It’s music streaming that did that. A few years ago all my music was deleted when I joined a streaming app. I had no idea why. On the app, if I set up a playlist within a few months most of the songs are unavailable and I cant remember the tens of thousands of individual pieces and albums I used to enjoy. I have them all on an old iPod for which I have a plug and cable locked away along with a wired speaker. I really hope the music streamers eventually go out of business once people realise what a Private Equity scam they are.
Martin Bollis
3 months ago
I was a teenager in the 70’s but not heavily into music. I got my tribal kicks (literally and figuratively) on the football terraces.
I think the disappearance of tribes has more to do with masculinity, particularly of the testosterone fuelled adolescent variety, having become toxic.
Simon Blanchard
3 months ago
These cultural “tribes” were a boomer phenomenon; a blip. Great while they lasted but never to be repeated in the age of fragmentation.
Steve Murray
3 months ago
The author misses the elephant in the room of the clubbing scene that grew up from the late 80s onwards, with vast warehouses full of young (and not so young) people moving individually within the crowd. Therein endeth the identitarian music scene, and also much of the violence that accompanied the preceding decades.
That also struck me as a glaring omission. As someone who was part of the rave/club scene in the early-mid 90s (the late 80s was a little too early for me!), one of the great things was that it allowed for individuality to be expressed, unlike the ‘regimented’ nature and strict dress codes of the scenes that came before that the author reminisces so wistfully over. While I have time for some of the punk music (I stress “some” – like all music scenes, there was a handful of quality bands and bucket-loads of dross), the culture that went with it is not something to be particularly celebrated – narcissism mixed with nihilism was never going to achieve much.
We all have a tendency to think the youth-culture of our particular era was the best (I’d always argue for the nineties – the variety of music genres, movies, fashions that all broke through to the mainstream was unprecedented until then, while the backlash against political correctness is something I fondly look back on in this current era of wokeness!), but I think perhaps the author doesn’t have much contact with the youth of today. Yes, we can all romanticise about how great it was to discover a new band/album in a record shop, but kids today have the ability to explore all sorts of styles (mainstream or alternative) through streaming. My 13 year old has a far greater appreciation of the wealth of good music out there than I ever did at that age! And I value the individuality that I see kids expressing today, which is much braver than simply conforming to what a particular tribe prescribes (be it mainstream or not). But then I’m not on social media, so perhaps what I observe in the ‘real world’ isn’t the zeitgeist at all!
I waited for that to appear in the article and was surprised by the omission also. One notable thing from my own recollections was the intense snobbery around different sub-genres of rave/club music. Those who held US artists from Chicago and Detroit in high regard wouldn’t be seen dead at a Goa trance night in the company of dreadlocked, tie-dye clad hippies. Central Scotland had it’s own home-grown scene combining Rotterdam gabbba and squeaky mallet happy hardcore, with the clientele almost exclusively from the housing estates of provincial towns rather than the cities. While you never had pitched battles between these tribes, they certainly all looked very different and almost never ventured into each other’s territory. I suppose the author merely emphasises his point that people grow up, move on and don’t know what the next generation is up to.
Jonathan Nash
3 months ago
A different world back then; almost another planet…
Arguably dominant culture now, rather than subculture. All trendy teens I work with are into it. The guys dress like road men and the girls wear primark leggings with zavetti jacket and they all think they’re gangsters.
Indeed. There are countless genres of music and scenes out there if one’s willing to look beyond what pops up on an Instagram feed. The reason Teddy Boys (50s) and Punk (70s) gained so much attention was because there was nothing else youth-driven for the kids to get behind!
Indeed. Perhaps the sign of getting old, post 20th Century, is being blissfully unaware of the yoof subculture of the day. I’m sure that applies to me, too. My knowledge fades out post the dubstep era – perhaps I know of drill, grime and enjoy a spot of vapourwave and electronic quasi-classical like Kiasmos and , but that dates me at around 2010, I think…
In terms of a tribe, I used to be a raver and was sworn to enmity with Britpop and the dreary tail end of the rockist era that this author identifies with, a choice I defend to this day. The guitar was dead, long live the synthesizer. And there is something vindicating in that 90s rave music videos on YouTube remain a delightfully rare sanctuary from vitriolic comment sections, I must say. I guess we did something right!
