Once again bunches of old people seem to be circling on the youth radio of the day, BBC Radio 1. Just as bunches of old people once circled the pop pirates of the 1960s, which in their time were the youth radio of the day.
In the 1960s the old people of the day hated that the youth of the day had radio stations playing what they wanted to hear and speaking with them in the way they wanted to be spoken with. The old people hated that they didn’t know best. They hated that the youth were not listening to their views.
And probably the old people also hated the fact that they had to let go of youth things as they were no longer young.
It doesn’t seem to have stopped. Once again the old people are making their annoying, threatening and predictable pronouncements about youth radio, BBC Radio 1. Worse still, it’s the very old men from the world of radio anoraks that are huffing and puffing.
They are all convinced that something is wrong with BBC Radio 1, and they all know the way to fix it. Except of course it’s them, not the radio station, that are out of touch.
BBC Radio 1 has a remit to reflect the music, the culture, the conversations of the under 30s. This doesn’t mean that the moment a person reaches 30, on their 30th birthday, they will suddenly find BBC Radio 1 unpalatable whilst the day before their birthday it was lovely and in tune. It should be that an individual slowly matures away from BBC Radio 1, and then lets go ‘around 30’. For some this will mean they departed in their mid-20s. Others might hang on until their mid-30s.
However, if BBC Radio 1 is providing programming aimed at catering for the interests of those over 30, then it is outside of its remit. This is why it always seems odd to read when old people moan about BBC Radio 1.
In the case of old radio anoraks, it’s people in their 60s who, rather embarrassingly, pontificate about what should be on the nation’s youth station, how it should be presented, the actual songs played, etc., etc. But how would these old farts know?
That’s right, they have no idea do they? I mean, you could forgive somebody around 35 for making comments and being more or less on the money, but you know that a 45 year old hasn’t got a clue.
45 year olds are actually well older than the average 15 year old’s parents. So what do parents know of what their children are in to? Just as in the 1960s, nothing.
But, a lot of those pontificating about BBC Radio 1 are older than that. Some are around 55, but most are around 65. So, older than the average grandparent of a 15 year old, then.
How dare these old people say anything about BBC Radio 1! They are over two generations removed from its target audience! I mean, you wouldn’t expect 15 year olds to say they know best about old people’s incontinence pads and the management of old people’s diabetes or dementia, would you?
Moaning about BBC Radio 1 might be forgiven if an old person actually lived and liked today’s music and culture in the way that 75 year old Annie Nightingale does, or 55 year old Pete Tong. As old people they are living and loving the youth music of today, whilst most old people do nothing but ridicule it, just as the old people ridiculed the music of the day back in the 1960s.
How can anybody who never buys, downloads, watches or goes to the gigs of the bands or artists that today’s youth enjoy, make any judgment about it? Of course they can’t. If they aren’t an avid Snapchatter, don’t produce regular Vines and play on Periscope, how can they possibly know what the youth of the day are into? They can’t.
And yet, all these old men keep sounding off about BBC Radio 1 and won’t be happy until it returns to catering for old people. This is of course well outside of the requirements of the BBC Trust’s edict that BBC Radio 1 serve the youth of the day.
It is very sad that old people won’t just gracefully let go of something that is no longer theirs. So, old people, you ain’t fam just walk innit.
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