RE: Could it be....

["Paul Hopfgarten" <paul@03038.com>]

Interestingly enough, the School-Age population in NH is declining. I think
we're entering a phase for the next 10-12 years or so where the gen-xers
that are a smaller population than the boomers are now the primary users of
school systems.

I suspect the bottom of the population drop to occur around 2010-15 and then
(if we don't make the same mistake we made in the 1980's and sell off all
the 'empty' school buildings) that the population will once again increase
as the boomers children begin to have school-age children in large numbers.

Paul Hopfgarten
East Derry NH 03041
paul@03038.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> [mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of
> SteveOrdinetz
> Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 10:10 AM
> To: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> Subject: Re: Could it be....
>
>
> Howard Glazer wrote:
> >... that the downturn in recorded music sales over the past few years
> >could be a result of the graying of the baby boomer demographic? All the
> >boomers, after all, are over 40. A good number of them are over 50.
> >Since most music is purchased by people in their teens through thirties,
> >it would seem to me that music sales would have nowhere to go but down.
>
>
> Judging by all the screams about school overcrowding, I'd say 'taint
> necessarily so.  I've read that the current generation of
> school-aged kids
> is larger than the boomers.  Of course, culturally they're much more
> diverse than the boomers...not only in the sense of racially/national
> origin, but personal taste as well.  Music was a very uniting factor for
> the boomers...Gen Y (or whatever you want to call them) have no
> real common
> culture...the rap crowd has little to do with the rock crowd or
> the goths,
> etc.  Can anyone picture old-style Top 40 that played Johnny
> Mathis back to
> back with Led Zeppelin playing with today's teens?  They're a different
> generation with a completely different mindset...not simply a younger
> version of the boomers...much like the boomers were a totally different
> generation from their parents.
>
>
>
> >The record companies, apparently, don't take the population shift into
> >account, as they continue to push heavily researched, meticulously
> >planned youth-targeted product at a youth market that's just not as
> >large a part of the total population as the baby boomers were during the
> >industry's boom years.
>
>
> But they have no choice.  How many over 40 people do YOU know who
> have any
> particular interest (let alone passion) in new music?  When was the last
> time you bought a CD that wasn't a compilation or reissue of a
> classic album?
>
>
> >And couldn't the crassly marketing-driven nature of much of the
> >big-label product also be dulling the buying impulse?
>
> I'd say the fact that the market fragmentation and changes in priorities
> has more to do with it.
>