> On the one hand, I’m happy to see young people enjoying the music I was into nearly fifty years ago (I attended my first Grateful Dead concert in 1973). On the other hand, shouldn’t young people be into newer music?
I hear you. I'm overjoyed to see young people listening to classics but wonder when the next Jerry, Zappa or Jimi will emerge. The music world is much more image conscious than it was then, however(video killed the radio star...) and the market is much more fragmented now. That said, there's a ton of great new music. It's hard to tell with my old ears what music now will have the staying power of the music we love.
The progression of radio -> tapes -> CDs -> mp3s -> streaming services slowly but surely dramatically broadened things from the days of there just being a couple main genres. Mainstream radio hasn't kept up - the bandwidth isn't there - but there's a ton more out there beyond it.
> the Dead is more or less 'boomer music' these days.
I haven’t lived in the U.S. for many years so I don’t know the current scene first-hand, but whenever I watch Grateful Dead videos on YouTube I start getting recommendations for videos of currently performing cover bands [1]. These include not only the groups that include surviving original members, like Dead & Company, but also a lot of younger bands throughout the country. Some stick to the original Dead repertoire fairly closely, while others mix it with their originals and with other covers. While Dead & Company seem to attract a lot of graybeards to their shows, the crowds for the younger bands look a lot younger.
Those videos stir mixed feelings in this graybeard. On the one hand, I’m happy to see young people enjoying the music I was into nearly fifty years ago (I attended my first Grateful Dead concert in 1973). On the other hand, shouldn’t young people be into newer music?
[1] http://gratefuldeadtributebands.com