Thursday, October 22, 2020

Vintage Fashion, Oldies Culture 2020: Eunice n Megan Say, Don't Stereo-Type Seniors

Eunice Chua (r) and Megan Lye (l) are studying journalism at a university in Singapore.


UP TO 1,200 READERS - 24 COMMENTS 


Eunice wrote me a note:

"The topic we chose is redefining what it means to be old in Singapore. We hope to speak to hip and inspiring older people, such as popular bloggers (we really love, 'Pop Music, Not Pills') and through telling your stories, challenge those nagging stereo types of being elderly.


We hope to have a fun chat with you about your experience being a blogger and musician, and how that has changed over the years." 


I agreed and we met her friend Megan. It was a fun afternoon and found myself learning more from them than they did me, so I requested if she could write a short report on the subject for a blog posting. Her article starts with a question:


What happens when two young people who feel like old souls had a chat with a senior with a young soul? 


Vintage and oldies culture are the in-thing these days — especially in the fashion world, with oldies style clothing like hippie tie-dye clothes and bell bottoms making a comeback. Even musicians are paying homage to those of the past. One of my favourite bands, The Neighbourhood, released their latest album with music videos where they are all painted in silver, in a very Bowie-esque fashion.


The interest in older people or their culture and their lives naturally has increased. When someone from my generation wants to know about cool old people, we’d think of oldies musicians. Where are they now and how are they doing? Our answer to that, with a simple Google search, leads many of us to Andy’s blog


And what a fabulous discovery it was for me. Andy’s writing style was fluent, easy to read and lively. It’s a refreshing change in a generation where we’re used to people trying to sound smart and using bombastic words. Some others write a word or two and call it poetry.

Andy’s posts are interesting, fun, from the get-go, his profile and email address told me one thing: We youngsters tend to think old people are outdated, blur, etc. As a writer myself I knew Andy had something to say; case in point, the simple yet catchy caption on his profile of “pop music not pills”. 


I figured this popular blogger might not have time for me and I was genuinely prepared to not hear back. But not only did Andy get back to me, he even posted a banner on the side of his blog to let me know that he had replied (oh, the chivalry!). I was bursting with joy to have the opportunity to speak to him.


On a Friday afternoon in a slightly noisy cafe me, Andy and my friend Megan had an almost two-hour-long conversation. It didn’t feel like two hours. It was a fun chat and it felt like meeting someone from your tribe. You know that feeling when you chat to someone for the first time and instantly feel like you can vibe? That was me and Megan with Andy. 


Andy said he enjoys talking to young people more than people in his own age group. Megan and I say that we enjoy talking to older people more than people in our own age group. I guess that’s why we get along. 


Thank you so much for your time and work Andy, we look forward to speaking to you again. To anyone who is reading this, Andy is a wonderful conversationalist and there is heaps all of us can learn from him. Like his name “Andy Young” suggests, he has a youthful, almost mischievous spark.


Written by Eunice Chua.

YOUNG AT HEART by Frank Sinatra - Video by MrsMcDreamy88. Johnny Richards, Carolyn Leigh, composing the music and lyrics in 1953. A  million sold hit, recorded by Sunbeam Music. The above is an original version from YouTube. 

NB:

I can only say thanks again to Eunice for such a captivating letter. And Megan too. It's always my pleasure to meet younger folks, eager and informative to help seniors improve in their capacity to learn about our brave new world. Exchanging notes, that's important.


So do write in if you're a Senior and wish to be interviewed.


Comments too, if you have any?

Andy.

'Old Hippie' By BELLAMY BROTHERS as suggested by long time buddy JIMMY CHNG from guitar group The Decibels. Thanks Jimmy. From YouTube video by DaCrazyGirl5.

The lyrics are meaningful to many listeners but this hippie in the song needs to adjust quickly or he'll be very unhappy.

From THE EDUCATOR ON LINE - educatoronline.com THANK YOU.

24 comments:

WAYNE CHOW - SINGER said...

Wow Andy - new found fans!!
You've no doubt still as much the local celebrity today as you were back then...
I'm sure they'll now want to know more about the Silver Strings and the founding members, and who know - may even dig up good old Paul Anka to see why you get that moniker! Old they say, is really GOLD.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thanks Wayne,
Always kind with your words
I guess it's one way of passing time too.
Appreciate your support always.

STEPHEN HAN said...

Eunice certainly learns a lot of the local and international artistes of the 60s-70s from a music veteran like you.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thanks Stephen.
You're always so supportive.
From day one, when we met.
You too help me to spread the news about SG 60's music, having written quite a number of articles on this blog.

FREDA HANUM TEEPEES said...

Wow this is awesome Andy, you are indeed so kind to communicate with these 2 young students, by their notes they are indeed so grateful, bravo Andy 👍😊

FABIAN FOO said...

Awesome 👍

JIMMY APPUDURAI-CHUA - ENGLAND said...

Love this! ❤️

ROSE KHOO said...

AWESOME.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

thanks to all who commented so early.
hopefully the young ones too will have their own ideas and provide ideals about seniors and music makers who are in their later years.

CHAKAP CHAKAP said...

Other performers who have recorded versions of "Young at Heart" include
Bing Crosby
Rosemary Clooney
Perry Como
Connie Francis
Jimmy Durante
Tony Bennett
Shawn Colvin
Bobby Vinton
Tom Waits
Barry Manilow
Bob Dylan
Gloria Estefan
James Darren
Jimmy Durante
Dick Van Dyke
Willie Nelson
and others.


LIM KUAN MIN - SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL said...

