When you hear a song that reminds you of your first kiss, your first road trip, your first attempt at playing guitar, you turn that song up loud and sing what few lyrics you recall.

Your kids laugh and try to change the station. You don’t let them, because the song means something to you. It is part of a memory long stored away. The memory is like a bit of treasure, tucked away, unexpectedly rediscovered.

As you get older, you turn off the music of the younger generation because you do not connect any person, place, or thing to those songs. The lyrics don’t reflect your passions, your perceptions, your obsessions. The music of the younger generation, the music your kids listen to, is not a part of your reality, even if they do play it really, really loud.

The art of music lies not only in the construct of lyrics and melody. Songwriters and musicians must make tangible the intangible. They must find the right mix to evoke from their audience a strong emotional response. The music must reflect the times, and be timeless.

It may seem to you, as you age, that the music of the younger generation isn’t as good as that of your own generation. It may seem to lack the drive and excitement, or perhaps you believe it to be too driven and hyper in its delivery.

It doesn’t matter. To your children, it is exactly what their hearts and minds need to hear. The success of any music lies in eliciting an emotional response from the target audience. If it’s a younger generation the musicians are after, they must reflect the passions, perceptions, and obsessions of that audience. And it cannot sound like the stuff their parents listen to.

Just as the older generation turns off the music of the younger generation, so to the younger generation turns off the music of their elders.

The progression of music, as with any artistic endeavor, keeps pace with the times. Though there will always be universal and timeless truths, such as the correlation between music and memory, each generation must find ways to represent itself in a unique way. The arts always will allow for this rite of passage, music particularly so. There will always be that next fresh sound, and that next generation to hear it.

Your children will someday hear a song, and sing bits of it from memory, and their children will laugh and try to change the station. They will want to hear their own music, the music that is all about them, their passions, their perceptions, their obsessions.

And the beat goes on.