Music Report: The Enduring Power Of Classic Rock

"Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I'm sixty-four?"
The answer is obviously a resounding "Yes".

Should we book Classic Rock for our events?

Tickets for the October Classic Rock Extravaganza in Coachella - the Desert Trip Festival - go on sale this morning.
The event is touted globally as the biggest Classic Rock weekend of a lifetime and is expected to sell out the rumored available 70,000 tickets immediately.
This may come as a surprise to many of us. We have become accustomed to living in a youth obsessed culture. Chart topping acts start their career ascent long before they can legally order a beer in the USA.

It is the age of streaming music and social media self promotion.
Surprisingly, it seems, the oldies but goodies continue to succeed without much attention to their social media followers.
Mick Jagger has a million and a half followers on Twitter. Not bad, you think, until you see Taylor Swift. She has almost 77 million followers.
Taylor has the same amount of fans on Instagram.
Mick Jagger? Less than a paltry 700 000 followers!

However, in the touring business Old is Gold!
The Stones hold a whopping 8 top spots in the Top 50 Grossing Tours Of All Time (source: Pollstar).
A surprising 34 of the 50 Top Grossing acts are baby boomers - and they end up in the Top 20 Tours any year they go out.

Our collective emotional response to the passing of Glenn Frey, David Bowie and Prince this year underlines the general sentimental attachment to these stars whose fame endured much passed their chart topping and headline making days.

(Getty Images)

No wonder Taylor invited Mick to join her to get some "Satisfaction" during her tour stop in Nashville, TN, on September 26, 2015).











What explains this astounding longevity?

We asked Gary Bongiovanni, Pollstar's CEO and Editor-in-Chief, for his expert insights.

“These classic bands endure because of the baby boomer generation. They are the cream of the crop, the baby boomer heroes. That generation grew up on that music and it is still their music of choice.
Their tastes haven’t changed. They may go to less concerts nowadays but this music is still the soundtrack of their life.
What has changed is the way concert tickets are sold.
Concert tickets used to be all one price and quite affordable. Starting in the 90s, the industry introduced tiered ticket pricing, charging much more for better seats. Many boomers can afford those tickets while young fans for the most part cannot pay $200 for a ticket. So we see a lot of boomer parents bringing their children along to concerts to share that experience with them. Consequently, the fan base grows among the younger generation.
These acts are not dependent on hit records. The audience comes to hear Paul McCartney’s hits, not the songs from his latest album.”

Bongiovanni expects The Desert Trip to be a success.

“The organizers are very smart about tiered pricing and seating. The general audience prices are quite affordable but they sell a lot more assigned seating than at the Spring festival, at higher prices geared at boomers. They won’t want to stand in the pit under the sun for 12 hours. They want their seats."

It also helps that Desert Trip will feature only two full length concerts each night, with a start time right after sunset to adapt to the boomers' taste and endurance level for loud music.

The Old is Gold mantra does apply to the event entertainment world.

Sam Trego, Owner of Imagination Entertainment, offers several completely produced shows featuring classic rock, including the highly successful corporate event version of Beatles LOVE - IE's "Beatles by iL CiRCo", launched in the summer of 2014 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the British Invasion.


The Beatle's in San Diego! from Imagination Entertainment on Vimeo.

Sam Trego:
"The Beatles aren't just a pop music favorite. The band changed the face of music. Their music is timeless. It triggers as much of an emotion now than it did on the 60s.
Classic Rock is like a time machine. It triggers an emotional response in each listener. Oftentimes it takes you back to a time that was more stress-free, or you were in love, or it reminds you of other significant moments in your own story.
This music crosses borders and generations and it succeeds at entertaining any group. We love working on this show and it is a big success at any event. It just works."

The strong link between music and emotion sometimes catches us by surprise. I personally was surprised at my own sadness over Prince's untimely death.
However, judging by guests' reaction to Classic Rock entertainment, it makes perfect sense. Timeless hits work for a very large group of guests, across ages and cultures.
The appeal is universal.

See you in Coachella in October!