Young, Fun, & Reckless: Unpacking The Dynamics Of 'Youth' Across Homegrown Popular Music

I can’t quite place my finger on what it is but there is something about being young that makes one feel invincible. Perhaps it is this sense of having time, or the very nature of being young and reckless, or maybe the fact that you are still trying to make sense of the world (although that pretty much stays constant through the years).

There has been a lot that’s been written about being in your youth; if the famous author George Bernard Shaw is to be believed, “Youth is wasted on the young,” and the undisputed queen of heartbreak Adele says “Before we realized we were scared of getting old it made us restless,” and there’s Taylor Swift with her astute observation “When you are young they assume you know nothing,” and of course, Mitski on the transient nature of youth with “Mom, am I still young? Can I dream for a few months more?”

As I listen to song after song in my playlist I realise that there are just so many songs about being young, whether it is about the transient nature of youth or reminiscing about the passing of young carefree days (think Summer of 69’ by Bryan Adams) or just talking about the insecurities that plague our younger days.

As I too, grow into my mid-20s I can’t help but think why are we so fascinated with youth? What is it about youth that manifests itself into every dimension of pop culture? While these are larger questions that I am simply incapable of answering I have been thinking about how even in the Indian music scene youth is a recurring theme.

For many indie musicians of the Indian music scene, music stems from a place of personal storytelling. Their themes largely borrowed from personal experiences, hence, it is no surprise that they talk a lot about being young.

In 2020, Bengaluru-based singer-songwriter Gowri Bhat’s released her second single Younger featuring Derek Mathias which was a nostalgic trip to childhood. “I just don’t like growing older, I can’t dream anymore/ Now we care too much about the future, we can’t live in the moment,” sang Bhat, reminding us of the carefree days of our childhood and the spontaneity and impulsiveness of the decisions we make as children.

You can listen to the single here.

There are places and people and objects that can transpose us to days of our youth and that was the case when a box of old photographs and letters prompted producer OAFF (musician Kabeer Kathpalia’s music endeavour) and dream- pop act Landslandsmusic (singer-songwriter Sohrab Nicholson’s brainchild) to create a new single, Youth.

You can listen to the single here.

To be fair, teenage years are also spent thinking about when we will get older, when we will get to do all the things we dream about and what kind of people we will become. Tapping into that was alt RnB and pop artist Anusha Savi in her single Bright, singing “Remember when we were young/ Dreaming of who we’d become/ In the dark, now we’re in the dark.”

Not all of our youth is rosy, carefree and fun; there are countless anxieties and insecurities that start finding their way into our minds. The fear of not being good enough, of being clueless and lost and not knowing what will become of us. Delving into these fears was Samuel ApaZozo and Cozzy in the track Millenials where ApaZozo sings,
“I’ve been looking at the mirror/ Trying to make some decisions/ Or should I turn on the telly/ And burn away the whole day.” Elaborating on those feelings he says, “I think I need medication/ To make an effort to change/ And be a tool to society/ And contribute to the play.”

Honestly, I don’t know that one thing that makes being young seem so attractive to most people when there’s acne, self-esteem issues, the fear of rejection, the fear of not fitting in and the endless turmoils of being clueless that often plague youth.

But there is also a sense of recklessness, of free abandon. It is perhaps this very feeling that we can return to with music. As Charlie Kelmeckis in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower says, “In that moment, I swear we were infinite.”

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