MovieChat Forums > Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1975) Discussion > Tommy's taste in music

Tommy's taste in music

posted 11 years ago by Yinky
13 replies | jump to latest

He's eleven, and he's into Mott the Hoople and T-Rex? Gimme a break. Such pretentiousness is a buzz-kill for me. Maybe in the digital age it wouldn't be so unusual, but where would a 1970s hick-kid have gotten hip to these cult bands? They sure were NOT playing them on pop radio(well, Get It On got rotation, so I'll give him that one, but in the movie they play Jeepster, which only became popular years later with the advent of AOR radio). I remember that era, I was around the same age as Tommy. I didn't learn about Mott the Hoople until high school, and that was because Ian Hunter had a couple solo albums that had several popular songs that were picked up by the AORs. And I am and always have been a music junkie, but when I was 11 I never heard of either band. It is highly implausible that a rural 11 year old is gonna be that cool, unless he has hippie parents. Which obviously Tommy does not.

[–] shiftylee 11 years ago

Disagree. Plenty of dj's would play that stuff on non top 40 stations.

[–] Ken1260 9 years ago

Did you ever think that might be the music that his father listened to and he learned to like it through him.

[–] Yinky 9 years ago

See my original post: " unless he has hippie parents. Which obviously Tommy does not."

[–] jellyree 9 years ago

Get over yourself, it was good music and who can say what serendipity might have brought it into Tommy's world.

Perhaps the OP just wants to reach out for some sense of community.

[–] Yinky 9 years ago

Er...I am the OP....am I a judgmental idiot or do I want some sense of community? I guess it could be both...

When I was his age (at the same time that he was that age!) I listened to Elton John and Barry Manilow like everybody else. I didn't discover the more eclectic stuff until high school.

Sorry. Just thought it was waaaaaay to precious. Too artsy.

[–] liscarkat-2 9 years ago

So, the logic to be followed is: you were unhip, so all boys your age must have been unhip.

[–] Yinky 9 years ago

Listen. Read my original post. it's not like they're living in friggin Greenwich Village. They're in the sticks, where you either got pop or country, not Roll Away the Stone.

The kid is a nerd. The parents are nerds. I just hate it when a director who obviously has evolved taste in popular music assigns his/her coolness to a child character who is not in the position to even HEAR these songs, let alone have the LPs. When I was a kid we drove an hour just so I could buy the latest Leo Sayer album (the one that won best R&B record, lofl) for a friend's birthday. God forbid if she'd asked for Electric Warrior.

So no, your assumption of my "logic" is dead wrong. MY assumption is that you just want to argue.

Oh, and I'm a girl.

[–] xdayton 9 years ago

I was roughly this kid's age at the time, maybe a year older but no more, and I was listening to T. Rex, Mott, and Slade. (And I'm a hick from the midwest). So not far-fetched.

[–] BrokenBadly 9 years ago

I was roughly this kid's age at the time, maybe a year older but no more, and I was listening to T. Rex, Mott, and Slade. (And I'm a hick from the midwest). So not far-fetched.

Ditto for me, and I was a hick from the south with Bible-thumper parents.

[–] Yinky 9 years ago

How did you come upon that music? And don't tell me you heard it on the radio. I will not believe you. Maybe if you lived in a more urban area, where there would be "underground" radio (usually in the middle of the night), but if you're a "hick from the midwest" all you would have heard it the top ten hits and a boatload of traditional country. I am a hick from the midwest myself.

[–] oscarunger 9 years ago

used record bins, what, everyone gets there music taste from top 40 radio? and its not like mott/t-rex are the bad brains. both t-rex and mott had hits by this time

[–] Yinky 9 years ago

Used record bins where? The corner of dirt road and dirt road?

[–] oscarunger 9 years ago

just cause he lived in a s*** town doesn't mean he wouldn't occasionally go into a slightly bigger s*** town that had a mom and pop record shop, regardless, all the young dudes and bang a gong were picked up on the radio by then so it makes since a kid (even a slight nebbish) would pick up on it, (if he was playing the velvet underground or something i'd agree with you (-:)