at what age do most people stop liking new music

[falkirk bairn]

As someone who was born in 1951 and has grown up through 6 decades of differing music, am I in a minority for people my age in saying that I've always loved listening to whatever is the "new" music of a particular time.

Having seen so many music styles come and go and found something from most that I have enjoyed, I find it amusing that so many seem to reach an age when they suddenly stop listening to anything new because it's different to what they grew up with.

Reading the posts on here over the years, I've seen so many from people wanting to see their favourite bands from years ago on the main stages.

A lot seem to be having a go because the bands of the day,whatever their musical style, are the ones who are selected to play.

Surely the point of going to glastonbury is for the experience of coming across something different, not planning your weekend round watching as many of your favourite bands from your past or who you saw when a teenager as you can.

I can understand younger people wanting to see a famous band from yesteryear just to see what the fuss was all about so why don't older people feel the same about new bands.

Sure you might not think much of them but at least you should give them a chance to try and change your mind about them.

My wife and I were lucky enough to come across some really great young bands in recent years and are going to see 4 bands, who were little known 1 year ago, on the NME Shockwaves tour tomorrow.

This is only a cpl of months after seeing loving the Nick Cave and Bad Seeds gig in November.

Enough for now so feel free to let us know how you feel and we look forward to some interesting results.

KEEP MUSIC LIVE.

[strudders]

Brilliant Thread.

My wife an I are very different ages. She has stopped listening to music for pleasure and turned to the telly. I asked her why the other day and she said it was boring and she just did not get the same out of music as when she was younger.

I also pressed the point of perhaps it was because her hearing is deteriorating... she hit me.

However this is a good point. I am getting on a little now and I find it difficult to hear lyrics through the music.

This is slightly annoying as I do like to sing along, however my taste in music has changed a great deal over the past ten years to address this.

I still hold a flag for the old music as it was played when I was young, But I think this is because to me, music brings back so many memories of much happier times.

This last two years though have seen a great deal of reinvigoration my musical taste. I have found some great great bands that I know I would not have looked out 10-15 years ago had they been of a similar genera

So I guess music is journey that some reach the end of much sooner than others, whilst people like your good self and (I count me in this group), just never reach our destination.

Regards Struds

[MikeyB37]

I also pressed the point of perhaps it was because her hearing is deteriorating... she hit me.

[Ricochet]

what a great first post. you have 10 years on me falkirk bairn. i like you still love to discover new bands though i will freely admit there is new music out there that i dont much care for. same as it was since i first got into music in the 70s. here's to the next decade of musical discoveries.

oh......and welcome to the boards!

and strudders...whats that b****x about you getting on a little. you're a slip of a lad.

[blue&white]

Hey guys, first post on here for a '57 baby - music keeps me young at heart because I am willing give a listen to anything, and Glasto is a great environment for achieving that. New music can give you that buzz that perhaps the passage of time and maturity of established artists sometimes misses.

I'm back at Glasto in June for the first time since 2004 - simply down to being unable to get tix since. Looking forward to it as much as any teenager I reckon, and what's more, taking 2 Glasto virgins who won't see their 40's again!

Looking forwards to (hopefully) the likes of Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and White Lies as well as the like of Bruce - for those doubters he will tear the roof off the Pyramid - miss at your peril.

[strudders]

what a great first post. you have 10 years on me falkirk bairn. i like you still love to discover new bands though i will freely admit there is new music out there that i dont much care for. same as it was since i first got into music in the 70s. here's to the next decade of musical discoveries.

oh......and welcome to the boards!

and strudders...whats that b****x about you getting on a little. you're a slip of a lad.

[Josie's Cat]

I think people who don't bother to listen to new bands, and simply bang on about how great "their" bands were, simply don't really like music.

I know people who NEVER listen to music unless it's a film soundtrack or they are in the car with someone who DOES want to listen. It's weird and unaccountable to me.

I feel great sadness for these people who cannot feel passionate about something so universally wondrous.

It's as if they go through life with a huge chunk of their brain switched off.

[Ricochet]

Looking forwards to (hopefully) the likes of Fleet Foxes,

[glastoman417]

Very good thread! (Not been many of them lately!)

I've always been fascinated by what people listen to, and why.

I'm only 41 but I hope to be like my hero John Peel who was still discovering new bands and going to Glastonbury into his 60s.

However I have friends who stopped buying new CDs 20 years ago and think all new music is rubbish.

My personal theory is that listening to music that is different to what you've been listening to is always a challenge. When you are in your teens or early 20s you want to fit in with your peer group (whether mainstream or alternative) so you make the effort to listen to what they are listening to.

But when you get older you get lazier and don't feel the need to fit in so much (nor do your peer group listen to new music).

Some of us though still enjoy the challenge and continually try to expand our musical horizons. Whilst others prefer to criticise something new rather than embrace the challenge it presents.

One other thing, a lot of so called "new" music sounds suspiciously like "old" music! The likes of the ting tings and the killers do sound to my ears like the kind of stuff I was listening to circa 1979. So whilst the youngsters think they sound exciting, new and fresh, us oldies are thinking dull, stale and past it's sell by date!

[Joshuwarr]

In my eyes, anyone who doesnt embrace new music is NOT a true music fan. You may try and profess otherwise but its true.

