Should Old Guys Play New Music?

[Full Cleveland]

We are having an argument in my band. We are all over 50 and we play mostly Classic Rock, but some band members want to play new music. I think that most people who come to see us are our age and don't want to hear the new music, and people in their 20's don't want to hear a bunch of old guys playing new music. What do you guys think, and please give me your age group when you answer.

[Medicus1963]

Hi Warren,
why not! Looking at concert of the Rolling Stones you can see three generations!
Music is time and ageless

Peter

[bitzerguy]

There are 3 of us over 50, but our singer is in her early 30s. Our crowds are defunitely all ages, from late teens to early 70s. Even our regular club gig hosting an open mic night is all ages. We play as many differnt styles and eras as we possibly can without compromising our sound. I have noticed that as long as we keep things upbeat, we get compliments, dancers and screamers from all ages, regardless of the era of music, and in many cases regardless of genre.

If we play newer music ( Green Day, Sheep Dogs, Black Keys, Carly Rae Jepson) we seem to get younger fans on the dance floor, and a little older when we play classic rock The people that come to see us don't seem to care how old we are, just as long as they are hearing music they enjoy, that is played well and sounds good.

At last Thursdays open mike, we had a drummer want to play who was 71, and played 50s and 60s pop and rock. Some of us older fellas got up with him and we played some Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, and some real early Stones. The dance floor was mostly young ladies in their early 20s having a blast. At 52, I was the baby on stage.

I don't think musician ages has as much to do with your fans as your music selection.

[Medicus1963]

As i was in my thirties,
i worked together with an very old Jazzdrummer from the thirties!
He was as good as our young drummer !

Peter

[woodyng]

I just want to play good music from any era as well as i can. I like a lot of newer music,and like to mix it up with whatever cover songs i get to play. I don't think you should limit yourself to just playing songs from one era just because you're 58 years old (me). OTOH, i don't want to play any songs by One Direction,Justin Bieber,or that horrid "moves like Jagger",etc,that could be pretty ludicrous.....

[kiramdear]

Good songs are timeless and don't belong to any one era or generation. I'll play anything that moves me.

[winston]

I'm with Kira and those that say play anything that sounds good, that also feels good and moves both you and your audience. Music is NOT just for the band anyway. It's for the listener too.

[cjj]

I'm with Kira and those that say play anything that sounds good, that also feels good and moves both you and your audience. Music is NOT just for the band anyway. It's for the listener too.

Actually, I'd say music is mainly for the listeners. If you're just playing it for yourself, Just stay home. Why bother to go out? But then who does a good job playing stuff they themselves don't like?

So, the task at hand it to find a wide enough range of music that you want to play so that you can always find things your audience wants to hear. Sometimes that's gonna be new stuff, sometimes old stuff, and often a mix.I don't think most people care about the age of the people playing as long as it's the kind of music they want to hear and it's done well.

Myself (well into the 50s), I'm always finding new music I like to listen to. The Killers, Blitzen Trapper, The Airborne Toxic Event, Metric, MGMT, Arcade Fire, just to name a few of the more recent ones. I've never understood those folks who get stuck in just one genre, style, or decade (or even century, heck there's tons of great stuff from as far back the mid 1500s, though it might not do so well in a club). There's just so much out there, and the older you are, the more likely you are to have experienced a lot of it, which means you're gonna be a lot better at playing a wide range of music than someone who's only heard things from the last few years...

[jps]

...I've never understood those folks who get stuck in just one genre, style, or decade (or even century, heck there's tons of great stuff from as far back the mid 1500s, though it might not do so well in a club)....

How about a melding of both old and new? I have had the extreme pleasure of seeing Sarah a number of times with Tunnels performing this music.

[cjj]

Oh yeah, she's great! And heck yeah, mix old, new, classical, folk, rock, whatever. One of our favorites, which brings stuff in from the 10th/11th century, is Enigma's MCMXC A.D., which my wife describes as a mixture of Gregorian chant, rock and roll and French sex noises...

[bartyclue]

Good songs are timeless and don't belong to any one era or generation. I'll play anything that moves me.

+1

50 and counting

[manta]

I guess it depends on what you do well. If you want to play Heat Wave but don't have a female lead singer, you may want to try The Movement's upbeat version that isn't so dependent on strong female vocals. Or go for some newer stuff like The Black Keys that rocks and definitely crosses all age groups. Do what you do best but you can look for new covers that are done well that younger listeners may identify with. Years ago this even happened with a band I was playing in. We had a singer named Gloria Scott and she had done some work for Ike & Tina Turner. When we asked her to sing Proud Mary, she stopped in the first verse and asked "What is that?" We were chinka chinging like Credance. We realized she didn't recognize the original but had probably performed live the Ike & Tina version. We quickly speeded things up and she was happy and it definitely sounded great thanks to her voice. My point being you might want to look for some newer versions of covers of old songs that your band knows that the younger set may recognize from the bands they listen to. Thus, killing two birds.

[bigbajo60]

Yeah, you always run the risk of getting the dour, "we're not going to have fun no matter what" types at any gig. In my experience, when those folks do show up, they ususally sit RIGHT UP FRONT AND CENTER where you can plainly see their disdainful facial expressions. But if you're doing your job right, those people usually are either gone by halfway through the first set, or you can actually win them over to your side!
A few of the songs that people seemingly have come to expect to hear my 52 yr. old self sing at our club dates include oldies like ZZ Top's 'La Grange', Johnny Cash's 'Folsom Prison Blues' and a slightly updated and rock'd up version of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall".
However, based on the latest post-gig comments and compliments, one of the 'highlights' of recent evenings is when we bust out Foster The People's 'Pumped Up Kicks'. I think it has mostly to do with the fact that I set up a 2nd vocal mic which is processed to give the verses that "lo-fi/telephony" sound as on the recording. People seem to appreciate those little details, whether they realize that they're picking up on those details or not!

[paologregorio]

IF you like the new material, or you can make some $ playing the new material, or both, play it!

[rickenbrother]

IF you like the new material, or you can make some $ playing the new material, or both, play it!

+1
As long as you sound good playing the new music, PLAY IT! I'm in a Spanish Rock band. I'm not Spanish or of any Hispanic descent. Who cares? It's music!