Davich: 50-year-old songs, brand-new fans. But why?
Could you imagine if teens in the '70s rocked out to music from the 1920s? Or if teens in the ‘90s had beer pong parties with tunes from the 1940s? Of course not. But today's teens ...
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Do young people like classic rock?
- Thread starter vchimpanzee
- Start date
They don't just like it...some of them can even PLAY it. There's this band called the Low Darts that formed in high school and do covers of "old" songs. What they're best known for? Rock Around the Clock? Smoke on the Water? No, these kids tackle multiple songs from Steely Dan, and nail it.
The music spoken of in the article was created by (mostly) white males and was aimed at a crowd of (mostly) white males. Its loudness, and sometimes its lyrics, represent a rebellion against the polite society of that time. I think that with current rock on the decline, especially in the area of sales, this is a way for white guys to scream, "We Rule! And we do whatever we want! And you can't stop us!" It's kind of like the social rebellion of the 1960s but much more personal in nature.
Of course, it's a rainbow! While ACDC, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath (among others) represent the loud raucous stuff, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, and (dare I say) the Eagles do represent an acoustic and more intellectual side to the genre. And, ignoring "Kid Charlemagne" and some others, most of the music is simple to play and you can dance to it. Furthermore, many of the bands, though they are no longer together and some of their original members are dead, are now licensing younger bands to play their material in concerts dedicated to the original rockers. Finally, as the article states, classic rock is still heard all over the radio now (though the 1970s music is being replaced with 1990s music in many cases).
So yeah! I'm not really surprised by this.
Of course, it's a rainbow! While ACDC, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath (among others) represent the loud raucous stuff, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, and (dare I say) the Eagles do represent an acoustic and more intellectual side to the genre. And, ignoring "Kid Charlemagne" and some others, most of the music is simple to play and you can dance to it. Furthermore, many of the bands, though they are no longer together and some of their original members are dead, are now licensing younger bands to play their material in concerts dedicated to the original rockers. Finally, as the article states, classic rock is still heard all over the radio now (though the 1970s music is being replaced with 1990s music in many cases).
So yeah! I'm not really surprised by this.
Interesting take:Davich: 50-year-old songs, brand-new fans. But why?
Could you imagine if teens in the '70s rocked out to music from the 1920s? Or if teens in the ‘90s had beer pong parties with tunes from the 1940s? Of course not. But today's teens ...nwitimes.com
The Hubbert Peak Theory of Rock, or, Why We're All Out of Good Songs - Overthinking It
What's the link between oil production and rock music quality during the second half of the 20th century?
www.overthinkingit.com
That last part is the key. I’ve watched teens/kids who, speaking broadly, enjoy a substantial amount of “classic” music - in format parlance, classic rock, classic hits, throwbacks, etc.- right alongside current music. It’s a broad-based thing that could have them enjoying Neil Diamond (well…one of his songs) alongside Sabrina Carpenter, then Whitney Houston into Chappell Roan, etc. Their “diet” can be pretty wide.
I'll tell you in a few weeks.. i'm doing a remote ay WyoTech, a votech school for automobiles and it'll be on our classic rock station, Vintage Vinyl 98.7
I'm in my 20s, so I'll give you my take personally. While I like a lot of music from the earlier part of the classic rock years (I mostly listen to pre-1980 tunes, though I do listen to select newer genres/artists), I'm not really a big fan of classic rock itself these days.
There's the attitude and snobbery for one that's a turn-off. It's really not (for the most part) a particularly complex form of music in spite of what the rock critics and hardcore rock fans seem to think and pontificate on. I'll take the Association over Black Sabbath any day of the week. Those harmonies, man...
Shredding tends to bore me, especially over the same couple chords in one key. If I want shredding, I'll listen to jazz where there's key changes and tempo changes.
The anger and angst? I'm over that as I've left my teenage years behind me. I'd rather listen to music I find joy in!
