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by jpwagner 5089 days ago
should consider throwing in age distinctions. [old music-old people-conservative] vs [new-music-young people-liberal] is neither interesting nor exciting.
3 comments

[old music-old people-conservative] vs [new-music-young people-liberal] is neither interesting nor exciting.

Indeed. The saying attributed to Winston Churchill (he didn't actually say it)

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill#Misattributed

"Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains." is a familiar statement that people change their political opinions over the course of life. I might add that most observers of politics in the United States think neither "conservative" nor "liberal" are useful terms for describing where people fit in United States politics.

For the record, my radio presets in my car are to "classic rock" stations (of which there are usually at least two at any one time in my town) and most of the music I rip to my computer is similarly music that was top-airplay pop music for the Baby Boom. When the Baby Boomers were young, that was probably considered somewhat radical, antiestablishment music, but I've been surprised at how many of my contemporaries have grown up into middle-aged people who might be characterized as "conservative" politically active voters today, while keeping the same musical tastes.

Another Texan checking in.

It's worth pointing out that the artists listed in the red box do actually have younger fans (Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton).

Surprised to see no mention of Radiohead...

I think age is probably the most important. Second to that, I suspect a higher portion of the data set being on the Democrat side. Both factors are so strong that they have old sayings about both.