What do teen-age and young men listen to nowadays?

Singer? No, that's Elvis.

Pop-rock composer, yes.

What Dylan is doing screwing around with covers at this stage of his career, who the hell knows.

If I were him, I'd try to hook up with Rick Rubin to see if he could recreate his Johnny Cash magic, put a few months into knocking out the best 12 songs I could relating to life in the 2010s, and try to go out with a bang.

 

Buck, I think that's an overly pessimistic view. It's only my generation (baby boomers) that even lived in an age when all art, popular or high, could be recorded and stored forever. Prior to my time, I could never have learned to love Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Bob Wills, because the melding of cultures and the ability to reproduce art just weren't there. Music is music. Most of it sucks (most everything sucks), but I believe what people loved in the '60s will be loved generations from now -- because it was worthy of inspiring love.

 

I'm really skirting what could be considered young (33), but weighing in here anyway. My stranded-on-a-desert-island top 25 from the 2010s is as follows:

1) Lisbon- The Walkmen
2) Good Kid, M.A.A.D City- Kendrick Lamar
3) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy- Kanye West
4) Halcyon Digest- Deerhunter
5) Modern Vampires of the City- Vampire Weekend
6) To Pimp a Butterfly- Kendrick Lamar
7) This Is Happening- LCD Soundsystem
8) Kaputt- Destroyer
9) Reflektor- Arcade Fire
10) Art Angels- Grimes
11) Currents- Tame Impala
12) Teens of Denial- Car Seat Headrest
13) St. Vincent- St. Vincent
14) Channel Orange- Frank Ocean
15) Yeezus- Kanye West
16) Lonerism- Tame Impala
17) Take Care- Drake
18) No Cities to Love- Sleater-Kinney
19) Days Are Gone- HAIM
20) Summertime '06- Vince Staples
21) Teen Dream- Beach House
22) Human Performance- Parquet Courts
23) In Colour- Jamie XX
24) Bloom- Beach House
25) Parallax- Atlas Sound

Honorable mention: Any of Kurt Vile's. They're all very good.

 

I have to respectfully disagree, Mike.
I do not think a lot of the popular music of the 1960s will continue to endure with the same respect and admiration it enjoys now.
I am a 46-year-old Gen Xer, and the music of the 1960s is already less important to the current and rising generations than it was to my generation.
I am old enough to have grown up among a lot of adults who loved the music of the 1950s and believed it would always endure. It is now largely ignored.
The popular music of the 1940s and 1930s is completely ignored.

The music of the 1950s and 1960s was widely recorded and widely available, yet it continues to decline in importance among rising generations.
There is nothing wrong with that. It is the way of the world, the way of civilization and the way of history.
What I think it points out, is the continuing difference between popular culture and high culture, more specifically the difference between art and entertainment.
Respect and admiration for creative work over time is a quality of art.
I love the music of the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I love a lot of music today.
However, I do not think that three generations from now - 60 years - that music will be anything more than a quaint novelty.

 

This might as well be written in Greek.

 

Actually, for a brief moment about 1998-2002 when Napster was really running amuck, I didn't think this was true at all; you could literally go and download pretty much anything you wanted from the entire history of recorded music.

I listened to old 40s jazz and blues, folk and country from the 20s/30s, classical stuff I never listened to before or since. When it's all available at your fingertips for free, it's a lot easier to broaden your tastes and search out obscure music.

But of course it was too good to be true, and the golden goose had to die.

 

Disagrees

 

Looked at the list and recognized zero songs and only 3 artists.

 

Much of the music of the 50s, like that of the 30s and 40s, has already faded from importance. As recently as 10 years ago (maybe 15) an oldies station near me would play the "greatest hits of the 50s, 60s and 70s". Now it plays the "greatest hits of the 60s, 70s and 80s" and does a one-hour Elvis show on Sunday mornings. I think 60s pop music will fade, but the rock will live on as long as the classic rock format remains viable and up and coming artists cite the artists of the 60s (be it rock or r&b) that inspired them.
I love the pop and rock of the 60s, 70s and 80s. However as you turn to the 90s, 00s, and 10s, new pop and rock stopped appealing to me and you have to look the under the radar artists with large cult followings that make up the genre of alt-country and Americana to find the acts I like.
I think 60 years from music will still be a part of culture like it is today, but what form that music takes and what music from the past will still be listened to is unknown. I think a lot of classical music will still appeal to people 60 years from now, but which artists endure is a mystery.

 

Heard of six artists. Own two of the songs. I actually listen to a fair amount of newer alternative music, too. Guess I'm not as hip as I like to think I am.

 

I kept up with contemporary rock fairly well until the early 90s, when MTV quit playing music. The Pearl Jam/Green Day grouping was the last bunch I really kept current with.