Apparently teenage boys like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/13/AR2005111301291.html

― Sym Sym (sym), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 05:30 (twenty years ago)

This article could have been written 10 years ago (about me and my friends, even), and in fact I'm pretty sure it was.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 05:36 (twenty years ago)

Shock horror. (I always like to say that a classic rock period is a good thing to have in high school and then an even better one to leave.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 05:37 (twenty years ago)

is neil young considered classic rock? if so i think that's the only classic rock i love.

― Lovelace (Lovelace), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 05:38 (twenty years ago)

Aw, next thing you're gonna tell me they'll go to college and start listening to the Pixies.

― Its morph 'em to pun cute (Matt Chesnut), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 05:40 (twenty years ago)

here is some late breaking news: teenage boys are STUPID

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Wednesday, 16 November 2005 06:40 (twenty years ago)

The percentage of 12-to-17-year-olds listening to classic rock stations increased from 2 percent in the summer of 1999 to 2.4 percent during the same period this year, according to Arbitron, which gathers ratio ratings across the country. While that might not seem like a huge jump, an Arbitron spokesman says that 2.4 percent represents the format's highest level of teen listenership since the fall of 1998, the first period for which data is readily available.

"We've surpassed the level we ever thought we could get to in the ratings, and that's primarily due to younger people making this their music," says Bob Buchmann, program director for the New York classic-rocker WAXQ-FM (104.3). The whole thing happened swiftly, he says. "Five years ago, it wasn't cool for kids to listen to their parents' music. But now all of a sudden, it is."

A 20% jump hardly qualifies as a transition between "uncool" and "cool".

This just in: 2.4% is fucking small. And the article doesn't tell us what %age of high school students listen primarily to this type of music. It must be a hell of a lot smaller than it was 15 years ago.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 06:59 (twenty years ago)

I hate unclear usage of percents - does he mean that 2.4% of 12-to-17-year-olds listen to at least some classic rock radio, or that 2.4% of classic rock radio listenership is now in that group?

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 07:01 (twenty years ago)

I think it's the latter, because the guy talks about getting that data from the ratings for his radio station.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 07:05 (twenty years ago)

So this also ignores the possibility that classic rock radio listenership has shrunk overall and that the actual number of younger listeners has stayed the same or shrunk to a lesser degree.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 07:08 (twenty years ago)

all the hipster 20-something gurls love the classic rock radio in berkeley. but maybe that's just berkeley

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 07:10 (twenty years ago)

I think the truly stupefying thing about this article is its length.

― Sym Sym (sym), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 07:19 (twenty years ago)

The findings in this article are impossible -- rock is dead!

― Wolfcastleee (Leee), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 07:40 (twenty years ago)

Haha, I fucking hated Zep and Floyd when I was a teenager - it's only in the last 6 months that I've bought albums by them!

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 08:57 (twenty years ago)

When I was a teenager I too thought the GREATEST MUSIC EVER was made by British men with guitars in the 1970s. You grow up though, become an adult...and realize in fact that the GREATEST MUSIC EVER was actually made by British men with guitars and synths in the 1980s. Am i right or am i rite or am i riet...

― Cunga (Cunga), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 09:11 (twenty years ago)

your wrong

― toe-foo (toe-foo), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

i have never liked zep. i'm from cambridge and went to the same school as the floyd and even today live a street away from where they lived in london when they first moved there: THAT IS MY EXCUSE for owning the syd-era stuff. i have never liked the later stuff. for that THERE IS NO EXCUSE.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago)

Time will tell what music has the most staying power. Smell my farts, corny indie fuxors.

― Zepp Floyd, Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

led zepp are the indieest band ever, though.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

xpost

Your farts smell like a sweet David Gilmour guitar solo!

I always like to say that a classic rock period is a good thing to have in high school and then an even better one to leave.)

That's pretty OTM, although I'd add...then it's even cooler to come back to some stuff in yr early 30s and realize, yep, that is pretty good stuff, and get a kick out of it removed from all the baggage....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

but Pink Floyd are just pretty much boring...early shizz is okay, but no better than tons of twee/noisy psych bands on that Nuggets II box...

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

i'm really glad i hated classic rock in high school so i could later realize how awesome it was. M@tt's right though pink floyd suck.

― ZR (teenagequiet), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

I wish I had listened to classic rock in high school.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

I discovered Zep in graduate school, having studiously ignored them as a young man. I was too busy listening to Peter Murphy and Robyn Hitchcock.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

i used to get stoned im my freinds car during first period while listening to Black Sabbath. that was fun. and everyone i was freinds with who didn't listen to rap/r and b exclusively was a zepplin/floyd/sabbath stoner, this article is no suprise.

