# Millennials: does rock and pop from the 1970s and 1980s sound "old-timey" to you?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 21, 2018, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675 "2018-09-21T11:49:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/41 "2018-09-21T20:12:26Z")

</div>

> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#):
>
> There’s a big new trend on YouTube of millennials reacting to music from the 60s/70s/80s. It’s suddenly become a very popular thing.

I’ve only seen these with kids, not millennials.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/42 "2018-09-21T20:26:54Z")

</div>

> [@Ruken](#):
>
> I’ve only seen these with kids, not millennials.

There are lots of them.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/43 "2018-09-21T20:30:48Z")

</div>

Just a few of them:  
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtudQl\_4A-oxpdXVtXaCJSw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtudQl_4A-oxpdXVtXaCJSw)

> **[HeckleyMusic](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Tjvaxv1RtbRZhyJJaGChw)**
>
> North East UK Artist,
> 
> Check The Tunes Out

> **[Steven In Stereo](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX5kyk5RhqbWMfiPzGFoNXQ)**
>
> HI!
> Thanks for checking out the channel!
> I just love music. I love many genres and artists and I think music can be such a cool thing to connect people together.
> I check out music from all over the world on this channel!
> 
> 
> ►Patreon:...

> **[Hectic](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCky64Ev99ANqsacUEa7pQuw)**
>
> Be ready to experience the most interactive and fun community on youtube! 
> 
> Business Email: Hecticreactsbusiness@gmail.com
> 
> Social Medias:
> 
> https://www.Twitter.com/hecticreacts
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/hecticreacts

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/44 "2018-09-21T20:38:33Z")

</div>

> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> I agree with Ludovic, about hearing from young’uns.
> 
> I will say that something big (obviously) happened around 1967-68. Stuff from before that — not just popular music, but in lots of cultural realms (e.g., John McWhorter wrote a book on how public speaking style changed) — is, by and large, objectively different than stuff since. So, music from before 1967-68 will tend to sound old-timey to someone of most any age, while most (not all) of stuff from the 50 years (!!) since will sound less old-timey to most (not all) ears.

I read a Slate article on this that I can’t find. But here are some links anyway.

March 1965! [The most amazing week of the 1960s: Bob Dylan, MLK, the pill, Vietnam, and more.](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/03/the_most_amazing_week_of_the_1960s_bob_dylan_mlk_the_pill_vietnam_and_more.html)

1965! [https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1250059623/ref=smi\_www\_rco2\_go\_smi\_1405964225?\_encoding=UTF8&ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1250059623/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_1405964225?_encoding=UTF8&ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20)

1966! [https://smile.amazon.com/1966-Decade-Exploded-Jon-Savage/dp/0571277624/ref=pd\_sim\_14\_2?\_encoding=UTF8&pd\_rd\_i=0571277624&pd\_rd\_r=4f1c0af5-bddd-11e8-a216-dd230e49624b&pd\_rd\_w=QTU91&pd\_rd\_wg=P1g7b&pf\_rd\_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf\_rd\_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf\_rd\_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf\_rd\_r=12YCHAWYGW3BFZMWHH7P&pf\_rd\_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf\_rd\_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=12YCHAWYGW3BFZMWHH7P](https://smile.amazon.com/1966-Decade-Exploded-Jon-Savage/dp/0571277624/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0571277624&pd_rd_r=4f1c0af5-bddd-11e8-a216-dd230e49624b&pd_rd_w=QTU91&pd_rd_wg=P1g7b&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf_rd_r=12YCHAWYGW3BFZMWHH7P&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=12YCHAWYGW3BFZMWHH7P)

So what happened then? This deserves a longform article.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/45 "2018-09-21T21:27:50Z")

</div>

Remember the “Generation Gap”? Like, it was suddenly discovered in the 50s and 60s that kids today were nothing like their parents. They wore different clothes, listened to different music, used different slang, took different drugs.

The parents of those kids grew up in the fucking Depression, capped off by World War II. The generation gap kids grew up in the prosperity of the 50s and 60s. There was a generation gap because the world had changed radically in the 20 years between 1938 and 1958.

But there has been no such cultural, economic, and political revolution in the 20 years between 1998 and 2018. Yeah, the internet, blah blah blah. Things have changed. But they haven’t changed like the radical changes of the past.

The 50s are when pop culture started to be invented. Before then there wasn’t a differentiation between “music the kids listen to” and “music grown ups listen to”. There was just music, it wasn’t age stratified. Along came the 50s and 60s and there are all these new kinds of music that the kids listen to but the adults don’t. The generation gap. Except all that ended because all the people who used to listen to “music for old people” died. I remember back in 1983, when this ended. [James Watt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Watt#Other_controversies) thought he could score points by complaining about The Beach Boys and rock and roll. And everyone rolled their eyes. Rock music was no longer “music for kids” but just music.

I guess you’ll still see some Republicans railing against Hip-Hop, but that’s not because it’s music for kids, but because it’s music for Negroes. The musical generation gap has been over for so long that people don’t even remember what it was about, other than a vague sense that kids don’t like old music.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2018, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/46 "2018-09-22T02:34:28Z")

</div>

I always tell my (college) students “Man, what a great time to be alive.” And having a depth of music to choose from is a big part of it for me.

