Why do some bands resonate with young fans (or musicians) and not others? It’s all about the magic of cultural timing
At this point, the arguments about Billie Eilish never having heard of Van Halen – as she admitted to US talk show host
Jimmy Fallon this week – have been played out: a bare handful saying the band are titans of rock and everyone should know their mighty works! Then a much larger number saying they are old men who were huge decades before Eilish was even born! What’s more interesting, perhaps, is why she (and most other 17-year-olds) hasn’t heard of them, whereas she had heard of
Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, and every teenager I know (I’ve got a 16-year-old and a 19-year-old) has some selection of long-departed heritage acts that they adore.
Often knowledge of older
music comes through parents (my kids, I’m afraid, do know who Van Halen are; my son is irritated that he doesn’t know any Oasis songs because I’ve never played them, but all his friends do), but that has always been the way. Other music survives because it continues to talk across generations, and not necessarily because of its greatness – more because it is still part of a wider cultural narrative. And, looking at the sphere in which Van Halen exist – rock music – you can see that most clearly, perhaps when you look at the bands who can fill stadiums with crowds in which there are lots of teenagers and who still get booked to headline festivals for those same teenagers: Foo Fighters, the double bill of Green Day and Weezer that is touring next year; Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink-182 (when they’re all talking to each other), and in the way it’s not just the old folks who turn out to see Liam Gallagher or Noel Gallagher or U2. I’ve never seen Pearl Jam, so I don’t know whether they can still bring out a younger audience, but I wouldn’t bet against it.