I did enjoy classic rock growing up. I was in a few rock bands playing keyboards and it was fun. I was in the Rock School program and we did all the standards for groups like that. Classic rock was played around the house as a kid, & there was a lot of it in my parents cassette collection that I inherited.
But I found myself drawn to the three-part harmonies of Peter Paul & Mary. The rawness of Gordon Lightfoot. The guitar virtuoso of Glen Campbell and Roy Clark. The jazz renditions of then-current pop tunes from Ramsey Lewis & Wes Montgomery. The meticulously layered harmonies of the Carpenters (and Les Paul & Mary Ford, for that matter). The smooth crooning of Nat "King" Cole (along with his piano prowess with the King Cole Trio). The stellar guitar tone of Buck Owens along with the great steel guitar work on his records. The Bossa-nova rhythms of Sergio Mendes, or the flugelhorn finesse of Chuck Mangione. The soulful funk of the Meters. The great Hammond B3 sound of Booker T. Jones in Booker T & the MGs. Or Lionel Hampton's tickling of the vibes...
Country rock? Oh yeah, The Dillard's Wheatstraw Suite spends a lot of time on my turntable. I listen to a good bit of country rock.
Early rock & roll? Check that box, too. The rawness of Chuck Berry, the strings on Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore"...
But the stuff that would qualify for "classic rock"? I still dig Led Zep's debut album, Boston's debut album (aside from "More Than a Feeling," which I've just heard too many times). And the Doors? Their albums still spend time on my turntable (I was way into the Doors back in high school). But overall, it's just pretty tired music that I think has dominated for far too long. It was not the best the era had to offer and it saddens me that 95% of the music from the 60s/70s still on the radio is classic rock at this point. I listen to it once in a while but not primarily by a long shot.
I think some of the "classic rock" cannon is still popular among my generation but not in the way it was for previous generations. There's a big, beautiful musical world out there that's not one of the 500 or 1000 songs the classic rock station plays and the rock folks are still yackin' about 50 years on.
I do still enjoy it once in a while but as someone upthread said, part of a far, far larger diet. It's but a drop in my musical ocean.
That's my experience. I realize everyone here will have a different experience and I'm not trying to say "classic rock sucks" so please don't take my post that way.
There's the attitude and snobbery for one that's a turn-off. It's really not (for the most part) a particularly complex form of music in spite of what the rock critics and hardcore rock fans seem to think and pontificate on. I'll take the Association over Black Sabbath any day of the week. Those harmonies, man...
Shredding tends to bore me, especially over the same couple chords in one key. If I want shredding, I'll listen to jazz where there's key changes and tempo changes.
The anger and angst? I'm over that as I've left my teenage years behind me. I'd rather listen to music I find joy in!
I did enjoy classic rock growing up. I was in a few rock bands playing keyboards and it was fun. I was in the Rock School program and we did all the standards for groups like that. Classic rock was played around the house as a kid, & there was a lot of it in my parents cassette collection that I inherited.
But I found myself drawn to the three-part harmonies of Peter Paul & Mary. The rawness of Gordon Lightfoot. The guitar virtuoso of Glen Campbell and Roy Clark. The jazz renditions of then-current pop tunes from Ramsey Lewis & Wes Montgomery. The meticulously layered harmonies of the Carpenters (and Les Paul & Mary Ford, for that matter). The smooth crooning of Nat "King" Cole (along with his piano prowess with the King Cole Trio). The stellar guitar tone of Buck Owens along with the great steel guitar work on his records. The Bossa-nova rhythms of Sergio Mendes, or the flugelhorn finesse of Chuck Mangione. The soulful funk of the Meters. The great Hammond B3 sound of Booker T. Jones in Booker T & the MGs. Or Lionel Hampton's tickling of the vibes...
Country rock? Oh yeah, The Dillard's Wheatstraw Suite spends a lot of time on my turntable. I listen to a good bit of country rock.
Early rock & roll? Check that box, too. The rawness of Chuck Berry, the strings on Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore"...
