Reading Festival: The acts are young, naive and hitting stardom before their GCSEs

Two of the most eagerly anticipated bands playing this weekend's Reading Festival have yet to reach 18. Leading the current surge in teenage bands are the independently educated Cajun Dance Party (known as CDP), while their north London schoolmates Bombay Bicycle Club are hot on their heels.

CDP may have taken their GCSEs only last year, but they are one of the most hotly tipped bands playing the festival, noted not just for their youth, but also for their music, which sits confidently and comfortably next to acts such as The Kooks.

They have been together for less than a year, but CDP became the subject of an intense A&R frenzy by their sixth gig. That shows a level of precocity surely worthy of a slap, or jealous disdain at least.

The band then found themselves signed to the prestigious XL Recordings. Their current musical heroes are Arcade Fire, and the legends they cite as influences on their MySpace page include The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Smiths and Syd Barrett. That list tells of a musical grounding well beyond their years. Last year, CDP built up a steady stream of accolades, from support dates with Kings of Leon to Steve Lamacq making their pop gem "The Next Untouchable" his demo of 2006.

Now, with nearly 20,000 friends on their MySpace page, CDP are about to release their second single, "Amylase", produced by none other than ex-Suede guitarist and Libertines producer Bernard Butler.

The lesser known (but not for long) Bombay Bicycle Club spent the summer not just rehearsing for this weekend, but also for their GCSEs. Having gained recognition when they played a successful series of shows at the Way Out West underage club last year, the quartet now boast the Rumble Strips as fans.

Musically, Bombay Bicycle Club sound as if their dreams are dominated by the Sonic Youth of 1982, which is odd. Shouldn't they be listening to McFly? The title of their song "Sixteen" (though three members are now 17) is more apt than their precociously named first EP The Boy I Used To Be.

This Reading Festival could well be dubbed Barely Legal for its surfeit of youth. At an event where the average featured act has yet to start shaving, the likes of Ash (whose singer Tim Wheeler is 30), Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor (42) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (76 if they're a day), seem a bit prehistoric.

Also in Reading's teen parade are Paramore, a Kerrang!-endorsed US pop-rock outfit whose pint-sized singer Hayley Williams, 18, sounds disarmingly like the Eighties rock diva Pat Benatar. "I've heard of her, actually," Williams said. "My mom is, like, a big fan."

Then there's Tiny Masters of Today, a punk-rock act from Brooklyn whose front man isn't a front man at all but rather a front child (he's 13), and London's Kitty Daisy & Lewis, who are disarmingly fresh country rockers with an average age of 14.

This proliferation of teenage acts is thanks exclusively to MySpace. Ageless, MySpace is therefore entirely inclusive. And precocious youth doesn't just hold sway in the land of rock, either. Though nobody seems to pay attention to the pop charts any more, those, too, are dominated by plump, peachy adolescence. Take Rihanna, for example, who swiftly achieved her dreams of becoming the next Beyoncé by spending 10 weeks at No 1 this summer with her single "Umbrella". She's 19.

Lily Allen is a national treasure at the tender age of 22, while her acolyte Kate Nash, whose debut album Made of Bricks is top of the charts this week, is two years her junior.

And even the ones who sound old and wise are mere babes in arms. Glaswegian newcomer Amy Macdonald may come across like a flowery member of Fleetwood Mac on her debut album This Is the Life, but she's just 19, and still lives at home with a mother, who cooks all her meals. KT Tunstall, in contrast, is 32. She must feel positively decrepit.

The silly pantomime that is ITV's The X Factor returned to our screens last weekend with the news that it was lowering its own age of consent to just 14. Who needs the daily grind of school when they could have instant (if fleeting) pop stardom instead?

The Reading Festival runs from today to Sunday (www.readingfestival.com)