Punk rock peer pressure forced Jeff Tweedy, founder of Wilco, to shun Neil Young and other "hippie" musical greats.
Ah, youth...
Were Tweedy, now a seasoned 51-year-old, to deliver a commencement speech, he'd do well to counsel younger musicians to reject such knee jerk rejection, as he does in the above animated interview for Topic magazine.
Not because he's now one of those grey beards himself, but rather because he's come to view influence and taste as living organisms, capable of interacting in surprising ways.
That's not to say the youngsters are obliged to declare an affinity for what they hear when venturing into the past, just as Tweedy doesn't fake a fondness for much of the new music he checks out on the regular.
The narration suggests that Tweedy's got some problems with online culture, but he gives props to the digital revolution for its softening effect on the ironclad cultural divide of his 70s and 80s youth.
If nothing else, the stuff he dislikes teaches him more about the stuff he loves-including, presumably, some of his own impressive catalog.
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