Technology – Page 2 – Gen X Playlist

The Sudden, Lucrative Gold Rush for Old Music by Andy Greene and Kory Grow

The Sudden, Lucrative Gold Rush for Old Music by Andy Greene and Kory Grow

The Sudden, Lucrative Gold Rush for Old Music

Excerpts:

As the giants of classic rock contemplate retirement, music execs are dreaming up increasingly bold new ways to eke value out of their brands, images, and back catalogs

June 8, 2021

….Up till now, living, breathing classic-rock icons like the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, and Bob Dylan haven’t had to worry much about tending to their respective flames. Touring, merch, and clever marketing of their catalogs have sustained them for well over six decades.

But the pandemic has kept them off the road for more than a year, and several of them are reaching an age where road work won’t be possible much longer. “Mick Jagger is 77,” Jampol says [Jampol has managed the estates of the Doors, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Tupac Shakur] “At some point you’ve got to go, ‘I’m going to enjoy my grandkids.’”

It’s at that point when a band or artist, and the team around them, faces a crucial question: How can the afterlife of a career in rock maintain, or even surpass, what that act achieved in their prime?

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‘The Phil Collins Effect’: Older Pop Stars Given Hope by Former Genesis Singer’s Cultural Resurrection

‘The Phil Collins Effect’: Older Pop Stars Given Hope by Former Genesis Singer’s Cultural Resurrection

Before I get to the links and excerpts, I wanted to say how strange I find it that today’s teens and college kids apparently do not seek out older music!

When I was a teen in the 1980s, I would’ve given my right arm to have technology such as You Tube or Spotify, which would allow me to listen to all genres of music from any year FOR FREE.

But no! Back then, if I wanted to hear different genres, older music, and so on, I had to borrow the cassette tapes or vinyl albums of friends and family.

Buying a new album back then was around $9.00 or so, which to me at that time, was a lot of money.

But today’s kids don’t seem to be using You Tube and streaming services to sit and look up music from the 1940s onwards – they all seem to be listening to the non-melodic, entirely forgettable bilge that today’s 20-something bands and singers keep pumping out.

If you have the availability of something like You Tube, which allows you to look up and listen to many types of older bands and singers for free, why not use it?

‘The Phil Collins Effect’: Older pop stars given hope by former Genesis singer’s cultural resurrection

How Phil Collins became cool (no, really)

Why the Phil Collins Effect gives older stars hope
by Mark Bridge
May 31, 2021

He was hailed in the Eighties as a breath of fresh air but derided in the Nineties as naff personified.

Phil Collins has found favour, however, with a younger generation of music lovers transfixed by the drum fill that lifts In The Air Tonight.

The rapid trajectories of the former Genesis drummer’s popularity have led academics to refer to the Phil Collins Effect (PCE) as a phenomenon worthy of study that can apply to other veteran recording artists.

‘The Phil Collins Effect’: Older Pop Stars Given Hope by Former Genesis Singer’s Cultural Resurrection

May 31, 2021

The “Phil Collins Effect” has been identified by academics after a return to popularity for the former Genesis drummer and frontman.

The highly-influential musician, who appears to attract equal levels of admiration and derision, became one of the best-selling artists of all time during a hugely successful solo career in the eighties.

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Lou Ottens, Compact Disc Pioneer and Inventor of Cassette Tapes, Has Died (2021)

Lou Ottens, Compact Disc Pioneer and Inventor of Cassette Tapes Has Died (2021)

April 8, 2021

Mr. Ottens actually died about a month ago, but I didn’t have time then to create a blog post in his honor.

Dutch inventor of the cassette tape, Lou Ottens, dies age 94 louOttens

Lou Ottens, Inventor Of The Cassette Tape, Has Died

Excerpts:

by Bill Chappel
March 10, 2021

Lou Ottens, who put music lovers around the world on a path toward playlists and mixtapes by leading the invention of the first cassette tape, has died at age 94, according to media reports in the Netherlands.

Ottens was a talented and influential engineer at Philips, where he also helped develop consumer compact discs.

Ottens died last Saturday, according to the Dutch news outlet NRC Handelsblad, which lists his age as 94.

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