This obliviousness of things 21st century definitely applies to many of my contemporaries too, however, whose cultural awareness seems to have stopped around the year 2000. Perhaps it’s better to grow old gracefully but I suffered FOMO for longer, I guess.
The Internet has definitely fragmented and diminished the live music scene, and therefore the visibility of identifiable subcultures for people to bond over, which is something I lament. The cost of living crisis has compounded this, not least diminishing opportunities for the proles to take a risk on a career or side-gig in the arts. Though it’s still relatively healthy in big cities like Manchester.
Isn’t it clear? This has all been subsumed into a new subculture of dyed hair, nose piercings, smartphone addiction, and despising Western civilisation.
Ian_S
3 months ago
I was 15 and rock had reached the nadir of the Bee Gees with their blow waves and tight white disco flares. It completely failed to resonate in any way at all. Then suddenly there’s God Save the Queen, Anarchy in the UK, Pretty Vacant. Like Blitzkrieg, and suddenly we had our music. Can you just f***ing imagine the effect. Sex Pistols were class warfare, anti establishment to the core.
And now, when the little identity nonces from the Daddy’s in Corporate suburbs whinge on about how white boys are racists unless they’re obsequious trans-allies or some other equally self-emasculating ideological saps of the self- obsessed better classes, that power of hitting your stride in life just when Sex Pistols cranked up, and knowing exactly what it meant about class relations, is like the glowing nucleus of strength when politely suggesting to woke fash narcissists where to shove it real hard.
It would appear that ‘the glowing nucleus’ of strength has burnt itself out. I’m old enough to remember the fifties and the drainpipes and the beetle crushers. And the knuckle dusters, the bicycle chains and the fights. Somewhere, and it may have been in a recent controversial Telegraph opinion piece, I read that if there is a Muslim uprising in the UK we will certainly lose. Why for God’s sake, why? Is it because everybody listens to Taylor Swift instead of Black Sabbath? Could be. Military bands were initially about signalling orders and position but it was recognised that music inspired the soldiers. The bloodcurdling sound and swirl of the pipes, for instance, boosted morale amongst the troops and intimidated the enemy. During WW1, pipers led the men ‘over the top’ and into battle. Many died, including my great uncle who was in the Black Watch – otherwise known as Die Damen aus der Hölle (The Ladies from Hell).
With politicians who are too flaccid to deport even the worst of those who are pouring into the UK, I would welcome any evidence, musically inspired or otherwise, that we still have some people who don’t need safe spaces and know where and how to ‘shove it real hard’ should the necessity arise.
Your name suggests that you are relatively young. This means that you should shut up and respect your elders when they speak about great cultural shifts that came to pass before your time. My tribe would sit in a large group and teach each other how to properly peg trousers to get that perfect punk look and then discuss how many eyelets one wanted in steel toed Doc’s (and what color laces would get one branded a racist skin even though dressed as a punk). The greatest trick to play on a close friend was to put a Grateful Dead sticker on their car next to their Damned and Sisters of Mercy decals and revel in their shame and laugh at how long it took them to notice. You can imagine that we wouldn’t have been caught dead even acknowledging the existence of ABBA.
I’m 70 and I thought – and still think – Abba were great. But I also liked disco, punk music and New Wave along with classical music, opera and trad jazz. Since then I’ve added techno and trance to my list of musical interests.
I’m 62 and that sounds very much like my experience. Sure I like other music but nothing get my blood flowing like cranking up the volume on some classic punk.
Perry de Havilland
3 months ago
I’m a dinosaur, i.e. a child of the 1980s, totally a ‘New Romantic’ back in the day with a dab of Goth… yet these days hardly anyone I know personally listens to the modern stuff I listen to (& visa versa). My tastes now runs to Witch House, Martial, Electronic etc. from Ukraine, Sweden, Belarus or Poland or obscure UK acts like ALLICØRN.
And that’s all fine by me.
I remember the night (in the late 90s!!) when I went to the new goth club and saw the younger kids doing their thing to the new goth sounds and thought to myself, “Not for me anymore, this just doesn’t have the incandescence of Siouxie or the neurotic joy of Alien Sex Fiend. It’s over.” And I never went back. Johnny Cash epitomizes goth for me now.
John Galt Was Correct
3 months ago
The internet changed everything. People that grew up with the internet are different to us. They don’t need to be part of a sub-culture to find identity or belong. They are used to just viewing any and everything that they want in a non-immersive voyeuristic way. We also ended up at pubs and clubs to meet friends and got into ‘scenes’ through that, but the internet generations don’t, they are always in contact whereover they are. They also don’t drink much, that removes a lot of everything that we did.
