How old is too old to be singing about high school?

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I asked a similar question to this on DeviantArt.

Do you think there's an age limit for singing about high school topics? TBH, I think there is. It just feels weird to see a singer who's in their thirties singing about high school topics (or worse, dressing like they're still in high school). Take "Hollaback Girl", for example - the song has quite a few casual references to high school, but Gwen Stefani was 35 when she sang it. It kinda reminds me of those TV shows that cast 30-year-old actors to play teenagers.

I feel like a good rule of thumb would be that if you're old enough to teach high school, you're too old to sing about high school subjects.

Bruce Springsteen was 34 when he recorded the song, Glory Days which was about his high school years.

Nothing is too old.
It's nostalgia.
It's a time most people can relate to for "coming of age".

A lot of people met their sweetheart in high school, too.




https://youtu.be/R4GLAKEjU4w?si=8jzTXQlVL0Kx2m7R

Once you're finally over high school, you should stop singing about it.

Professional? When people stop buying your work or paying to hear you sing it.
Non-professional- Last night I was singing bits from “No Particular Place to Go” it is a highschool song (experiences from school for those age 14 to 18 for non-USA folks). It was a hit about 2 decades before I was in High School. It was a fun song “studying history and practical math, studying hard and hoping to pass” I think of it any time one of my kids is “studying hard”. I am past the half century mark. I like the songs of the late 1950s early 60s. Was in highschool in the 80s and didn’t like the top 10 songs of that era.

I'm 65, and I'm willing to sing almost anything for my YouTube channel.

When I was in high school, many of my peers viewed me as a "creep", a "weirdo"
or as someone "always obsessed with Jesus."

However, since I graduated high school, some of them try to get me to interact with them.
I have moved on and don't need anyone from my high school years.

28. we should have 10 years to process the events of high school

Outkast's Caroline and Khalid's song about highschool are both funny cos the actors all look old, but the songs give me nostalgia

The type of (probably idealised) high school I see in American films is probably worth singing about. Alas, I was not having any wacky adventures in that time of my life.

It was less a coming of age and more of a... hmm. Grey blur with some not so great highlights.

My friend made a song about that time of his life but it wasn't nostalgic. It was more of an angsty 'I'm glad that's over' type of song that focused on yearning for independence and finally being free. Then he never sung about it again, which is fair enough.

I'm still stuck on University since my life hasn't been as interesting as it was back then. I'm so bored.

As with everything it is about context.

Nostalgia is human trait not wrong in most circumstances. Like anything else it can be overdone to the point of interfering with your current life. Not only in music but in most art depicting high school experiences are written by people who have long ago graduated high school. Certainly the vast majority of material written for children are not written by children.

Where this gets tricky is when the topic of the song is about teen sex and relationships. Songs about relationships and sex with teenage girls were common in pop and rock music when I grew up in the 60s and 70s.

I seem to recall in the early 2000s there was a spate of American bands that sang about being teenagers, while dressed like teenagers while being apparently in their mid to late 20s. Bands like Wheatus, Good Charlotte, Bowling for Soup, Avril Lavigne.

There was clearly good money in it at the time.