Woodstock defined a generation of boomers 40 years ago when more than 400,000 free spirited converged on a field in Max Yasgur’s farm to hear some of the best music of the day. Today, many of us are reminiscing about that time, marking the anniversary of Woodstock with renewed interest captured on CD and DVD.
A study released recently indicates although much has changed, our love of Rock ‘n’ Roll music hasn’t. In fact, rock is helping Americans of different generations bridge the generation gap. For boomers, rock was a major battleground of the 1960s with their parents. Today, the war has softened.
While a national study conducted in 1966 found that 44 percent of adults despised rock music, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington discovered something quite different when it conducted a nationally representative sample of 1,815 people ages 16 and older. Pew found that rock — a broad label that ranges from the mainstream Beatles to the punk group The Clash — was the most popular form of music among people aged 16 to 64.
Beyond rock, the generations differ sharply in music taste. People 16 to 29-years-old made rap and hip-hop their second choice, whereas it was the fourth preference among 30- to 49-year-olds, and the seventh choice among those aged 50 to 64.
What the study proves is rock’s endurance as a popular art form among the generations. The difference from the 1960s is that today’s parents grew up with rock and then maintained their interest in the music as adults.
Pew discovered that a generation gap continues to exist on values, use of technology, work ethic and tolerance of others. But the differences between younger Americans and their parents are not as prone to divisive conflicts — within families or society at large — as they were in the 1960s.