How do you think a casual teenager guy or girl could react to PSB music?

[Nickname]

We always talk about the kids of the fans from PSB. Of course, they love when daddy (I can't remember a mommy playing her kids music from PSB) plays their records but not too much about the ones who could discover them by themselves.

If you have some experiences about the reaction of kids (outside the fandom) with PSB could be fun to know.

There is an example with West End girls:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6f2imcDS9Y

[raggatwin]

One of my year 12 tutees loves them - she is sixteen

[RevAaron]

Whenever I mention the Pet Shop Boys to someone younger than me and they say "who?" I kind of die inside a little.

[G_Goalden]

For obvious reasons my kids associate me with PSB.

I know my eldest listens to PSB at university (though not sure if that is out of appreciation for the music or for missing home )

One thing is for sure, when I’ve gone - whenever they hear PSB they will think of me (hopefully fondly). The music will indeed last forever.

G.

[Gabby]

There's a few "reaction" videos on YouTube (not all kids mind you) but easy to search up *songname* reaction video on your chosen search engine.

It would be interesting to see some very fresh reactions to some PSB songs (West End Girls is always the go-to but would be interested to see some reactions to deeper cuts too).

My daughter has some very eclectic tastes, but does go back to PSB on her own a fair bit - Love is a bourgeois construct is one she really enjoys, and the All Over The World (This is a Dub) she goes back to a lot too - and I know she shares that enjoyment of PSB with some of her peers, so she is spreading the good word to the teenagers of today! I guess it's up to them to then determine if they're worth digging into any further.

[lalolalo]

They just don't care.
will never listen to it unless there's someone in the family that makes them.
They might hear them if they're pointed to them (like those reaction videos) but even then they won't listen to PSB ever again.

There's a romantic thought (Mostly of collectors) that they will be able to sell their collection for thousands when they're old.
I always find it quite funny.

My partner's niece lives in London. She's in college there. Last year we went to see PSB at Liverpool and a couple of days later we had dinner with her and her boyfriend.
So we told them we had gone to a show and even met and chatted with Neil. I showed her the picture of Neil and myself together. All the time they were looking at each other and asked us "Who are they??".
So I showed them Go west on YouTube. "Never heard of them".
Always on my mind. "Oh yeah, I think I've heard that one. So, drinks?"

They don't care anymore. It's too complicated for them.

And parents, face it. Your kids listen to pet shop boys when you're around. With their friends they'll never listen to, or admit they listen to, pet shop boys. Ever.

Something funny. A couple years ago when Argentina won the World Cup, there was like a hype of a couple guys who started to sing to an old lady in the street after Argentina won a match. It was quite funny since every time Argentina won a match there were more and more people joining at the same place around this old lady, first there were like 10 or 20 and it grew until there were tens of thousands at the same corner singing to that same old lady when Argentina finally won the cup. The song they sang was Go West.
Even then, most of them never knew it was Pet shop boys they were singing along to. And probably none of them will ever listen to Pet shop boys anymore.

[Vintage Youth]

Bit cynical lol. Prepare for a ramble, there is context, I promise.

I got into PSB through my cousin, who was 13 years older than me, I was only four when West End girls came out. I got into a huge amount of music through my parents and grandparents, there was no 'making' at all. I even like Glenn Miller and had Moonlight Serenade as my ringtone for years
I vividly remember seeing the Sergeant Pepper LP and thinking it looked colourful and putting it on and thinking that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard.
I made all the kids at one of my birthday parties do 'pass the parcel' and 'musical statues' to a Beatles greatest hits collection during the height of the Kylie and Jason phenomenon.
My Mum went to see Roy Orbison in the 60s but didn't like him that much, I got into him of my own volition after his comeback in the 90s.
The only music she tried to 'make' me interested is trad Irish stuff, which I loathe.

At school I listened to tonnes of uncool stuff, I wasn't afraid of other people knowing it. When Very came out, it absolutely was not what my peers were listening to.
To this day, everyone remembers me loving my weird music. I loathed SAW and the boy bands, except for East 17, the Watkins connection lol. I got on OK with the ravers as despite being a geek, I knew my dance music.

