Viewpoint: Ageism In Music, Nov 2001
By: Spencer McCloud, Barry Hogan
The great writer Oscar Wilde once said, 'Youth is wasted on the young'. Well, for once in his short and exciting life, he was completely and utterly wrong.
Speaking as a young person, I feel like I can achieve anything. The thing is, the adult world doesn't quite agree with me. Especially, may I add, those adults involved with the music industry. I prefer to call them 'dinosaurs', and will refer to them as such for the rest of the article.
The problem is, you see, I play guitar in a band. Not a shitty little punk/pop covers band or an Oasis tribute band, but a band that seems to be getting somewhere. A band that travel to London every so often and do all the 'shake and fakes' with the industry types. And I can count on one hand the amount of people I have met who treat me with respect. Sad really. To everyone else, I'm just a kid who's got something to be exploited. This would be fair enough if I was a 'fresh-faced boy-band member', but I consider myself to be a serious musician. Sounds pretentious, I know, but hear me out.
Think about who has the most power in the music world. Think about how old the majority of record buyers are. Let's face it - it's usually us who buy all the records. It's us who buy posters and t-shirts and every little single release by our favourite bands. However - as soon as we try and interact inside the boundaries we call 'modern culture' - we are laughed at. Ridiculed by the dinosaurs that believe they 'own' the industry. Self-important dinosaurs that believe themselves to be invincible, yet are simply arrogant and overblown.
As soon as we reject the notion that we simply have to consume culture, like the second-hand art it surely is, we are rejected and thrown to the metaphorical wolves. 'Surely there is no way at all a 16/17/18 year old can create anything worthwhile', they cry. Well, they better believe that we can. We're fed up with 30-something's speaking about our lives... Talking about how 'oh so so sad' their existences are. F**k that. We can create. We can reject the current theme of dumbed down/emotionally dead music. It's up to us, as a generation, to claim music and culture back. Not just by forming bands and releasing records, but also by setting up websites (just like this one), running fanzines and writing poetry, painting pictures and taking photos. Anything you consider art, you can create yourself! We no longer have to be spoon-fed culture; we can create and digest it ourselves!
I realise I sound completely one-sided here. Sorry about that. Standing on the soapbox I guess. There are many older people who create and maintain alternative culture as well. Look at Minxy McNaughty from the Rocklands website, or the Manics, for example: both ambassadors for a life disconnected from the mainstream. A life where the major labels don't control what we like and don't like. Where they don't tell us what to buy. A life where our input is just as important as our money.
To head back to my original point... Every time a rock dinosaur from a record-label tells me I shouldn't be slagging off other bands in case I alienate my target audience, or is surprised that, yes, I can hold a conversation about politics at this early age, I think to myself, 'In a few years, we will have created something beyond criticism.' I know that there are plenty of young people angry at our portrayal by the mainstream, and I know that many young people will change this.
The point of this story may be corny, yet here it is:
No matter the age, you have power. Don't get exploited or hinder potential. You'll only ache over it in latter years.