It’s very much a bad thing. The tribal identity exists within a larger (nation sized) context. It allows young people to express a wild and unedited lifestyle, a kind of experimental abandon. Having altercations with other tribes is actually quite fun and brings one to a natural perception of one’s limits (physical and mental). My friends used to actually have fist fights with skinheads, it was always punks vs skins, because they were truly a**holes and deserved a beating, even if they often won. You can see how this builds a kind of character, even for the silly n*zis, which is unavailable online.
william langdale
3 months ago
They are all playing video games instead.
SIMON WOLF
3 months ago
An interesting thing about the 1970’s is how thats era’s music that is still popular today was hated by the critics and as such by many of the sixth form/student readers of the music press of the day i.e Abba, Elton,Queen, etc whereas the critics favs Steely Dan ,Television, Little Feat etc have proved very generational.A great bio-pic helps in creating interest among later generations.
David Collier
3 months ago
I like the intriguing idea of musical tribes. The Meistersingers of Finsbury Park.
But on a more intellectual note, these various genres, movements, whatever, were each a feature of their time and, in the UK at least, bubbling up from what could be called working-class origins, families who were not very well off. Needs to be put in the context now, not of reminiscence for the tribes, but the changing nature of the tribes. The author perhaps a little bit too focused on the manifestation rather than the cause.
Paddy Taylor
3 months ago
With trends like these, who needs NMEs?
Disappointing, though sadly unsurprising that the author, “an old NME rockist”, manages somehow to ignore the dance music scene of late 80’s and early 90s that spawned countless sub-genres and changed youth culture for ever – not to mention ending football hooliganism for a generation.
Su Mac
3 months ago
Ther not many really independant thinking, self aware individuals in society and they don’t join tribes with dress codes. They might invent them and be followed I suppose.
Eleanor Barlow
3 months ago
The article doesn’t mention the Beatniks which were around long before I was old enough to be aware of them, but I thought they were a youth tribe of sorts.
Richard Craven
3 months ago
“Where are the punks or Teddy Boys of today?”
Wandering around on zimmer frames and mobility scooters in Stokes Croft, Bristol.
Katherine 0
2 months ago
I can totally relate to this article, and often wonder about the lack of a musical/social movement that teens can feel part of nowadays. I find the ‘looks’ of the past 20-30 years really boring in comparison to the 80s, when I was a teen. I grew up in the US (Dallas) and had a different version of this tribal identity – we still had punks in the 80s! – it was mostly suburban kids who felt alientated from the dominant culture and there were 2 tribes: the punks and the preppies. Not many actual fights (these were suburban kids, after all) but a very strong animosity that I still feel echoes of today, when confronted with anyone who looks too preppy!
I think kids need a movement/group identity as a way to differentiate themselves from their family and the dominant culture that is forced upon them. I don’t know how kids today deal with it – without this identity to attach themselves too, but I wonder if the trans community is one such identity – as in some schools it’s cool to be part of this subgroup – and kids are looking for a way to be different but at the same time accepted by their peer group.
James Kirk
2 months ago
Without reading it again I think “The Man” saw there was money to be made and, typically, spoilt it. I got my first pair of Levis in Carnaby St in 1966 and paid silly money. The only thing that hasn’t changed is that jeans, i.e. workwear, can still be silly money. Except on street markets where a Pakistani ships them in from China or a Leicester sweatshop. Youth seems to have homogenised now into ubiquitous hoodies with trainers which cost more than jeans. Sociologically, those with the least income pay the most for trainers, like they have the biggest flat screen TVs. Musically a computer can make music at home emulating strings, piano and guitar. Behind the scenes all ages try an acoustic guitar, yearning to play Clapton, Hendrix and Mississipi blues. The Man has spoilt music too. Why else do we still spend so much on Glastonbury and concerts for old men like ACDC, the Stones or Paul McCartney? Dolly Parton is immortal, people flock to cover bands playing Queen and Abba. If you’re looking for rebellious youth there’s Rap, Death and Thrash metal and genres too many to mention. No revolution though, as likely played by Uni kids as from inner city comprehensives. As for the rest, Mark Knopfler sang “He’s got a daytime job, he’s doing alright”… “Saving it up for a Friday night”.
