The rise of the "Classic Rock Teenager"

It seems like the past three or four years, older rock music has become more popular among young people. There is now a substantial community of people in their teens or early twenties who are fed up with the Hip-Hop, Electronic Music and Alternative Rock that have dominated the charts for the past 10-20 years, and are turning to the music of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd instead. Many of these young retro-rockers - whom I'll call Classic Rock Teenagers, or CRTs, for short - are musicians themselves; in the Netherlands, the band DeWolff, which clearly arose out of the CRT community, have enjoyed substantial success with their deliberately "oldschool" blues-rock.

I count myself among this community, and I'm very glad it exists. While it sort of takes the edge off listening to the Doors or Deep Purple, it's more fun to be part of a larger movement than to be a lone rebel who never meets anyone with the same taste (as was the case for me, and presumably several other people, until this movement really got off the ground).

Some observations on CRTs:

• This phenomenon is obviously linked to the "LPs are cool again" trend.
• There is significant overlap between CRTs and the Heavy Metal community. I think this may be due to the "respect your elders" mentality among metalheads; whereas in some other genres, anything older than three months is "dated" and anything older than five years is a "classic", in metal it's considered perfectly normal to listen to stuff that came out over 25 years ago.
• The Blues is sadly under-appreciated among CRTs. In my experience, most of my fellow CRTs will enjoy blues music when they hear it, but they hardly know the genre - mention Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker, and you get a blank face. Not that there isn't a substantial blues fandom, but it mostly seems to consist of men in their 40s and 50s.

Thoughts?

edited 30th Mar '12 5:48:56 AM by MidnightRambler

This is news to me.

Meh, it's just rockism. There's nothing wrong with enjoying classic rock (I do) but acting like it's the ideal form of music and that the art form peaked in the 70s is kind of elitist and close-minded. At least, that's how it looks to me.

edited 30th Mar '12 6:36:12 AM by Trillhouse

What country are you in? Perhaps this is another of those pesky 'only on THIS side of the pond' phenomena...

I wasn't talking about being 'closed-minded' or 'open-minded' - just observing that there seem to be a lot of young people who enjoy a certain kind of music that was mostly created around 40 years ago.

Well, it's not like people forgot about The Doors and Pink Floyd for 30 years and now we're unearthing buried treasures or something, people have listened to those bands consistently since they were actually together.

I see just as many people exclusively listening to music from 10, 20 years ago as from 30-40 years ago. I mean I'm not saying the "classic rock teenager" doesn't exist since I know a few people personally who fit that mold, but I don't think it's an especially notable or new trend or something? It all depends on where you're standing and looking at it from.

Personally I'm just tired of classic rock. Every time I tune in to my local station they'll be in the middle of a distorted blues-based guitar solo. It's so predictable.

Well, I do have the idea that it's become more "visible", perhaps even cool, the last few years.

Perhaps, but the same can be said of Alternative Rock, which has been around for a good 25 years now and has developed its own tiresome clichés - which is part of the reason why young people are listening to classic rock in the first place.

Just curious, what do you mean when you talk about alternative rock? Like post-grunge bands like Nickelback/Seether/Evanescance? Because if so yeah, I don't like those either, it's a totally creatively stagnant scene.

(wow I just don't even like rock music anymore do I)

Alternative Rock has become pretty monotonous.

I would like to point out that the "alternative rock" of the late '80s has about as much to do with what was called that in the late '90s as it has to do with "classic rock." The gap between a group like The Pixies, The Replacements or even late-era Beat Happening and one like Nickleback is a monumental one indeed. (I personally find the semantic shift there a horrific one.)

edited 30th Mar '12 7:51:22 AM by JHM

Although I don't tend to classify myself as being part of [x] group, I guess I could be considered part of this (I refuse to say CRT because it makes me think of Cathode Ray Tubes). Rock (including classic rock) has always been a great interest of mine, though I can't identify any of the sub-genres to save my life.

I think that I could pin my intense interest in the genre on my father, who regularly listened (and still listens) to rock while I grew up. It was through him that I ended up being introduced to a good deal of the rock bands I like - not that I'm complaining, of course!

So young people are turning from music that has developed tiresome clichés to music that has developed tiresome clichés forty years prior.

And that's supposedly a fresh breath of air.

Well, it's stale in a different way.

I suppose I could consider myself part of this group, but I feel like just putting a label on it like that kinda cheapens it, like it's a bandwagon waiting to be jumped on. Especially since a lot of the time it tends to get you associated with those people who make You Tube comments like, "I'M 12 AND WHAT IS THIS I'M THE ONLY PERSON ON EARTH WHO LISTENS TO THIS HURR HURR."

I don't like classic rock as a reaction to the current musical trends (and indeed, there is a lot of current music, including plenty on the pop charts right now, that I really like and enjoy). Rather, I like it because I like how it sounds.

And regarding the blues, I've heard of those artists and others, but I haven't really listened to most of them (save for Hooker's "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" and a little bit of Robert Johnson). It's on my ever-growing list.

Also, one thing that I've noticed tends to be one of the most popular things among this group is progressive rock. Another thing that's on my extensive list. I don't have the time to listen to 20-minute philosophical ramblings in song form.

edited 30th Mar '12 10:39:55 AM by 0dd1

I've never been all that big on Blues, and the only "Classic Rock" band I can think of that I really like is The Doors (*Obligatory Trolling On My Part*) but I do have a taste for classic Jazz vocalists like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.

You seem to really hate Alt Rock.

Anyways, Nickelback, I honestly don't think is the best representative of the genre.

I was just making a point about label shifting...

And then, one eventually realizes that every genre has cliches, and sets about finding the genre whose cliches one likes the best.

@The Doors, funny, my best friend can't stand the Doors, or Jimi Hendrix, for some strange reason that he never seems to explain. Also, he hates West Side Story, but I can forgive him for that, since they use the phrase "Great, daddy-o!" in there unironically.

Meta Four wins everything.

There is no groundbreaking genre. Musical genres develop certain characteristics- which one could call cliches, if they felt like being an ass- and that is why people develop tastes for certain genres. The "person who listens to everything equally" doesn't exist.

Eh, I certainly went through a period in my late teens when I had the mindset that if it wasn't 70s progressive rock, it wasn't worth listening to. So I guess I was a "CRT" in that sense.

Seemingly everyone I was in high school with (in the mid-to-late 90's) who listened to "alternative rock" also suddenly picked up a token "classic rock" band or two in their list of favorites (popular choices included Pink Floyd, Queen, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin)... But I guess that's a bit different from listening to classic rock exclusively at that age.

The only way to avoid the cliches of genre is to not have a consistent genre. Which tends to produce really strange results.

And usually not good ones.

If you produce music, get good at something and stick with it. It's okay not to try to be freaky. Nothing wrong with being Just Another Thrash Band, if you're good at it.

I rarely listen to music that doesn't genrebend severely.

Yeah, same here. My father often put on (and still puts on) Creedence Clearwater Revival or ZZ Top. Those are the bands I really "started out" with.