My dad and I would’ve never listened to the same music… or even called it music. I put one of “those kid stations” on in the car, once, and he barked “What is this crap? You canNOT call this music! Do you really LIKE this? Do you honestly think it’s MUSIC?!?”\*

It was a song by … [America](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHHxo2Sm71A).  
Folksy Lite Rock at its most harmless.

Fast forward a generation and my Late Millenial kid’s filling up his phone with some new music and he says “Just realized, all of my favorite bands are missing people.” “Whadya mean?” “Half of the best bands are dead. The Who? Half dead. Beatles? Same. Zeppelin, Cream, Dead, AC/DC, Ramones, none of 'em are all there.”

I’d love to say somebody raised that kid right. But he’s raised himself, and just knows good music. With ZERO generation gap.

\*Keep in mind, this was Southeastern Wisconsin in the 70s, so if you heard that growled by Red Foreman you’re spot on.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2018, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/47 "2018-09-22T02:54:06Z")

</div>

As a Gen X-er, beyond the early 60s I can’t listen to any tune with singing without keeping how old it is at least a little in the back of my head. Instrumental classical and jazz is another story, because aside from production values and obscure techniques that weren’t invented until a certain decade and which I wouldn’t be able to identify anyway, it can sometimes be hard to tell when a piece was written.

To me the freshest-sounding stuff from the 50s is chicago blues and to a lesser extent jump blues because I wasn’t exposed to them growing up so I don’t automatically place them in a time period, and the former is a direct progenitor of rock music, bypassing rock and roll to give rock a direct infusion of great blues-based guitar.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2018, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/48 "2018-09-22T11:32:05Z")

</div>

I think that circa-1966 threshold still in the minds of even young people today (even if some of them can’t pinpoint the date explicitly) is reinforced a little by how, coincidentally, that’s right when television switched from mostly-black-and-white to mostly-color. So, when we hear music from since that time, we associate it with real-live color — be it 1970 or 2010. Even if we’ve never seen a video clip of that particular song, we’ve seen enough of them from both sides of the black-and-white/color divide to subliminally associate musical styles with one or the other.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/49 "2018-09-22T17:55:17Z")

</div>

My son is 21, And he and all his friends listen to music from the 60’s to the 1990’s, with only a smattering of new songs in the mix.

I believe it’s because new music sucks. And I know every older person has been saying that for a hundred years, but now it’s true. Pop music is now completely dominated by formula music sung by engineered artists of marginal talent, with the songs being written by a handful of professional songwriters you’ve probably never heard of. The music is intentionally designed to sound similar, it’s compressed as hell to raise the average volume at the expense of nuance, and it’s totally devoid of anything approaching artistry or individuality. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between.

No wonder young people are discovering music from a time when individual artistry was still a thing.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/50 "2018-09-23T05:30:28Z")

</div>

> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Yeah, I definitely get the sense that post-Gen X, into the Millennial generation, and now beyond, music became more “democratic” and less cliquish than it was when I was growing up in the 80s and in high school in the very early 90s. Certainly, IME, by the late 90s, early 00s, the answer to “what kind of music do you listen to” became less X and Y genres and more “I listen to all kinds of music” (and first with the caveat “except country and rap” to now even without that caveat.)

Yeah. Kids today (and really the past decade or two) are far more open minded about music than previous generations. More so than mine for sure. Not only about different generations fo music, about different genres too. I applaud them for that.

Millennials and post millennial are pretty cool as far as I’m concerned. Definitely no worse than my generation and quite possibly better.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/51 "2018-09-23T05:32:29Z")

</div>

> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> I believe it’s because new music sucks. And I know every older person has been saying that for a hundred years, but now it’s true.

Nope. Every older person also always thinks “now it’s true”. It isn’t. Maybe less true than ever.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/52 "2018-09-23T07:03:38Z")

</div>

> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> I believe it’s because new music sucks. And I know every older person has been saying that for a hundred years, but now it’s true. Pop music is now completely dominated by formula music sung by engineered artists of marginal talent, with the songs being written by a handful of professional songwriters you’ve probably never heard of. The music is intentionally designed to sound similar, it’s compressed as hell to raise the average volume at the expense of nuance, and it’s totally devoid of anything approaching artistry or individuality. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between.

