Honestly, do you really like that song?
| Published 09/17/04

Graphic by: Doni Neel

Social norms are something that people deal with their whole lives. We are expected to follow a lot of these trends in our society. For example, it is considered wrong for someone to wear pants with no covering around their bottom. In fact, most people would probably agree that it's good that this is something of a social taboo.

On the other hand, some of the social norms that sneak their way into society (mainly college society) don't make much sense at all.

I am a college student and an important social norm in college is to go to various social situations. Whether it be a "mixer", "kegger", "hootenanny" or just your regular run of the mill "box social", I will talk to different folks or just overhear other people's conversations.

A topic that frequently comes up is music. Music is something that people love to talk about, and why not? It is a big part of life.

When asking what music a particular person likes, answers tend to be strange. An answer I frequently hear is, "Oh, I like 80s." Now, I'm not really sure what "I like 80s" means. Honestly, do you just like every form of music that has come out of the 1980s? I will then ask about their 80s musical preferences in more depth. People will say they like artists such as Bon Jovi, Poison and others to this effect.

Music is something that you should like regardless of what others say and what others think, but I'm sure that people prefer this music because it has become the social norm. In 1986, a guy (who thinks he is a cool and fairly tough) wouldn't be caught dead listening to Poison. It's similar if a guy said he listened to something like The Backstreet Boys (well not exactly, but something to that effect). To me, it's just odd the way that it has become okay for someone to like pop music, just as long as it is not during its own respective decade. It's also a shame the way that a whole decade can just be summed up so briefly. A lot more stuff happened in the 80s than just bad fashion and big hair.

If you like this music, that is totally cool. Nobody should tell you that you shouldn't. On the other hand, don't let the television tell you either. Break those social norms. It's a good thing, but don't do it because they want you to, but because you want to.