How do you think ageism affects the music industry? Do you think teenagers and artists in their early 20s are more sought after by record companies than new artists in their 30s and 40s or over? If so, what do you think this means for older artists? How do you think they can appeal to a young hip demographic knowing that a lot of the trends are started by teens and early 20-somethings?
[Edited 2/12/09 20:45pm]

I think there's a lot of great music being missed out on, and not just because of ageism. Anyone who isn't hot enough, or doesn't have the right "look", no matter how talented, is going to be ignored in favour of young eye candy.

I think what appeals to teenagers are artists who are their peers because they can relate to them,
I guess that's what sells for them.

30 is not even old, these people are so stupid

I'm approaching my late 20's and still get mistaken for being in high school or freshman year at university, but even in ads they don't ask for people over 25 much, but it could be cause most after that are already in established careers, or that is the assumption

JasonWill1980 said:

Solution: Stop try to appeal to them. Who died and made the younger demographic music gods? The current generation of 30-somethings have been the most neglected demographic in current music history. With all of the social networks available and with so many ways to reach out, why bother trying to keep the kids happy? Market directly to the demographic you are trying to appeal to. The trends in music today is to suck. the trends.
The new music revolution is happening on the web. The old business model is dying. The solution is to move forward.
[Edited 2/13/09 9:18am]

Music was not always geared to kids. When I was a teenager, my mother was out partying in clubs every night and she was the age that I am now. She wasn't partying with a bunch of people in their early 20s either, the people in the clubs that she went to were all in her age group. And what were they playing in those clubs? They were playing the current music of the day and those 40 year olds loved it.

Yeah, those folks her age were teenagers during the Motown era and just look how different music of the early 80s sounded compared to the Motown era of the 60s. Music styles had changed several times since then and her age group still liked the music. Why? Because it was still actual music. So this bullshit about...."every generation hates the new music when they reach a certain age"...is absolute bullshit. Most people I've met from her age group didn't hate current music until shit hop took over in the early 1990s. That's when I started hating current music also and I was only in my early to mid 20s. So when I say current music is bullshit, it's not because I'm getting old. It's because it actually is bullshit and has been bullshit since I was in my early 20s. It's not a matter of music simply changing it's style and you just happen to not like the style it changed to. What's been going on since the early 1990s isn't even music, it's just a slow ass beat with some talking over it. That's the difference in why people started hating current music, not because they got older. Music became actually stripped down "nothing".

For those that don't think there is a market for older audiences, just look back at the disco era. Those weren't kids in those discos. You had to be grown to get in. Those folks ranged from 21 on up into their 50s. Hell, just look at how old some of those celebrities were that were going to Studio 54.

vainandy said:

Vainandy, isn't Studio 54 in NYC and what year did they close it down? I remember reading about celebrities partying there such as Grace Jones, MJ, Liz Taylor and others.

The industry is all screwed up but I don't necessarily just ageism, although that does play a big part...There is just an overall greater focus on image rather than actual talent

wildgoldenhoney said:

When I was a teenager I was listening to Prince and Bowie's "old" asses.

Maybe I'm weird.

BlaqueKnight said:

Not to mention, that 28-to-45 (or whatever the group is) demographic has more actual $$$ than teenagers, tending to have real jobs with salaries and whatnot. Simply from a sense of pragmatism you'd think they'd be getting at least some attention from the music industry.

Yeah, it was in New York City. It opened in the late 1970s during the disco era. The original owners went to prison for tax fraud in either 1979 or 1980 and it reopened with a new owner and stayed open until the mid 1980s.

vainandy said:

Thanks.