It’s the holiday season, and it has become tradition here at misterboomer.com to take some time off. So, in lieu of a fresh post, check out these encore presentations of Mister Boomer’s Top 11 favorite posts of the past year. They appear here in the order that they appeared during the year:
Boomer Girl Songs: What’s In A Name?
There have probably been songs named for women — or teenage girls — as far back as there has been written music. Yet it was the Boomer era of the 1950s and 1960s that seemed to have brought the practice front and center in the music world.
Boomers Saw Manly Men with Chest Hair
In a little over a decade, boomers observed the notion of male chest hair go from the ultimate symbol of virility to a complete turn-off.
Boomers Helped TV Sales to Skyrocket
After more than a decade, Mister Boomer recently bought a new television. The shock and awe of what is available today versus even a decade ago — when the TV depth was wider than the screen itself — got Mister B thinking about TVs in our boomer days.
Boomers’ Parents Thought Differently Than Today’s Parents
What has changed to make today’s parents spend appreciably more time with their children than the parents of Baby Boomers?
Boomers Said, “Let’s All Go to the Movies!”
Going to the movies was a real event for Baby Boomers. There were basically three opportunities to see a movie — evenings, weekends and Saturday matinees. For most of us, however, the weekend was the obvious choice because going to the movies was a real time commitment.
Boomer Music: Here, There and Everywhere
Boomer music appears everywhere these days — in commercials, movies and on the stage. What are we to make of this latest display, when supposedly generations beyond the boomers would not be able to relate to or even like the nostalgic sounds of the 1960s and ’70s?
Where Have All the Jingles Gone?
As the 1950s became known as the Golden Age of Television, it also sparked a Golden Age of Commercial Jingles. By the late 1970s, jingles were on the way out as licensed music written for other reasons became the norm. Yet in that time, jingles became unforgettable, and many boomers can still sing along today.
Earworms Burrowed into Boomers’ Brains
Submitted for your approval: songs of yesteryear that stuck into our skulls like a construction worker Krazy-glued to a steel beam, traversing space and time from then and there to the here and now. Mister Boomer recalls these melodies of his past that can occasionally haunt his waking moments to this very day. He has crossed into … the Earworm Zone.
RIP Saturday Morning Cartoons
There certainly are many things that help shape and define the early boomer years, and near the top has to be Saturday morning cartoons. Now, in a case of “Say it ain’t so,” word has come that the last network, CW, has abandoned the practice and a full schedule of cartoons broadcast on Saturday mornings are a thing of the past.
Boomers Watched the Evolution of the Selfie
It seems that everyone between the ages of 12 and 35 is obsessed with “selfies” these days — those ubiquitous, quick snapshots of one’s own bad self. Miriam-Webster added the word to its dictionary this year, giving academic credence to the term that is really nothing more than a shortened, slangified version of “self-portrait.”
Boomers Grew With Jazzy TV Show Themes
Once TV really started getting its footing with regular programming in the 1950s, crime dramas became popular subjects. Three music genres were vying for attention from the public at the time: country, jazz and rock. Since many of the TV show theme composers turned to film noir for inspiration — and several had scored these types of films — aspects of jazz became the calling card for TV show opening songs. From Big Band to blues, bebop to Latin jazz, a new generation was planting its musical flag in the new medium of television.