This is a great article — and good news. As jaded a music listener as I may be, there is one thing I am, and will always be, a fan of: “classic rock.” Stuff like Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Hendrix, Grateful Dead.
Rolling Stone recently ran an article about a sector of today’s youth that are into classic rock.
An excerpt:
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.”
Enjoy.
