What albums did you listen to today?...continued

You've got me wracking my memory banks now! By high school, I'd say my experience mimics yours. People listened to their fancy and proudly displayed their likes on their tshirts. But I remember junior high, basically 7th-9th, there was a period that resembled the "be cool or be cast out" line from Subdivisions. I remember especially the bus, which granted, is a small sub-group...but the "cool" older (longhaired) kids in the back were basically heavy/hard fans into Van Halen/Zeppelin/Sabbath....and if you would have started playing Abba or Andy Gibb on your boombox, you would have gotten your boombox ejected out the window amidst roars of laughter. Well, that's speculation, but there certainly were some guys capable of such antics.

So, in that moment, there was clearly some 9th grade bullying of the younger set on our bus. On the good side, they just CRANKED rock and metal in the back (and smoked) every morning and afternoon, so we littler kids had our eyes opened to this new music that we never heard before. I clearly remember my first exposure to the above-mentioned bands being on the bus. I couldn't believe the way the guitar sounded on "Ain't Talkin' bout Love." At first I recalled being intimidated by the new stuff I was hearing (and those older kids who played it), being very young and having no experience. But it wasn't long and I was gobbling up all those bands at the record store. The switch from pop music to hard rock happened very quickly, whereas discovering prog was a slower process.

At the time, middle school indeed was a bit dicey for the younger kids, but looking back, the older kids were mostly having fun. A few of them took things too far, on several fronts, but mostly it was a hilarious and fun time to be young.