The Zimmers

In the Stone Age (or should that be The Stones Age?) before the Internet, a label boss told me that “they” had never been able to sell music to people over 25. They didn't go to school, they didn't go out to clubs, they didn’t read the NME or Q. They were out of the loop. Isn't that what selling CDs at Starbucks is based on -- baby boomers being out of the loop?

But one of the two biggest groups on the Net are the over 60s, one of the two demographics with time on their hands. They might not listen to Radio 1 or Galaxy or X-FM, but they know all about YouTube. "My Generation" is a novelty, akin to the jokes that used to get emailed around the world back in the nineties, and it’s spreading at the same kind of speed – 16 days old and already 222,000 views.

The telling part is that the major media has yet to cover it. Isn’t the major media where taste is formed and amusements brought to our attention? The gatekeepers who tell us what we should like, what we should buy? Not anymore. Now you can bypass the entire system and go straight to the public, your target audience. And if what you're saying is interesting, that audience will do all your marketing for you.

It may be a novelty, but the execution, the humour, the lack of irony, is fantastic. Aren’t these the people who hate rock music? Wait a minute – these are the people who were teenagers when Cliff and Elvis first broke out! It’s a brilliant concept and that’s the starting point for all great art. It’s why Mariah Carey is a superficial conceit and Yes are still filling stages around the world 38 years later.

So the idea fuels the interest. It’s not about a million dollar Jay Z video full of Ferraris in Monte Carlo pushing lacklustre filler…oh, we see it, we hear it, but we don’t talk about it, we don’t share it, we just don’t care. But a decent audience video on YouTube….Have you seen how many audience videos there are on YouTube? And how compelling they are when the artist is on form, working at high altitude without a net?

This particular idea has hit a chord. Sure it’s a novelty and has a lifespan. But the learning is in the underlying activity, discovering something and spreading the word….that’s here to stay.