I played an open mic night last night in Downtown Fort Worth. The guy before me was a drummer and just wanted someone to play with, so they asked me. So I went up and asked the young man (25-ish) if he knew any Beatles, he said "no". Any Led Zeppelin? "no" any Jethro tull (just for fun) he had never even heard of "him". I am old. the music I love and have loved for decades is no longer even heard of by these younger people. We wound up playing Hey Jude and the guy just threw down a generic beat, but he had never heard it. Some in the crowd were singing with it. But when I was done, I checked an no one I found knew the song "goin' to California" by Zeppelin. I even asked if they'd heard of Mumford and sons doing that song, and no one I talked to knew anything.
Justin Beiber is now an "oldies" guy.
Anyway, its all going away. It was a fun ride. Its still a fun ride. I refuse to play current popular music, guess I see why I cant get gigs much any more. I finally am trying to play, and I find out the audience - and the music is on life support.
Funny, I did some scat vocalizing in lieu of a guitar solo, and I was asked (by a guy who was somewhat complimentary) "Wait... that's - that's actually a thing?". It was kind of fun realizing that no one knew what that was - or so it seemed. About 40 people in the place... No one knew who Jethro Tull was.
We all (hopefully) grow old, we all die. I think there will not be much of a move to preserve Rock - and especially prog. Sad, but I wont be here to mourn about it.
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