19 July

Billion dollar plus tours are not uncommon today for the legends of pop music. People refuse to see how fundamentally different this is to how this industry began, as kids trying to ‘make it big’ in the world, as the culture kids used to force themselves upon adult culture. Their rebellion, their revolution. That revolution ended years ago, these artists are now the elites they once sang against. The counterculture became the culture, the new status hierarchy. That’s just a literal description of what happened, not a judgment of what happened. Those who grew up in this culture are often still deeply, emotionally tied to it, and resent any suggestion that it’s about anything except music. The numbers tell the story, this is a full cultural force, not just music appreciation. It’s the victory of teenagers over adults, the transformation of the adult world into a teen world.