On the subject of young people, I think it depends on the age. There is an age band when peer group pressure matters a lot; that age band probably buys more records than others do. Outside that band, people are less bothered about their peers and more inclined to make up their own minds.
One interesting consequence of this was demonstrated to me over the 20-odd years I played in a vintage rock'n'roll band, where the repertoire ran from roughly 1954 to 1962. When we played for children, they happily jigged about to all of it, including Shads material. On the other hand, we were (foolishly) booked for a 21st birthday party by parents who liked our music. The youngsters were forgiving of us in the short term but it wasn't long before they started coming up and requesting material they wanted but we didn't play. We didn't accept such gig offers again!