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[Darren]

I hate to think what my dreams might mean. Last night I had one where my arms were covered with oozing pustules and then I started digging worms out of my skin, although I wasn't particularly concerned either while asleep or after I'd woken up.

[Raphael]

Music history question: What was the audience for music videos before MTV was founded? I mean, there were clearly music videos ready to be shown when MTV got started, or else they couldn't have filled their hours in the first weeks and months of their operation. But for which contexts were those early music videos produced before MTV existed?

[TomHChappell]

I recently dreamed I was talking to a British person (I think maybe the YouTuber who does that “Lost in the Pond” channel?) and I asked him whether non-rhotic Englishmen really spelled “banana” as “barnarnar”!

[zompist]

Music history question: What was the audience for music videos before MTV was founded? I mean, there were clearly music videos ready to be shown when MTV got started, or else they couldn't have filled their hours in the first weeks and months of their operation. But for which contexts were those early music videos produced before MTV existed?

Movies and television. See the Wikipedia article which has a pretty interesting summary.

[malloc]

Just recently, I had a dream where I was yelling at someone who messed up international politics so badly that Trump managed to become president of Mexico as well as the US. No idea how that worked since I just remember the last minute of the dream where I was lambasting him for it. On the other hand, I sometimes have dreams where I fall off the vegan wagon and eat meat again.

[zompist]

A while ago - actually more than 15 years ago by now - I changed my opinion on a serious political issue in a major way. In the years since that happened, I've sometimes have dreams while asleep where, in the dreams, I still had my old views on that issue. So I wonder: how common is that kind of thing? And what, if anything, does it mean? Does it simply mean that my change of opinion never made it all the way to my subconsciousness?

I don't think I have political dreams, but I've noticed that my dreams lag my everyday life by decades. So for many years after graduating from college I had dreams about going to class (and inevitably missing some of them). And though I haven't had a computer job in years, I still dream that I do. I also dream about my parents, who died years ago, and they are always actively walking about, as they did in their 80s.

[Man in Space]

A while ago - actually more than 15 years ago by now - I changed my opinion on a serious political issue in a major way. In the years since that happened, I've sometimes have dreams while asleep where, in the dreams, I still had my old views on that issue. So I wonder: how common is that kind of thing? And what, if anything, does it mean? Does it simply mean that my change of opinion never made it all the way to my subconsciousness?

I don't think I have political dreams, but I've noticed that my dreams lag my everyday life by decades. So for many years after graduating from college I had dreams about going to class (and inevitably missing some of them). And though I haven't had a computer job in years, I still dream that I do. I also dream about my parents, who died years ago, and they are always actively walking about, as they did in their 80s.

I still have the recurring dream where it’s the end of senior year of high school and somehow I haven’t done any of my calculus homework the entire year.

[Travis B.]

If I sleep in a bed I simply have no recollection of having dreams in the first place except in very rare cases, and even then they are very faint. If I sleep on a couch or in a chair, I often have vivid dreams and clearly remember having them (and sometimes even what they were about, for a time).

[Raphael]

Music history question: What was the audience for music videos before MTV was founded? I mean, there were clearly music videos ready to be shown when MTV got started, or else they couldn't have filled their hours in the first weeks and months of their operation. But for which contexts were those early music videos produced before MTV existed?

Movies and television. See the Wikipedia article which has a pretty interesting summary.

Thank you!

I don't think I have political dreams, but I've noticed that my dreams lag my everyday life by decades. So for many years after graduating from college I had dreams about going to class (and inevitably missing some of them). And though I haven't had a computer job in years, I still dream that I do. I also dream about my parents, who died years ago, and they are always actively walking about, as they did in their 80s.

Yes, the political thing I noted might be a special case of that. I still have dreams about my grandparents, who died a while ago, too.

If I sleep in a bed I simply have no recollection of having dreams in the first place except in very rare cases, and even then they are very faint. If I sleep on a couch or in a chair, I often have vivid dreams and clearly remember having them (and sometimes even what they were about, for a time).

Wow, now that sounds interesting! Not sure what to say about that, though.

Earlier today, I had a few hours when I kind of drifted back and forth between being kind of half-asleep and being kind of half-awake, and between dreaming and thinking about my dream. I don't remember what the dream was, though.

[alice]

I still have the recurring dream where it’s the end of senior year of high school and somehow I haven’t done any of my calculus homework the entire year.