Andy Young was a former teacher who taught for a short spell in the early 70s at a school in the Bukit Merah area. He was also a soloist of the 60s band called the Silver Strings which still does gigs occasionally. Andy is best known nowadays as the pop musician blogger behind his SG60sMusic Blog with a world wide readership of 2 million. Happy that young people are interested in this hip Senior and his blog.👩‍🎤👍

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

hi Min
thanks again for your support.
just glad that we have young people growing up to be like EUNICE and MEGAN; they do not stereo-type the older generation nor have misconceptions about them but do research and review instead.

Eunice said...

Hi Wayne, Stephen, Freda, Fabian, Jimmy, Rose and Kuan Min:

Eunice here, it's so lovely to see the encouragement and support you give to Andy's posts, which he really deserves as the fantastic content creator he is.

As my groupmates and I are working on an article to understand the older generation better, we'd be overjoyed to speak to some of you as well - whether or not you're living in Singapore or have migrated and are keeping in touch with your roots through Andy's blog.

My email is eunicebmth@gmail.com, do say hello and let's have a fun conversation - Megan and I are huge fans of oldies music and we guarantee you won't feel a generational gap when speaking to us ;)

- Eunice Chua

JIMMY CHNG - DECIBELS GUITAR GROUP said...

What a refreshing piece from Eunice. We seniors grew up during the hippie era. It was hip then, to greet one another with the "peace' hand gesture and "groovy" was the buzz was the buzzword. The near two hour fun afternoon you had chatting with Eunice and Megan must have been really enlightening and rewarding for all the three of you. Thank you for the nice read.

PS You ought to copyright your to 'pop music, not pills' caption. It's really catchy yet clear and beats, "do good do together" hands down. :-)

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thank you Jimmy for your reaction to Eunice's very honest article. Your statement about the hippies and other period page-markers would somehow roundup our experiences during those rather peaceful years when most everyone went to sleep amidst the flowers in their hair and dreaming of California.

LIM KUAN MIN - SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL said...

Our youth can learn much abt the socioeconomic conditions of SG in the 60s thru your blog's rich narratives of the how, who, what and why of SG's 60s music. Keep it going bro.👌

MICHAEL LEE from SYDNEY AUSTRALIA said...

Hi Andy, I like this cheek in tongue phrase they used. **What happens when two young people who feel like old souls had a chat with a senior with a young soul? ** It has a sense of humour and yet a realistic thought to ponder. I think I would be correct to say both the young and the senior gain insight into each generation's views and thinking. Over the last 5 years with the compliments of Rex I had the privilege to attend 10 Beatles concerts at the Sydney Opera House. I observed that steadily more and more young people are attending the concerts. Cheerio.

KOH SUI PANG - KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA said...

Time to dig out all my oldies baju baju ...in fashion now ho ho 🤩🥳🥳

RODNEY TAN said...

Andy, if and when there is an opportunity to perform in BMSS, do let me know. I'll try to play the rythym and at the same time learn from you?
I was the pioneer batch of teachers then!

FACEBOOK said...

THANKS TO FACEBOOK FRIENDS BELOW WHO LIKE EUNICES ARTICLE
Yen Chow
Irene Yap
Michael Lee
Lim Tin Leong
Koh Sui Pang
Roop Singh
Ann Rowena Lim
Ivor Lesslar
Yip Dick
Michael Fonseca
Freda Hanum
Rose Khoo
Jimmy Appudurai-chua
Foo Jong Fook
Davy Chan

TAN TENG TENG - CURATOR said...

My friend, Andy Young of The Silver Strings,
has caught the interest of the younger generation.

FACEBOOK CHATS said...

Stephen Han
Eunice is lucky to have Andy Young to provide her with the music trend of the 60s and 70s

Eunice Chua
Stephen Han Hi Stephen, yes I feel so lucky and felt like I struck gold when Andy agreed to talk to me! My teammates and I are hoping to speak to more older people to better understand your generation, hopefully we can have a conversation with you as well? 😊

Stephen Han
Eunice Chua -I am not good at striking a conversation .My era in the 50s,60s and 70s have lots of juke boxes usually installed in coffee shops. Some School children would stray to nearby coffee shops with juke box after school just to listen to their favourite singers. The popular singers were Elvis Presley, the Platters ,Pat Boone, Cliff Richard, Doris Day ,Patti Page Teresa Brewer, the Four Lads ,Four Aces Dean Martin , etc. Later on juke box was banned due to some gang fights. we as children played games like hitting opponent tops. Marbles were arranged in rows and if one could hit the one at the right, he won all the marbles or empty cigarette boxes. The streets, then were full of badminton courts. It’s popularity was due to the fact we won the Thomas Cup with the great players like Wong Peng Soon and Ong Poh Lim. Nowadays the games were different.

Eunice Chua
Stephen Han that sounds like such a fun era to grow up in! Thanks for sharing 😊😊😊 for me as a 90s kid, our childhood also consisted of sneaking to the mama-shop to buy frozen ice pops, card games and collect country erasers. I can't imagine a childhood spent growing up on social media like those kids born in the 2010s.

FACEBOOK CHATS said...

Eunice Chia
Hi Mike thanks so much for your kind words! My teammates and I are hoping to speak to more older people to better understand your generation, hopefully we can have a conversation with you as well? 😊

Michael Lee
Hi Eunice, thanks for your kind compliment. Like to share with you something which may give you inspiration on the young chatting with older seniors. My daughter when very young often chatted with older seniors. When asked why she didn't mixed with children her own age. She replied. "There is a lot to learn from the older seniors who have lots of experience - with those in my age group, they like me also don't have much experience to learn from." Cheerio have a nice weekend.

FACEBOOK CHATS said...

Eunice Chua to
Michael Lee

Hi Mike, so sorry I only just saw this!
It was buried in my notifications.
Thank you so much for sharing - your daughter is really cool!
Have a great week ahead 🙂