There's such a thing as growing as an artist. To grow as an artist if you start young is to be able to look ahead and realize you need to be appealing to an older and more diverse crowd. The Beatles did exactly that. I can't see Justin Bieber doing it. Like most teen pop crooners, he's locked into this one demographic and once he's too old to appeal to them anymore, he's history and some new annoying asswipe will have taken his place.

Likewise, there is also growing as a listener or consumer of music. I started off listening to rock music--what's called classic rock these days--but I branched out. I didn't force it, it just naturally happened--sort of like when your voice cracks in puberty.

That's why I have no patience for teens who listen to crap. I don't want to hear, "What else would you expect teens to listen to?" I expect them to start branching out as I did when I was a teen. By the time I was 16, sure, I had a lot of rock schlock shit but I also had more cerebral stuff as King Crimson, Kraftwerk, Gentle Giant, Eno, Ravi Shankar, even American Indian chants recorded by field units, old jazz like Chick Webb, Karlheinz Stockhausen, stuff by Tomita, Edgard Varese. I remember having the guitar music by John Dowland and an album called "Music of the Hoch Baroque". Sorry, but I did it as a teen and I expect other teens to do it. I don't accept excuses for mediocrity in what we choose to listen to.

It is YOUR responsibility and duty to branch out so branch the fuck out.