grargh...

i need to clarify a point, because i'm working against something that is so engrained that it's considered almost crazy to even question it.

if you're a younger person listening to this, i don't want to alienate you or anything. i had diverse tastes when i was younger. there were plenty of artists i enjoyed that had a mean listening base at least a decade older than i was at the time, and it didn't really bother me. what bothered me was that so few people my age had any interest in it, or seemed to stigmatize it as "old". i never really understood that, and it just struck me as immature. so, if you can see through that kind of bullshit then good for you - and i can legitimately relate, too.

but i need to be clear that i'm not a young person, and i don't write music for young people. i'd imagine the proper listening demographic ought to be gender and race neutral, but decidedly middle-aged. it's targeted towards people in their 40s and 50s.

it's partly a reflection of the culture, but it's more of a reflection of me. now, it took me years and years to become cognizant of this; i don't want to present it as something that's been obvious from the start, because it isn't. but the reality is that it wouldn't have ever made any sense for me to write for young people, because i've never understood young people. i suppose artists are often isolated people, but i take the stereotype to a different extreme. how can i write for people i can't converse with? that makes no sense. i've never asked anybody on a date before in my life. i've usually had either zero or one close friend in my life at a time - and usually zero. so, how can i write about experiences i've never had, to a generation i've never interacted with? but, i've grown up listening to music written by people that are today in their 50s and 60s. so, i've had some communication [even if it's one-way] with the older generation. i've had essentially no communication with the younger generation.

it happens to be that the younger generation(s) have not defined themselves as artistically inclined. i think this has to do with the economic circumstances that have asserted themselves since 1980, and became devastatingly retarding in the 1990s. but, that's not the point. i'm not clinging to an older demographic out of a perceived decrease in quality - although i do perceive that decrease in quality. i'm clinging to the older demographic out of an inability to relate to people my own age, and to people younger.

so, i run into these suggestions of a more sexualized presentation to appeal to a younger demographic, and it's just, like "this is not the reality i live in". i don't want to present a judgement. it's just not how i perceive the art being disseminated. i want tips on how to appeal to an older demographic that has moved on past their breeding years.

or, the question of acting as a role model. i'm side-stepping this; this is not music for children but music for grandparents, so it's just not a meaningful question.

</rant>

i sort of mentally skipped my young adult phase. i was 15 going on 12, and then i was 17 going on 37 and 25 going on 55 and 30 going on 80. one would have to expect a person that matures like that to live a bizarre life, and i have.

the point is that i'm explicitly trying to not appeal to a young audience, which is so unusual in the industry today that it's incomprehensible. to understand certain things, you have to understand that.

but it's maybe something else that we ought to expect the collapse of the market to bring forward. young people have historically paid the most out. that's probably not true anymore, and becoming less true every year.