Kids Today Are Listening to Their Parents' Music
It's a phenomenon!
It's not really a phenomenon, even though I keep reading that is.
From USA Today: Kids Are Listening to Their Parents...Parents Music, That Is
Though difficult to quantify, the trend of youngsters craving oldies seems to be gaining momentum. Kids are snatching up Beatles and Led Zeppelin discs, flocking to ZZ Top and Steve Miller concerts, researching the troubled histories of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Black Sabbath and scouring their parents' record collections for Jimi Hendrix licks and Allman Brothers Band jams.
From The Washington Post: 'Hey Jude?' Duude.
Jurassic-rock concerts, for instance, are becoming ever more populated by folks who weren't alive when the bands really mattered.
From Rolling Stone: Teens Save Classic Rock
Young fans' enthusiasm helps evergreen discs such as Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and AC/DC's Back in Black sell thousands of copies a week. "Week after week, a whole new group of people are discovering these albums," says Jeff Jones, executive vice president of Sony BMG's reissue label Legacy Recordings.
In each of these articles, the authors seem bewildered that kids are listening to Classic Rock. They keep calling it "their parents' music," but that seems to have a negative connotation to it. All of the articles explain the reasons why kids are interested in Classic Rock today and I agree with them. But, I also think the authors left out a big factor. The generation gap has narrowed now that Gen X'ers are having kids. We listen to the same music, we're more likely to play a video game with our kids than go out and throw a baseball around with them, and we use the same technology such as computers, ipods, and cell phones. Times they are-a changing.
While I was reading the articles, I also noticed a focus on statistics and marketing. In a nutshell, it cited how many kids are listening to classic rock and how it can be better marketed to them. Maybe, the reason kids like the music is because it has a certain counter-culture aspect to it and because it ISN'T being marketed to them. Kids are smart. They can tell which music is good and what sucks, and they don't need corporations telling them. So the best way to market it to kids is to just leave it alone.
In my earliest memories, I sang along with my mom while riding in the car to songs like "Billy Don't Be a Hero," "Seasons in the Sun," and a song about a little kid named Willy who wouldn't go home. She gave me unlimited access to her 45 records and I listened to "House of the Rising Sun," Del Shannon's "Runaway," The Righteous Brothers, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Bobby Vinton on my Winnie the Pooh Record Player.
In grade school, I became interested in what my older brothers were listening to and decided I liked their taste in music. In the summer, when I noticed my teenage brother was sneaking Cindy Cooper in through his bedroom window while my mom was at work, I discovered a new concept called blackmail; which I used to score Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare, Heart, and Frampton Comes Alive. I added those to my budding album collection that already consisted of masterpieces like the Grease Soundtrack, Shaun Cassidy, and Leif Garrett.
On days, I wasn't contemplating the power of the three magic words, "I'm telling mom," and how $1 equaled two candy bars, an orange soda, and an Archies comic book, my brother would play his albums for me. I loved staring at the weird album covers, reading the song lyrics, and asking my brother what they meant. These are some of my happiest memories. Fast-forward to me at 16-years old. Summertime. Every morning I got a wake up call at noon from my (other) brother's friend and I'd throw on shorts and a tee shirt and walk barefooted across the street to his mom's apartment. Usually we'd smoke pot and listen to albums, and he had a huge album collection. One day, Steele didn't have any pot, so he just put on an album and we talked. Then a song came on, and even though it was the first time I heard it, I thought this was the best song I ever heard in my life. I clung to every note and soared along with every high and low in the song. Maybe this is the feeling people get when they look at beautiful artwork or opera music, but it touched an emotional chord in me, and I felt slightly euphoric...high. I asked him, "What IS this??" He gave me the album and it was Pink Floyd's Animals and the song was Pigs (3 different ones). I made him play it over and over again. When I listen to it now, I try to recall that experience, but after listening to it hundreds of times, it's lost it's magic. Occasionally I still get that same rush from a really good song, but it's so rare.
In high school, my science teacher regularly brought in Pink Floyd albums and played them during class time. One day, he spent an entire class period discussing the Wish You Were Here album. We learned about Syd Barrett and the meaning of Shine On You, Crazy Diamond. We were encouraged to figure out the meaning of the album cover and when none of us could figure it out, he told us (the four pictures refer to earth, air, water, and fire). I guess that kind of applies to Science.
Fast forward again...I was into new wave, heavy metal, glitter/glam rock, punk, grunge, alternative, a bunch of other stuff. Then it all kind of ended after the 90's.
Back to the topic. I do understand why kids listen to bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, etc. etc. There was a purity and rawness to Classic Rock that today's music doesn't have. Musical talent, songwriting ability, and skill were the focus, while image took a backseat. That isn't to say that these bands didn't have an image. But, it was more mysterious and subtle and owed to the lyrics, album art, or occasional rumor about the band than anything else.
Today, kids have American Idol, YouTube and MySpace. Every band has a video or website, whether it's a local band playing cover tunes or another carbon copy of Blink 182 or Korn. It's hard to find good music, because there's so much out there now that it's frustrating trying to find that diamond among all the junk. The music industry has done a lousy job at finding diamonds among the junk too. They seem to be more interested in taking a piece of junk and trying to turn it into a diamond, but what they end up with is bad product. For example, I can tell you what I know about Jessica Simpson. She was once an Evangelist, her dad is creepy, and she and John Mayer once received a complaint while having sex too loud in a hotel room. But, I cannot name one song that Jessica Simpson sings.
Madonna was inducted this year into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I have mixed feelings about that. Sure, she has had a long career, but her music has always been mediocre and everytime she calls herself an artist, I cringe. She's a businesswoman and she realized that by creating an image and generating controversy, it would do more to sell her records than her actual music ever could. The music industry paid attention to this. Now she has inspired a whole new generation of mini-Madonna's who have huge egos, dress like tarts, but have little talent.
So why do kids turn to "their parents' music?" I don't know. I think it's because they had better album covers back then.
