Pop Music Sets a Bad Example About Growing Old.

It would appear that popular music is derogatory about growing old, or so claims a piece of research conducted by Jacinta Kelly, a senior nursing lecturer and her team at Anglia Ruskin University.

I confess that I have not read the full report (published in the 'Journal of Advanced Nursing') but from what I can gather, the research team trawled a database of songs from the 1930's to the present and found 76 songs making reference to old age, of which 55 made "negative" references. A pretty high proportion I will admit. But what exactly were these negative references?

Well, it would appear that the worst offenders were Pete Townshend's famous line from 'My Generation', which proclaims "I hope I die before I get old." Then even The Beatles get criticism for the song 'When I'm Sixty Four' which appears upbeat and harmless but which contains the lines
"When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now
Will you still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine?"

The research opines that to question whether someone will still be lovable in their old age is, to use the words of Jacinta Kelly, "concerning".

Paul McCartney wrote the song 'When I'm Sixty Four' when he was only 16 years old, so I'm sure that any clumsiness in the lyrical content can be forgiven. But is it really so bad? After all the song is just a young man addressing his lover and considering them growing old together. Is that so wrong? McCartney's father Jim was 64 when the song was eventually released in 1967 and I wonder if he found it offensive. I somehow doubt it as he would have seen it for what it was, a cute novelty song in the music hall tradition in which the elder McCartney had been involved and which Paul himself had grown up with.

Had the research picked up on the fact that the singer of the song (the male) mends fuses and digs the garden while the woman knits sweaters and prepares the meals, I could have understood any perceived criticism of sexist stereotyping. 

I was 16 myself when I first heard the song and found it mildly humourous though the joke wore thin after two or three listens. I certainly didn't find it offensive then and now that I'm the very age referred to in the song, I can say with some authority that I still don't.

The report concludes that the message from such songs is that the elderly are "frail and a burden" and because popular music is very pervasive, the portrayals of old age could reinforce negative stereotypes. And this is "concerning" to the research team.

What I find concerning is that the research team appear to consider people of my age to be frail or a burden. Also I am concerned by the fact that time and money have been spent on such futile activities. Do these people have nothing better to do?