...so I am at my desk the other day when a temp in Account's Payable comes over with a problem invoice. As we are looking at it - an email comes in from the Zappa forum on a subject I was tracking. She (only 29 years old) says I am a Zappo's girl too. I was hearing Zappa not Zappo's. After some very akward minutes I learned she was talking shoes while I was talking about the greatest composer/guitar player ever...Was SHOCKED me is that she had NEVER heard of Frank Zappa. I tried to explain. She asked what songs he was famous for. I thought the two she might have heard would have been Valley Girl or Don't Eat the Yellow Snow.

Nothing - blank.

She thought for a minute and asked - does e do songs like Grandma Got Run Over By A Raindeer?

Then there's the "what group was Paul McCartney in before Wings?" & "What is Woodstock?"; I overheard teenagers ask both in my record store in the EARLY 1980's!!

Too funny.

This happens to me all the time, particularly when I talk about blues artists. I suppose it's inevitable when you get to a certain age, and work with younger people. That's why I'm raising my kids on the classics: Beatles, Stones, Ray Charles. Today, I introduced them to classic blues with a comp that extends from the 40's through the 60's.

It's "cultural illiteracy."

Think about it:
Here's one example ... When most of us were children, we had 6 or 8 TV channels in total and, usually, only one TV set. We watched what our parents watched (for the most part). Now, in general, kids watch channels aimed exclusively at them on their own TVs. And they watch those channels almost exclusively. Big news recently that Nickelodeon (do you think kids know what that word actually refers to?) has started programming "classic" 90s TV shows during late night to great success. They've re-captured the generation that is now older and can stay up past their bedtime.

Sorry to sound so cynical but I once had a classroom of 8th graders argue with me that 'Smallville' was NOT about Superman. They thought I was trying to pull a prank on them!

Don, you're 100% right. I have a sister who is 21 (I'm in my 50's). As a child she loved classic rock, until she discovered "tween" tv & got into early Britney, etc.

I still think we trained her right, she's an alternative rock fan last I checked.

When I worked in a bookstore about ten years ago, we had a 15-year-old student who helped us out after school, usually helping out in receiving and shipping. In the corner of the receiving room was a life-size cardboard cut-out of John Lennon from his mid-'70s NYC period that we had gotten to promote a new biography. The student thought it was Mick Jagger and then admitted that she had never listened to any Lennon, Jagger, Beatles, or Rolling Stones. How is this possible?

"she don't remember
Queen of Soul....Hey Nineteen"

If it's not in their immediate, very small bubble, the attitude is:
"Don't know...don't wanna know."

Everything new sucks, dagnabbit!

It'll only get worse. Kids today will have no idea who the Beatles were.

Ooh, ooh, I think I know!!!

They wrote the songs for that BeeGees movie, "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", right????

Do I win a prize???

It's funny, based on my kids' friends (ages 15-21) I'd say a good 40% know more than a decent amount about the Beatles, Stones, Dylan and some of the major classic acts. Many of those kids are actually big fans of classic rock and I've talked to many of them about it. Then there is a large portion who don't even know the names Paul McCartney or John Lennon. One of my 20 year-old daughters friends was over last night and Bob Dylan is her favorite artist. Next week a group of them are going to see the Beatles' LOVE (my daughter's 10th time)! My 15 year-old's best friend also loves the Beatles and has been to that show as well.

Other acts that are very popular with many of the kids around here are Bob Marley, the Clash, the Who, AC/DC and the Ramones.

I see real musical hope in more than a third of today's generation.

No - they're that band that Paul McCartney formed with the guy from "Thomas The Tank Engine" for Rock Band.







If you're under 20, Frank Zappa has always been dead.

It doesn't help when Gail tries to sell old vinyl promos for $150-400. http://barfkoswill.shop.musictoday.com/ ... rt=&page=0

Alan

there are small pockets of hope. yesterday at open-mic a 16 year old girl whipped out "across the universe" on piano. she's surprised me a couple of times with her song selection.

I was in high school when that movie came out. One of my classmates informed me that she didn't think the songs the Bee Gees had written for the movie were as good as their earlier material.

It works in the other direction as well. I am in my fifties and among some of the purchases this year have been the Decemberists, Middle Brother, Fountains of Wayne, Belle and Sebastian, Dawes, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Foster the People, etc. Most of my coworkers just look at me with a blank stare on their faces when I mention any of these. The local classic rock station doesn't recognize music past 1979.

Brian

Agreed!

Declan O'Rourke, Ben Sollee, the Civil Wars, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, and that new band Journey--I heard their song on GLEE!

Yeah, I think a lot of young people that are into music, particularly musicians, "get it" when it comes to some of the greats of the past.

At my son's first boy scout campout, they were doing charades by the campfire. It was his turn, and nobody could figure out the song he was trying to do. Once I saw what he was doing, I had to explain to him that none of his friends would know "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".

Hm, do some of us (me included) sound just a bit like our parents when we were kids?!

And it's virtually impossible that you're likely to randomly encounter Zappa's music... it's not played on the radio, it doesn't get licensed for TV or films. Let's face it, Uncle Frank was never going to be the world's most accessible artist anyway.

I regularly hear kids at school talking about older rock music, and I'll see at least 3 or 4 a day wearing a Beatles, Hendrix , AC/DC or the like t shirt. I know for some of them it may just be a fashion thing, but certainly not for all. Just today I was waiting for a sandwich at Subway and 5 teen boys, maybe 14 or 15 years old, walked in.
They were talking for a few minutes, and then two of them started singing Bruce Channels' "Hey Baby". I don't like the song much, but I did think maybe there's hope yet.

Had a cool experience the other day in a grocery store. They were still using the old muzak system (or the equivalent). An elevator music version came on of The Beatles' "You're Going To Lose That Girl". I heard a 10 yo (or so) state, "that's the Beatles played like jazz". TOO FREAKIN' COOL!