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Teens Save Classic Rock
Rolling Stone ^ | Feb. 9, 06 | Brian Hiatt

Posted on 02/19/2006 9:24:23 PM PST by Mr. Blonde

Like countless parents before him, Steven Tyler is shocked at the music that's been blaring out of his fifteen-year-old son's bedroom lately. But the Aerosmith frontman can hardly disapprove. "I walk by at night and my son is listening to Zeppelin stuff, like 'Black Dog,'" Tyler says. "He's turned all his friends on to Cream, and they're all into [Aerosmith's] Toys in the Attic. I told him, 'I can't believe you're listening to this.'" Though classic rock is in no danger of edging out emo and hip-hop on most teenagers' playlists, a growing number of kids are also making room for Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles. At the same time, electric-guitar sales are soaring, with the cheapest models nearly doubling in sales from 2003 to 2004. "Kids go through hard rock, hip-hop and pop very quickly, and then they're hungry for something else," says E Street Band guitarist and garage-rock DJ Steven Van Zandt -- who gets hundreds of e-mails from teens thanking him for introducing them to bands like the Kinks. "They always end up coming to [classic] rock & roll."

Nine percent of kids ages twelve to seventeen listened to classic-rock radio in any given week in 2005 -- marking a small but significant increase during the past three years -- with a total of 2.3 million teens tuning in each week, according to the radio-ratings company Arbitron. And some markets have seen more dramatic growth: Teen listenership at New York's Q104.3, the nation's largest classic-rock station, has jumped twenty percent since fall 2002. "It really started in the past five years," says Q104.3 DJ Maria Milito. "You get these boys calling to request Hendrix whose voices haven't changed yet." Van Zandt's Underground Garage, heard on 140 radio stations across the country on Sunday nights, draws a third of its audience from listeners under twenty-five.

For teens, not all classic rock is created equal. According to the market-research firm NPD, kids ages thirteen to seventeen bought twenty percent of all Floyd and Zeppelin albums sold from 2002 to 2005, and seventeen percent of Hendrix and Queen discs but accounted for just three percent of Creedence Clearwater Revival sales, six percent of Rolling Stones sales and a paltry one percent of Cat Stevens sales. "There's such a force and power to a band like Zeppelin," says Rhino Records marketing vice president Mike Engstrom, adding that young buyers drove sales for the label's 2003 DVD collection of live Zep.

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.

Veteran artists are also seeing a surprising number of young faces at their concerts; at one Tom Petty show at New York's Jones Beach last June, kids as young as fourteen showed up in packs and sang along fervently. "I don't know how to explain it," Petty says.

"We're now seeing an audience that goes from sixteen to sixty," says Allman Brothers manager Bert Holman. "Kids feel they're seeing something legendary and special." Classic-rock mainstay George Thorogood, meanwhile, has had to change his set lists to accommodate the growing number of kids at his shows. "I've had to clean it up a little bit," he says. "It's like, 'Cocaine Blues'? Maybe not."

Why would kids born in the Nineties turn to timeworn guitar anthems? For all of the vibrant rock recorded in the past ten years -- from pop punk to neogarage to dance rock -- no new, dominant sound has emerged since grunge in the early Nineties. "I can't think of a record recently that blew people's minds," says Jeff Peretz, a Manhattan producer and guitar teacher. "And there aren't really any guitar heroes around anymore. Kids don't come in and say, 'I want to play like John Mayer.'"

"There is such a drought that kids are going back and rediscovering the Who and Sabbath," says Paul Green, who runs the Paul Green School of Rock Music, which has expanded from a single Philadelphia branch in 1998 to schools in twelve other cities.

At the same time, the Internet has made forty-year-old hits as accessible as current chart-toppers. "I started to see this as a real trend when Napster started around 1999," says Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, who has two teenage sons. Last year, teens even started believin' again in Journey's power ballads: They pushed the band's 1981 song "Don't Stop Believin' " into iTunes' Top Ten after it popped up during a romantic moment on MTV's wildly popular reality show, Laguna Beach. It has since sold more than 200,000 digital singles. "It makes me so happy that a new generation would embrace something we believed in," says former Journey singer Steve Perry. "Back when we were first successful, we were dissed -- but time has told a different story."

Old rock has become fashionable, too. The years-old couture and thrift-shop vogue for vintage rock T-shirts recently trickled down to mall retailers catering to teens, with Doors and Rolling Stones shirts selling fast at stores such as Hot Topic.

"It's almost a cyclical thing -- as music ages, it can become cool again," says Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis, who covers the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care" on her new solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat. But Lewis also sees a simpler reason for the trend: "It's called classic rock for a reason -- it's classic. It's just really great music."


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: bands; classicrock; guitargod; music; radio; rawk; rock
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And it doesn't really mention it but a lot of bands becoming successful currently are certainly trying for a classic rock sound. It just goes to show that songs about sex, drugs and rock and roll are what people want to hear. Certainly more than songs about how depressing life is.