It’s music streaming that did that. A few years ago all my music was deleted when I joined a streaming app. I had no idea why. On the app, if I set up a playlist within a few months most of the songs are unavailable and I cant remember the tens of thousands of individual pieces and albums I used to enjoy. I have them all on an old iPod for which I have a plug and cable locked away along with a wired speaker. I really hope the music streamers eventually go out of business once people realise what a Private Equity scam they are.
I was a teenager in the 70’s but not heavily into music. I got my tribal kicks (literally and figuratively) on the football terraces.
I think the disappearance of tribes has more to do with masculinity, particularly of the testosterone fuelled adolescent variety, having become toxic.
These cultural “tribes” were a boomer phenomenon; a blip. Great while they lasted but never to be repeated in the age of fragmentation.
The author misses the elephant in the room of the clubbing scene that grew up from the late 80s onwards, with vast warehouses full of young (and not so young) people moving individually within the crowd. Therein endeth the identitarian music scene, and also much of the violence that accompanied the preceding decades.
That also struck me as a glaring omission. As someone who was part of the rave/club scene in the early-mid 90s (the late 80s was a little too early for me!), one of the great things was that it allowed for individuality to be expressed, unlike the ‘regimented’ nature and strict dress codes of the scenes that came before that the author reminisces so wistfully over. While I have time for some of the punk music (I stress “some” – like all music scenes, there was a handful of quality bands and bucket-loads of dross), the culture that went with it is not something to be particularly celebrated – narcissism mixed with nihilism was never going to achieve much.
We all have a tendency to think the youth-culture of our particular era was the best (I’d always argue for the nineties – the variety of music genres, movies, fashions that all broke through to the mainstream was unprecedented until then, while the backlash against political correctness is something I fondly look back on in this current era of wokeness!), but I think perhaps the author doesn’t have much contact with the youth of today. Yes, we can all romanticise about how great it was to discover a new band/album in a record shop, but kids today have the ability to explore all sorts of styles (mainstream or alternative) through streaming. My 13 year old has a far greater appreciation of the wealth of good music out there than I ever did at that age! And I value the individuality that I see kids expressing today, which is much braver than simply conforming to what a particular tribe prescribes (be it mainstream or not). But then I’m not on social media, so perhaps what I observe in the ‘real world’ isn’t the zeitgeist at all!
I waited for that to appear in the article and was surprised by the omission also. One notable thing from my own recollections was the intense snobbery around different sub-genres of rave/club music. Those who held US artists from Chicago and Detroit in high regard wouldn’t be seen dead at a Goa trance night in the company of dreadlocked, tie-dye clad hippies. Central Scotland had it’s own home-grown scene combining Rotterdam gabbba and squeaky mallet happy hardcore, with the clientele almost exclusively from the housing estates of provincial towns rather than the cities. While you never had pitched battles between these tribes, they certainly all looked very different and almost never ventured into each other’s territory. I suppose the author merely emphasises his point that people grow up, move on and don’t know what the next generation is up to.
A different world back then; almost another planet…
Deliberate misquote ?
Grime? Drill?
Arguably dominant culture now, rather than subculture. All trendy teens I work with are into it. The guys dress like road men and the girls wear primark leggings with zavetti jacket and they all think they’re gangsters.
Indeed. There are countless genres of music and scenes out there if one’s willing to look beyond what pops up on an Instagram feed. The reason Teddy Boys (50s) and Punk (70s) gained so much attention was because there was nothing else youth-driven for the kids to get behind!
Indeed. Perhaps the sign of getting old, post 20th Century, is being blissfully unaware of the yoof subculture of the day. I’m sure that applies to me, too. My knowledge fades out post the dubstep era – perhaps I know of drill, grime and enjoy a spot of vapourwave and electronic quasi-classical like Kiasmos and , but that dates me at around 2010, I think…
In terms of a tribe, I used to be a raver and was sworn to enmity with Britpop and the dreary tail end of the rockist era that this author identifies with, a choice I defend to this day. The guitar was dead, long live the synthesizer. And there is something vindicating in that 90s rave music videos on YouTube remain a delightfully rare sanctuary from vitriolic comment sections, I must say. I guess we did something right!
This obliviousness of things 21st century definitely applies to many of my contemporaries too, however, whose cultural awareness seems to have stopped around the year 2000. Perhaps it’s better to grow old gracefully but I suffered FOMO for longer, I guess.
