"Madame. Move away from the stage, sîl vous plait. I will not ask you again. Sortez de la scène. Vite. Vite.” I would love to relate that the warning, issued by a burly French bouncer at a sold-out rock concert in Paris, was directed at me and the performer was, say, Florence and the Machine or Dizzee Rascal. Actually, Bob Dylan was performing and the object of the security guard’s frustration was not me, but my 64-year-old mother, who was refusing to move from in front of the stage.

Like an increasing number of adult children, I have a parent who goes to more gigs than I do. It is not surprising really. Take this year’s Glastonbury: most of the headline acts — such as Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen — were around my mum’s age.

Music promoters say that the baby-boomer generation is not going gently into that good night, but raging in the moshpit instead. And often taking their grown-up children with them. Pop concerts are no longer populated only by hip young things who look as if they have walked off the set of Skins. They have been joined by a crowd who should, by rights, be at home watching a Midsomer Murders repeat.

Mags Revell, who organised a recent comeback tour of the ska-punk band the Specials, says: “Musical boundaries don’t exist any more and it’s normal for older people to be into the same bands as their kids. Most of the Specials brought their grown-up children to one of their gigs and it was a nice family atmosphere.”

In the past year my mother Rae, who lives in London, has seen the Rolling Stones, Leonard Cohen and David Gray, to name a few. Finally, as the family has flown the nest, she has the time and money to indulge her musical passions. “The idea of gigs just being for young people is old school,” she says. “When I go to concerts there are all sorts of people enjoying the music. Age is no barrier. I saw Bob Dylan and the Stones before I was even 20 and I found it really moving seeing them again all those years later.”

Whether you look at clothes, TV, technology or even aspirations, the distance between the generations is shrinking at an unprecedented pace and music has become more democratic and less tribal.

And as the cultural generation gap contracts, so we notice it less. While historically parents have always seemed to listen to music that was alien to their children — think of traditional jazz or classical — now musical boundaries are so blurred that there is little difference. Today no genre can support class, age or even political preconceptions: last week David Cameron, 43, was outed by his wife as an Eminem fan.

Robert Strachan, a lecturer at the Institute of Popular Music at the University of Liverpool, says: “Until recently there was a clear demarcation. Rock‘n’roll was in the mid-1950s, followed by psychedelia of the 1960s and 1970s punk. They all involved throwing out what went before. Those generations have grown up and had kids. Today most new bands seek inspiration from the past and their music is relevant to their contemporaries and older people.”

Strachan teaches undergraduates and says that most of them, instead of seeing the older generation as fuddy-duddies, enjoy hearing them explain their journey from, say, the Kinks to the Kaiser Chiefs via Blur.

Bruce Springsteen, who is 59, played at Glastonbury this weekend for the first time to an audience that included some people who were not born when he first glimpsed success in the mid-1970s and others who witnessed it from the beginning.

John Shearlaw, who is in his fifties, has taken his children to Glastonbury for years. “I’d be lying if I said that my 24-year-old daughter wanted to do the same things as me, but it’s about sharing moments and connecting,” he says. “It’s fun if you can coexist and realise that there’s nothing wrong with Mum and Dad being up at 5am too.”

This is not to say that the looming musical free-for-all will be reached entirely without resistance. Or discomfort. Vicky Hartley, an events organiser from London, went to a Peter Doherty concert in Brighton in March. At 34 she thought she would be one of the oldest there, but she felt positively sprightly. “There were lots of people older than me there,” she says. “I got the feeling that the only drugs being taken by the audience were HRT or Viagra.”

As for me, my mum recently heard a rumour that the Stone Roses were re-forming and asked if I wanted to see them. Of course (had the whispers been true) I would. But with my mum? Come off it.

The Stone Roses were one of the seminal bands of my teens. For me, they represent 1989 and lying on the kitchen floor smoking Raffles cigarettes nicked from my mum. Even now when I listen to their first album The Stone Roses I remember the feelings of anticipation and excitement at the world that awaited outside the walls of our suburban semi. To see them with my mum, even 20 years on, would be an act of treachery to my teenage self.

Phillip Hodson, of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, says that it is me who needs to wise up and that intergenerational mingling is all the rage. He does, however, urge caution. Is this just an example of “kidult” parents seeking to be their children’s friends? “We do need a separation of the generations, otherwise what are younger people going to do to grow up?” he says. “Children, whatever age, want their parents to be quiet and dull. If their parents are always in the front row of a Lily Allen gig mouthing the words it can be too much of a role reversal.”

Anouchka Langford, 35, from Hampshire, is more enlightened than I am and often goes to festivals and gigs with her parents. Her brother Oli is a violinist who works with, among others, Damon Albarn, Tom Baxter and the Noisettes. She says: “My dad does embarrass me slightly at gigs, but only in the sense that he’s my dad. He pulls his socks up too high and does up the top button of his polo shirt, but once you’re in there and it is dark who cares?”

She has taken her parents to Guilfest and Poshstock and — although they are yet to be persuaded about the joy of muddy campsites and communal loos, preferring nearby B&Bs — they have great fun. “Now I’m older, musically I share my parents’ taste,” she says. “I love going with them and introducing them to new acts, such as Manu Chao and the Magic Numbers.”

For Derek Langford, the 64-year-old father of Anouchka, who lives in Surrey, it is about spending time with his kids. He says: “I like to meet their friends and do things that they like doing. I couldn’t care less what people think and I never feel out of place. I even have a dance.”

Of course, however happy you might become with the notion of pogoing alongside your parents, what you will never learn to enjoy are the endless stories about how good Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Leonard Cohen were in their youthful pomp — long before you were born.

Rock of ages: how to get it right

Do...

Be musically open- minded — you can learn from each other’s tastes.

Remember small is beautiful. Some festivals involve long hikes between acts.

Consider family-friendly festivals such as the Big Chill or Latitude.

Try seated gigs or outdoor venues such as Kenwood House or Kew Gardens in London, or Blickling Hall in Norfolk.

Don’t...

Try to do much — stick to one stage.

Camp. Try a nearby B&B.

Go on an all-night bender: your parents may have been around in the Sixties, but there are limits.

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