Kids Today: What's With Bleeding Love?

One of the inescapable facts of growing older is not "getting" today's music. I'm 42, and have always been considered by friends and family as "that pop culture guy." You've got a trivia question for me? I can answer it. Or rather, I could.

Fortunately, my computer skills (though also probably surpassed by "kids today") are good enough that I can find whatever information I'm asked for. And that's a good thing, because music today leaves me cold. Even the new Madonna and Cyndi Lauper albums (two of the biggest from my generation) don't have the feel or fun of the old stuff.

I've stumbled across a song called Bleeding Love by an artist I'd never heard of, Leona Lewis. I mistakenly thought it was a Mariah Carey song, and on the first listen I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. The song kept cropping up here and there, and eventually I listened to the lyrics. Yikes. This is supposed to be romantic, but I couldn't get the cutting and bleeding imagery out of my mind!



With lyrics like: "But I don't care what they say, I'm in love with you, They try to pull me away, But they don't know the truth, My heart's crippled by the vein, That I keep on closing. You cut me open and I Keep bleeding, Keep, keep bleeding love," all I can think about is those disturbing girls who cut themselves when they're depressed.

I know this song isn't brand new, but kids--trust me--when you're in your 40s, and the kids are listening to I Hate Your Guts (But Love When They're Wrapped Around Me), you'll understand what I'm talking about.