The Internet has definitely fragmented and diminished the live music scene, and therefore the visibility of identifiable subcultures for people to bond over, which is something I lament. The cost of living crisis has compounded this, not least diminishing opportunities for the proles to take a risk on a career or side-gig in the arts. Though it’s still relatively healthy in big cities like Manchester.
.
Isn’t it clear? This has all been subsumed into a new subculture of dyed hair, nose piercings, smartphone addiction, and despising Western civilisation.
I was 15 and rock had reached the nadir of the Bee Gees with their blow waves and tight white disco flares. It completely failed to resonate in any way at all. Then suddenly there’s God Save the Queen, Anarchy in the UK, Pretty Vacant. Like Blitzkrieg, and suddenly we had our music. Can you just f***ing imagine the effect. Sex Pistols were class warfare, anti establishment to the core.
And now, when the little identity nonces from the Daddy’s in Corporate suburbs whinge on about how white boys are racists unless they’re obsequious trans-allies or some other equally self-emasculating ideological saps of the self- obsessed better classes, that power of hitting your stride in life just when Sex Pistols cranked up, and knowing exactly what it meant about class relations, is like the glowing nucleus of strength when politely suggesting to woke fash narcissists where to shove it real hard.
It would appear that ‘the glowing nucleus’ of strength has burnt itself out. I’m old enough to remember the fifties and the drainpipes and the beetle crushers. And the knuckle dusters, the bicycle chains and the fights. Somewhere, and it may have been in a recent controversial Telegraph opinion piece, I read that if there is a Muslim uprising in the UK we will certainly lose. Why for God’s sake, why? Is it because everybody listens to Taylor Swift instead of Black Sabbath? Could be. Military bands were initially about signalling orders and position but it was recognised that music inspired the soldiers. The bloodcurdling sound and swirl of the pipes, for instance, boosted morale amongst the troops and intimidated the enemy. During WW1, pipers led the men ‘over the top’ and into battle. Many died, including my great uncle who was in the Black Watch – otherwise known as Die Damen aus der Hölle (The Ladies from Hell).
With politicians who are too flaccid to deport even the worst of those who are pouring into the UK, I would welcome any evidence, musically inspired or otherwise, that we still have some people who don’t need safe spaces and know where and how to ‘shove it real hard’ should the necessity arise.
It was brilliant, wasn’t it?
So you’re 61/62 and still asserting the merits of punk vs disco? I expect you’ll tell us that Abba were crap too….
Your name suggests that you are relatively young. This means that you should shut up and respect your elders when they speak about great cultural shifts that came to pass before your time. My tribe would sit in a large group and teach each other how to properly peg trousers to get that perfect punk look and then discuss how many eyelets one wanted in steel toed Doc’s (and what color laces would get one branded a racist skin even though dressed as a punk). The greatest trick to play on a close friend was to put a Grateful Dead sticker on their car next to their Damned and Sisters of Mercy decals and revel in their shame and laugh at how long it took them to notice. You can imagine that we wouldn’t have been caught dead even acknowledging the existence of ABBA.
I’m 70 and I thought – and still think – Abba were great. But I also liked disco, punk music and New Wave along with classical music, opera and trad jazz. Since then I’ve added techno and trance to my list of musical interests.
I’m 71 and love Techno and Trance. In fact it is very good running music. There is only good music or bad music.
I’m 62 and that sounds very much like my experience. Sure I like other music but nothing get my blood flowing like cranking up the volume on some classic punk.
I’m a dinosaur, i.e. a child of the 1980s, totally a ‘New Romantic’ back in the day with a dab of Goth… yet these days hardly anyone I know personally listens to the modern stuff I listen to (& visa versa). My tastes now runs to Witch House, Martial, Electronic etc. from Ukraine, Sweden, Belarus or Poland or obscure UK acts like ALLICØRN.
And that’s all fine by me.
I remember the night (in the late 90s!!) when I went to the new goth club and saw the younger kids doing their thing to the new goth sounds and thought to myself, “Not for me anymore, this just doesn’t have the incandescence of Siouxie or the neurotic joy of Alien Sex Fiend. It’s over.” And I never went back. Johnny Cash epitomizes goth for me now.
