Every year these days, Rolling Stone magazine publishes its so called "Money Report," which is a tally of which rock and pop performers the previous year took in the most money from selling records and touring and merchandising. And when I saw the latest list -- acts that earned between $31 and $57 million dollars apiece -- I was struck by the singers and bands who dominate the top ten – they were mostly old, some really old, and their music is mostly… pretty soft.

Such as Madonna, Elton John, Jimmy Buffet, Phil Collins, and Simon and Garfunkel.

Lite FM, anyone?

And I don't think it's a coincidence that those artists range in age from nearly 47 -- Prince and Madonna -- up to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who are both 63.

Remind me: what were the rock and roll counterculture's animating ideas when the baby boomers were young? Don't trust anyone over 30; don't care about money; and rock hard.

Right.

In fact, the only people under 30 on this current richest-musicians list – the only young people, people of an age that rock-and-rollers are supposed to be, the age Jimi and Janis were when they died, the age the Beatles were when they broke up--are the members of Linkin Park, guys in their 20s.

The leaders of Metallica, the only other rock band on the list, are over 40.

I wondered if this trend, the biggest acts tending toward the old and/or poppy, was becoming more pronounced. So I went back to check on the richest-musicians list from a few years ago.

And sure enough, back in 2000, there were two rappers, Dr. Dre and Master P, in the top 10. And back then as well, most of the top acts were people under 45, compared to just two on the latest chart.

We'll see if this trend continues when the data for this year are crunched, although the tour that starts at the end of the summer leads me to believe that the biggest arena acts will still tend toward the elderly. Because, although they still rock pretty hard, only one member of the Rolling Stones is still – barely -- under 60.

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