Posted by twayneking on Thursday, October 26, 2017
There are a lot of kids here on the Banjo Hangout and that's a good thing for the survival of our musical sport. You always need new blood to keep a thing going. At the same time the BHO respects age and experience and there is a steady sharing of skills and knowledge between the old guys and gals and the young pups coming up that happens here. There's a respect here for the skill that goes with age and experience and in the opposite direction there's a respect for youthful energy and innovation.
Unfortunately for the (barely) United States of America, we've fallen (or at least those in the marketing industry have fallen) for the old Celtic ideal of Tir-na-og, the mythical land of youth as its utopian ideal. Not good for us geezers as in Tir-na-og, seniors were not welcome.
You see this youth-centricism every season on television as they cancel all the really good television shows (i.e. the ones I like) and give as an excuse that they only appeal to an older audience. If it doesn't attract the 20-30 demographic it gets shoveled on the ash heap by the marketing gurus. They've canceled "Longmire" in case you're wondering why I'm complaining about this like I'm some cranky old geezer (which I am). Their excuse is that Longmire's audience skewed older. It wasn't attracting the kids which is their desired audience.
Well duh!
Longmire told an actual story and wasn't layered with messages about global warming and how awful Republicans are. The plot was character-driven not "issues" driven. You had to pay attention to it in order to know what was going on. There were characters and depth of storytelling like you don't see much on TV these days. Very likely it will be replaced with some cynical bit of youthful snobbery with lots of bells, flashing lights, gossip and whistles and the occasional squirrel or naked person to attract the attention of the perpetual children that make up so much of the 20-30 year old demographic these days.
People who don't have the attention span to learn to play banjo.
Now don't you feel superior? I certainly do!
;-)
Tom King
2 comments on “The Tyranny of Youth”
AndyW Says:
Thursday, October 26, 2017 @1:01:22 PM
Many condolences for your TV programme??
twayneking Says:
Thursday, October 26, 2017 @7:14:23 PM
If only that were the only one. Skewing to an older or conservative audience is like a death sentence to TV programs here in the States.
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