Post by Kris on Dec 10, 2018 18:50:11 GMT
Sadly very true Michael, I feel quite lonely in my love for the Delta blues amongst those in my age range. In the modern day we lack the gateway artists positioned in or very near to the mainstream who used to direct young listeners towards the path of the blues (such as Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Clapton etc.) Kurt Cobain's MTV Unplugged version of Lead Belly's In the Pines (Where did you sleep last night) was a sensation amongst teens in its day but now grunge is another vintage relic as so far as young people are concerned. Jack White did a good job of channeling it but these day his audience is older and gradually dwindling in numbers. Some acts start straying and changing their style somewhat to appeal to larger audiences which is understandable but a shame from the perspective of a purist. We live in a world where dance, rap/trap, highly polished pop and electronic music reign supreme (even filtering heavily into the Glastonbury and Reading festival line ups I've glanced at these last few years!) It would take an enormous amount of luck, time and patience to make the current younger generation, who believe these modern popular styles encapsulate everything they need to know about music, hear the mesmerising beauty through the pop and crackle of an old Delta blues record! It seems the youngest audiences, to the horror of my ears and eyes, are heavily obsessed with a shocker of a style called "Mumble Rap" now and I just don't know what hope they have (I really don't recommend looking it up...or do if you fancy a real laugh!)
Instagram is quite an interesting platform I think. I've encountered a few up and coming young blues artists and fans on there and I like that one is able to follow individual hashtags in order to keep up with what is new and create an interesting blues feed. Still dramatically thinner on the ground than you'd wish but it is nice to see that there are indeed some young people still falling in love with old blues!
It is great to see Larkin Poe growing in popularity, they certainly deserve it. I may take a trip to Amsterdam next year in order to catch their show there too.
Instagram is quite an interesting platform I think. I've encountered a few up and coming young blues artists and fans on there and I like that one is able to follow individual hashtags in order to keep up with what is new and create an interesting blues feed. Still dramatically thinner on the ground than you'd wish but it is nice to see that there are indeed some young people still falling in love with old blues!
It is great to see Larkin Poe growing in popularity, they certainly deserve it. I may take a trip to Amsterdam next year in order to catch their show there too.