Dubbel Mono

donderdag, maart 04, 2004

 
I Hope I Die Before I Get Old: Old School rocks... eh buys

One of the ancient laws of rock concerts states that there is always someone directly in front of you who has big hair. Lately this phenomenon has come with a twist: increasingly, the big hair in front of you is grey, or even white. The gig-going habit no longer fades at 40 or 50. And it's not just the comfy-cardie acts who appeal to the older fan.

[...]

The 50-quid bloke is a big user of the web, Hepworth says, but unlike his children, he wants to own things. He shops at Amazon as well as the high street. He loathes Pop Idol, telling the kids it devalues everything rock music stands for (the kids reply that it's only a TV show, dad). But he is defined more by his likes than his dislikes and, crucially, he wants to keep up. He likes the White Stripes, Coldplay and Blur and has persevered with Radiohead through the difficult last three albums. His latest buys are the debut albums from the Stands, who remind him of the Byrds, and Franz Ferdinand, who remind him of the Glasgow art-school bands of 1982. The fact that most of the new bands sound old is a definite help.

[...]

With Dido and Norah Jones ruling the album chart, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin selling plenty of DVDs, Duran Duran and Tears for Fears suddenly returning from oblivion and Franz Ferdinand achieving instant success, it looks as if the fifty-quid bloke is keeping the music business afloat. "There's a lot of evidence," Hepworth says. "Radio 2, Norah Jones, even The Darkness - these things appeal to an older demographic."
|| 3:04 p.m.