OK now to the question

My old friend's niece has shown an interest in the recent stuff and I was recruited to help him buy some of the back catalogue for her 18th.

A friend's son stayed with me this summer as he needed somewhere to crash while he was DJing around Europe and he ended up dropping some PSB stuff into his set after hearing it in my house, he sent me videos and everything

Anyway, point is, don't underestimate youngsters. Some of them do have taste, don't have to be forced and aren't afraid to stand out from the crowd. The fact that PSB are still going after such a long time means that of course younger people are consuming their content.

[Vintage Youth]

The song they sang was Go West.
Even then, most of them never knew it was Pet shop boys they were singing along to. And probably none of them will ever listen to Pet shop boys anymore.

I know you know, but a surprising amount of people still think it's a PSB composition and not The Village People.

[TallThinMan]

I know you know, but a surprising amount of people still think it's a PSB composition and not The Village People.

I expect that’s the case with ‘Always On My Mind’ too. They’ve certainly made those songs their own. They have a writing credit for both.

[Vintage Youth]

I know you know, but a surprising amount of people still think it's a PSB composition and not The Village People.

I expect that’s the case with ‘Always On My Mind’ too. They’ve certainly made those songs their own. They have a writing credit for both.

Definitely and that comes with the passage of time/is generational. My Da is a huge Elvis fan and that's his favourite version. I doubt he even is aware that PSB covered it but it would be dismissed as 'shite' anyway.
The taxi driver who takes me home from gigs was born the year I went to see Oasis for the first time . He asked me once who I was seeing and I said Gary Numan, blank look, we eventually got there when I pointed out he was sampled in a Sugababes song.

Also, going a bit back to front here, I remember in first year they used to play songs in the assembly hall at lunchtime, I heard a familiar bassline and thought 'Under Pressure! Great, they are playing Queen at school' but of course, the words 'Stop...collaborate and listen!' soon followed.

[Gabby]

I think what we're all wishing for is the "Stranger Things" effect that happened to Kate Bush. That being said, it was still a bit of a flash in the pan, so even if a PSB song did capture the zeitgeist of a younger generation, I imagine it would only be for a short period of time.

Imagine - Kate Bush is now being remembered simply for "that song on Stranger Things"? Hardly the legacy she's actually left and should be remembered for and not even close to the level of respect she is due.

[Nickname]

I think what we're all wishing for is the "Stranger Things" effect that happened to Kate Bush. That being said, it was still a bit of a flash in the pan, so even if a PSB song did capture the zeitgeist of a younger generation, I imagine it would only be for a short period of time.

Imagine - Kate Bush is now being remembered simply for "that song on Stranger Things"? Hardly the legacy she's actually left and should be remembered for and not even close to the level of respect she is due.

I think there is a song that could have potential to get kids attention on that way, if they put the song in a good scene of action and in a very popular series: Suburbia.

[Patrick Bateman]

Of course plenty will be aware and like 'old' music but a teenager being into PSB rather than contemporary music is essentially like us being into Bill Haley back in the 80s.

[Danimal]

Streaming has completely changed the game. I hang-out at a college coffee shop on the weekends and the late teen early twenty-something baristas who work there mostly listen to 80s music. When I asked them “why” they said it was “listenable.” Almost all of the biggest streamers are from the 90s and before. In fact, I read somewhere that new music only composes 5% of total streaming. Fashion or trends just aren’t a factor anymore, with streaming people, including young people, discover music themselves and take it on its merits, regardless of an artist’s age. There’s a reason Parlophone was eager to increase PSB’s cut of streaming revenue to entice them to re-sign with them, and that’s in the streaming age established artists, regardless of their age or vintage have a distinct advantage over most younger artists.

[NotInvisible]

Of course plenty will be aware and like 'old' music but a teenager being into PSB rather than contemporary music is essentially like us being into Bill Haley back in the 80s.

Nah, it's more like being into McCartney or the Stones in the '80s - guys obviously past their prime but still putting out records that occasionally got played on the radio. But then again, there always seems to be a contingent of high schoolers listening to the Doors and Zeppelin etc.