age and music

[Karen Newcombe <kln@staralliance.com>]

>Still, go to a alternative record store. It's filled with kids...not people
>over 35. 

Depends on what alternative record stores you go to . . . though I suppose
on certain poorly lit, foggy days I could still be mistaken for being under
40.  

The thing about people over 35 is that they have 1) more money, 2) more
disposable income, 3) there are simply more of them.  And I mean more in
the tens of millions.  We're talking about a major demographic shift in the
population -- and a big, fat, juicy market of people who grew up loving
music.  Some smart fellow is going to put two and two together one of these
days and see dollar signs.  

We are undergoing a big shift in our society, and it will be interesting to
see how the record companies react to it.  

Another factor is that the U.S. is becoming so culturally diverse that it
becomes harder and harder to mass market items with the intense personal
preferences that music engenders.  We are seeing the slow demise of network
television as the number of channels proliferates and everyone has a choice
instead of being stuck with one of three or four dull options.  (Okay, so
we have fifty dull options . . .)

Can you envision what happens when there are 500 channels?  Or 1000?  How
about a music network that features Kate, Peter Gabriel, Sheila Chandra,
Happy Rhodes, and others of their ilk?  How about a music network devoted
to Celtic music?  Or one dedicated to 70's television themes? Or Japanese
opera?  Or Indian musicals?  Give it a few years and I bet we see all of
these appear.

What happens to the mass marketplace when you can gain access to
specialized goods that appeal to you and a group of only a few million
other folks?  

What happens when 70% of the population is over 35 instead of under it?
What kind of world are we moving into where the vast majority are aging
adults?  Especially after living in a post-war world where the vast
majority were children and teens?

I didn't raise this question to be contentious, but because I think it's
interesting to speculate about where our society is going, and how that
affects things I'm interested in, like music.

Karen  kln@staralliance.com