[strudders]

In my eyes, anyone who doesnt embrace new music is NOT a true music fan. You may try and profess otherwise but its true.

[Mardy]

Interesting thread.

I'd love to be cooler than thou and profess that I'm totally in love with new music and it excites me in the same way that it did when I was younger, but truth is, I'm not sure it does, for me.

I was thinking about this the other day, there are albums where I know every word, every chord change and when the song finishes, I know what the next track on the album is and how it starts, my brain is ready for this. The vast majority of these albums are not recent. I've been pondering why

a) emotional involvement

Music, horrible as this may sound, is not the single most important thing in my life. Sunds shit but it's true. There's my family, and that takes some of the time and energy away that I used to spend absorbing music

ease of access to music

I can download (and sometimes do) about 20 albums in a morning. Now obviously, I can't give them all the same care, attention and chance to grow on me than I did when i bought one album a week, say, and invested more (both financially and in terms of effort). Where's the thrill of rushing home with a new piece of vinyl, reading the sleeve notes on the bus and the anticipation. It's great I can listen to every single album that I read about, but it does diminish my excitement and the effort I'll put into it. I wouldn't swap i don't think, but it's a definite change

c) friends

When you're 19, the thought of being friends with people who don't listen to the same/similar music as you is unconscionable, you swap music, you copy it, you discuss it, you turn each other on to new stuff. Nowadays, having the same musical taste as me isn't a pre-requisite for being a friends, and I think the nature of friednship itself changes as you get older. You're not going to rush up to the bloke you work with all excited about an album release and spend your lunch hour discussing the tattoos ofthe lead snger (unless you're very lucky)

I dunno, I've got loads more thoughts on this, cos as I say its something Ive been thinking about a lot lately, but that's probably enough to bore people wiht for now.

I'm not saying that I never like new music, I'm saying it's less likely to grab me.

oh yeah, and I realise that all the above makes me a c***

[Spacey]

I think one of the joys of Glastonbury is the diversity of music and the chance to see bands you wouldn't normally go and see. In the build up it is interesting to look at the rumours and try to find examples of new bands' music to listen to. Also it's great to come across something really good and new as you wander around the festival.

I am one of the older board members but like both old and new music. Looking forward to Springstein but also lots of other things. Was blown away by Muse the other year. Good music is good music.

[Josie's Cat]

If you truly love music, you will listen to new bands (new in chronology or new to you, doesn't matter) and find something to enjoy.

People who love classical music for example, surely listen to new composers as well as Beethoven?

To NOT listen to evolving sounds is to not give music the respect it deserves.

Oh, and people who listen to bands simply because they are "cool" deserve to rendered deaf.

Edited January 30, 2009 by Josie's Cat

[strudders]

OK

define new music?

What exactly is new music? is it a new Genre? is it a new album? is it a new sound?

My music collection will in all honesty have new music to you that is very old to me.

Have a listen In a gadda da vida. Is that new music to you?

or how about Yes Tales from tropographic oceans?

This is my point. You can say you need to listen to new music, but until you have listened to all music then anything is new you have not heard.

Its all subjective.

[Kyelo]

Well said my man, I am a young pup at only 21 and you have shown your wisdom. Most people are music snobs, you are what we need Get that man a pint!

Edited January 30, 2009 by BenchBuddah

[Ricochet]

Interesting

oh yeah, and I realise that all the above makes me a c***

[Peache Calhoon]

If music really does it for you, i don’t think you ever stop listening.

I personally think the more music you have listened to (new or old) the less uptight\precious you become about it and it becomes all about the pleasure the music\sounds bring too you.

[pehaw]

OK

define new music?

What exactly is new music? is it a new Genre? is it a new album? is it a new sound?

My music collection will in all honesty have new music to you that is very old to me.

Have a listen In a gadda da vida. Is that new music to you?

or how about Yes Tales from tropographic oceans?

This is my point. You can say you need to listen to new music, but until you have listened to all music then anything is new you have not heard.

Its all subjective.

[Ricochet]

struds was writing a dissertation

Edited January 30, 2009 by Ricochet

[strudders]

I think the OP was talking about music from new bands.

I, at the ripe old age of 37, still love discovering new bands. It's strange though that certain 'new' bands definately attract different audiences - for example the Klaxons audience is far younger than a Glasvegas audience. Maybe the odd 'football-chant' style singalong from Glas. explains the attraction - I dunno.

I think the average person's passion for music does diminish over time. Yes they still enjoy it but it is not all-encompassing as it may have been in their teens or early twenties - there are other things to distract the attention; kids, jobs, houses, etc.

[strudders]

struds was writing a dissertation

[Ricochet]

This is something close to my heart!

Edited January 30, 2009 by Ricochet

[strudders]

which is exactly why we need to spend a little more time together this year

[fur_q]

A truely insperational post from the OP

I'm only 26 but have found my taste in music seems to get more and more broad the older I get. These days I'll try to give anything a listen and find myself loving stuff I'd have hated when I was younger. People alwaysask me what type of music I like and tbh theese days I find that quite a hard qustion to answer. I think your attitude to music is one of the best I've heard in ages and I hope that I can keep discovering music both new and and old in the same way as you when I'm your age. IMO the only way to truely apreceate anything is by approching it with an open mind.

_{please excuse the spelling as I'm pissed and trying to post from my phone}