TOPIC: Question about musical tastes

So I just got back from our annual guy's weekend at the Lake and there was a spirited discussion about the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductees. For context we range from 34 who is the SIL of the oldest who is 59. I noticed for some of my friends, they listen to the exact same bands they did in high school, some varied somewhat, but I listen to completely different artists then I did then. It has changed often through the years. I may still go back occasionally but almost everything I listen to now is new. I can't imagine listening to the same things I did in high school or college.
What are everyone else's experience?
I know I am weird, but how much so exactly?

Grew up listening to pop, Rock and oldies . Still listen to them occasionally but have transitioned more into edm , vocal and trance melodies mostly.

I pretty much still enjoy my old favorites. I rarely (almost never) listen to new music, I'm more likely to listen to news or sports stations.

raptorov wrote: So I just got back from our annual guy's weekend at the Lake and there was a spirited discussion about the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductees. For context we range from 34 who is the SIL of the oldest who is 59. I noticed for some of my friends, they listen to the exact same bands they did in high school, some varied somewhat, but I listen to completely different artists then I did then. It has changed often through the years. I may still go back occasionally but almost everything I listen to now is new. I can't imagine listening to the same things I did in high school or college.
What are everyone else's experience?
I know I am weird, but how much so exactly?

I think it's pretty typical to stick to the music that was popular when you were approximately highschool age, but not everyone does.

I've had great fun administering a Music League with a group of friends as a way to get exposed to new stuff:

app.musicleague.com/home/

It's a free service that is part show-and-tell, part fantasy sports. You set up a league that runs for a number of rounds, you pick the themes for each round, each player anonymously submits a song, all players then vote on their favorites.

(It uses Spotify playlists to publish the music, so people will need to be able to use spotify)

I am mostly a fan of the rock music that came out in the 90s and 2000s. That said if a song is good from before or after that time period I am still likely to listen to it and enjoy it.

I do think we are collectively missing more songs today with people not buying albums much anymore, many of my favorite songs no one else on these forums has never heard before because it’s stuck deep in the middle of a album hardly anyone has or even heard of.

Wayne Rhodes wrote: I am mostly a fan of the rock music that came out in the 90s and 2000s. That said if a song is good from before or after that time period I am still likely to listen to it and enjoy it.

I do think we are collectively missing more songs today with people not buying albums much anymore, many of my favorite songs no one else on these forums has never heard before because it’s stuck deep in the middle of a album hardly anyone has or even heard of.

Thats more or less where I am. I graduated high school in the 80s, but am not really a fan of 80s music anymore. HS was not a fun time for me, so there is no nostalgia there. The 90s however is when I got a job, eventually got a house, made friends, helped out in a guys band met my future wife and everything seemed possible. So 90s alt rock is probably my favorite period. If I had known the bad times the Y2Ks would bring I would have appreciated it more.
Sad radio doesn't exist like it did, but youtube sort of makes up for it. After watching the webseries LARPs and seeing the bard play a hurdy gurdy, I went looking for what that was. Next thing I know I am jamming to german pirate rock and folk metal with hurdy gurdys, cellos, violins and accordions. So I guess my genre is still technically rock, but quite different.

I'm perfectly happy to listen to music readily available from my teen years. I'm also perfectly happy to listen to other music, though I'm not sure stylistically that much has changed even if the genres can be radically different in people's minds. People I worked with were quite surprised I mostly listened to country for a while, where what I've mostly listened to in recent years is more divergent in key ways as country became very poppish.

And, I think that's the thing - what I like/don't like hasn't really changed at all, it's just called something different some of the time.

There's actually studies on the phenomena of crystalized musical tastes. I can't find the exact article, but there's a combination of hormones, experiencing new things and overall happiness that cements certain eras in your life as a reference point. For a lot of people, that's high school for whatever Grunnel-forsaken reason, so they fixate on the music from that era.

When new stuff comes around, you're not in the same developmental or mental state: you have a job and responsibilities that weigh on you. Your brain is more developed. You've already experienced many of your "firsts" so you don't have this tight association with novelty and music. You don't form the same connection.

I actively fight against getting crystalized tastes. Something I like to do is look at the calendar for upcoming shows in Chicago and give stuff a listen.

Oddly enough, talking to younger people isn't as great a way to discover stuff anymore. Streaming has created an eternal now. Nothing is really of an era anymore. You can mix decades of pop culture.

Marc D wrote: There's actually studies on the phenomena of crystalized musical tastes. I can't find the exact article, but there's a combination of hormones, experiencing new things and overall happiness that cements certain eras in your life as a reference point. For a lot of people, that's high school for whatever Grunnel-forsaken reason, so they fixate on the music from that era.

When new stuff comes around, you're not in the same developmental or mental state: you have a job and responsibilities that weigh on you. Your brain is more developed. You've already experienced many of your "firsts" so you don't have this tight association with novelty and music. You don't form the same connection.

I actively fight against getting crystalized tastes. Something I like to do is look at the calendar for upcoming shows in Chicago and give stuff a listen.

Oddly enough, talking to younger people isn't as great a way to discover stuff anymore. Streaming has created an eternal now. Nothing is really of an era anymore. You can mix decades of pop culture.

I read the same thing about comic books. For people that enjoy comics, their personal "golden age" is in the first few years of their reading, and they have attachments to those characters. I can relate to that, some of my favorite characters (looking at you, Machine Man) are from my early days of reading. That said, there are many more recent characters that I also enjoy. The same with novels, and I'm sure many other things.

Mike Steele wrote: I read the same thing about comic books. For people that enjoy comics, their personal "golden age" is in the first few years of their reading, and they have attachments to those characters. I can relate to that, some of my favorite characters (looking at you, Machine Man) are from my early days of reading. That said, there are many more recent characters that I also enjoy. The same with novels, and I'm sure many other things.

I found a CNN article about this, and all the comments are how "no, the music really was better when I was 17!!"
www.cnn.com/2024/11/09/health/music-nostalgia-memory-youth-wellness#openweb-convo

Basically everyone missed the point of the article

There's also similar effects about how our social environment affects the way things taste. Like how a cheap bottle of wine tastes absolutely amazing when you're on vacation with friends and having a good time, but the same bottle tastes mid or terrible when you get back home.

All our experiences are colored by physical and emotional states. The 10-30 age range overlaps with a lot of states: excitement, new experiences, raging hormones. So it's no wonder that things designed elicit emotions - music, poetry, books, movies, TV - hit hardest during those times and stick with people.

"There's also similar effects about how our social environment affects the way things taste. Like how a cheap bottle of wine tastes absolutely amazing when you're on vacation with friends and having a good time, but the same bottle tastes mid or terrible when you get back home"

That reminds me of a story my uncle told. Back in the 70's he went out to Colorado for a hunting trip with his buddies. He spoke of the most amazing beer he ever had up in the mountains called Coors. When it went national, he excitedly picked up a case. He said it didn't nearly taste as good as he remembered.

raptorov wrote: "There's also similar effects about how our social environment affects the way things taste. Like how a cheap bottle of wine tastes absolutely amazing when you're on vacation with friends and having a good time, but the same bottle tastes mid or terrible when you get back home"

That reminds me of a story my uncle told. Back in the 70's he went out to Colorado for a hunting trip with his buddies. He spoke of the most amazing beer he ever had up in the mountains called Coors. When it went national, he excitedly picked up a case. He said it didn't nearly taste as good as he remembered.

I remember really enjoying Chipotle's and Five Guys when I was in DC, and was quite happy when they opened restaurants back home in Bloomington. They didn't seem nearly as special in my hometown though, I'm sure since they were so easily accessible.