I'm a 25 year old. I've been listening to bluegrass a bit for a couple years now. My tastes have recently started shifting from the Bela Fleck type stuff to the more traditional. And like the trend noted many times above, my interest is in playing more than being in the audience. Granted, I skimmed past most of the discussion, (there are over a hundred posts, and it's late) but in all the mentions of this trend, noone offered an explanation as to why this is the case. For me, the draw is that I'm really tired of having all of my music given to me by record companies. I'm tired of not being able to enjoy an evening with friends without spending money on it. I'd like to be able to sit around and just sing songs. And it seems to me that in order to do that, you need a body of songs that everyone knows, and that are designed to be sung by real people, not performers, elites, and specialists. The structure of folk songs is designed for this: lots of (meaningful) repetition, short verses, simple harmonies (in many cases), and a large focus on the choruses. Rock music is too much designed for performance settings. I'm not entirely sure, but I think this is a common sentiment among the folk-inclined of my generation. For this reason, you don't see many of us at folk clubs. We can be fed our pop music in clubs. Folk scratches a different itch.

curmudgeon:

> These old songs have a lot to say which is why they're still
> being sung. But one cannot expect the youger generations to go
> digging in old books and used record shops. Sing Out and you
> will be heard

You would be surprised what we youngsters will do when we're so inclined. Record shop mining is still alive and well. Except it's not how you would expect it. It's mostly being done by DJs. I know it probably sounds tragic to have your music picked at for five second samples, but there's actually a lot to be said for the DJ culture. It's one of the few "cool" things these days that actually encourages a mentality of discipline and excellence. I don't know your musical tastes, but if you can bear the music, I'd highly recommend you check out a documentary called "Scratch." It's a young art form--probably only been around for twenty years or so, but it is just now starting develop an inkling of a sense of its own historicity, and that is leading to a new understanding of how older music should or could be used.

Just some thoughts.

Cheers,
Cliff