― JD from CDepot, Wednesday, 16 November 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

syd-era floyd's great, nothing to be ashamed about there. i also have a soft spot for "have a cigar": there's something about that oily, whining riff and those ridiculously self-important lyrics that makes it seem like the apotheosis of prog. everything else is pretty boring.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 22:24 (twenty years ago)

to me, this article was about as revelatory as "Teenage boys like to get drunk" and "Teenage boys prefer having sex to not having sex"

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 22:26 (twenty years ago)

haha they do studies on those two all the time though!

― deej.. (deej..), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 22:49 (twenty years ago)

i never got the whole pink floyd=prog thing....too dead of a rhythm section...no goofiness (post syd)....they're so dead-assed and not really all that creative musically....they generally just play parts for a long time, rather than big multiplart epic stuff....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

O I dunno Matt Meddle is pretty prog

― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 22:54 (twenty years ago)

O I dunno Matt Meddle is pretty prog

oops yes...yes it is...yr right

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 16 November 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

i was hoping rock had died already. i knew a ton of those kids in high school. and what this article fails to mention is that the same kids also have a deep well of love and affection for Sublime (who i might offer my crown of loserdom for the worst band of ALLTIME)... they probably also really like bob marley, maybe dave matthews if they've got a little bit of a soft side and a girlfriend, some might like newer jambands if they smoke alot of pot or are band-dorks who think they know what "funk" is, they probably like dylan for all the wrong reasons (protest-singing bad-ass prophet vs. snide asshole poet), and overall they'll probably end up buying mellow shit they passed up the first time like crosby stills nash and young in a few years...

― jack dee, Thursday, 17 November 2005 00:13 (twenty years ago)

Sublime! i forgot about them, yeah, ive heard 40 oz to freedom about a bazillion times unintentionally. thats what you get for smoking pot in the rural suburbs.

― JD from CDepot, Thursday, 17 November 2005 00:18 (twenty years ago)

rock is the best ever. how can you not like zep they have a great diverse type of music. they were around when it was just dance music. so anyone that dosnt like classic rock sucks. aussie pub rock is the best { ac/dc, australian crawl, cold chisel, the easybeats, the divynels, midnight oil and the angels are the greatest.

― rock lives, Thursday, 17 November 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

rock is for men hip hop is fo homos

― if u hate rock you have no balls, Thursday, 17 November 2005 00:47 (twenty years ago)

the kids at the record store I work at buy zep, ac/dc, pink floyd. new stuff would be system of a down type stuff and hip hop. I always expect them to be into nirvana, but they are not interested. leads me to think nirvana arn't going to make the "classic" cut in the long run. to much of their time probably, and ultimatly not very universal. maybe despite all the mags hyping them as one of rocks giants, they really wern't that good?

― alwayzwonderin, Thursday, 17 November 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

Syd-era Floyd < Bowie circa '69-'70
Pink Floyd 1971-1977 > you

Led Zeppelin I have to love because they are the only British thud-rock/metal band to really pull off sounding like the Ohio Players ("Trampled Under Foot") without spontaneously combusting from the sheer chutzpah of it.

That said, people who like rock but hate hip-hop can eat a dick hoagie.

― disco violence (disco violence), Thursday, 17 November 2005 01:58 (twenty years ago)

i dunno, is it ok to like rock and try to avoid hip-hop as much as possible without actually hating it?

― JD from CDepot, Thursday, 17 November 2005 02:04 (twenty years ago)

Almost no one in my high school listened to Zep or Floyd. It was only in college that it even occurred to me that there *could* be any baggage attached to it.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 17 November 2005 02:24 (twenty years ago)

i dunno, is it ok to like rock and try to avoid hip-hop as much as possible without actually hating it?

NO. HERE IS THE NEW ACEYALONE RECORD*. LEARN TO DEAL WITH IT.

I really liked Floyd in high school. And Zeppelin. I think my three favorite high school rock tapes were Wish You Were Here, Led Zeppelin III and Sonic Youth's Dirty.

*(I got the promo outta thin air and it's got RJD2 beats and it is indie-trill as fukk)

― disco violence (disco violence), Thursday, 17 November 2005 03:47 (twenty years ago)

The kids I know that fit this profile (or when I did five-six years ago) certainly love Nirvana, too--one of the only acceptable alternative-ish bands to fit the mold (along with Pearl Jam, The Clash and maybe Bowie).

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Thursday, 17 November 2005 03:53 (twenty years ago)

When I was a teenager I too thought the GREATEST MUSIC EVER was made by British men with guitars in the 1970s. You grow up though, become an adult...and realize in fact that the GREATEST MUSIC EVER was actually made by British men with guitars and synths in the 1980s. Am i right or am i rite or am i riet...
Well actually, the GREATEST MUSIC EVER was actually made by British girls with synths, violins, cellos and echo-boxes in the 1980s.

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Thursday, 17 November 2005 04:00 (twenty years ago)

HO FUCKING HO

*kills self*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 November 2005 04:10 (twenty years ago)

We ALL know that th GREATEST MUSIC EVER was make from 1954-1958 by a bunch of good ol' boys in a little place called sun studios. DUH.

