“Props for the Heist-Rockah!”, Freddy Tratlehner (Vjèze Fur) evokes’Watskeburt?!“, The breakthrough hit of the youth of today from 2005.” You are a shembek that nags, but you don’t know Watskeburt! ” When that number came out I was still in primary school, and in the first year the track was’Hollow -up“The ringtone of my outlook phone. I didn’t quite realize what it all meant, but I was devoted to the music of the youth. Twenty years later that is still the case, and I am not alone in that: in honor of their twentieth anniversary, the Youth of Today is three evenings in a row in the Ziggo Dome. What explains that long -term attraction?
“You can say a lot about the texts of the youth, but a large part is of course just the beats,” says Olivier Locadia (Willie Wartaal) A documentary from the VPRO from 2015. “If the beats were fake, or not even fake, but if the beats were mediocre, it would not be as successful as it is now.” Those beats yes, from producer Bas Bron, that is more electrobeats than hip -hop beats, more Four-to-the-Floor than Boom Bapmore to dance than to hop up.
But what the youth of today is best known for their texts, full of ingenious language games, distortions and fusion of old ones and coming up with new words. De Volkskrant shouted “Watskeburt?!” in 2024 out to Best Dutch song of all timePepijn Lanen (Faberyayo) won the Lennart Nijgh prize in 2020 for best lyricist and the group was awarded the Edison Oeuvre award this year.
Postmodern star dust
According to literary Aafje de Roest, who promoted Cum Laude for a study of Dutch -language hip hop, the power of youth is mainly in their talent to reach a wide audience as an innovative language virtuosos. “Their eclectic sound renewed hip hop by mixing house, pop and rap: danceable and catchy, but also content and laminated. That appeals to a lot of people over generations. From an academic perspective, the postmodern combination of irony and absurdism is interesting.”
De Roest calls the track as an example ‘Stars“:” That is a very hard track that many people know and like to sing along, but it also has a deeper and existential layer. ” ‘Sterrenstof’ is catchy as few other songs that are, but at the same time Willie Wartaal is frank about the heavy youth he has had, and Faberyayo does not shy away from the more gloomy side of his existence.
Concert of the Youth of Today at Lowlands in 2023. Photo Andreas Terlaak
The song ‘Aunt Lien’ is also such a song that is accessible at first sight (nice melody line, funny chorus, a real earwig), but where a deeper layer is in, the rust tells. “On the one hand, a picture is created by Aunt Lien as a hot and attractive woman, but on the other she is also portrayed as enormously authentic, as an autonomous woman, very real and sincere. A statue of women that is also emancipatory, and the space is thrown into space by means of humor and irony.”
According to De Roest, that deeper layer is not on top of it, because the youth controls the game of ‘Signifying’: “They provide existing words of new meanings, play with ambiguity and ambiguity. We see that more often in hip hop, but they do it in a unique way.”
Marc van Oostendorp, professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen, agrees there. He has been following the youth since the beginning, and for Fidelity he recently reviewed it Text book Youth (Nijgh & Van Ditmar), with all texts. “The youth has been playing with language. In that they are not the only ones and not the first, for example, for example, Drs. P did a lot in the last century, but the youth have audible fun with language. Of course there are also some silly words in the ‘bitches’ category, but the youth are rulking their own rules. pronunciation, for example. ”
They have clearly influenced a kind of liberation of language, in its playfulness
Whether the youth has also influenced the Dutch language the other way around is hard to say. According to Van Oostendorp, very little happens that a word sneaks in the language that is apparently invented by someone. “So whether the youth has had a really verbal impact on the language: no, but they have clearly had an influence on a kind of liberation of language, in its playfulness. Our language lends itself well to that. Dutch distinguishes itself from many other language cultures in Europe. In France, for example, they are much cramped with grammar and spelling rules, which are strictly monitored by the Acadés. In dealing with our language.
Thesis
But still, for the layman, all that game can also sound like a godfather. Especially in the early days, the music of the youth was often put away as jokes and jokes, and the men themselves stoned or drink. Even in interviews they did little to get rid of that name. In 2012, a broadcast from Talkshow Pauw & Witteman mentioned the fact that students would write theses about their texts. The men thought that was a special honor, but also exaggerated.
Although Faberyayo has read the thesis, Annebel Nillessen Blaauw now says on the phone. In 2011, for her Masters in Communication Sciences at the University of Groningen, she did research into the first three albums of the youth. “That is still doing well at parties.”
When Blaauw, now PR expert, sat in the car to France during her studies, she got a discussion with one of them about what Faberyayo says exactly on the ‘Hollereer’ track: Get me out of your ear, her friend thought. Another thought ‘get me out of your boy’. Blaauw heard ‘Holler at Ya Boy’. The latter was right, but deciphering what exactly those guests raped, that was a kind of general sport among young people then, says Blaauw on the phone. She was fascinated by it, transcribed 34 texts by hearing for her thesis and discovered a deeper layering.
Pepijn Lanen during a concert of the Youth of Today at Lowlands. Photo Andreas Terlaak
“If you do not have the required prior knowledge to know what they are talking about, it can sound like gorgeous. But if you always have sentences on three albums as ‘unite the nations / I am on as kofi’ (on ‘flap flap’) or ‘two faces, one formula like Lauda and Nikki’ you can no longer hold that? No, it is structural: they are brought together of the linguistic blending principle.
Identity
Ande Cremers, Neerlandicus and Language Scientist, conducted research into playing with language in using abbreviations among students and the use of accents in music. “Language use is a way to express identity,” says Cremers. “With the youth of today you see that their playfulness with language also reflects the playfulness of their image. How they dress, express themselves, and how they want to prevent: language is one of the factors of that identity.” That dynamic is similar to what happens among students. “Students often take over language from groups with which they want to identify themselves. By using the same words, ‘cools’ or expressions, students try to ‘belong’, as it were.”
“Early adapters play a major role in that process of language innovation, people who form a catalyst. The youth is a good example of this. Their language is taken over, even by people who are not fans.” But whether that playful language has a lasting influence on the Dutch language, Cremers also does not know: “Associations often change quickly. For example, abbreviations lose their attraction, the more media write articles about it. Then it is soon not cool anymore.” The youth of today does not seem to be bothered by that.
20 years the Youth of Today2, 3 & 4 October, Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam (sold out). Info: Ziggodome.nl
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