promises mean everything when you're little
and the world is so big
i just don't understand how
you can smile with all those tears in your eyes
when you tell me everything is wonderful now
-- everclear
If yesterday’s rock was the music of abandon, today’s is that of abandon
ment. The odd truth about contemporary teenage music — the characteristic that most separates it from what has gone before — is its compulsive insistence on the damage wrought by broken homes, family dysfunction, checked-out parents, and (especially) absent fathers.
A very good and provocative essay, "Eminem Is Right," by Mary Eberstadt in Policy Review. It's long, but well worth reading.