Truth!!

Dad rock bands? This whole thing where young people try to make it out like its 40's music and 80's music. Sorry but 70's.80's and 90's was the last of any kind of real, good music. with musicians and bands touring. please don't try to bring the garbage of today into it like its actual quality. Ur not dealing with old timers that went to a barn dance and or fox trotted. I've seen Slayer, I saw GnR in the early 90's, high as a kite and it was glorious. I've seen Death Metal shows that would melt ur face. I had thriller when I was 10. What's going on today? Bad HipHop and lame pop music. Even the pop music of those past decades was real. Back to school little man. This hobby dies with us "Rock dads" so ain't gonna happen. Good day sir.

I said Good Day.

Your are 100% correct and the lack of good music today has fueled Country Pop and Country Rock into what it is today.

It’s funny.
My mom and dad listened to The Doors, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and a plethora of others.

I never considered any of this “dad rock”, even though it’s mostly well before my time.

We just called it good music.

first thing that comes to mind is that they start to revive titles like Stern doing Bally KISS and JJP doing DE GnR ...... and everyone will buy them.

Whilst I understand what you're posting I have to agree with the likes of Levi on this one as I just don't see the demographic you're trying to reach putting out the cash for a pin. This demographic is use to not paying for music to begin with as they download it for free and you're wanting them to pay 7-13k for a toy? One more thing to consider .... vinyl records are the biggest seller for music today. Yes vinyl records and not CDs, online streaming etc. The demographic for vinyl ... 30-50 years old.

I've said it before, this guy has dozens of fans, several likely with disposable income for a pin!

pan flute (resized).jpg

Obviously it will be difficult to reach a large enough audience regarding music themed pins. Manufacturers are trying, but will never make a 15-20k unit seller.

I also would hope no one in this thread legitimately is against you for having different taste in music. Subjective is the key here.

If I was going to market entertainment products to a millennial generation, the focus would be more late 90’s and early 2k pop culture. Bands and music groups of that era would be a tough sell my friend.

classic rock is classic for a number of reasons. first and foremost they played actual instruments. Out of curiosity and with an open mind i just listened to the Weeknd Blinding lights. I just have one question. Are you fuggin' kidding me with that garbage?

I could get behind Steven Wilson/Porcupine Tree machine

I'm no fan of rap, but would like to see an NWA. I think they missed the window and should have pushed it out with the Straight out of Compton movie.

As ancient and even quaint as NWA may seem today, it's would still be tough for a mainstream pinball company to push an act whose signature song is "Fuck tha Police."

Ooooooof
All this statistic shows is how simpleminded audiences have become.

Prince?

After last years' protests and this years' insurrection that seems to be the sentiment of folks on both sides of the aisle. But yeah, I can't see any pinball company getting behind that.

I must be old. I remember the weekend was something everybody was working for.
I get it though, everybody wants a new romance.
But I think everybody is going off the deep end about this.

The biggest take away here for me is at this time it is not a viable option to sell pins to a smaller market.I would possibly buy a Foo Fighters pin but they have a longer history and catalog of music

The licenses will catch up when the people in charge of picking and signing off on themes are younger than Gen X...it'll happen eventually.

Completely agree. Dude should change his name to Monday Morning Driving to Work. My ears bleed when I hear that awful putrescence!

Its not my bag baaabby.I wont buy it but nothing wrong with you wanting it

I want a generic dark theme, monsters, devils, world destruction, cannibals, somethin' like that. No license fees on that and it doesn't get stale. Then the game lets me load a bunch of my favorite death/doom/black heavy metal songs onto the tracks. Hey you're talking about modern times, right? I load my own playlist into the sucker.

