heart with The Trees on Rock Band 2 disc.

With Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock coming out at the end of the month with 2112 playable (the epic split into 6 parts iirc) it will be a great edition with The Spirit of the Radio on Guitar Hero 5s disc for the Guitar Hero series.

Yer using some jargon that's way foreign to me, but I get the general gist of things...The idea of one of these games offering up '2112' is just in-sane, friend!...especially since it's not really a 'song' but rather a 'piece' of grande Rock theater, in many ways closer in direction to something like Vivaldi's Four Seasons, than it is to the average, four minute, radio-airplay Rock song. So, I have no idea how the creators of the game will make such an epic 'playable'...

 

Do they have any 'special editions' of the game planned for any of the true titans of Classic Rock & Metal? Did any of the big names show any interest of being involved in such a pursuit? Will we ever see a Rockband - Led Zeppelin, G n ' R or Megadeth? I'm all for this thing. Any way ya slice it, this new medium is an awesome way of getting music along to the masses. I figured out what 'dlc' means, but please explain the following term: 'iirc'.

 

I just thought of another interesting dilemma facing some of our younger, Harder Rockin' brethren out there...When I want to go and see one of these older bands perform live, I have various friends, who, like myself, grew up on the stuff, and are willing to attend these concerts with me...But, with a lot of you teens, I've heard ya stating that you're the only one out of your given set of friends who digs this sort of thing...So, who do you look towards if you want to go and see a show?

 

At both the Heaven and Hell and Judas Priest shows over the past few years, I just happened to be seated close to what instantly appeared to be a single, teenaged male attending the show with a person who just had to be his Mother...Now, when I was at that age, I wouldn't have even dared to contemplate such a move...It was a different time and the generation gap was much larger...especially with my parents who were older than the average...But, in many ways, the factors involved here have changed immensely...and a parent and child can share things that they never could even a single generation back.

 

I have just come back from two Classic Rock shows in a row over the last year which I've attended with my best bud, his older sister and her Son...The kid, 20, has absolutely no qualms hanging out with us. We now live in a world where it's very possible that members of the youth generation will care very deeply for the music of his/her parents...Not only that, but many of the interactions between parent and child now are more like 'friend'...and 'older friend'...lol...I would have never dreamed of attending anything, even something as innocuous as a Billy Joel concert with my parents...Forget about being 'uncool', I think it woulda just felt 'unclean'...lol..

 

So, I want to know what many of the younger guys and gals out there are doing to get to see some of your favourite, older bands? Do you have to bribe and persuade a close friend your own age to go, or are you calling up an Uncle, or perhaps urging Mom or Dad to attend these shows with you? What's the deal here?

 

 

 

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My 16 yr. and 10 yr. old sons have been RUSH fans for 2 or 3 years now....

 

They always hear the music at home and in the car and it has been instilled and embedded in their psyche....whether they wanted it or not...

 

I caught my 16 yr old reading the book GRACE UNDER PRESSURE while listening to Moving Pictures on headphones......I did not interject or interrupt because to discover RUSH own your own terms is important.... He listens to Green Day, Nickelback and he plays around on piano/keys and finds it interesting that keyboard can be in a rock band. All I can get out of him is "RUSH is really good DAD".

 

My 10 yr. old messes around on my drum kit and is fully aware of what Neil can do....I'll have some RUSH on and he'll say "Did you hear that?" I'll say "Yeah, that was a awesome guitar riff or cool lyrics" He'll say " No Dad, that drum part was sic".....That's my boy.

 

I think RUSH music can transcend decades and capture the imagination of today's youth....usually with a little help from parents.... or that crazy uncle.

 

I'm hoping my teenager is not planning on sitting at a friends house cranking Hemi and getting stoned and drunk, like I did....but maybe it's all rites of passage into adolescence and manhood....

 

Freedoms, experiences, responsibilities and.............RUSH

 

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QUOTE (thelocator @ Sep 15 2010, 01:20 PM)
Yer using some jargon that's way foreign to me, but I get the general gist of things...The idea of one of these games offering up '2112' is just in-sane, friend!...especially since it's not really a 'song' but rather a 'piece' of grande Rock theater, in many ways closer in direction to something like Vivaldi's Four Seasons, than it is to the average, four minute, radio-airplay Rock song. So, I have no idea how the creators of the game will make such an epic 'playable'...

Do they have any 'special editions' of the game planned for any of the true titans of Classic Rock & Metal? Did any of the big names show any interest of being involved in such a pursuit? Will we ever see a Rockband - Led Zeppelin, G n ' R or Megadeth? I'm all for this thing. Any way ya slice it, this new medium is an awesome way of getting music along to the masses. I figured out what 'dlc' means, but please explain the following term: 'iirc'.

IIRC = If I recall correctly. As for other bands for specific band releases, I haven't heard of anything coming up at the moment. But there are many full albums available on for sale on the Rock Band Music Store. But they did do a AC/DC Live Track Pack, Classic Rock Track Pack, Metal Track Pack and Country Track Pack.

 

As for how they're making it playable:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LbhWwqhUSs

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I'm 18, and I've been into Rush for a few years now. It started when I heard YYZ on GH2, was absolutely blown away by that song, not to mention a few shades of anger due to the fact i couldn't beat it on expert at the time.

 

Nonetheless I started checking out their music, and every song I found i got more and more into them. I became so into them that for Christmas last year the only thing I asked for was every album they ever made. And since that time all those discs have been spun many many times.

 

Ironically, I got my mom hooked on Rush. It started out slow, but now she's a bigger fan than I am. She often roams these forums at night. Heh, who would have thought a kid would get their mom hooked on music from HER time. I'm proud to say I have.

 

One of the reasons why I was so captured by Rush was the complexity of their music. Being an advanced pianist I enjoyed complexity, and to hear it in rock music (my favorite genre by far) was astounding. And since I've become a fan, I've started transcribing Rush songs to solo piano pieces, as a hobby.

 

My favorite albums are all of them, spare Test for Echo and Caress of Steel (two sub par efforts imo). As of right now I just finished listening to Caress of Steel... it's still gotta grow on me a bit. I guess I'm not a true true fan yet. Oh well. In due time. smile.gif

 

And I just started playing the bass this week. Inspired by Geddy Lee of course.

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