I get dreams like this a lot too, usually with me trying to miss classes and eventually realising that I'm grown up and don't actually need the qualification which the exam(s) for which I have so catastrophically failed to prepare are supposed to provide. Or something; I presume you know what all these relative clauses are trying to antecede.

[Raphael]

I just got back from a doctor's appointment, and one of the other patients in the waiting room was a teenage girl wearing a Metallica t-shirt.

I admit that I'm a bit weirded out by the idea that there are teenagers in 2024 who are apparently into Metallica.

[Travis B.]

I just got back from a doctor's appointment, and one of the other patients in the waiting room was a teenage girl wearing a Metallica t-shirt.

I admit that I'm a bit weirded out by the idea that there are teenagers in 2024 who are apparently into Metallica.

When I was a teenager I saw many a teenager who wore Grateful Dead t-shirts...

[TomHChappell]

If I sleep in a bed I simply have no recollection of having dreams in the first place except in very rare cases, and even then they are very faint. If I sleep on a couch or in a chair, I often have vivid dreams and clearly remember having them (and sometimes even what they were about, for a time).

If I sleep in the daylight, my dreams are in vivid full color. If I sleep in the dark, my dreams have more subdued, and usually partial (sometimes B&W) color.

[doctor shark]

I just got back from a doctor's appointment, and one of the other patients in the waiting room was a teenage girl wearing a Metallica t-shirt.

I admit that I'm a bit weirded out by the idea that there are teenagers in 2024 who are apparently into Metallica.

I mean, Metallica is still touring and still putting out music, and their last album was last year (in 2023). And often parents can lead people down musical paths: I'm a big fan of 70's and 80's rock thanks to my mother. (And I was born in '90.)

[Linguoboy]

I mean, Metallica is still touring and still putting out music, and their last album was last year (in 2023). And often parents can lead people down musical paths: I'm a big fan of 70's and 80's rock thanks to my mother. (And I was born in '90.)

Relevant Anecdote: About a decade ago, I was doing tabletop roleplaying with a group assembled by a friend. One of the players was roughly half my age at the time. I have a habit of warbling little snatches of pop songs based on bits of description or dialogue and I was so impressed at how often he recognised the 80s songs I quoted that I finally mentioned it and he replied, "Yeah, my parents like to listen to those bands."

Relatedly, I've been hooking up lately with a 30 year-old who spends a lot of time on TikTok. I was utterly flabbergasted when I played "O Superman" by Laurie Anderson (a 1981 single by a then-unknown that became a surprise hit in the UK but never charted in the USA) and he recognised it immediately[*]. Then I remembered my brother excitedly telling me about hearing it used in a 2018 episode of Black Mirror, which seems to have been the gateway for its discovery by the TikTok community. TV shows like Stranger Things have also been channels of exposure, as evidenced by the stunning revival of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", which two summers ago finally smashed the top ten in the USA, charting at #3 37 years after its initial release.

[*] Even stranger, he called it "that serial killer song". Apparently the Muswell Hill Murderer used to play it to psych himself out before heading out in search of victims.

[WeepingElf]

Though I was born in '69, the rock classics of the 70s provided the soundtrack to the adventures of my LEGO spaceships. That was because an unmarried younger brother of my father lived in our house, and his room was next to mine. And that uncle listened to rock music very much. Another influence was a young, progressive music teacher in school who did a unit about Mussorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition and its various versions - including the treatment by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

[Raphael]

I like today's xkcd:

[ratammer]

I don't think I have political dreams, but I've noticed that my dreams lag my everyday life by decades. So for many years after graduating from college I had dreams about going to class (and inevitably missing some of them). And though I haven't had a computer job in years, I still dream that I do. I also dream about my parents, who died years ago, and they are always actively walking about, as they did in their 80s.

My dreams also tend to mix different time periods together - often I will be in a place that seems to mix my school, my university, and my work, with people from all those places together. My other most common type of dream is that I'm lost on the way to somewhere that I need to get to in a hurry. Those will often mix, i.e. the place I'm looking for might be my next class.

[Ares Land]

I was born in 1984 and still love '70s and '80s music. Metallica was -- and is -- very popular among my age group, though most of their hits were released when we were toddlers.

[Raphael]

I was born in 1984 and still love '70s and '80s music. Metallica was -- and is -- very popular among my age group, though most of their hits were released when we were toddlers.

Same for me. But today's teenagers are yet another generation younger than me.