For years, classic rock has been the music held dear by the children of the late ’60s and ’70s. Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and ZZ Top are among a pantheon of artists that have suffered no loss of popularity among the people who came of age listening to them.

Their albums still continue to sell well more than 30 years after their release, and the familiar guitar riffs can be heard in TV and radio commercials aimed at selling products to the people who love the tunes. Whenever any of these top artists releases a new album, it is guaranteed to go gold or platinum.

Later generations picked up on this musical vibe and added strands to the fabric. Those younger siblings and children of the original classic rockers grew up listening to the same music and began to include a few of their own bands like Van Halen, Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Guns N’ Roses.

In the ’90s, a temporary rejection of classic rock by those known as Generation X gave pause to the classic rock world. Fueled by fashionable angst and a wave of new sounds like grunge and alternative rock, this rejection made classic rock the butt of many jokes and made it music for old geezers.

This rejection did not last, though. Most of the beloved Gen X bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilots all had their roots in classic rock and were a continuation of the same stream of rock music.

Now most of Generation X are in their late 30s and early 40s, and the rock of their generation that was supposed to be an “alternative” to classic rock is now considered classic rock itself. It is no longer strange to hear Bad Company’s “Shooting Star” right next to Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow” on pretty much any rock station in the country.

Many of the people considered to be music experts predicted that classic rock may survive the temporary rejection by Generation X, but there would be no way for it to survive with what marketers call “millennials.”

The assertion was that the onslaught of rap and hip-hop coupled with the overwhelming wave of new entertainment sources such as XBox, the Internet and music-on-demand services would prevent people born after 1990 from even being exposed to classic rock.

But the music experts got it backward. It was that very technology that opened up the world of classic rock to yet another generation.

The latest generation of rockers was not part of Gen X’s classic rock purge. They’ve never heard the jokes, and there is no social stigma attached to classic rock for them.

The ability to download any song instantly has teenagers all over the country discovering “Stairway To Heaven” and “Iron Man” for the first time. All of a sudden the kids like classic rock.

And then came “Guitar Hero,” which has turned a brush fire into an inferno.

The immensely popular video game uses a guitar-shaped controller with buttons that players push to correspond with the notes of the songs being played. The popularity of “Guitar Hero,” and to a lesser extent the similar game “Rock Band,” is staggering. The franchise has sold more than 16 million games and has spawned a cottage industry of accessories for the controller guitars.

The popularity of the game has put the new teen love affair with classic rock into overdrive.  Any song that makes it onto a “Guitar Hero” game immediately gets a giant boost in sales and downloads — primarily from teenagers.

Lindsie Nelson, 17, of Clendenin, is a perfect example of this trend.

“I love Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin. I like more of the classic rock stuff,” she said. “The lyrics are more poetic than the stuff out now and the sound is amazing. 

“Guitar Hero turned me onto Cream and Metallica, too,” she added.

Nelson, whose favorite current bands include The Used and My Chemical Romance, sees the connection between classic and current rock. “It’s all obviously influenced by classic rock.” 

The fusion of music and technology is obvious when Nelson talks about how “Guitar Hero” influences her music buying habits. “If I really like a song, I will look that band up on iTunes and check out more of their stuff. Then I end up finding more great music.”

This trend of teenagers adopting the rock of their grandparents has not gone unnoticed by those who make a living from the genre. Record labels are re-signing exiled B-list classic rockers, and classic rock radio stations are beginning to take notice as well.

Bill Jacobs is a rock radio consultant and a member of the Jacobs Media Group, which is widely credited with inventing the classic rock radio format.

“It’s amazing. Classic rock has always been about adults, and we used to make jokes about Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ being played in nursing homes,” Jacobs said. “Now a much younger audience is developing.”

“Now, because of ‘Guitar Hero’ and the Internet, we have radio stations in every city taking requests for The Rolling Stones from 14-year-old girls. No one ever expected that.”

Jay Nunley is the program director for Rock 105.