Definition of Oldies

[tunes4046]

I have a friend that has done a weekly oldies radio show for well over twenty years, his definition is a song has to be twenty years old to be played on his show, that would be 1993 for those of you tiring to do the math.

Opinions

 

[steve149]

The local Oldies station uses 25 years as the cut-off. To some of the kids I have played for, it seems to be about the year 2000.

 

[drzinc]

If it is as old as me it's an oldie... And I bet for most of us here this statement is also true.

 

[Dan The Man]

It's all relative to the audience's age. I'm only 29 but grew up listening to 50's and 60's music in the car with mom. To me those are oldies.

I always get a kick out of our local oldies channel playing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun as an oldies song. It's over the 25 year mark but doesn't strike me as an oldie for some reason. Maybe I'm just in denial about getting old.

 

[SoftJock Rick]

Oldies are 50s to me.

I recall driving niece and nephew up to NY back in the late 80s, so I threw in a Doobie Brothers cassette, and they asked me why I was playing oldies...

 

[Fred Wright]

20 - 25 years sounds about right. The local classic pop station rolls off at around 20 years.

 

[soundinmotiondj]

Most people form their musical tastes during their high school & college years....roughly between the ages of 15 and 25. "Oldies" is anything before the age of 5.

 

[Jas]

Oldies originally was fifties music. But the term was coined in the '70s or '80s.

 

[kittmaster]

for me 1929 to 1969 are the "oldies", 1970 is disco/classic rock, 1980/90 is hiphop/R&B/Punk/Alternative(same as punk?)/"Rock i.e. Bon Jovi, 2k to 2010 Lots of random garbage and some good stuff too.....2010 to present Top 40/Pop/"New Rock" > Finger eleven etc.....

That is how it breaks down for me, YMMV.

 

[Ausumm]

Yes, radio stations that play "oldies" normally use 25 years as a gauge...
but there are some who wish to sound a little different, and use anything over 20 years old.
I have this conversation with a guest at every gig.
They ask me to play "oldies"...and I have to ask them what THEY consider oldies to be.