TRANSCRIPT: When I’m Sixty-four …Twenty-four
By Cristy Meiners
Produced by Mike Katzif
Host: See if you can guess who is described here:
Clip: they wrote the best pop music of all times… its just great stuff.
Answer? The Beatles… no shock there. What is unexpected is to hear this praise from an 18
year old fan. Intern Edition’s Cristy Meiners reports on teens turning to classic rock:
SIXTEEN YEAR OLD TAMIR KALIFA READS OFF THE NAMES OF HIS PRIZED
RECORD COLLECTION
CLIP
AND YES, THAT’S REAL RECORDS… THE LARGE ROUND VINYL KIND EVERYONE
ELSE HAS GIVEN AWAY. AS A KID, KALIFA GREW UP LISTENING TO JIMMI
HENRIX AND THE BEATLES ON FAMILY ROAD TRIPS… BUT PUBERTY HAPPENS
AND KALIFA SOON ABANDONED HIS PARENT’S MUSIC FOR THE PUNK AND RAP
OF HIS OWN GENERATION. THEN, IN EIGHTH GRADE, A FRIEND RECOMMENDED
A BEATLES TUNE HE’D NEVER HEARD:
<<LET IT BE>>
.09 CLIP: she asked me if i had let it be or yesterday, and i said no, so i downloaded it off the
internet and i was like, wow, this is really really really good.
<<LET IT BE>>
KALIFA’S NOT THE ONLY TEENAGER WHO THINKS THE BEATLES MAY HAVE
SOMETHING. YET IT’S HARD TO KNOW FOR SURE IF MORE KIDS ARE LISTENING
TO CLASSIC ROCK THESE DAYS… IN FACT, ACCORDING TO MARKETING
RESEARCH FIRM N P D, CLASSIC ROCK IS ONLY ABOUT TWO PERCENT OF TEEN’S
MUSIC CONSUMPTION. STILL… THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT INTERST IS GROWING.
FOR INSTANCE, MEDIA MEASURMENT FIRM BIG CHAMPAIGN DOT COM TRACKS
MUSIC FILE SHARING ON THE INTERNET. CEO ERIC GARLAND SAYS HE KNOWS
TEENS ARE FINDING CLASSIC ROCK.
CLIP: I think there is no question that classic rock is more popular than it was 5 or 10 or 15 years
ago because there is so much more music being consumed.
AND BEING SHARED. IT USED TO BE THAT KIDS SWAPPED MUSIC WITH JUST
SCHOOL FRIENDS. NOW WITH THE INTERNET THEIR OPTIONS ARE LIMITLESS
AND TEENS ARE DIGGING INTO ALL TYPES OF MUSIC.
CLIP: when you think about a jr. or high school today they have access to the entire history of
music
IN ADDITION TO THE INTERNET, SOME KIDS ARE INTRODUCED TO IT BY CLASSIC
ROCKS ORGINAL FANS… THEIR PARENTS. AT A RECENT ROLLING STONE’S
CONCERT AT WASHINGTON DC’S MIC CENTER I SPOKE WITH THIS MARYLAND
MOTHER ABOUT HER SONS:
.12 CLIP: they’ve never been to a rock concert, this is their first Right now, they like the
beatles, two years ago we were listening to eminem and rap and now they want rock.
<<JUMP’IN JACK FLASH>>
SOME SAY THIS PUTS A STRANGE TWIST ON YOUTH COUNTER CULTURE. AFTER
ALL… ROCK MUSIC HAS LONG BEEN THE CLARION CALL OF YOUTH REBELLION.
PART OF THE JOY OF LED ZEPLIN WAS THAT IT WAS LOUD AND IT DROVE
PARENTS CRAZY. AND MOST PARENTS OF THESE NOW EAGER CLASSIC ROCK
FAN WOULD RATHER HAVE DIED THAN GO TO A CONCERT WITH THEIR
PARENTS. JIM
DE-RIG-A-TIS, POP MUSIC CRITIC FOR THE CHICAGO SUN TIMES:
<<STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN>>
.15 CLIP: When I went to a concert at 20, never in a million years did I want to be in the same
state as my parents. I wanted to go, smoke dope, listen to the music, and have my mind blown
and hopefully leave with someone of the opposite sex.
BUT TODAY’S CLASSIC ROCK TEENS DON’T LET PRIDE STAND IN THE WAY OF
THEIR MUSICAL DISCOVERIES. BILLBOARD MAGAZINE SENIOR ANYLIST GEOFF
MAYFIELD:
0.17 Clip: for the musically inclined youth there is this curiosity to discover the music that came
before.
INDEED… EVEN TODAY’S HIPPEST BANDS LIKE THE WHITE STRIPES, WILCO,
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE CITE CLASSIC ROCK BANDS AS INFLUENCES. AND, JIMI
HENDRIX AND JOHN LENNON WILL ALWAYS BE COOL. STILL… WE CAN’T
EXPECT THAT ABBY ROAD WILL NEVER BE OUTDONE. AFTERALL, ROCK MUSIC
IS ALWAYS EVOLVING. JIM DE-RIG-A-TIS:
0.18 CLIP: right now at this moment in the suburbs some guy or girl is sitting in their basement
with a guitar or beat box and they are going to rewrite the rule book once again and its going to
be the best thing we’ve ever heard in our life. On
AND THESE EMERGING MUSCIANS WILL REINVENT SOUNDS THAT WILL BLOW
OUR MINDS… ONCE MORE.
<< PURPLE HAZE>>
FOR INTERN EDITION, I’M CRISTY MEINERS