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Have you noticed that the type of music people are exposed to from age 10-25 tends to be the type of music they will enjoy for the rest of their life? Someone born in the 50s will have grown up listening to 60's rock and probably favors it over all other eras of music. Someone born in the 70s probably loves 80s music even to this day and thinks today's music is garbage.
People change their taste in other things, like food and clothing, but why does taste in music stay constant after their early/mid 20s?
I have an obvious answer...todays hip hop is musical puke
there is something to this, my father didnt like rocknroll.....my teen yrs were in the 70's some of the best music of all time was created in that decade and the 60's
im a classic rock fan,,,,I can tolerate more as I get older,,,,as in country and even some pop stuff.....just cant handle rap
but why?? I think as a teen we are the most impressionable towards music,,,,I remember going to junior high dances, and when I was dancing with a dream-girl, I automatically liked the song playing,,,,,and this holds true on dates in high school,,
we tend to like that carefree time in our life-less responsibility or misery...so we like that music. music is attached to memories..
there's a few certain songs we all have that are very special..just the way it is..
the last song I really liked in recent yrs was kid rock's....sweet home alabama song....
also,,,,sometimes heard some of my sons music when he was growing up....umm.... hey now your an all star.....cant remember the band , used to know it..
also,,like the katy p i kissed a girl and i liked it,,,,just thought it was catchy and comical....
some folks can handle the new stuff, woman seem to take more to it than men,,,seem to tolerate it better,,,
I remember when rap was just entering the clubs..in the mid-late 80's, the girls were out there dancing,,,seemed to love it,,,,the guys hated it (around here) altho I could stomach,,,a tone loc song.....funky cold medina
this is actually a good question,,,,,because we dont watch the same tv shows over and over,,like we do music.
but I also think it has something to do with.....say a good song comes on I like,,,like radar love by golden earring- its an old song,,but I remember putting that song on my "tapes" and bob seger and steve miller I had on 8 tracks,,-well thats when we were late teenagers or early 20's
now step ahead 20-30 years we are usually grayer, bigger,,,,going downhill...lol.. these songs remind us when we were at the prime of out life,,
Not me, I'm not into old music from the 70s, 80s, or 90s ---- I like the current music scene and everything I listen to is current. Once in a very blue moon I'll listen to an old Pretender's song or something like that, but I realized I had been holding on to my old Talking Heads vinyl for example, and hadn't listened to it for years, so I got rid of all of it. Or if someone asked me if I liked Prince, I'd be like 'sure' -- but I never listen to him anymore.
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Part of it is personality. I'd say my tastes have changed somewhat but I think a lot of the music I like now I've always liked now, just took me time to realise/admit it. I've always been attracted to melody, pathos, bittersweet type tunes best exemplified by say 'Moon River' or 'What a Wonderful World.' As a teen I liked rap and punk, not so much anymore, but I've always like say the Beatles or Led Zeppelin. I appreciate classical musical more than I did before.
Have you noticed that the type of music people are exposed to from age 10-25 tends to be the type of music they will enjoy for the rest of their life? Someone born in the 50s will have grown up listening to 60's rock and probably favors it over all other eras of music. Someone born in the 70s probably loves 80s music even to this day and thinks today's music is garbage.
People change their taste in other things, like food and clothing, but why does taste in music stay constant after their early/mid 20s?
Maybe it's because they are reminders of a period in their lives that had a huge influence on them. The music that they loved brings back a lot of memories about the places they lived, friends they had, tv and radio stations they listened to, early crushes, parties, rivalries, things they did, people that had meaning for them, and much more. Music is very powerful and can bring out any and many of those memories, not the least of which is a reflection on the emotional side of the person which was undergoing so many changes.
Maybe it's because they are reminders of a period in their lives that had a huge influence on them. The music that they loved brings back a lot of memories about the places they lived, friends they had, tv and radio stations they listened to, early crushes, parties, rivalries, things they did, people that had meaning for them, and much more. Music is very powerful and can bring out any and many of those memories, not the least of which is a reflection on the emotional side of the person which was undergoing so many changes.
This is a great answer and so true. It's nostalgic, And many songs or even a certain part in a song can bring back memories of exactly where the person was and what they were doing at the time. As we get older we usually become more experimental and might broaden our horizons but the basic songs and groups always have a place with us.
My theory is people have a lot of time on their hands from their teens to mid twenties to get to know new groups and socially, you are judged on your taste. You identify your tribe according to music when you are in that age range. Once you get older, you are judged, make friends, mates, based on other things. You just don't have hours to spend listening to the new music to fine tune your likes and dislikes, you can only catch what happens to come on the radio.
When you are older you are less likely to be as frustrated, angry, or idealistic. You might want to 'mellow out' to the classics more than 'get crunk'. I get into my mom's car and feel like someone's slipped me and Ambien! The heavy melancholy jazz.....zzzzzz Meanwhile my mother has a headache after listening to amped up techno (and angry rap and rock is out of the question).
I tend to heavily favor music from the 80s-early 90s, which is from my teens/20s. Though I'm willing to listen to newer bands/singers and give them a chance and I've come to like some of them. A big part of the problem is I don't listen to the radio very much, so I don't hear as many new bands/singers. I hate listening to commercials, so I tend to listen to mp3s/cds. I think there's still good music being made, I'm just not being as exposed to it as I was when I was younger.
I have a couple of theories about this as well. Let's start with the premise that 30% of the music is bad. 60% of the music is mediocre, and 10% of the music is actually good, and will be remembered through the ages.
When you are young, since all of it is new to you, you have the patience to sit through and listen to the 30% that's bad. The 60% that's mediocre is actually new and interesting to you. And when you get to that 10% you think you've hit the musical jackpot.
Now that I'm older, I don't have the patience to listen to hours of radio just to hear that 10%. I like Smash Mouth (Hey Now You're All Star) and Katy Perry, but I'm not going to listen to hours of mediocre music to hear that one good song. Do that enough, and you just lose your connection to current music.
The other reason people's music tastes don't change is that songs become linked to certain parts of your life that are particularly emotionally intense. Then when you re-listen to the songs later on, they trigger a remnant of that original emotional feeling. The new stuff, if you are listening to it at all, you are hearing at a much more emotionally stable part of your life. It doesn't link itself to your emotions, and so it all just seems like a pale imitation of the music you rocked out to in your youth. You think it's substandard, but in reality, it's the lack of the emotional connection that's missing.
I think mine had changed greatly since I was a younger kid/teen. I used to be into the current pop/hip hop MTV music (I was born in 82 and my first memory of a favorite song is Whitney Huston Dance with Somebody). I've moved more towards Blues , Sinatra and chilled groups like Griffin House. Mostly unknown relaxed bands. I do like some pop but I can't STAND the rap and whatever else they call music now..
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