cartie - it's a much different musical world for young people, mainly because of the varied sources they can access. Music genres have become so fragmented and narrow focus in appeal, that many widely different sub-genres are appealing to them. They are exposed to an assortment and abundance of music that just wasn't available when I was a teen in the late 60's. You and I are adults who have had a number of years to expand and develop tastes for new styles of music and genres. Many young people already demonstrate this musical sophistication and awareness. As a teen, my musical horizons were altered by the visions of Frank Callaghan & John Runge whose incredible musical smorgasboard on the new LG-FM opened my ears to many new styles of music and artists. One of MY main heroes of local radio - Bill Reiter - turned me & others on to jazz, soul & blues and this has influenced my musical tastes right up to this day.
Now that the 5 - 18 yr olds are doing DJ duty on the big yellow & black mobile youth music testing facility, I am amazed at the variety they have on their iPods. They are quite willing to listen to my mp3 player and surprise me with their knowledge of my musical selections. I expose them to all of my different tastes - jazz, reggae, soul, old rock, vintage country-rock, world-beat and I haven't had one complaint form any of them about listening to "the old fart's music" I'm surprised when youngsters of 6 and 7 recognize the Beatles, John Coltrane or Johnny Cash.
It IS a much different musical world for the young and I'll say it again - radio is NOT part of that equation