“Move Along, Move Along Just to Make it Through”

We all do it my friends. Yesiree we do. We do it by ourselves. We do it with others. We do it in our cars. We do it in our rooms. We even do it in the shower. If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, then you know doing “it” makes us all scream out for joy.

What is “it” you must be wondering? Well, ladies and gentlemen, give yourself a pat on the back because congratulations, we all rock out to our favorite songs and even our not-so-favorite-but-very-catchy songs. (P.S. Get your heads out of the gutter. What did you think I was talking about?) Singing along is like a channel for our emotions when we’re super stoked about something going on or really pissed off at someone for doing something ridiculous. Singing, whether you’re as phenomenal as Celine Dion or suck worse than a live Taylor Swift, it’s just a fun act of living.

We took it as a matter of fate, but whenever my friend Kenna and I were in the same car together, The All-American Rejects song “Move Along” always came on. We’re not the best singers out there (sorry Miss Kenna Kenna, but it’s true), but holy hell did we rock the car with our trying-to-dance-in-our-seat moves and our superb knowledge of the lyrics. Regardless of who heard us, or even saw us, we had a good time. It’s a cold, hard fact that singing makes people happy.

So there I was the other day, sitting in traffic trying to get out of Santa Monica during rush hour. Justin Bieber’s “Baby” comes on. It’s a popular song out in the music industry now, and I caught myself singing to inevitable catchy lyrics. Let’s take a look…

“My first love broke my heart for the first time,

And I was like

Baby, baby, baby, ohhh

Like baby, baby, baby, nooo

Like baby, baby, baby, ohhh

I thought you’d always be mine”

A little bit more song and then…

“For you, I would have done whatever

And I just can’t believe we ain’t together

And I wanna play it cool, but I’m losin’ you

I’ll buy you anything; I’ll buy you any ring

And I’m in pieces, baby fix me

And just shake me ‘til you wake me from this bad dream”

And then, I started wondering. I rushed home, popped open my laptop and did some Googling. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that Justin Bieber was born on March 1, 1994, which means he JUST turned 16. Is he even of legal age to drive a car these days? And yet, here he is, on the radio singing about getting his heart broken. This little boy child is trying to relate to us by performing a song about how his life is over because his first true love is gone. Hrm… really? First off, I don’t think he’s even hit puberty yet. I’m pretty sure my voice is deeper than his. Secondly, I mean hell, I’m 25-years-old and I haven’t even been in love or had my heart broken. A time or two before, my heart had received falsified information and THOUGHT it was broken, but in reality, it was just pissed off at stupid people. Don’t get me wrong, I love the kid and his music, but shouldn’t he be singing about butterflies and rainbows and girls having cooties (the total opposite message of that song)?

I mean look at this whole larger picture. People wonder why these young, famous people start acting out as if they are older, well it’s probably because we make them feel older so they think they are. Their agents, parents, talent reps, and whoever else that deals with their careers put these kids in situations where a 16-year-old is trying to interpret his music of love and heartbreak to the rest of the world. Obviously, he needs to come up with these types of emotions in order to do a decent job of singing it. Like all the judges on American Idol say… you have to feeeeel the music. Little Bieber is trying to feel things that a 25-year-old hasn’t even felt.

Look at it from the film/television side of things as well. Actors and actresses always play roles above their age. I would find it a rare occurrence for an actor to actually play a character of his or her own age group (plus or minus a year or two to the actual age). But again, these people are trying to channel situations and feelings that they wouldn’t normally have at their age. I think if you ask any movie fan or critic, actors are only as good as they can channel their characters. If you continue to give these children more mature roles, where are they able to bring themselves back to reality and act like a child? And don’t most parents fight for their kids to remain kids rather than growing up too quickly? Shouldn’t we just let them be their own age? Again here I am, a quarter of a century old, and I still act like I’m 16-years-old at time. Minus my sarcasm and at times, funny wit, I would like to think I still have the charisma of a child. You think children, and you think innocence and genuineness, something that with most people is lost as we get older. So for now, I think we should take a few minutes out of our day and remember what it was like to be young again… when the biggest problems in our lives were our parents not letting us stay out past curfew or who we were going to invite to our next high school dance. Think about it, those were the days my friends.