Do young people go to jazz concerts more than classical ones?

[cuberdrift]

Someone said that young people go to classic concerts less than jazz concerts, because classical is "harder technically" than jazz, and thus less "approachable" and more "erudite" than jazz.

Is this true? If so, why?

Regards,
Cuberdrift

[outin]

Someone said that young people go to classic concerts less than jazz concerts, because classical is "harder technically" than jazz, and thus less "approachable" and more "erudite" than jazz.

Is this true? If so, why?

Regards,
Cuberdrift

I think "young people" is a bit too broad a definition to make any sort of conclusions. But generally I would say both jazz and classical are more consumed by "older people".

[j_tour]

Good question.  I don't know if there's going to be any real answer, but once you exclude college students (whether they're music majors or not), who IME seem to make up a good part of the recital audience (not so much the big shows with full orchestra — the standard cough drops unwrapping and older people falling asleep), as well as following smaller jazz shows with headliners (especially anything retro, with a name Hammond organist or somebody playing variants on so-called "acid jazz" featuring the Rhodes piano and such), it's really a mixed bag.

I suspect for most young people (let's say in their twenties), they go to concerts to socialize or follow whatever rock/pop/singer-songwriter band their circle of friends are into.  Which is fine, you know.

In my observation, by far what people young (and old, these days) do is pick a streaming channel to listen to on their phone and aren't so much into really listening to music in general as a hobby.  Bars don't have jukeboxes much anymore, for example.

So, it wouldn't surprise me if that approach carried over into how "they" treat live music.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Dude I’m a classical musician and even I go to more jazz concerts than classical ones.

It’s cause there’s actual audience participation and you can talk and eat and drink and record stuff on your phone and stuff