I’m not a fan of a lot of newer music, though I won’t go so far as to say “it sucks,” because I recognize that I’m old, and my musical tastes seem to be solidly lodged in a range from 1975 to 1987. 😃

However, the point that pop music, for the past decade or more, really is dominated by a handful of songwriters / producers (many of them Scandinavian, interestingly enough) is a pretty clear one. As [Nathaniel Rich wrote in The Atlantic in 2015](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/hit-charade/403192/):

“As I write this, at the height of summer, the No. 1 position on the Billboard pop chart is occupied by a Max Martin creation, “Bad Blood” (performed by Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar). No. 3, “Hey Mama” (David Guetta featuring Nicki Minaj), is an Ester Dean production; No. 5, “Worth It” (Fifth Harmony featuring Kid Ink), was written by Stargate; No. 7, “Can’t Feel My Face” (The Weeknd), is Martin again; No. 16, “The Night Is Still Young” (Minaj), is Dr. Luke and Ester Dean. And so on. If you flip on the radio, odds are that you will hear one of their songs. If you are reading this in an airport, a mall, a doctor’s office, or a hotel lobby, you are likely listening to one of their songs right now. This is not an aberration. The same would have been true at any time in the past decade. Before writing most of Taylor Swift’s newest album, Max Martin wrote No. 1 hits for Britney Spears, ’NSync, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, and Katy Perry.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/53 "2018-09-23T07:09:25Z")

</div>

> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#):
>
> There’s a big new trend on YouTube of millennials reacting to music from the 60s/70s/80s. It’s suddenly become a very popular thing.

I saw one the other day of a guy who had [never heard Bohemain Rhapsody before](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vmAojCRxv0). Somehow he had entirely missed one of the biggest rock songs ever. To be fair, though, he really responded to it and understood it very well.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/54 "2018-09-23T17:21:22Z")

</div>

> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> I think that circa-1966 threshold still in the minds of even young people today (even if some of them can’t pinpoint the date explicitly) is reinforced a little by how, coincidentally, that’s right when television switched from mostly-black-and-white to mostly-color.

I was thinking of this thread while watching [Ronin](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122690/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) the other day, that crime caper from 1998 with Robert DeNiro and Natasha McElhone. I hadn’t seen it since it first came out, but I started thinking about how it was only slightly dated/aged. Some of the clothes and haircuts had a 90s vibe, but it wasn’t severe.

I then imagined going back to '98 and watching a movie from '78, and how much more dated '78 seemed in '98 than '98 seems in 2018. (Think Hooper or Every Which Way but Loose.) And it’s not like I was a little kid in '98 watching movies from a by-gone era; I was almost 30 then.

Anyway, that’s what got me thinking of this thread. I’m wondering if maybe everything in entertainment is getting dated slower and slower as time goes on: Music, TV, Movies, all of it.

(Note: Teen shows from '98 (ie: Buffy, Friends) with teen and 20-something girls wearing high-waisted pants look _super_ dated; almost as jarring as a '70s movie with bell-bottoms would be. So I _think_ my point stands, but am not positive. Maybe girls clothes are a special case of “always looks really dated” as opposed to guys who always just kind of wear basic guy “uniforms”: Either suits (Ronin) or Jeans (EWWBL, Hooper.))

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/55 "2018-09-23T18:00:00Z")

</div>

> [@Yookeroo](#):
>
> Nope. Every older person also always thinks “now it’s true”. It isn’t. Maybe less true than ever.

Its because we reduce a whole decade of shit to the top 20 or so songs we remember from that period.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/56 "2018-09-23T18:41:24Z")

</div>

> [@GuanoLad](#):
>
> I saw one the other day of a guy who had [never heard Bohemain Rhapsody before](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vmAojCRxv0). Somehow he had entirely missed one of the biggest rock songs ever. To be fair, though, he really responded to it and understood it very well.

I’ve seen a few of Joey’s reaction videos, I like him. My fave is probably his reaction to Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky

He really, really gets it :D

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/57 "2018-09-23T19:29:04Z")

</div>

> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> my wife and I went to see Electric Light Orchestra in concert, and we were **accompanied by my niece age 26**

This says it all.  
The fact that you can just casually say, “a 26 yr old wanted to go to a concert with people 3 decades older than her” —and _nobody thinks it is noteworthy or unusual_.  
Also post #45 by **lemur866** about the generation gap (a serious issue a couple decades ago,but now irrelevant)

The answer to the OP’s question of what makes something sound “old timey” isn’t about the music; It’s about the _social context_ of the music, and who you feel comfortable sharing it with.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/58 "2018-09-23T19:36:30Z")

</div>

My grandson, born in 2001, is now a Senior in high school. His favorite musical artist? Dean Martin. I have no explanation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/59 "2018-09-23T19:49:00Z")

</div>

> [@chappachula](#):
>
> The answer to the OP’s question of what makes something sound “old timey” isn’t about the music; It’s about the _social context_ of the music, and who you feel comfortable sharing it with.

I saw The Velvet Underground in Edinburgh in 1993, the first gig of the reunion tour. It’s by some distance the most age-diverse audience I’ve ever been part of - from young teen indie-kids to really quite elderly greybeards. As you say it’s the social context -pretty much everyone there was in a state of disbelief that the VU were actually there for a start - but the waves of appreciation rolling from audience to stage was a proper, proper lifetime moment. Lou, John, Mo and Sterling were visibly and audibly moved by it too.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675/60 "2018-09-23T20:04:56Z")

</div>

I remember my 18 year old son, when he was around 10, saying “hey Dad; want to listen to Who’s Next with me?”. Both he and our 20 year old son will listen to music from the mid sixties through the present. The older one is more disdainful of anything that sounds too “pop.”

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675.md?page=2)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/millennials-does-rock-and-pop-from-the-1970s-and-1980s-sound-old-timey-to-you/821675.md?page=4)