I agree with this premise. Pop music, doesn't seem like a good fit for a pinball machine, regardless of the era. No one is clamoring for a Partridge Family pin. Today pop music is even more formulaic and has become sythesized, auto-tuned and quanted to the point that it lacks soul and edge. It seems more at home in the waiting room of the dentist than a pinball machine. Is there a group out there that has 1) charted multiple top 10 hits over a significant span of time and 2) play a hard-driving, adrenaline pumping style of music? I suspect any group that can meet that criteria is a good candidate for a pinball machine, regardless of the era. (A third critereon would be having recorded multiple live versions, since oftentimes a live version of a song has much greater energy than the studio version)

Ever played The Beatles?

Old men buy pinball machines.

Old men have never heard of “the weeknd”

If they saw it written somewhere, they’d think someone made a spelling mistake.

rd

there will never be a pinball machine of a modern band

back in the day we only had the radio and a record player, we saved up and bought an album and played it to death
now days, kids have the attention span of a goldfish, they can just listen to a single song from an artist before moving on to playing a video game, watching tik tok, messaging their friend. they have never bought a whole album, their world is different

Wow. If there was a market for it they would make it. Its nice to think there's gonna be a whole new generation of pinheads, but there isn't. Ok. That's the bottom line. We are a couple of decades away from video games being indistinguishable from reality and VR killing most things actually mechanical. I'll still buying pinball machines so it isn't going away anytime soon but young people aren't buying games.

So it's one of these threads again? We are dangerously close to price bubble stuff!

Anyway, I agree. Young people aren't buying games. However in 10-20 years when they are old people they very may will. Just like the "young people" invoked in that exact argument 20 years ago are now old and buying games.

Go check the RGP archives. Pinball collectors are all supposed to be 70 years old now, and their collections are supposed to be worthless. This was how it was predicted, "just like the Jukebox hobby."

Yes. They are. If they're not buying them, they're playing them. Operators purchased Rick and Morty and put them in bars because they knew they would appeal to younger demographics. I keep hearing this line on Pinside, but guess what: Pinside isn't the entirety of the pinball world. A lot of my friends are in their 20s and they love pinball; many of them are looking at getting their first game or picking them up already.

Green Day
Foo Fighters
Nirvana

i guess there classic rock now but less old head stuff that would work

You may be right, but we have been told for at least 20 years that in 20 years video games will be indistinguishable from reality. We have made much improvement, but still very far away from this.

Also, I always thought growing up that when I am old enough I would have a bad ass man cave with arcade machines. Once I finally decided to pull the trigger, I couldn't be bothered and got pinball machines. Quite literally I had never touched the flipper of a real pinball machine until I was 37 years old.

People change when they grow up. While I wont have the same appreciation for the older EM machines that some of you guys do, I very much find the mechanical aspect of pinball what draws me in the most.

Also, even the BEST VR still SUCKS these days. Its fun for all of 5 mins. I wouldn't even say its out of the beta stage yet, and its been there for many, many years.

Exactly. This is what the "The industry needs to appeal to the kids!" crowd will never get.

In the 21st century, pinball is no longer for kids. Kids don't leave the house. And when they do they aren't interested in something as dull as pinball. It simply doesn't have any appeal to them.

When those over 40 here were kids, there was literally NOTHING ELSE TO DO on some days besides go out and hit the arcade. That's where the fun was.

That's ancient, irrelevant history. Pinball does not need to appeal to kids, nor will that work. They need to appeal to people in their 20s and 30s who go to bars, and might discover pinball there. That's exactly what's been happening - at least in NYC - for the past 10 years or so. And Plenty of those folks, as they get older, are buying pinball machines, now that they have their own apartments and can afford them. I know plenty of these cases, first hand. In some cases, I've been the one to sell them their first games.

Pinball isn't for kids any more, it's for grownups, and that's why Stern is slaughtering it in the licensing department.

ahhh right those one-hit-wonders, Outkast and Daft Punk....

I did not call them one hit wonders.

Their hits - pop hits, that age quickly and disappear - do not possess the same timeless quality as classic rock, and wouldn't help sell pinball machines.

When was the last time you voluntarily cued up "Hey Ya?"

I guarantee you half this board spun Back in Black at least once in the past year. And every year.