The internet changed everything. People that grew up with the internet are different to us. They don’t need to be part of a sub-culture to find identity or belong. They are used to just viewing any and everything that they want in a non-immersive voyeuristic way. We also ended up at pubs and clubs to meet friends and got into ‘scenes’ through that, but the internet generations don’t, they are always in contact whereover they are. They also don’t drink much, that removes a lot of everything that we did.
They also always have phones in hand to record everything today, gone are the halcyon days of plausible deniability.
That’s a good point.
It was Bootleg Babies being released that made me realise things had changed.
So, is the loss of musical tribes a ‘good thing’ or a ‘bad thing’???
It’s very much a bad thing. The tribal identity exists within a larger (nation sized) context. It allows young people to express a wild and unedited lifestyle, a kind of experimental abandon. Having altercations with other tribes is actually quite fun and brings one to a natural perception of one’s limits (physical and mental). My friends used to actually have fist fights with skinheads, it was always punks vs skins, because they were truly a**holes and deserved a beating, even if they often won. You can see how this builds a kind of character, even for the silly n*zis, which is unavailable online.
They are all playing video games instead.
An interesting thing about the 1970’s is how thats era’s music that is still popular today was hated by the critics and as such by many of the sixth form/student readers of the music press of the day i.e Abba, Elton,Queen, etc whereas the critics favs Steely Dan ,Television, Little Feat etc have proved very generational.A great bio-pic helps in creating interest among later generations.
I like the intriguing idea of musical tribes. The Meistersingers of Finsbury Park.
But on a more intellectual note, these various genres, movements, whatever, were each a feature of their time and, in the UK at least, bubbling up from what could be called working-class origins, families who were not very well off. Needs to be put in the context now, not of reminiscence for the tribes, but the changing nature of the tribes. The author perhaps a little bit too focused on the manifestation rather than the cause.
With trends like these, who needs NMEs?
Disappointing, though sadly unsurprising that the author, “an old NME rockist”, manages somehow to ignore the dance music scene of late 80’s and early 90s that spawned countless sub-genres and changed youth culture for ever – not to mention ending football hooliganism for a generation.
Ther not many really independant thinking, self aware individuals in society and they don’t join tribes with dress codes. They might invent them and be followed I suppose.
The article doesn’t mention the Beatniks which were around long before I was old enough to be aware of them, but I thought they were a youth tribe of sorts.
“Where are the punks or Teddy Boys of today?”
Wandering around on zimmer frames and mobility scooters in Stokes Croft, Bristol.
I can totally relate to this article, and often wonder about the lack of a musical/social movement that teens can feel part of nowadays. I find the ‘looks’ of the past 20-30 years really boring in comparison to the 80s, when I was a teen. I grew up in the US (Dallas) and had a different version of this tribal identity – we still had punks in the 80s! – it was mostly suburban kids who felt alientated from the dominant culture and there were 2 tribes: the punks and the preppies. Not many actual fights (these were suburban kids, after all) but a very strong animosity that I still feel echoes of today, when confronted with anyone who looks too preppy!
I think kids need a movement/group identity as a way to differentiate themselves from their family and the dominant culture that is forced upon them. I don’t know how kids today deal with it – without this identity to attach themselves too, but I wonder if the trans community is one such identity – as in some schools it’s cool to be part of this subgroup – and kids are looking for a way to be different but at the same time accepted by their peer group.
Without reading it again I think “The Man” saw there was money to be made and, typically, spoilt it. I got my first pair of Levis in Carnaby St in 1966 and paid silly money. The only thing that hasn’t changed is that jeans, i.e. workwear, can still be silly money. Except on street markets where a Pakistani ships them in from China or a Leicester sweatshop. Youth seems to have homogenised now into ubiquitous hoodies with trainers which cost more than jeans. Sociologically, those with the least income pay the most for trainers, like they have the biggest flat screen TVs. Musically a computer can make music at home emulating strings, piano and guitar. Behind the scenes all ages try an acoustic guitar, yearning to play Clapton, Hendrix and Mississipi blues. The Man has spoilt music too. Why else do we still spend so much on Glastonbury and concerts for old men like ACDC, the Stones or Paul McCartney? Dolly Parton is immortal, people flock to cover bands playing Queen and Abba. If you’re looking for rebellious youth there’s Rap, Death and Thrash metal and genres too many to mention. No revolution though, as likely played by Uni kids as from inner city comprehensives. As for the rest, Mark Knopfler sang “He’s got a daytime job, he’s doing alright”… “Saving it up for a Friday night”.