advertisement


HiFi: old man's (end)game?

so the problem is with us, not them! I wish I knew how to make pfm attractive to a younger audience.

If you could call out the sexist pigs who are omnipresent on pfm, that would be a start.
Hey ho. Best not open that can up.

A Youtube/TikTok curated pfm presence might be a lure?
And some merchandise would be nice.
Has there ever been a pfm t-shirt or beanie hat?
 
so the problem is with us, not them! I wish I knew how to make pfm attractive to a younger audience. The site is certainly intended to be inclusive and we all have so much to learn from the younger generation IMO.

You might attract some younger people in initially, but would they stay for the long term? There is such a lot of anger and hostility in the threads (not just the politics ones).

Most younger people get enough patronisation from dads, headmasters and other authority figures, without getting more of the same when they investigate what’s meant to be an enjoyable hobby.

Kevin
 
I work in education, so I constantly interact with late teens and early 20-somethings and from what I understand by interacting with them, the problem (or "problem") is much deeper than hi-ti being tied to a single space, expensive etc. It seems to me that music just doesn't have the same importance in their lives that it had even for my generation (I view myself as a kid of the early 90s - that's the era that developed my initial music taste and importance of music in my life). It's just not tied to their identity anymore as it was before. When I was in highschool and college - you associated with your "group", be it punks, metalheads, alternative misic fans, electronica fans or whatever. For today's youth misic seems to be much more of a background thing...and certainly not tied to one's experience of self as before.

So, if what seems to me is true (only relatively true, of course, statistically relevant), then the primary and deeper question is not that of hi-fi, but how to make music more culturally relevant today. Putting hi-fi in focus before that question shows just how much out of touch with today's culture us hi-fi folks often are.

The question of declining attention spans, rule of multitasking and general lack of effort in everything, present in today's humans irrelevant of age is another important and related issue. Hi-fi absolutely demands attention.
 
If you look at Amazon's 'Best Sellers in Hi-Fi Speakers' you'll see what hi-fi looks like for most people in 2023... https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/electronics/4085831

Imagine if all the old hi-fi mags knew that would be future. :D

To attract this audience, you would need to open a Bluetooth speaker forum and do funny YouTube reviews. Dull PFMers would need to stop imagining that CD players & amps & cables, etc sound different and start talking about which speaker had the most bangin' bass.

 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
We (as a society) just don't consume music the way we used to.

We used to go to lots of clubs and small venues and see really big name acts for a few "d." They'd be promoting their album. If we enjoyed the gig we'd pop into a retailer and buy the album. We'd then get all of our friends together, sit in a darkened room and listen to the new album.

Now youngsters (horrible generalisation alert) sit in their darkened rooms and send each other social media links of some mass marketed star's new video (for free.) After sharing it 4 million times, its done and they're onto the next one.

It is what is is.
Or the younger generation are more interested in experiences rather than material objects. A rather blinkered view to say the least.
 
Cut the politics, if you are serious.

I don’t agree. Much of the politics I follow comes from people less than half my age on YouTube. There is a generation of people very much on my level politically and I make it absolutely clear in everything I write that this is an anti-fascist website. I will actively dissuade racists, misogynists, homophobes, transphobes etc. I have removed a lot of very ugly right-wing content over the years and will continue to do so.

A Youtube/TikTok curated pfm presence might be a lure?
And some merchandise would be nice.
Has there ever been a pfm t-shirt or beanie hat?

I realise YouTube is the current frontier in many ways, I watch vastly more YouTube content than terrestrial TV. It isn’t something I want to do though. I am just too reclusive. I very actively avoid spotlights. As such I’ll almost certainly miss that bus.

I really don’t rate TikTok.

I did try some merch a decade or more ago, t-shirts, mouse-mats etc. It was not successful. I may have another go at some point as I think it is a lot easier to put designs up with no investment now via tee-spring etc.
 
..sentenced to death for various reasons but the final nail being driven by a shitty (Continental Airlines) plane dropping bits of metal on the runway.

The French/Airbus never made much money off it and Airbus would profit if it was gone so they pulled support. It was political.
 
I don’t agree. Much of the politics I follow comes from people less than half my age on YouTube. There is a generation of people very much on my level politically and I make it absolutely clear in everything I write that this is an anti-fascist website. I will actively dissuade racists, misogynists, homophobes, transphobes etc. I have removed a lot of very ugly right-wing content over the years and will continue to do so.

Kudos for that! Also, I find the idea that youngsters should be apolitical and treated apolitically a huge mistake and misunderstanding. It's a sure way to turn them into political objects instead of political subjects and an ultimate patronization.
 
The question of declining attention spans, rule of multitasking and general lack of effort in everything, present in today's humans irrelevant of age is another important and related issue. Hi-fi absolutely demands attention.

The counterpoint is a lot of young folk produce and buy a lot of vinyl. They are the heart of it, not us old farts buying Tone Poets and £250 Dark Side Of The Moon box sets. The activity in independent music of all genres is huge. I absolutely love it. Now is such an amazing time for music. In most respects I wish I’d been in a band today than when I did it back in the ‘80s as things like computer recording technology, Bandcamp etc have put so much control back in the hands of the artists.

I get the impression a lot of older folk think the young are disinterested in both music and politics. This couldn’t be further from the truth IME. They just do it in very different spaces to the ones we used. I’ve actually found where some of them are now!
 
Re the younger generation, I have kids and work with young people and I’m optimistic. My son actually told me to listen to an album all the way through more than once. Others I’ve helped out with proper headphones and an amp and they have been shocked. One of my daughters friends (who sings in a choir) listened to my system and after a few minutes said she thought I was making it up about how a system could sound and she was shocked - “I get it” she said. I alway hand them the iPad to stream what ever they want and they all get it just as I did when I was 14. I could go on. The current younger generation could not be better and will look after the world way better than us.
 
IMO PFM will not be of interest to most young people. It has nothing to do with politics. HiFi seems largely irrelevant to them. Tony, if you shut down everything apart from the Music Room you’d gain young people. Unfortunately, you’d lose 90% of the rest.
 
I still shed a virtual tear at airports that Concorde has gone. I loved watching it fly over.
I first saw a Concorde in the metal at Heathrow. What struck me, aside from its elegance, was how small but loud it is. At the time, I was a top-tier frequent flyer with One World and could have used my squillions of points on a supersonic flight. But alas, I thought there is always another day. Sadly, tomorrow never came for that opportunity.
 
You might attract some younger people in initially, but would they stay for the long term? There is such a lot of anger and hostility in the threads (not just the politics ones).

Most younger people get enough patronisation from dads, headmasters and other authority figures, without getting more of the same when they investigate what’s meant to be an enjoyable hobby.

Kevin

Well said Sir.
 
I realise YouTube is the current frontier in many ways, I watch vastly more YouTube content than terrestrial TV. It isn’t something I want to do though. I am just too reclusive. I very actively avoid spotlights.

That is the key. Difficult to promote the site if you don’t do “jazz hands.”

A thread on pfm logo design would be fun though.

I would certainly purchase a pfm branded T-Shirt, as long as it wasn’t black…
 


advertisement


Back
Top