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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!

MikeAB wrote:Of course the 'young' don't like melodies/tunes much do they!!?

Well, every time I go to the fitness centre, the 'music' on the sound system is mostly dance/trance which is mostly 'instrumental' as in produced with synthesized instruments. I have heard tracks of this kind of music with samples of "Apache", so I guess the younger generation doesn't only listen to vocal music.

Wise men say "Never play at Weddings" The kids want the latest music, the mums want 80s. the Grans want 60s! Then there are some that want waltz, fox trots etc. I think requests for WWII stuff may just be dying out!!

Two points:

1) It's true that parents have often scorned the music enjoyed by their kids. But, when you think of the general standard of music/songs in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and even 1980s and then seriously take a look (or listen) at the popular chart music today (which is more or less what we are talking about here) and I'd tend to agree that today's kids are either seriously unlucky or have absolutely no taste. Just take a moment to listen to the 'music' that you'll hear blasting out of every teenager's car as it zooms past or stops at the traffic lights. Then compare that 'noise' to, for example, the Beatles, the Stones, Elvis, the Shadows, Slade, Sweet, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, ABBA, the Jam, The Police, Duran Duran, Kate Bush or even, dare I say it, Cliff. There simply is NO comparison. Even the Spice Girls and Take That seem like an eternity ago now when you listen to their comparatively 'musical' output.

2) Weddings are OK if the bride and groom are of a likeminded type. I have only ever played at ONE wedding (and that was 1995) and the bride was also a bassist in a local band, thus the attendees, for the most part, were similar in their tastes. I can't remember now what we played, but it would have been the usual mix of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Led Zep and Free or Bad Company covers. Plus the odd thing by Guns N Roses and maybe Thunder. We went down OK, I remember some kid getting up on stage and singing something with us (!) and then the bride and her band got up and did a few songs. It was a good day, although most of it is just a blur now! Don't think we did anything by THEM though!

I agree with MikeAB - we were a very lucky generation, in that we had the greater choice than any generation before or since, in the amount of great music from which to select what to listen to.

(Even if a lot of us didn't bother, and just went for what we had been told was trendy!)

Uncle Fiesta wrote:I agree with MikeAB - we were a very lucky generation, in that we had the greater choice than any generation before or since, in the amount of great music from which to select what to listen to.

(Even if a lot of us didn't bother, and just went for what we had been told was trendy!)

Amen to that!

Over 50 years gigging, I've played everything from old time dance music to current chart hits and material from every era between!...often in the same band!