Article About The Aging Classic Rock Market

[JSngry]

Ok, not really.

You go, Boomers, you GO!

[Chuck Nessa]

Which era is/was "classic rock"? Many answers depending on the date of one's sexual awakening I would guess.

edit for punctuation.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Chuck Nessa

[JSngry]

(Date Of Sexual Awakening x Date Of Increased Earning Power^{Job Stability})/Date Of Fantasizing About The Sitter And It Bringing About Potentially Illegal Behavior = Beginning Of Classic Rock Era

Of course,, Classic Rock is only sometimes = classic rock, but that's another article to which I doubt there's any meaningfully sensationalistic link.

[Chuck Nessa]

Thanks for clearing the waters.

[JSngry]

Anything for a laugh!

[johnblitweiler]

Classic rock = Little Richard, Joe Turner, The Clovers, Fats Domino, other pre-Elvis, pre-white rockers, yes?

[danasgoodstuff]

Classic rock = Little Richard, Joe Turner, The Clovers, Fats Domino, other pre-Elvis, pre-white rockers, yes?

Not quite, it equals anything that shares those artist's classic properties of precisely wild abandon, regardless of chronology or demographics.

[Shawn]

Personally I consider "classic rock" to be 1967 to 1980 or thereabouts. I know some people would go back farther but I think it really starts with Sgt Peppers and the beginning of "album rock".

Nowadays classic rock stations tend to go further into the 1980s, at least I suppose, I haven't listened to the radio in years.

[johnblitweiler]

Sorry, I keep forgetting "rock" isn't the same thing as "rock and roll."

[Chuck Nessa]

Personally I consider "classic rock" to be 1967 to 1980 or thereabouts. I know some people would go back farther but I think it really starts with Sgt Peppers and the beginning of "album rock".

Nowadays classic rock stations tend to go further into the 1980s, at least I suppose, I haven't listened to the radio in years.

1967 is about the time rock wasn't important in my life. It was a continual soundtrack since I managed record stores into the late '70s. I absorbed that music but is was not part of the core. No values applied, just facts.

[GA Russell]

I believe that the term "Classic Rock" is trademarked by a radio station consulting company, and refers to 1970's fairly hard rock.

The peak years of baby boomer births were 1956-1958, and it was in the '70s that these people were in high school.

I read a while back that in almost every market the Classic Rock station was #3 in the Arbitron ratings, but I have no idea if that is still true.

[JSngry]

Well, so much for the joke...

[kh1958]

Classic rock ended when I lost interest, which was about 1973.

[Big Beat Steve]

Agreed with Shawn and GA Russell. The way "Classic Rock" has been marketed over here for a very long time, this essentially refers to what orignally was refered to as "Hard Rock" in the late 60s/early to mid-70s (Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Golden Earring, etc., and then all the "rest"). No doubt some will also include all the post-British Beat rock bands from approx.1967 when they started growing their hair longer, added tons of amplifiers, fuzz, etc. (Doors, Hendrix, etc., etc., Blues Rock, and probably Psychedelic Rock too) and also including the second wave of bands after the orignal hard rock era, i.e. up to about 1980 or so, give or take a few of those later years. In short, rock from that era that wasn't just "pop".

And, yes, "rock" most definitely is not the same as (the genuine) "rock and roll".

Amazingly, some key bands from the Hard Rock/Classic Rock era such as Black Sabbath are touted as the "old heroes" of Heavy Metal today and seem to have a cult following among the younger 'Metal set today. Things coming full circle?

Edited July 12, 2014 by Big Beat Steve

[Shawn]

I wouldn't call it a cult following. Black Sabbath have been widely considered the first true heavy metal band and have been basically accepted by each new generation since the early 70s. In the 80s when I was a teenager all my friends knew Black Sabbath, many of us liked both the Ozzy and Dio eras. While I was in college in the 90s they had been "reappraised" by critics because of their influence on the Seattle scene, Soundgarden in particular owed a large portion of their sound to Tony Iommi. At the end of the 90s they reunited with Ozzy and went on several tours where they were discovered by a whole new generation of fans. They just played Hyde Park a couple weeks ago...

Back to the classic rock radio format for a second.

It's not just "hard rock", you're also going to hear lots of Steely Dan, Eagles, Elton John, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, Neil Young, Yes, ELP, ELO, Steve Miller, The Doobie Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Genesis, etc. Essentially everything "not pop" from the late 60s, 70s and early 80s.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Shawn

[Dan Gould]

Fivethirtyeight.com has a pretty interesting take on what constitutes Classic Rock:

Led Zeppelin is classic rock. So are Mötley Crüe and Ozzy Osbourne. But what about U2 or Nirvana? As a child of the 1990s, I never doubted that any of these bands were classic rock, even though it may be shocking for many to hear. And then I heard Green Day’s “American Idiot” on a classic rock station a few weeks ago, and I was shocked.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-classic-rock-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/

They also just published this follow up:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/classic-rock-started-with-the-beatles-and-ended-with-nirvana/

Edited July 12, 2014 by Dan Gould

[7/4]

Which era is/was "classic rock"? Many answers depending on the date of one's sexual awakening I would guess.

edit for punctuation.

The golden age was when I was discovering music. It's a subjective, personal thang.

