Sasha Elliot

A Year of Music A Lifetime of Love Sasha Elliot

That sounds like something my parents listen to! There was a period of time when hearing that phrase would have had you ostracized to a fictional Phantom Zone for the crime of dorkiness of Urkel-like proportions. My peers and I weren't the type of kids that wanted to be caught listening to Mantovani or Steve Lawrence (even if Andie Walsh at TRAX thought it was "white hot"). But times change, and while there is still great music being made today, the music of the '70s, '80s, and '90s will forever be eternal, and Generation X has a strong claim to being the musical equivalent of "The Greatest Generation."Many of us may be parents now, but that doesn't change the fact that the bands and the artists of our generation remain some of the most beloved in the annals of popular music. The Who may have made a career talkin' about their generation, but our bands shunned mere talk for straight-up, fist pounding, in-your-face rock 'n' roll. We did it louder and faster-and, with the advent of music videos and the creation of MTV, we looked damn good doing it. If I hear the kids I teach today proclaim, "That sounds like something my parents listen to," I know with absolute certainty that they are the spawn of my fellow music-loving Gen-Xers. A Year of Music, A Lifetime of Love is my gift to my daughter. It is a retrospective of the records and events associated with the music that shaped my life-a personal diary that will hopefully one day allow her to understand how and why these immensely sublime songs bring me so much joy.