I think Lady Gaga would be a great theme for a pin. Might get more ladies interested in pinball too.

the last 3 games I sold went to guys age 50,40 and 30 i didnt check ID but thats my assessment from looks.All 3 seperately said I love the EM games and want to learn to work on them.Now I dont know if its true or if their budgets were under 3k but when youngsters show me a game I will try it if theres any interest ,if its fun I will buy it.BUT like previously stated us old guys with toy dough are not much into Daf punk or whoever .My son would probably want to try it but try selling him 1

Its nice how some of u guys really believe pinball is gonna survive us. I hope it does but extremely unlikely. Its thriving right now cause us arcade old timers have money to buy pins and relive our child hood. Look at the themes, look at the cost. It dies with us. But ok.

I'm not even on your lawn!

By who?
Kids in the 70's 80's and 90's are now 35 to 55. 70 is foolish prediction. But to think 20 somethings and younger are gonna keep pinball alive is even more foolish. There will be games around of course but Stern and JJP etc. building games? I don't know and who gives a shit anyway.

Absolute awesome playing game; it's fucking fun. Won;t argue the price kills it for me.

The weekend no thanks. That is just my personal opinion.

In terms of this generations prince I don’t think we have seen that person yet. So I’d be a yes prince no weekend.

Again just my opinion.

Rock pin - pantera...

Sign me up for a Daft Punk pin. I’d love that. Homework or Discovery albums thrown in. Hell yeah.

The Weekend, no way for me.

I’m 32 for reference, although not sure what that means to this haha

I couldn't possibly disagree with you more strongly. I don't want to be insulting, especially since you are a regular here and obviously not a 'newb'. But a comment like that makes it seem as if you haven't been paying attention the last 20 years. In 2000, I purchased a like new Twilight Zone, Funhouse and Creature for $2800 when the hobby was almost dead. It has gone straight up from there. What this means is more people are entering the hobby. It means an entire generation has bought into pinball and we are going into another generation. We are having record sales. Stern needs to move into a bigger factory yet again. My local distributorship says he sees lots of young people entering the hobby. I'd say the hobby does not die with us. My opinion is it's more likely we are the generation that launched a world wide phenomenon rather than be the one that died with pinball. Just wait till Asia gets involved. Nobody is more into gaming and mechanical devices in general than Asians. Once the pinball companies up capacity and are able to sell there... look out.

Exact same thing they were saying 20 years ago.

I thought we were all working for the weekend.

Ok, it's no secret I'm old and unhip but is that guy with the bandages on his face The Weekend, or is he the singer for the band called The Weekend?

Also is it a band or just a mac playing pre-recorded tracks?

I'll admit that one song in super catchy but as I've said several times, I expect it to have the shelf life of "All About the Bass"

This is so true. The "playlist mentality" that is here today will never allow an artist to maintain the longevity of KISS, Metallica, The Beatles, The Stones, etc.

how about making a machine that appeals to females as well for once? Why all the caucasian over 55 male audience music? its not Dad rock, its now grandpa rock.
average age new dad is 28 years old. . that is being born in 1993. So technically "dad" rock or music starts from people being born from 1993.
feel old yet?
its 2021. lets stop worrying about bands from 50 years ago.
im sorry but if you cant see the actual facts of most popular music the last 20 years its urban/dance based, no matter what your background is.
super stars who have the most youtube followers, the most hits over the past 15 years, the most overall popularity with hit after hit and still relevant today are as follows:

Eminem
drake
Taylor swift
Post Malone
ariana grande
Lady Gaga
rihanna
nicki minaj
Usher
chris Brown
Lil wayne
Migos
travis Scott

These arent one hit wonders or has beens, thats who are relevant and have been in the worlds music eyes like it or not for many many years.
Their numbers compared to any old rock group are larger.
These are facts, not opinions.
embrace the current times. Any of these pins would out earn any old rock pin on location and sell in new markets galore as far as homes are concerned.