Folks Over 50 only Buy Susan Boyle Records

I'm fed up with the media's generalizations about who consumes what music. Does it matter you ask? Well, yes it does, because music is a cultural gauge of society, and despite it's significant sales decreases, it guides many  other less sexy business categories in how they develop and market their products.

Over the past five or six years, we have repeatedly read how artists such as Michael Buble have "saved" the music industry and enabled the 50 plus market to regain it's interest in music. Of course this year, this has become a constant press story through the phenomenon we know as Susan Boyle.
Now I have nothing bad to say about Miss Boyle. Her meteoric rise has proven that a staggering 3 million records can still be sold in 6 weeks! Good for her. What I do have an issue with is how everyone over 50 is labeled as knowing nothing about music and effectively waits for a SuBo-like release before they can show their sheep-like heads in the music aisle at Best Buy.
Los Angeles and New York have young populations hip to all things hip. But in more earthy cities such as Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, and especially in creative rural areas like Sonoma County, there exists a different kind of hipness. There, mature music fans truly scour for what's happening out there and support a much broader range of credible music to a much greater extent than younger, fickle urban audiences. And, shockingly, they use a combination of new and traditional media, especially radio.
Take a niche radio station like Healdsburg's The Krush. This small station knows how to pleasantly inform the 50 plus market to stay totally relevant by supporting acts that would attract a smaller audience that would be twenty years younger in L.A. or New York.

Last night the Krush sponsored Chuck Prophet at Petaluma's Mystic Theater. It was a sell-out and the average age was about 55, with older folks well into their 60's. Not all vinyl-obsessed guys either, couples for the most part who sang along with every word. Last year I saw 500 people pack into a small rural community center for Todd Snyder, also driven by the Krush. These musically-active folks listen out for new music, share it between themselves and interact with the artists on the web. And they're not restricted to the highly creative Sonoma region. They are in many parts of our country. They are an important, but little recognized part of the backbone that keeps many acts alive, yet they are certainly not in the label's "15-35 sweet spot".
So let's not absorb the media's generalizations. Let's recognize this group's importance and spread the word. With more label attention and less media generalization the industry has a rare opportunity to recognize the mature audience's vital place in bringing high quality, new music to the fore.
 Chuck's Video for the way-too-catchy Freckle Song