Prologue
Well, you know…
2067 is the year that gets all the attention. It’s the year that made the history books, because of the Revolution. Theories abound as to the nature of it – how it stemmed from a mass psychosis, the anguish of disaffected youth, or too much sugar before bedtime. The truth lies somewhere else.
The Revolution began in ’66. That’s when the lost music came back – when it called out from somewhere in the universe to the sensitive and attuned minds of young people who could DO something about it. No one has come up with an explanation for THAT.
Well, I have a theory.
Once, there was an idea, attributed to an early pioneer of wireless radio telegraphy, that sound never vanishes; it just travels so far away in space that it can no longer be detected by the ear. But it’s still out there, and the right kind of receiver could pick it up and play it back.
In the history of popular music, think of the unknowable number of songs ever recorded and all the times they were played. Maybe all those sound waves are still travelling through space with the expansion of the universe. Maybe they bounce off planets from time to time, like a cosmic pinball game, sending echoes back to Earth. A sensitive, attuned receiver might be able to pick up those echoes.
Now, I’m not a physicist and I’m not saying that’s exactly how it happened. I wasn’t there in 2036 when IMSA took the music away, but I was there in ’66 when it came back. I’m sure there is a scientific explanation for it. But maybe it doesn’t matter HOW the music came back. Maybe it only matters that it did.
I’m going to do my best to describe the events you’re asking me about as plainly as I can.
It started with the blackouts.
