Re: poly: Why Oldies Stations?

In a message dated 4/6/98 9:26:13 AM, hanson@econ.berkeley.edu wrote:

>I meant considering the group of kids as a whole, why do they
>so ignore the oldies? Of course any one kid may differ from her
>parents, but the group of kids as a whole should differ less from
>the group of parents as a whole.

Why children differ from parents in realms where (presumably) things
aren't getting better is a fashion issue. You're now dealing with
two related but separate issues:

1) Why do oldies stations play different styles from current stations?
(fashion)

2) Why do oldies stations play old songs, as opposed to new ones in the
old styles?
(novelty)

Current styles often do reflect old styles - all this retro business.
I do note that young adult music in older adult styles (like rockabilly
in the early '80s) tends to be based around new music.

>Huh? Selected-for sexual strategies may not have an overall value
>to the species, but they must have a value to the individuals involved.

In that sense, yes, but the value is often just making the offspring
more likely to carry alleles that turn on the members of the species.
It's popular because it's good and good because it's popular, but
this is purely self-referential - the alleles carry no benefit other
than turning on other members of the population.
Received on Mon Apr 6 20:39:28 1998