The Future of Rock & Roll - A Young Man's Game?

I have a friend here in L.A. who is a producer of all sorts of records. Last Spring this friend recorded an indie-rock band's debut LP which has gone on to see quite a bit of positive critical press the past 4-5 months. Did I mention they also just landed a major label deal? The reason I mention this is that said friend and I were discussing the band and I was to told to "keep it on the downlow" in regard to the age of a couple of the band's members because they were thirty years old. Thirty.

This got me thinking about ageism is music, particularly rock & roll music, and how it's long been a factor in the grand scheme of the biz and public's perception. From the original rock & roll icons hiding their marriages from their teenybopper fans, to the Backstreet Boys hiding their wedding rings in photographs. While this has obviously eased up a bit the past few years that comment in the above conversation was evidence alone that it indeed still thrives.

But maybe not in the rough and tumble world of the twang. One of the things that originally drew me to the sounds of "alt.country" or "insurgent country" and the like, was that it seemed, or at least appeared to be devoid of such artifice. In fact, traditional country music in general has never been about youth – like the blues, in that world, youth don't know shit, they haven't lived enough to know shit.

So I'm curious, dear readers, do you see such ageism in rock & roll fading away in the next 10, 15, 20, 30 years? Time will tell...