Do Old Guys Still Rule?

Yesterday, while perusing the best seller albums chart published weekly in Philadelphia's Sunday Inquirer I noticed that David Bowie's The Next Day, his first new album of original music in a decade, debuted at number one. The top ten albums also included recent releases by Eric Clapton, whose Old Sock landed at number five, and a man who passed away over forty years ago, Jimi Hendrix. The Seattle legend's new CD, People, Hell & Angels, placed just a couple of notches below Clapton's.

Even though I'm not a Bowie fan I smiled, and for a fleeting second I thought, "WOW! The old classic rockers can still bring it." When I regained consciousness I quickly realized that the reason these guys are still selling complete albums well enough to make the top ten is because the young people of the digital age, who I almost gave a lot of credit to for listening to the old stuff, aren't buying full albums anymore. They've moved on to either buying individual tracks or somehow getting their music for free. So, while the veterans can still put on a very good showing, it's virtually only the baby boomers who are sending these guys back into the top of the pops.

Many of us who grew up on vinyl can't seem to break away from the thought of buying a complete album online, even if we have the opportunity to buy only individual tracks. Therefore, except in very rare cases (The Beatles' "Revolution #9" and Chicago Transit Authority's "Free Form Guitar" for instance) I always download an entire CD or a new mp3 purchase, even the songs I don't much care for. It just doesn't feel like I'm taking in the fully intended musical experience if I don't have the whole thing.

It's good that the three stars are still releasing viable music that their fans want to hear and my congratulations go out to Bowie, Clapton, and the late Hendrix. However, I must learn to keep their twenty-first century chart successes in perspective.

Comments

  1. Jeff9:57 PM, March 25, 2013

    Agreed. I've always been interested in the LP as a whole. That said, I don't buy a lot of new stuff these days, so I'm not among the folks driving this stuff up the charts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. music obsessive2:57 PM, March 27, 2013

    Old habits die hard eh? The trouble is: a) I can't be bothered to listen to everything to work out which tracks to buy, and b) looking at the cost of buying say 4/5 tracks, you may as well have the whole damn thing.

    Finding that you don't like a few tracks is character building. The younger generation have no stamina.

    ReplyDelete
  3. William Kates2:41 PM, March 28, 2013

    Boz Scaggs just released a great comeback album, and Eric Burdon's latest is gaining some traction. I'm all about discovering new artists, but the first three spots on my top ten list for last year were occupied by Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, and Van Morrison, all of whom were in peak form.

    ReplyDelete

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