By the '80s there's a bunch of bands where I only like the first or second albums.

Right now, it sucks having to drive a car that only has a working radio. I need tires first.

[Van Basten II]

What is classic depends of your age, especially for this type of music it is for most people what they were listening in their youth., so for younger people it will be quite different than old geezers like us

[Shawn]

Fivethirtyeight.com has a pretty interesting take on what constitutes Classic Rock:

Led Zeppelin is classic rock. So are Mötley Crüe and Ozzy Osbourne. But what about U2 or Nirvana? As a child of the 1990s, I never doubted that any of these bands were classic rock, even though it may be shocking for many to hear. And then I heard Green Day’s “American Idiot” on a classic rock station a few weeks ago, and I was shocked.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-classic-rock-isnt-what-it-used-to-be/

They also just published this follow up:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/classic-rock-started-with-the-beatles-and-ended-with-nirvana/

Thanks for posting those, the era that classic rock radio covers is just about what I mentioned earlier, kind of really kicking into gear in 1967, peaking around 1973 with the majority of the plays being between the years 1973 and 1982. I remember being surprised when I first heard Metallica on a classic rock station, but hey, the advertisers have a target audience to reach and I can understand why they are there and why Nirvana is there.

However, the first article also brings to light the fatal flaw of the classic rock radio format...how narrow the band and song choices are. The top 25 artists account for almost 60% of everything played on classic rock radio. To me that's truly depressing considering the sheer amount of great rock music that came out in the 1970s. What's even more depressing is that most of the time these stations play the same 5 or 6 songs by these artists over and over, you're not going to hear any deep cuts, any hidden album gems, any b-sides...only the most over-played hits. According to classic rock radio Deep Purple only recorded the song Smoke On The Water, that is their entire catalog...Jimi Hendrix only recorded about 5 songs, Black Sabbath recorded 2 songs, Blue Oyster Cult recorded 2 songs, Kansas recorded 2 songs, Fleetwood Mac recorded 3 songs, etc, etc.

[Big Beat Steve]

What is classic depends of your age, especially for this type of music it is for most people what they were listening in their youth., so for younger people it will be quite different than old geezers like us

Not really.

Considering what as a matter of fact IS PLAYED under the label of "classic rock", you cannot lump in just what you feel is "classic" by your terms. That would be rather irrelevant to the term "classic rock" the way it IS applied.

Of course "classic rock" is just a marketing label but things being the way they are "classic rock" just refers to rock from the 70s "Hard Rock" era plus some (a bit before, a bit after, a bit different style-wise ....) but that's that - as pointed out by others above.

To those who came of age in their listening habits in the 90s, 90s rock may well be "classic" by now but by and large that isn't what is being included in "classic rock". Claiming "Hey, that's the rock I find "classic" so that's classic rock" - sorry - not so. That tag has different connotations.

Just for a comparison, the "rock" I prefer and consider "classic" to my ears is just the REAL rock'n'roll and particularly rockabilly and black r'nr roughly from the 1954-59 era (plus selected recordings and bands from the years after, up to maybe the mid-60s) but that's just me (and it's music for the most part recorded before I was even born ...). And OF COURSE I don't pretend I'd ever like to sail under the "classic rock" banner with the rock I prefer to listen to.

BTW, Shawn has nailed it IMO as for the lack of imagination in their programming. Same thing here - for the most part ... Seems like they insist on doodling music where they are sure that ANYBODY (even those who were the most casual listeners back then) can sing along. Not much that would mean a new discovery of hidden gems only those in the know are immediately familar with. Talk about soothing your listeners' audience ... Not any more discerning than MOR pop radio stations where the MOR pop on the airwaves is just "golden oldie" singalong fare too.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Big Beat Steve

[Rooster_Ties]

[colinmce]

Classic Rock radio is my own personal hell. Over the years I've been subjected to literally hundreds of hours of it, hundreds of hours of the same 40 songs over and over. That shit is programmed by sociopaths. It's pure torture. And most young men listen to it so it's not going anywhere.

The death of "oldies" radio is such a shame. As a kid in the early 90s (yeah...) I listened to it for hours on end. No repetition, very deep cuts from the mid-50s to about 1970. Every day at noon they played the Billboard top 10 for that day in a certain year. One weekend they played the top 500 songs of all-time, etc. It was stimulating and educational, programmed by real scholars of the music. But it seems like the format is totally extinct now.

Edited July 15, 2014 by colinmce

[king ubu]

(Date Of Sexual Awakening x Date Of Increased Earning Power^{Job Stability})/Date Of Fantasizing About The Sitter And It Bringing About Potentially Illegal Behavior = Beginning Of Classic Rock Era

[Hot Ptah]

Was there supposed to be an article with this thread? I don't see a link to any article.

"Classic Rock" to me is a brand, a radio marketing concept, which has nothing to do with the merit of any particular rock music, or the years in which it was produced.

[The Red Menace]

Was there supposed to be an article with this thread? I don't see a link to any article.

'Twas a joke, a Jsngry jest, a tweak, methinks, on the inevitable and perfunctory "THE JAZZ/CLASSICAL AUDIENCE IS AGING!!!" articles that appear like clockwork every year. I, of course, define "classic rock" as "Back In The USSR" exclusively.

Edited July 15, 2014 by The Red Menace