But the stuff that would qualify for "classic rock"? I still dig Led Zep's debut album, Boston's debut album (aside from "More Than a Feeling," which I've just heard too many times). And the Doors? Their albums still spend time on my turntable (I was way into the Doors back in high school). But overall, it's just pretty tired music that I think has dominated for far too long. It was not the best the era had to offer and it saddens me that 95% of the music from the 60s/70s still on the radio is classic rock at this point. I listen to it once in a while but not primarily by a long shot.
I think some of the "classic rock" cannon is still popular among my generation but not in the way it was for previous generations. There's a big, beautiful musical world out there that's not one of the 500 or 1000 songs the classic rock station plays and the rock folks are still yackin' about 50 years on.
I do still enjoy it once in a while but as someone upthread said, part of a far, far larger diet. It's but a drop in my musical ocean.
That's my experience. I realize everyone here will have a different experience and I'm not trying to say "classic rock sucks" so please don't take my post that way.
I like a lot of that.
I like what The Dillards did on "The Andy Griffith Show" but that's bluegrass, not country rock.
The Doobie Brothers are good, in my opinion. And I like some of The Allman Brothers. And Charlie Daniels. There are surely others in that category.
The oldies station where I live has a wide variety. A lot of Motown, some of what is played on adult standards radio, and some rock and as well as rock and roll when it was still called that.
It also plays 80s music, much of which I don't care for.
The song making (another) comeback is "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac, off of the 1977 Rumors album. The funny thing is that song never broke the Hot 100 when it was new. The first time I ever heard it on a pop format was on an oldies station in the mid-80s.
Today's teenagers are into everything. Uncensored F-bomb sex/drug reference rap right next to "Back in Black", KPop Demon Hunters, and "Fancy Like". Not to mention Forrest Frank, KB, and Josiah Queen on the Christian side. The free access to YouTube has changed the music landscape forever, not to mention TikTok.
A few weeks ago, I subbed in a 3rd grade class, and one of the girls was wearing a Stones shirt. Somebody (grandparent? dad?) has been teaching her about REAL music. Rock on, girl! It would be nice to see Gen Alpha as a whole rebel against the relatively talentless 'artists' of today. I doubt we will ever see that, however, but like Steven Tyler says, 'dream on'.
Once all of these rock stars of the 20th century pass away, we will need these Gen Z/Gen Alpha's to rise and become the rock stars of the 2030s and beyond. Fight AI-generated music with real talent, and you'll win over 80,000 fans in a stadium.
A few weeks ago, I subbed in a 3rd grade class, and one of the girls was wearing a Stones shirt. Somebody (grandparent? dad?) has been teaching her about REAL music. Rock on, girl! It would be nice to see Gen Alpha as a whole rebel against the relatively talentless 'artists' of today. I doubt we will ever see that, however, but like Steven Tyler says, 'dream on'.
Once all of these rock stars of the 20th century pass away, we will need these Gen Z/Gen Alpha's to rise and become the rock stars of the 2030s and beyond. Fight AI-generated music with real talent, and you'll win over 80,000 fans in a stadium.
Radio can't (or won't) do this. It's still stuck running boxed-in legacy formats that don't reflect this current reality at all.
Some do, at least. I'm 25 and me and my closest friend (24) both like classic rock, although I think my friend likes it more than I do (I'm more of a jazz and funk guy). Rock is fun. Especially 60s and 70s rock. But it doesn't have the same appeal that funk and jazz do for me; I think jazz is my favorite form of music.
REAL music is Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Henry Mancini, Gordon Jenkins, Nelson Riddle. And some of these artists have had recordings in recent years. Bennett was on MTV.
Thats YOUR opinion. Real music is also garth brooks, lee greenwood and similar
Sinatra was a hoax. Teen idol. Decent actor but terrible singer (and person). Needed big band backup to drown out his lousy music pitch.
if only cher and t-pain had been around back then, that coulda been fixed.