― JD from CDepot, Thursday, 17 November 2005 04:13 (twenty years ago)

the*

made*

― JD from CDepot, Thursday, 17 November 2005 04:13 (twenty years ago)

leads me to think nirvana arn't going to make the "classic" cut in the long run. to much of their time probably, and ultimatly not very universal. maybe despite all the mags hyping them as one of rocks giants, they really wern't that good?

Nope. I think it'll be like the Doors. Both groups have a few great songs but otherwise it's way too self-indulgent and doesn't age well for future generations. I can't think of "The legacy of Jim Morrison" or "The Doors" without thinking about a lot of nonsense from the 1960s that thankfully faded and I'm afraid Nirvana will also forever be linked to a lot of the ANGST and bed-wetting that is linked to the culture that followed them. Once there is enough distance from neo-grunge and nu-metal (or whatever Bono said was killing the white race) to modern pop that we can compare and contrast you'll see what I mean.

― Cunga (Cunga), Thursday, 17 November 2005 04:41 (twenty years ago)

*(I got the promo outta thin air and it's got RJD2 beats and it is indie-trill as fukk)

I really do want to hear this.

― deej.. (deej..), Thursday, 17 November 2005 04:44 (twenty years ago)

Teh Doors >>>>>> NIrvana

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 17 November 2005 04:48 (twenty years ago)

the other jd OTM! (at least in regard to sun studios)

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 17 November 2005 05:06 (twenty years ago)

We ALL know that th GREATEST MUSIC EVER was make from 1954-1958 by a bunch of good ol' boys in a little place called sun studios. DUH.

Oh come on, the "good ol' boys" dig isn't exactly fair -- if you mean it the way I think you mean it. Sun put out tons of blues records too.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 17 November 2005 06:20 (twenty years ago)

actually the GREATEST MUSIC EVER was made by A CERTAIN RATIO

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Thursday, 17 November 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)

good ol' boys ---> southern

and i didn't mean the blues records, even tho im sure they are great (just dont know about them). I was more thinking Elvis, Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins, Cash, etc.

― JD from CDepot, Thursday, 17 November 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

i'm certainly speaking from a subjective place-observations from a chain store in a well-to-do suburb, but the surprise in all this to me is ac/dc. you don't see them on mojo covers etc, but they're as big as any classic rock band. and with a young crowd as well.
as for nirvana, you may be right about the doors comparison. you're never really talking about the music with either. i just don't think nirvana will have much of a musical legacy. cultural yes, musical no. and there is absolutely no conflict in loving classic rock and hip hop. but that's not a particularly new development.

― alwayzwonderin, Thursday, 17 November 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

but the surprise in all this to me is ac/dc.

why? AC/DC's riffs are like hard-wired into human DNA.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 17 November 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

i don't really mean my comments to be about good or bad, just perception. and i don't recall ac/dc being "serious" in the zep, floyd (even doors) sense. to me its surprising they've emerged in this company in the buying habits of young rich men. but then again, you can get an ac/dc t-shirt at target, so maybe I just had my head buryed in krautrock when they made the leap from (what i remember as) the fringes.

― alwayzwonderin, Thursday, 17 November 2005 16:01 (twenty years ago)

hahah so FOTM.

this article is ridiculous.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 17 November 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

It's all about pigeon-holing, isn't it?

― Mirror Man, Thursday, 17 November 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

Overall, I'd have to say that rock music is pretty rad.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 17 November 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

I think the BEST MUSIC EVER was made from 1967-1977 by black men (and a few women!) with fuzz-wah pedals. Or maybe between 1963 and 1972 by the entire state of Michigan. (There's a bit of overlap there.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 17 November 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

1. I am continually surprised at the number of my kids' friends who really like classic rock to the near-total exclusion of new music. A definite, if unwelcome trend.

2. W/re radio ratings, though, one has to consider the death of a number of "alternative rock" formatted stations, which mainly appealed to these kids. Some of them are going to wind up listening to classic rock without a lot of commitment to it. That is definitely part of the dynamic here in Philly, where a number of beloved radio personalities from Y-100 are currently playing "Kashmir" every hour on WMMR.

― Vornado, Friday, 18 November 2005 00:03 (twenty years ago)

Esteban makes me roffle.

― Bimble The Nimble, Jumped Over A Thimble! (Bimble...), Sunday, 20 November 2005 07:18 (twenty years ago)

sillies -- the greatest music ever was made by smelly german hippies during the 70s. and it got even BETTER when they cut off their long hair, took a bath, and put on business suits.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 20 November 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

p.s.: i am shocked that WMMR still exists, in ANY format.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 20 November 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

Kids are definitely more into old rock music now than there were 10 years ago. For instance, there are lots of Iron Maiden and Metallica fans out there whose coming parents hadn't even met yet by the time "Number Of The Beast" and "Kill'em All" were released.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 21 November 2005 01:12 (twenty years ago)

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