Too Young For....

Last night I watched Top of the Pops: The Story of 1998. They were talking about it being a gamble getting Robert Plant and Jimmy Page on the show because the age group watching the show won't have heard of Led Zeppelin. As someone who was in said age group at the time I would say that's complete nonsense. I'd certainly heard of them and I'm pretty sure many of my peers had as well.

With the internet these days anyone of any age can find any music that was reasonably popular from any era and take a listen. But even pre internet there were ways of discovering old music without it being music ones parents would listen to.

In 1992 The Temptations got to number 2 with "My Girl" which was rereleased because of the film of the same name. It was a song I liked and was being played a lot at the time.

A decade later I was into R&B. One thing I've always done with any of the music I get into is to explore it's history. The Temptations were part of that history, I recall Teddy Riley citing them as being one of his main influences. I liked what I'd heard too and bought a Temptations CD.

A few years later I went to see them in concert. Some of the comments I received were "How do you know The Temptations?" and "Are they a band your parents listen to?". Ironically some of the people asking those questions would have been too young for their 60s heyday themselves but clearly had at least some knowledge of them.

A similar thing happened a few years later when I went to see UB40. Yes I'm too young to remember their early years but I certainly remember them topping the charts in 1993 with "(I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You". 

I'll concede I have met young people who have amazed me by not being aware of some pretty big music acts. Maybe that's what gives people the impression you only know music from your living memory.

From my own perspective though, if someone knows a thing or 2 about music then I would expect them to know Led Zeppelin, The Temptations and UB40 regardless of their age.