Can't sleep. Bit drunk.

RELEVANT ARTISTS; Bright Eyes, Odd Future, Libertines, Vaccines, yadda yadda.

What are 14-16 year olds listening to these days*?
What's being played on Kerrang / MTV2 / (does Scuzz still exist?) .
Do kids actually buy into vaccines et al hype from NME? ( - Venue sizes would suggest so).
Does Pitchfork have much influence on that demographic?

[*obviously the answer is rihanna, guetta, will.i.am, whatever's in the charts, mostly, as it was for any era, but - ]

Recent discussions about Bright Eyes/Odd Future have got me thinking. Also this completely spot-on piece on Palma Violets - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/feb/14/palma-violets-review

Back in 2004/2005, at my school there was a small but sizeable contingent of indie-ish people who bought to the whole NME Libertines thing, a similar group who liked stuff like HIM and Slipknot and whatever was on Kerrang. Having had nostalgic conversations with people my age it seems that was the case more or less across the country, which obviously adds up to a fair number of people - I imagine a ton of which are people are reading this now and can relate, hiya.

I think if you compare that HYPED guitar stuff from 2004 to now, it genuinely was so much better; both in terms of substance and stupid shallow image/charisma stuff - Libertines clearly had better actual songs than The Vaccines, but really were ten times more exciting in terms of 'what they were about' to impressionable teenagers.

And then even in terms of the bottom of the barrel abysmal stuff like The Others, I still think their awful schtick was actually exciting for someone 14 at the time, despite how they obviously made the worst music in history - The Enemy would be a decent contemporaryish counterpart for derivative nonsense now but they surely didnt seem to garner a similar enthusiasm for the same demographic, though that might not be true and a product of detached ignorance. And for people of that age range I think that crap is almost more important than music actually being half-decent.

I am very aware that every generation will say this, and there will, terrifyingly, be early 2010s / Vaccines nostalgia "real music R.I.P" YouTube comments in and this exact thread by someone in 2020.

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I think at that age you should definitely have listened to stuff that was unsubtle / earnest / a bit embarrassing in hindsight. I can't fathom how boring and precocious 14 year olds would be if they listened to 'difficult noise' or whatever.

Having said that I think there's some stuff that skirted the line between a bit earnest/OTT - i.e FOR da yoof as opposed to a 40-something record collector trenchcoats or the 2005 equivalents of YOU right now - but also have genuine quality about them.

From my 2003-2006 hayday I'd nominate, some controversially, some less so;
- most Libertines singles, some album tracks
- 60ish% of Bright Eyes back catalogue prior to Cassadega. I could expand on this loads and suspect I will later ITT but this is already getting too long
- the second Kings of Leon album (seriously <3)
- early Bloc Party
- though I never got into them, Arctic Monkeys

Of the above, were they to break through now I can't imagine liking any of them, but I'm convinced that my conviction in them being alright isn't entirely based on nostalgia.

I'd also say Odd Future would be a decent up-to-date example of this sort of thing

- The Futureheads ST (this isn't particularly earnest or embarrassing or for particularly impressionable youngsters, but so great and probably something I had on repeat the most at 15 - see also first two Strokes albums, first two Franz Ferdinand albums. Dunno why they're here to be honest. Just good albums like.

I would also say in terms of recentish massive releases, Channel Orange, good kid / mad city, MBDTF would be excellent for teenagers to listen to and are all clearly great - whereas I'd argue the critically acclaimed equivalents of 2004/2005 less so.

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People not welcome in this thread;
*"Oh At 14 my favourite artists were muslimgauze, erik b & rakim and wolf eyes" - you are unbelievably boring, and either a liar impressing no-one or had a wasted youth. Get out.
*Bass music / Dahbstep people clearly have nothing relevant to say in this thread so stop being boring before you even start typing. Get out.

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Massively tl;dr.

Also pretty indie/bedwetter centric. I imagine a lot of people between 27-32 will be able to offer pretty much the equivalents of in terms with pop-punk / emo stuff in '99 - '03. Please do.

YouTubes encouraged