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Rock of Ages
An interesting article was in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on aging rock stars
and how they stay successful. It made some good points. Here are a couple
excepts:
"By 1965, the year The Who arrived to smash their instruments and reinforce
the attitude that youth is everything in one of rock's defining moments --
Roger Daltrey stammering, "Hope I die before I get old" -- it only made sense
that a new generation of rockers had come into power to speak to a new
generation of fans.
But something unexpected happened.
Kids who'd grown up on the music of the '60s wouldn't let it go. And neither
would the artists."
"As Bob Santelli, historian at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in
Cleveland, explains, "As rock 'n' roll has matured, the people who made those
emotional commitments to the music when they were younger have carried on
those relationships. ... I'd hate to think that when I'm 50 I would have to
go start listening to Glenn Miller. I don't want to do that. I've grown up
with rock 'n' roll. It's the music that I define myself by and that my
generation for the most part defines itself by. I want to keep that till I
die. And I'm glad that guys like Springsteen and the Stones are still out
there doing it for me because it's difficult for someone who is 50-something
to buy into music that's made by a 19- or 20-year-old who's writing about
issues for 19- and 20-year-olds. So you naturally look to artists as old or
as mature as you who hopefully are writing songs that relate to you in some
capacity."
The entire article can be found at
www.post-gazette.com/magazine/1999121oldrock2.asp
Maureen