This 27-year-old just discovered Chicago (the band, not the leftist urban utopia run by a Beetlejuice-looking mayor) and am asking for this for Xmas:
Posted on 12/02/2021 7:26:02 AM PST by dmam2011
As I’ve grown older, I’ll often hear people my age say things like “they just don’t make good music like they used to.”
Why does this happen?
Luckily, my background as a psychologist has given me some insights into this puzzle.
We know that musical tastes begin to crystallize as early as age 13 or 14. By the time we’re in our early 20s, these tastes get locked into place pretty firmly.
In fact, studies have found that by the time we turn 33, most of us have stopped listening to new music. Meanwhile, popular songs released when you’re in your early teens are likely to remain quite popular among your age group for the rest of your life.
(Excerpt) Read more at clarksvillian.com ...
Yeah. Some folks get the bug. We just always need more/ new/ new to us music. Most folks don’t though. And the article points out a lot of reasons why. The biggest one being adult life which frequently doesn’t allow a lot of time for finding and learning new music. And the brain loses flexibility. We see this with technology and why older people have a hard time learning new stuff. I’m 52 so we’re both in the generation that programmed VCRs for our families cause they couldn’t figure them out. And now many of our contemporaries have a hard time understanding DVRs and streaming services and have our kids or grandkids do it for us.
You see it all over. How many people our age try new recipes? Serious cooks do, but most folks have their book of tried and true and that’s what they cook. There comes a point for most folks where their world is defined and that’s good enough. And then there’s those that maintain that explorer spirit from childhood and always want to see the other side of that hill.
new music consisting of rap comes from the lowest common denominator of societal evolution... I refuse to even consider it... (...except maybe a little Linkin Park or Kid Rock...)
I disagree
1960s and early 70s had plenty of songs remembered by the youth population bulge ...lowest median age ever era.....which carried it along to everyone
“But I believe there are some simpler reasons for older people’s aversion to newer music.”
People usually have aversion to music of whatever era when it sounds like crap. That is why most recorded songs flop. Only a few become number one hits.
And when all music sounds like crap, then you pick and choose like chickens picking sh*t.
Well, a lot of it is not, actually, Music. (or Musical)
without mentioning the genres, many recordings, videos, ticktocks, etc. have way more to do with marketing sex, violence, power, control, and anger than in the past. Rather than stimulating the brain with patterns of continuous sound, the patterns are in chanted language, body language, urban styles, glitzy apparel and vehicles, and a general disregard or dismissal of traditional social values.
Much of it is designed to “Afflict the Comfortable” but without the natural courtesy of “Comfort the Afflicted”.
Some classical music and rock were designed to be disturbing (nearly all of NPR classical in some listening areas) but these do not sell out concerts and never made millions on records and cd’s.
So why the is a lot of new music, vulgar, ugly, dangerous, and sick - widespread. Maybe its the preferred backgroud sounds of too much video-games, street reality, orgasm-goal society and rejection of parents, family and religion. I imagine there are billions of dollars available for promoting these and their inevitable, eventual, political, societal, and other post-American dreams.
Just between my nieces, nephews, and my daughters group of friends I personally know four or five teens that are obsessed with the Beatles. I also know 3 of them that started playing guitar because they wanted to play Beatles songs (amongst other things). I love Beatles music, they are maybe my favorite band of all time but I am still taken aback at how many kids fall in love with their 50+ year old music. Magical stuff.
“Its over produced”
My current favorite singer, Yola, said in an interview that when a song is written (lyrics and tune), it’s only half done. Then it has to be ‘produced’, meaning the arrangers, musicians, sound people and maybe video people get involved. She wasn’t being critical.
Many guitar players don't learn to sight read music. The guitar is a two dimensional fretboard and they learn shapes for chords and scales and they have a specific guitar notation tablature some use in leiu of sheet music.
For example Glenn Campbell was an amazing guitarist, member of the legendary "Wrecking crew" of session musicians that played on a gigantic assortment of top hits of the '60s (Monkees, Motown, Beach Boys, etc etc) and then a pop star in his on right. He never learned to read music. So Mr. Henley maybe ought to loosen his standards on that one.
I like some new music.
What’s funny is that I live in a college town and the music I hear when I go to the coffee houses, book stores, trendy shops or restaurants/bars that the college crowd likes, is 70s and 80s music.
I really enjoy the Big Band era stuff as well - but my daughters and sons-in-law are both musicians and music buffs, so The Colonel’s Wife and I have been exposed to a bunch of artists we wouldn’t otherwise have known about. Frankly, they’ve gotten me to listen to some stuff from my era (70s-80s) that I never listened to at the time. As my high school choir director always said, “I want you to listen to all kinds of music. You don’t have to like everything, but you do need to appreciate what it’s trying to say.”
Because it is mostly computerized soulless garbage?
If you listen to new music, and everything is pitch perfect, there are no flaws or imperfections, its not the artist that is delivering an exceptional performance, its the software.
Modern music has made of “entertainers” not musicians because everything that hey do is sterilized so they don’t have to get really good at their craft.
Oh wow... Thanks for posting!
I happen to have a very eclectic combination of musical tastes separated by playlists. I think I have to thank being “in the band” during my high school and college age years. That included being in the “Stage Band” (jazz for you young ‘uns).
This jazz band experience and band experience overall really helped me to appreciate the nuances of GOOD music, musical composition and complexity, and flavors of music. There are only two musical styles I really do not like. Hip hop and believe it or not, contemporary Christian music. Hip hop is annoying and the CCM stuff all sounds the same...bland and simplistic.
If I’m having a bad day or having a tough time concentrating, I just turn on some jazz (mostly Maynard Ferguson) and that really revs up my brain. It’s almost like I can feel the synapses starting to fire and come into alignment...ha ha ha.
The variety of music I love to listen to ranges from early ‘50s (bleed over from the late ‘40s) all the way through the very early ‘80s rock. I really love some of the older (60’s and on) REAL country (not Keith Urban and that shiite) and of course good jazz. There is a pop tune once in a while that catches my fancy but those unfortunately are few and far between.
Stuff in the late ‘80s and on make my ears bleed and short circuit my brain...lol. My wife knows what it means when some crap like that comes on and I take my finger and lightly brush the opening of my ear and rub my finger and thumb together like I was looking for the blood surely coming out of my ear. She gets it and just chuckles. I don’t have to say anything. The only thing I “tolerate” just for her is the CCM stuff and that’s only when we are together.
With all that said, to each their own.. right?
“In 20 years, all music will be ethnic.” - Malcolm McLaren, 1982
Thank you very much!
While I don’t seek it out, I am always open to music I have never heard before (hence my current infatuation with Diane Taraz, recommended by Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast)
So, thanks! I will check these out tonight!
That makes perfect sense. Rush brought reality forward and away from all other distractions. Music entertainment is and has always been not much more than a distraction from dealing with reality.
Hit the gym, especially the free weights, you’ll hear all the edgy, rave, metal, daily. Industrial techno is a good pump
My tastes have changed.
I loved metal as a teenager, and still enjoy it. But now I listen to a lot more classical, sea shanties, and some new stuff.
Still love my metal bands, but they don’t hit the rotation as often.
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