We’re too old.<\/p>\n
That’s what Herbie Hancock said at Quincy Jones’ Music Consortium.<\/p>\n
He told a story.\u00c2\u00a0 Of being in Japan and getting one of the original PlayStations.<\/p>\n
Now Herbie considers himself to be technologically adept.\u00c2\u00a0 When he got back to the States, he hooked the PlayStation up, even though the instructions were in Japanese.\u00c2\u00a0 But he couldn’t get past the first level of the one and only included video game, involving samurai warriors.\u00c2\u00a0 After three or four hours, he gave up.<\/p>\n
But a few weeks later, his buddy came over with his nine year old son, Ryan.\u00c2\u00a0 When Herbie told Ryan he had a PlayStation, the kid started bouncing off the walls, he was doing cartwheels.\u00c2\u00a0 Herbie led him to the living room, told him he’d had trouble figuring it out and to give it a go.<\/p>\n
Half an hour later, after catching up with his bud, Herbie returned to the living room to find Ryan on level four of the samurai game.\u00c2\u00a0 Ryan started explaining what was going on.\u00c2\u00a0 This warrior was a force for good, this one a force for bad, this one could be both, depending on how you played.<\/p>\n
Point being kids today are born into technology, they’ve got a natural facility.\u00c2\u00a0 We oldsters, as adept as we may become, will always be a step behind.\u00c2\u00a0 With children it’s instinct.\u00c2\u00a0 The children are literally the future.<\/p>\n
Oh, don’t blast me for using the cliche.\u00c2\u00a0 Too many people use children as an excuse for their lame behavior today.\u00c2\u00a0 My point, Herbie’s point, is that the kids will have the solutions.\u00c2\u00a0 We can start the ball moving on music education, but the kids own the court.<\/p>\n
Kind of like Shelly Berg, who runs the music education department at the University of Miami.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s now using YouTube for instruction, having students play along with some of the greats.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t deny technology, you embrace it!<\/p>\n
Great wisdom for the baby boomers now controlling media.<\/p>\n
But more important is to note that solutions will come from this younger generation. Whilst oldsters go to lunch, play golf at the club, kids are coming up with solutions. Oldsters want a band that will be ubiquitous, that will rain down coin.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s necessary to support the purveyors’ lifestyles.\u00c2\u00a0 But kids are excited about music and the process first.\u00c2\u00a0 The end result comes second.\u00c2\u00a0 Or the end result doesn’t have to be today, it can be tomorrow, or the day after that.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids are still dreamers, they haven’t had the optimism beaten out of them.<\/p>\n
Today’s kids are the anti-baby boomers.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than striving for individual achievement, what’s most important is cohesion, being a member of the group.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s groups that will birth the future.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t have a successful act without an audience.\u00c2\u00a0 And kids know how to grow said audience, and aren’t worried if at first it’s just thousands, and not millions.\u00c2\u00a0 And kids today know how to use the new technology, how to stimulate and stay connected with these groups, that’s the social networking revolution.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of putting up barriers, preventing the free flow of both information and copyrighted material, they see easy conduits.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t believe information must be free, but they do believe everybody must have access to it.<\/p>\n
So new methods of payment must be constructed.\u00c2\u00a0 And the oldsters are penalized by their thinking, that starts with too many zeros.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids today are interested in traction.\u00c2\u00a0 And will jump to where the traction is on a whim, instantly, if their friends are there, if it’s appealing.<\/p>\n
In other words, it’s about the audience, not marketing.\u00c2\u00a0 Once a kid feels he’s being sold to…\u00c2\u00a0 You’d better have an incredible product, like an iPhone.\u00c2\u00a0 Otherwise, not only are they skeptical, they bad mouth you.<\/p>\n
So, when you construct an album of tunes written by old hacks, putting a pretty face atop it all, like a cherry, kids may consume the one hit track, but don’t believe in the act and don’t want any more.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re on to our game.\u00c2\u00a0 The key is to find something they believe in, and will continue to believe in.<\/p>\n
There are so many tools.\u00c2\u00a0 And so many being invented every day.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually, by these kids who learned how to code in school, or by themselves at home, out of pure desire.\u00c2\u00a0 You might say the younger generation is too self-focused, too myopic, but I think you’re missing the point.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got incredible dedication to what they believe in.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t have short attention spans, just an unusual ability to graze and pull out exactly what they’re looking for.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll spend hours, days with what truly interests them.\u00c2\u00a0 Just watch kids playing Halo and tell me they’ve got short attention spans.<\/p>\n
They get all this, we oldsters do not.\u00c2\u00a0 Our role is not to put up barriers, but to enable kids.\u00c2\u00a0 Give them tools, support and money so they can grow the future.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is coming upon us ever faster.\u00c2\u00a0 More rewarding for the individual as we go.<\/p>\n
Just think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 We used to hunt rare record shops for discontinued product. Kids today have the history of recorded music at their fingertips.\u00c2\u00a0 Should they pay for it?\u00c2\u00a0 Absolutely!\u00c2\u00a0 But not at CD prices.\u00c2\u00a0 And I dare you to say this is bad.\u00c2\u00a0 To be able to tell someone about Frank Zappa’s "Absolutely Free" and let them hear it, miles away, oceans away, in short order.\u00c2\u00a0 I hunted for years for "Lump Gravy".\u00c2\u00a0 Now everybody can have "Lumpy Gravy".\u00c2\u00a0 You can say I wasted years, but times change, and we need to change with them.<\/p>\n
Great acts will be born.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll generate a ton of revenue.\u00c2\u00a0 And they’ll be a lot better, with greater longevity than the crap foisted upon the public in the MTV era.\u00c2\u00a0 We sold lowest common denominator.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids are interested in crap with train-wreck value, but they’re dedicated to that with substance.<\/p>\n
There’s a generation gap miles deep.\u00c2\u00a0 You might think your kid is your best friend, that you’re aware of everything he does, what he’s thinking, but you’re clueless. Even if you steal his phone, check his texts and IM’s, you don’t know what’s going on in his mind, the way he processes information, the opportunities he sees.<\/p>\n
What’s the cliche?\u00c2\u00a0 Lead or get out of the way?<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, the kids are the leaders.\u00c2\u00a0 Either help them, or step aside.<\/p>\n
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