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Music Generation Gap

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Does Jerry Crowe think that Generation X or any subsequent generation will be coming in to fill the void? (“Sorry Kids. Mom and Dad Spent Your Allowance on Concerts,” Sept. 13). The answer is no, and the reason is simple.

As a baby boomer myself I heard music played at home. My parents listened to symphonic music and went to Symphony Hall in Boston. They experienced music the only way it can properly be heard, in a concert hall performed by real musicians. This bit of nurturing piqued my curiosity and I began to listen to and ultimately play music. The Beatles and other bands in the ‘60s inspired many people to try playing instruments. They went out and experienced the excitement and sometimes magic of a live rock concert (anyone who saw Bruce Springsteen in the ‘70s won’t ever forget it).

Our parents may have had money on their minds, but they didn’t see it as the means to an end the way we seem to today. There was an appreciation for music and the performance of music by our parents that, as a music teacher and a drummer, I don’t see very much anymore. We’ve dropped the ball with our own kids. We’ve decided that music in schools is not as important as math, science or sports. So here comes a new generation with money even more on its mind. Forget beauty and living life with passion!

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Our parents enjoyed and consumed classical music and big-band swing, music you had to understand something about to like. With us it was rock, music stripped down to rhythm and melody, it was easy to digest and didn’t satisfy for long.

With our kids it has been stripped down further, now just rhythm and a lyric without melody. The machinery grinds them out and grinds them up faster than ever.

So what’s to replace it? Our kids don’t know about live concert excitement and magic. They haven’t been nurtured. Who’s to blame? Some of it rests with us and some with greedy record companies, managers, concert promoters and artists that never put anything back and are now wringing their hands as they watch it dry up.

DAVE “BEDROCK” BEDROSIAN

Pasadena

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