Is there presently a resurgence of interest in older rock music among youth?

[Buried Alien]

Perhaps thanks to such cinematic films as last year's BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and the upcoming YESTERDAY, I perceive that there's currently a resurgence of interest among younger audiences in older rock music by performers such as the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, etc. Now granted, such music never really went away and remained popular among the generations that grew up with it when it was first released, but I find (scanning YouTube) a renewed interest in older rock music among people decades too young to have heard the music when it was new. Is there indeed such a rock revival phenomenon going on among younger people suddenly eager to rediscover the music of their parents' or even grandparents' youth?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[GindyPosts]

Don't have to ask me; I've always had a preference to classic rock compared to the modern music. I just can't listen to what's popular today.

[Buried Alien]

Don't have to ask me; I've always had a preference to classic rock compared to the modern music. I just can't listen to what's popular today.

What I'm observing, though, is that during the past year or two, younger people in their teens and twenties, who previously had little knowledge of or interest in rock, seem to be discovering and enjoying it, and are curious to find more. To me, this is an unexpected, but highly encouraging development.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Kirby101]

Perhaps thanks to such cinematic films as last year's BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and the upcoming YESTERDAY, I perceive that there's currently a resurgence of interest in older rock music by performers such as the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, etc. Now granted, such music never really went away and remained popular among the generation that grew up with it when it was first released, I find (scanning YouTube) a renewed interest in older rock music among people decades too young to have heard the music when it was new. Is there indeed such a rock revival phenomenon going on among younger people suddenly eager to rediscover the music of their parents' or even grandparents' youth?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Judging from some of the concerts I go to, like Steely Dan, Billy Joel, Santana, the Who, etc...Yes there is.

[Buried Alien]

Judging from some of the concerts I go to, like Steely Dan, Billy Joel, Santana, the Who, etc...Yes there is.

Much of Sir Paul McCartney's concert audience also seems to consist of people who were born many years after Wings disbanded as well. It's hardly dominated exclusively by first-generation Beatlemania veterans.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[TriggerWarning]

One of the more popular up and coming rock bands is Greta Van Fleet and if you closed your eyes and didn't know you would think their songs were long lost but now found Led Zeppelin stuff.

First time I heard Highway Tune by GVF I honestly did think it was Robert Plant singing and I wondered how I'd never heard it before on a Zep or solo album.

[SJNeal]

As a youthful 36 yr old, I say yes!

But really, I do say yes. I still follow a lot of the classic rock bands my parents introduced me to as a kid, and every concert seems to have a growing crowd of tweens/teens/20-somethings. When I was a teenager, I always looked like the youngest person in the venue, but not so much these days. I recently saw my 14th Fleetwood Mac concert since 1990, and there were teen girls decked out like Stevie Nicks everywhere!

[Buried Alien]

As a youthful 36 yr old, I say yes!

But really, I do say yes. I still follow a lot of the classic rock bands my parents introduced me to as a kid, and every concert seems to have a growing crowd of tweens/teens/20-somethings. When I was a teenager, I always looked like the youngest person in the venue, but not so much these days. I recently saw my 14th Fleetwood Mac concert since 1990, and there were teen girls decked out like Stevie Nicks everywhere!

This development is both encouraging and deflating at the same time. On the positive side, it shows that younger people do have an appreciation for good music, but on the negative side, it also reveals a dearth of comparable talent among younger popular rock musicians. There could very well be talented young rock musicians out there (the aforementioned Greta Van Fleet, for example, but their imitative nature limits their artistic credentials somewhat), but they're unlikely to receive the kind of promotion that the rock icons of the past did because of the difference between the music industry today versus during the salad years of rock (e.g. 1950s - mid-1990s) as a commercial and cultural force.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[BeastieRunner]

There's plenty of good music nowadays.

Saying your era of music you listened to in your prime is the only good music is very closed-minded, to say the least.

That being said, it's not atypical to see this happen.

There was a jazz boom in the early 2010s and it led to more freeform hip-hop and a resurgence in 40s/50s style pop music.

There was an 80s pop boom in the early 2000s and that led to a rise in more synth, synthwave, electronica, etc. music.

There was a late 60s/ early 70s rock boom in the late 90s that led to more 3-5 piece rock bands.

The current 70s/ early 80s rock boom is getting people like Nita Strauss recognized and appears to be fueling a heavy metal boom period.

[Buried Alien]

Saying your era of music you listened to in your prime is the only good music...

It's a good thing not a single participant in this thread has done that.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[kjn]

There are plenty of issues with the commercial modern music market, but it has probably never been easier for starting musicians to build and develop their own following and niche than now. So there is plenty of creativity out there, but you find it on Bandcamp, Youtube, and Soundcloud, not MTV or the radio. And then you have grassroots projects like FuMP and FAWM.

Those new channels are also making it hugely easier to find the old bands, and a lot of the new music makers are open about their musical influences and inspirations. I also think that there is a reaction to the perfectly-produced and autotuned albums: a lot of people like a little more raw or natural sound. I'm one of them—I often prefer a good live recording to a studio one.

[BeastieRunner]

It's a good thing not a single participant in this thread has done that.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

That was not my main point of the post but okay. It is a staple argument for not liking current music since forever. And to be fair, it's been implied in several posts, which is why I thought it was a necessary caveat to my post. It was not to start an argument.

My main point in my post was that these genre booms and/or rediscoveries tend to lead to shifts and changes in modern music. Which I think is fun.

There are plenty of issues with the commercial modern music market, but it has probably never been easier for starting musicians to build and develop their own following and niche than now. So there is plenty of creativity out there, but you find it on Bandcamp, Youtube, and Soundcloud, not MTV or the radio. And then you have grassroots projects like FuMP and FAWM.

Those new channels are also making it hugely easier to find the old bands, and a lot of the new music makers are open about their musical influences and inspirations. I also think that there is a reaction to the perfectly-produced and autotuned albums: a lot of people like a little more raw or natural sound. I'm one of them—I often prefer a good live recording to a studio one.

I own almost as many concert/unplugged/live/etc movies/albums as I do studio ones. I find the artists and groups I like most can deliver the goods in those. They also have to have the ability to produce some weird music at some point.

[Scott Taylor]

Based on my teenagers, I'd say yes. With a caveat that its limited to certain very popular songs. I doubt many of them would really take the time to delve very deeply or appreciate much beyond the stuff that made airplay at the time.

[Buried Alien]

Based on my teenagers, I'd say yes. With a caveat that its limited to certain very popular songs. I doubt many of them would really take the time to delve very deeply or appreciate much beyond the stuff that made airplay at the time.

On YouTube, there has been over the past few years a proliferation of both young people reviewing (often quite knowledgeably) older rock recordings, and countless amateur or semi-professional performers who, though youthful in years, are quite credible in terms of ability, showcasing their covers of old tunes. Online, at least, there seems to be a Rock Renaissance among youth.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[BeastieRunner]

Based on my teenagers, I'd say yes. With a caveat that its limited to certain very popular songs. I doubt many of them would really take the time to delve very deeply or appreciate much beyond the stuff that made airplay at the time.

On YouTube, there has been over the past few years a proliferation of both young people reviewing (often quite knowledgeably) older rock recordings, and countless amateur or semi-professional performers who, though youthful in years, are quite credible in terms of ability, showcasing their covers of old tunes. Online, at least, there seems to be a Rock Renaissance among youth.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

On that train of thought, I've noticed more shows and movies using "classic rock" as a soundtrack. GotG, Ash vs. the Evil Dead to name some recent ones off the top of my head.