And about the sales of guitars going up, I'm reminded of what Randall "Pink" Floyd said in the movie Dazed and Confused.

"Don, have you ever thought about why we play football? How many times have you gotten laid strictly because you're a football player? ...All I'm saying is I think we could do just as well if we were in a band or something."
1 posted on 02/19/2006 9:24:25 PM PST by Mr. Blonde
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To: Mr. Blonde

LOL, why do I get the feeling that Matt McConaughey really didn't have to stretch too much to act in Dazed and Confused?


2 posted on 02/19/2006 9:27:53 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: Mr. Blonde

teens aren't saving classic rock. given the cRap they have to choose from today, they're simply seizing the nearest alternative


3 posted on 02/19/2006 9:28:57 PM PST by lunarbicep (Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. - Mark Twain)
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To: Mr. Blonde

FREEBIRD...PLAY ME SOME FREEBIRD


4 posted on 02/19/2006 9:29:58 PM PST by skaterboy
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To: dfwgator

Probably not. That movie is outstanding. I don't have any idea if growing up in Austin was like that in the 70's but I hope it was.


5 posted on 02/19/2006 9:30:16 PM PST by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: Mr. Blonde

Don, have you ever thought about why we play football? How many times have you gotten laid strictly because you're a football player

I remember my playing days back in HS and all i can say is ALOT


6 posted on 02/19/2006 9:31:11 PM PST by skaterboy
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To: lunarbicep

I'm sure that plays a part. It's sad to think that Journey is the next best alternative.


7 posted on 02/19/2006 9:32:08 PM PST by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: skaterboy

Followed up by "Curtis Lowe"!


8 posted on 02/19/2006 9:32:33 PM PST by neal1960 (This space for rent.)
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To: skaterboy

I don't think times have changed much. The Football team here, sucks and there are still a ton of jersey chasers.


9 posted on 02/19/2006 9:33:30 PM PST by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: Mr. Blonde

Speaking of Aerosmith, a buddy of mine had an Aerosmith road crew member stop in his store last week and scored three comp front row tickets to the Thursday show in Tacoma. Couldn't get myself out off work unfortunately...oh well. And here I was giving him a hard time about opening a tanning biz


10 posted on 02/19/2006 9:39:23 PM PST by Horatio Gates (If your belt buckle reads Allahu Akbar, You might be a red neck muslim!)
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To: Mr. Blonde
turn to timeworn guitar anthems?

Brian May, 'Brighton Rock.'

11 posted on 02/19/2006 9:39:52 PM PST by quantim (If the Constitution were perfect it wouldn't have included the Senate.)
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To: skaterboy
FREEBIRD...PLAY ME SOME FREEBIRD

"She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie; COCAINE!!!!"

12 posted on 02/19/2006 9:41:30 PM PST by freedumb2003 (American troops cannot be defeated. American Politicians can.)
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: Mr. Blonde

Good music survives the ravages of time. Music of genius is immortal, be it from the pen of Beethoven or Morrison.


14 posted on 02/19/2006 9:41:54 PM PST by Cyclopean Squid (History is a work in progress)
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To: Mr. Blonde; WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
Kids don't come in and say, 'I want to play like John Mayer.

LOL!

15 posted on 02/19/2006 9:45:58 PM PST by cgk (I don't see myself as a conservative. I see myself as a religious, right-wing, wacko extremist.)
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To: Mr. Blonde
Tell me about it. I have a 16 and 18 year old. While they like a lot of new music, they like as much or more classic rock. My 16 year old son especially. He likes the Beatles, Queen, Bowie, Roxy Music, basically most of the stuff I liked back then. He dismisses the "punks" of today to listen to Social Distortion. He even listens to Johnny Cash for goodness sakes.

I tell ya, kids these day......
16 posted on 02/19/2006 9:47:59 PM PST by machman
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To: buffmonster

Well, truth be told, most of the classic rockers couldn't read music, either. But that didn't stop them from making some excellent music.


17 posted on 02/19/2006 9:51:30 PM PST by Choose Ye This Day ("Without God all things are permissible." -- Dostoevsky)
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To: skaterboy
FREEBIRD...PLAY ME SOME FREEBIRD

Here ya go...click the pic


18 posted on 02/19/2006 9:52:31 PM PST by Horatio Gates (If your belt buckle reads Allahu Akbar, You might be a red neck muslim!)
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To: Mr. Blonde
"Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles", "Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and AC/DC's Back in Black", "kids are going back and rediscovering the Who and Sabbath"

This is classic rock? When I hear the term "classic rock" I think of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, even The Beach Boys, etc. 1950s rock n roll.

19 posted on 02/19/2006 9:53:20 PM PST by lowbridge (I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming, like his passengers.)
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Comment #20 Removed by Moderator


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