I think youthful fans can only be a blessing, because of the enthusiasm and the time they have to spin on the interest. It's hard to attend every concert, buy every magazine, maintain the scrapbook and everything when you grow up, have a job, mortgage, car note, kids.
Just for the record sales they can bring you and the added exposure, I think from an artist's standpoint, having young fans has got to be a blessing, even if it doesn't last. It does give you sort of a blood transfusion. You know, I'm thinking of something like Santana here and the Smooth wave. Or Cher or Tina Turner, people who had a career resurgence when they happened to catch the attention of youthful listeners for a few minutes.
I know what you mean about burn out, but isn't that more likely to happen with contemporary music than with the classics? I mean, I could easily be wrong, but I don't think Miley Cyrus is going to have her same fans 10 years from now. Whereas, with classic music, its enduring power has already been proven.
While you'll find close-minded, smug, intolerant people of all ages, I do think you might get more of that in younger people than you do in older. On one hand, you think you know everything and, on the other, you have an aggressive disinterest in everything you don't know. If you don't know it, then it cannot possibly be interesting. I do tend to think that the tendency to rush to judgment (with very little fact to back it up) is most prevalent in the young.
Michele
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