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Why kids are no longer playing music. Maybe.


Bilbo
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Sorry Bilbo, I have to disagree with you on this one :)

Kids [i]are[/i] playing music... it's just that not all of them are playing musical instruments in the conventional sense (ie. things strummed, plucked, blown and bowed).

It's been mentioned in this tread that modern technology has 'distracted' young people from music - but that's blatantly not the case. For every technological distraction there is a new opportunity for young' uns to get creative - making music on computers, tablets, phones, via video games (such as the hugely popular Rocksmith), online and so on.

The idea that Little Johnny, who once might have been heard diligently practicing his saxaphone scales, is now too engrossed in Facebook to care about music is absurd. Young people are [i]obsessed[/i] with music! - no less so than any of us in our youth. Truth is, Little Johnny is probably writing the next dancfloor-filling grime hit on his laptop with headphones glued to his bonce. And of course many of us here won't consider such endeavors to be 'musical' - but little Johnny doesn't give a feck what we think, no more than we as teenagers cared about the musical opinions of generations senior to us.

...not forgetting that kids are of course still picking up guitars, drum kits, microphones and dare I say even bass guitars! ;)

Aside from Basschat, I frequent a number of forums focussed on new electronic music and that one scene alone is brimming with youthful energy (I'm 40 years old and very much an 'old fart' in this arena!). And I'm not just talking about generic Friday night club bangers... it's young folks writing beautifully cinematic scores, heartfelt poetry, punkish angst, cool garage tunes and compositions that you'd image written by someone far more advanced in years.

So really, it's not as 'black and white' as many of us might think.

Young people [i]love[/i] music and are busily creating it. If you're not aware of this, it's probably because you're looking in the wrong places - or more correctly, the places where we as - [i]ahem[/i] - older musicians would expect new music to be found.

To paraphrase the great fictional philosopher Ferris Bueller: [i]"Music moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it"[/i] ;)

Here endeth the sermon.

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I see quite a lot of young people my age all solo acoustic players trying to be Ed Sheeran/Ben Howard in Cambridge.

But I do think like the OP it has a lot to do with the Pop music of today being written on a computer.

It depends whats in fashion I guess, hopefully more bands come into light in the future but at the moment record companys wont invest in bands and will make more money selling Justin Bieber music to 13 year old girls.

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[quote name='fumps' timestamp='1410945187' post='2554838']

Anyway all summer we used to sit in the back garden drinking beer, listening to someone playing a famous jazz tune on clarinet (Dont ask me the name of it, but I could hum it for you) .....all summer it was getting better & better.

[/quote]

'Stranger On The Shore' by Acker Bilk?

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[quote name='Weststarx' timestamp='1410961845' post='2555066']
It depends whats in fashion I guess, hopefully more bands come into light in the future but at the moment record companys wont invest in bands and will make more money selling Justin Bieber music to 13 year old girls.
[/quote]

You mean like they did with Jerry Lee Lewis and the Beatles and... ? ;)

I can't say I'm a fan of Justin Bieber myself. But to his credit he started out by posting videos of himself on YouTube, amassing a truckload of fans through his own efforts, which then caught the attention of record companies - who of course realised they could make truckload of ca$h from said truckload of fans.

His output is highly manufactured. But his career [i]was[/i] kick-started by his own efforts and made possible by new technology. In fact I think he was one of the first 'YouTube Sensations'.

And while I can't abide the chap, I do give him credit for that at least.

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[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1410964101' post='2555114']
It is apparent that I am wrong.
[/quote]

I don't think you are incorrect.

As a career criminal I spend a lot of time lingering by 'open windows' and can report the almost complete absence of strummed tennis rackets, pot and pan drum kits and tea-chest basses. Neither do I ever observe families sitting together around the wireless while Father smokes his pipe and Mother prepares a succulent Sunday lunch.

I think it is all down to the atomisation of modern society and the growing trend for the rich to trample upon little people up and down the country. That or climate change. Either way, everything is awful and everybody is ghastly.

Edited by skankdelvar
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[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1410967768' post='2555175']
"More children are playing instruments today than two decades ago..." But not the violin.

[url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-29207240"]http://www.bbc.co.uk...onitor-29207240[/url]
[/quote]

Ha ha, the violin is "only being ahead of the flute, percussion and [b]bass guitar [/b]on the list". :unsure:

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[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1410964101' post='2555114']It is apparent that I am wrong. I promise not to let it happen again.[/quote]

First time is excusable, once you've promised to play Moondance on the Xbox game Rocksmith 100 times over, videoing the experience on your mobile and sharing it via Instagram. Just for a LOL.

It has 'Internet Sensation' written all over it. Trust me :D

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