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Survey Shows Gen-Z Not Listening To Radio

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Johnny Mathis' and Elvis' appeal is eternal and spans generations in at least one house in Maricopa County, Arizona.
It’s certainly not Johnny and Elvis, but the seemingly eternal appeal of Sweet Caroline across generations amuses me. Watching the stands filled with Gen Z and their parents (and grandparents) sing along to that at football games is kind of remarkable. So too was watching younger Gen Z-ers dancing along to the likes of early Whitney Houston and Prince.

But…just because something like Sweet Caroline is a fun singalong tune, and appreciated for all its kitschy glory, doesn’t mean it forms the core of the generation’s tastes, any more than one family member happening to enjoy the unusual experience of hearing some 50s classics.
 
It’s certainly not Johnny and Elvis, but the seemingly eternal appeal of Sweet Caroline across generations amuses me. Watching the stands filled with Gen Z and their parents (and grandparents) sing along to that at football games is kind of remarkable. So too was watching younger Gen Z-ers dancing along to the likes of early Whitney Houston and Prince.

But…just because something like Sweet Caroline is a fun singalong tune, and appreciated for all its kitschy glory, doesn’t mean it forms the core of the generation’s tastes, any more than one family member happening to enjoy the unusual experience of hearing some 50s classics.

Tie any record into sporting events, anything from the local ball team to the Olympics, and you can get some traction with people too young to remember the song when it was new (examples: Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2" for a ton of teams, The Alan Parsons Project's "Sirius" for the Phoenix Suns, The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" when the Olympics were in London in 2012).

But that doesn't rub off on the catalog of the artist or everything that charted from the same era.
 
Great music doesn't have generational borders. There is a reason Elton John lasted as long as he has. A good tune will always be a good tune.
 
Not to take anything away from Elton John, but that logic would have Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra a lot more appreciated by people under 80 than is the actual case.
The crooners were a different era and style that doesn't really fit todays listening habits. Elton was more of a pop act.
 
The crooners were a different era and style that doesn't really fit todays listening habits. Elton was more of a pop act.

(screen goes all wavy, harp music plays...I remember it like it was 12 minutes ago....)

Great music doesn't have generational borders. There is a reason Elton John lasted as long as he has. A good tune will always be a good tune.
 
Here's another poll, this one of Apple users. It surveys usage of Apple Music vs. Apple TV. Notice how the graph shifts as the users age. People over 50 use Apple TV more than Apple Music. So as people age, they're less interested in music, more interested in TV. This is why advertisers don't target older radio listeners. Because they're watching TV. If they listen to radio, they listen to talk, not music.

 
Luminate, which is the owner of Billboard, has put out some statistics of music consumption. It shows music consumption is up in all categories. The study is not broken down by age, but they compare pop music listeners to the general population. So that may explain why radio still loves CHR as a format.

 
Great music doesn't have generational borders. There is a reason Elton John lasted as long as he has. A good tune will always be a good tune.
Elton John was an excellent singer. In his latter years, he has sounded more like Vic Reeves singing in a club stylee.

 
It's nice when a 12-year-old is introduced to Elvis and The Beatles, but it proves my point - for every pre-teen who discovers classics like 'Let it Be', another 20 are discovering current artists on social media, especially rappers.

As a fledgling elementary teacher, I would like to use times like Black History Month to introduce my 4th or 5th graders to musical acts who inspired generations of fans - like Stevie Wonder, Fats Domino, and The Supremes, breaking down barriers in American music. Kids learn a lot about MLK by the time they exit elementary and middle school, but what about the musical talents that came out of it? We spend so much time on core math/ELA to get them ready for that "big, humongous standardized test in the spring!!!!!!" that we don't have time to cover things like this - or we just let the music teacher do all the work.
Perhaps I could introduce a 'new artist' to them every week whenever we do Morning Meeting and the icebreakers at the start of the day. Encourage them to really listen to the lyrics and what they mean. If we do a novel study, and it's a historical chapter book, perhaps I could find music from that era that 'fits the mood'. "Bud, Not Buddy" was set in 1930s Michigan and is about a young Black boy who sets out to find the father he never met. Jazz music is a big part of the story. Why not introduce students to musicians like Duke Ellington? Questions related to Black jazz artists might not be on that 'big test,' but it will impact the students.
 
Kind of like Genius Hour, I see. Many teachers are applying this. They are letting their intermediate/middle school students research whatever comes to their mind for about an hour a week. And it's not required to be a Word document, 5 paragraphs, 12 pt. Times New Roman and 1" margins either :)

Anyways, off-topic. Back to the daily grind...
 
which do you find crap, because if you're referring only to hip hop or pop top 40 stuff, you're really just critiquing a small percentage of a big music industry that releases so much stuff from commercial and indie labels under many genres, plus self-released stuff from artists on the internet people like.

I'm so tired of this muh oldddd music better crap, music never gets bad.

also as a gen zer maybe you guys should play new music again.
My discussion has always been around pop/rock music. I don't critique other types because I don't listen to them very often. I don't consider rap to be 'music' but some Hip Hop is OK dance music (although I'm no longer of the dancing age and don't listen to it). I also have a bunch of Classic Country but don't listen to the current stuff which I also consider mostly junk.

I am a pre-Boomer by 2 years. I have no idea what my generation is called (and really don't care). If I listen to the radio, very infrequently, it is Oldies. Here in the Phoenix metro that would be The Goldmine especially with Steve Goddard hosting.
 
And that's exactly right. I'll bet that new music in Landtuna's younger days was considered crap by his parents or grandparents.
Sometimes older folks need to remind themselves of that before labeling or criticizing.
Wrong! My dad was an amateur musician who specialized in guitar-based Folk music and early Country but he got in the groove with me and my two sisters and loved to phone in requests for them back when that was a thing. Every time my grandmother visited she wanted my sisters and I to play the current Doo Wop/Pop songs and show off the dance moves. I never remember her listening to the radio at her house but she seemed to love it when us kids were around.
 
Someone just PMed me with a Landtuna post from 2012---eleven years ago.

In the first line of it he writes:

"...the music died in 1983."

So, really, for Landtuna, everything in the last FORTY years is crap.
I did not say nor did I mean that EVERYTHING in the past 40 years was crap but it sure did not live up to the "golden age of Rock/Pop" in the proceeding 3 decades (or even Swing if you go back to the WWII era).

But that was a typo. I had meant 1985 but it makes little difference. IMHO there have been very few pop/rock songs worth listening to but it is MY opinion. I am not trying to convince other people. As always you are free to make your own decisions - just tossing my two cents in. I can tell you from first experience that growing up in the 50's, 60's and 70's radio airplay was a very large and central part of being a teen and young adult. That doesn't seem to be the nearly the case any longer.

I refer you to the Buggles "Video Killed The Radio Star". They nailed it!
 
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