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10/24/2024 04:00 PMI was ten years old when Camp Rock was broadcast on the Disney Channel. But as someone who was already into ‘real’ rock music, preferred to watch shows on Nickelodeon, and couldn’t stand the Jonas Brothers, I lived gleefully in a bubble where rock music was equivalent to the all the hard rock songs I first heard on Guitar Hero, and where Drake and Josh were the funniest band of brothers for my demographic.
But ‘Camp Rock’ did arrive at the Space Ballroom on Oct. 12 with the performance of indie pop outfit Boyscott. Led by its affable project head Scott Hermo Jr., the lazy summer sounds of Boyscott transports its audience to a retreat on Mount Desert Island, where life is but a warm breeze, the sunshine is never interrupted by passing cumulus clouds, and every sailboat comes with a free guitar.
Basically, Boyscott is what happens when the School of Rock program happens in Northern New England. With its bright tones, easy beats, and youthful, idealistic sonic portrait of the world, those who are encouraged by counselors to write their own songs find no need to be aggressive in their playing. Rather than shaking the walls of the world like Led Zeppelin, Boyscott play a modern day kind of indie pop that moves languidly like the Beach Boys.
That is not to say there is an inexperienced and juvenile sound inherent in Boyscott. Quite the opposite. The music is nothing if not mature - sounding, like a modern reinterpretation of the kind of ‘real’ music dads love to listen to on SiriusXM’s The Bridge (Seals and Crofts, Jackson Browne, Gordon Lightfoot).
This kind of soft rock approach is not uncommon in my generation of musicians and music lovers. Many of us came of age with the music of Vampire Weekend, Mac DeMarco, and Bon Iver; the soundtrack of underachieving preps who talk left-wing politics near the beach and couldn’t care less about golf.
Given those collective influences, the concert was one of the occasions that made me realize that we as Gen Z truly did grow up together. Especially as someone who has hardly ever been a follower of trends, most times I don’t think about how similar me and other people my age really are. The fact that we all grew up listening to the same music, consuming the same Netflix and Hulu programs, and laughing at the same memes; all this often evades me.
But Boyscott’s performance was a reminder of how many of us have been collectively influenced by the same artists, informing the preferred soft noise of a generation who builds upon those artists in fresh new ways.
This is by no means universal, but perhaps it is a way for our elders to understand some of our favorite music a little better, and that, yes, we do like ‘real’ music, older and modern. Just email me and I’d be happy to talk about Judy Collins and Simon and Garfunkel, and the singer-songwriters of today following in their tradition. You can reach me at a.rubin@shorepublishing.com.