The silliness of "youth oriented music."
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    I started to post this in the thread on LifeTeen, but thought it deserved to stand on its own.

    Even large scale bacchanalian concerts are dying. Music is becoming all niche, and "home recording + online posting" is becoming so easy that music companies are dying. Therefore, it makes exactly zero sense to talk about "youth oriented music." It has been more than a decade since MTV dropped music programming because they could find no dominant genres enjoyed by young people. When I was leading a praise band as a Protestant, I realized at some point that the only way to have good modern music in worship was to learn how to do it and write it. There are plenty of thoughtful, contemplative melodies in pop music--but the P+W stuff is all UP, and not worshipful.

    This article is WELL worth reading to understand how much you will lose kids if you talk about knowing what kids want. You are not smarter than the programmer at your local radio station, and he is throwing up his hands. Pick the BEST music, tell the kids you are doing something the adults don't want them to do, and then worship.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324590904578287921315565396.html?mod=WSJ_ArtsEnt_LifestyleArtEnt_4

    Kenneth
    Thanked by 1Ben
  • WendiWendi
    Posts: 638
    "Pick the BEST music, tell the kids you are doing something the adults don't want them to do, and then worship."

    That has to be the best advice on this topic I have EVER seen.
    Thanked by 2Mark M. amindthatsuits
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    What can I say? I've had a rich, rewarding career with the pimply, energetic set--college version.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    I think that it is silly trying to focus-group or target-group liturgical music. We're going to end up having masses for Teens, for Families, for the Elderly, for Italians, for the Polish, for the Fijian, etc. So much for ONE, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church...
    Thanked by 5Ben Mark M. Adam Wood francis donr
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Our DC friend is onto something. I happened to catch a Showtime special featuring Mumford and Sons with some other neo-Woody Guthrie wannabe's taking a train tour from Oakland to New Orleans on the TV just last night. First of all, I've taken that Amtrak, it was a living hell. Secondly, these kids act as if they invented the minimalist folkie genre. You know we've gone from the sublime to the ridiculous when Chris Guest's "A Mighty Wind" sends up the faux PBS revival of Peter Paul and Mary, and then Mumford et al actually believe they've revived Guthrie probably because they don't bathe and they don't "script" their version of "This train is bound for glory." And if you believe they didn't script that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale on the cheap.
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • WendiWendi
    Posts: 638
    AMTS, however you arrived at your epiphany, you've nailed it. There truly is nothing new under the sun, however, teens like to think they are doing it differently than their parents. For some it's a bonus if they think it will tweak parental noses at the same time.

    Not that I've had a career working with young people...I just have several of my own, and multiple opportunities to observe them and their friends.
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    A silly point, then a serious one.

    I was going through music to learn and stumbled on a Vevo channel that had my ideal altrock groups. (Lived with some of the guys who ran the 9:30 Club in the '80's.) I saw one group that produces chirpy British hits and posted on Facebook: "They look like they smell. By which I mean BOTH that they look as if they reeked, and that you can tell the exact way they reek by the way they look," or words to that effect. I find Mumford pales on the 3rd or 4th listen, although they do epitomize the ubiquity of Gnosticism in our culture.
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    Another point I have raised is, if Sting/U2/Coldplay/Enya/Dido can produce lovely chantlike melodies using Gaelic scales, why can't Catholics? I mean, preaching to the schola on this list, but you understand...

    I was getting ready for a special event (managing or working the dinner--I don't play professionally) and I overheard a jazz band as they were changing into the monkey suits.
    Young white guy: If someone put Gregorian Chant over a disco beat they'd make a million dollars.
    Older black guy: Enigma has been doing that for years. Enya, too.

    Skip the disco beat---why don't Catholics who like that stuff eat it up in Church?
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
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