People stop listening to new music at age 33.

At least the article was candid enough to say "on average" instead of presenting it as a blanket statement.

Personally, I don't even remember what 33 looks like (except for 33 LPs), and I still put current stuff on my itouch. Maybe not a lot, but I've always thought most top-40 was drivel.

Actually, I'm 33 and a Spotify subscriber (it's good stuff--ten bucks a month and I can listen on my phone, at my computer, and on the various laptops/tablets/other stuff E. and I have around here).

Anyway. I'll listen to pretty much anything once, just to see what it's like, which is why Spotify's New Music and Discover sections are so cool. But I spend plenty of time listening to genres I already know and love--rap, rock, alt-rock, folk, so forth and so on.

I'm 50 and I don't spend a lot of time listening to new music because, unfortunately, most of it I've heard before. But if I hear something I like, I'll check it out.

The young think it's all new. The rest of us know better.

I'm 38 and listen to plenty of new in among my old. Admittedly, I currently have Paul McCartney, Michael Ball and Joan Armatrading on my playlist. But I listen to BBC Radio 2 during the day so I am always being introduced to new songs.

Acts like the Pierces, Sia etc are on other playlists.

I'm kind of torn on this because it's true, my tastes in music haven't changed much since my 30's, but they were pretty wide by then so, hmm. Having kids exposed me to a lot of new music in genres I didn't think I'd like in my post-30's, ahem, plus (like EDM). I'm not a huge fan, but I have a fair few songs on my iPod from genres I'd never thought I'd like, so I definitely don't think my taste was set in stone. Maybe cold oatmeal.

I think it totally depends on person.
You can be 18 and listen to Bach or you can be 40 and enjoy Katy Perry's new single.

The last actual new music that I can remember not hearing before was hip-hop 30 years ago.

All right, yes, I'm over 40, and I have to admit I'm one of those curmudgeons who believes there's been no good music in the last 20 years. (I'm exaggerating, but only a little.) My music buying definitely slowed down when I hit my 30s, and most of what I've bought in the last few years has been classic rock and alt-rock of the type I listened to in my teens and twenties.

I wouldn't say my tastes are set in stone, though. Lately I've been exploring traditional blues and big band music. I guess I'm just more interested in learning about older styles than anything I hear when I turn on the radio.

I never said there was no good music, just no new music.

mirandashell said:

I never said there was no good music, just no new music.

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Nope, I said that. Didn't mean to imply anything by it other than my own opinion.

beckethm said:

Nope, I said that. Didn't mean to imply anything by it other than my own opinion.

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We're cool! Just making sure that everyone knew what I meant.

I haven't listened to much new music in years. Now and then I try to catch up, but it's work. I have to listen to a lot of new songs to find one I like. And it's irritating to listen to a bunch of music that's not what I like rather than switch it to something I already know I like. We older people already know zillions of songs, collected over decades.

The old songs are more like old friends vs. new friends. They don't have that high bar for entry because they're already in. I like plenty of old songs just because I've known them for years, and they often they evoke memories of whatever new phase was going on when that song was the big thing. Acquiring new favorite songs seems complicated whereas it used to be more automatic. One more thing is a lot of the new music is for and by the youngs. Often I just don't connect with it anymore. So, the article's premise sounds about right to me.

beckethm said:

All right, yes, I'm over 40, and I have to admit I'm one of those curmudgeons who believes there's been no good music in the last 20 years. (I'm exaggerating, but only a little.) My music buying definitely slowed down when I hit my 30s, and most of what I've bought in the last few years has been classic rock and alt-rock of the type I listened to in my teens and twenties.

I wouldn't say my tastes are set in stone, though. Lately I've been exploring traditional blues and big band music. I guess I'm just more interested in learning about older styles than anything I hear when I turn on the radio.

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I don't think it's so much as your age, but music really has gotten worse. I mean, sometimes I'll go listen to some of my favorites from a years ago on YouTube and all these young people will comment how much better the music was. And my genre hasn't changed. It's pretty much been the same, so I do listen to the new stuff, just in the same genre. And they're all crap. Music used to have a lot more meaning behind the lyrics. Now it's just about sex. Although I will say in the recent past music has gotten a little better again. But it seems to me in the past singers were discovered by their talent. Nowadays the majority of them are molded into "singers," because they have a lot of appeal. It's all about the money, not the talent, for the most part.

I'm almost 56 and I love discovering new talent. I still love Classic Rock, but once in a while I hear new stuff that sounds old, but I'm surprised that it's new. A recent group is called Alabama Shakes. I love alternative adult and progressive rock, even the stuff with banjos and ukuleles.

Hell, I'll even listen to rap if it's done well.

Top 40 stuff has only a few sparklies scattered in it. Every once in a while, they uncover a gem.

I'm much more musical than, say, visual - I don't watch TV and rarely watch movies, but have kinda-sorta made up for it with music consumption. What was later called "Underground FM" was my companion as a preteen and teen, as I couldn't afford to buy many records. My keeping up with pop music has somewhat faded (though it's impossible to avoid huge hits like "shudda put a ring on it") though I occasionally still listen.

I have a special place in my heart for "progressive" rock, mostly from the commercial FM station WPLO of the time (check out the book "Voices In The Purple Haze") as well as WREK and WRAS.

Speaking of which, this has been a bad year for WRAS, the student-run station of Georgia State University since it started broadcasting in 1971. I first heard Side 1 of "The Dark Side Of The Moon" on WRAS when it first came out (the student-run broadcast is still called "Album 88" but back then they would play a different LP side six times a day, based on listener votes sent in on post cards). About a year ago, GSU's President sold out the daytime and drive-time portions of the broadcast day to Georgia Public Broadcasting, a network of stations around Georgia that all broadcast the same content including NPR news and many NPR shows. This gave GPB its first station in Atlanta, but Atlanta already has a long-term public broadcasting station/NPR affiliate (WABE), and the taking away of the student daytime broadcasts to largely duplicate the shows is a sore spot for many, including me. There was a "Reeling In The Years" on Album 88 on Saturday mornings a year ago before the changeover, but now that airtime is taken by GPB. Students still to music 24 hours a day, but only the nighttime portion is broadcast - the daytime shows are only on Internet streaming (which doesn't sound as good as FM).

Woops, I just ranted.

#savewras

But really, you can't find the musical diversity anywhere else that you find in college radio, and I've heard of other college stations being converted to public radio or "something else" in recent years simply because of money issues - it's more valuable to the school to sell out the station to an entity that raises money with "pledge drives" than to pay the bills for the student station (just the station office space and transmitter electric bill - all the students volunteer run the station).

You can hear a lot of college stations on streaming (but again, the FM signal sounds better). I heard WUSB when I lived on Long Island, and now being halfway between Atlanta and Chattanooga, I sometimes listen to WUTC as well as the Atlanta stations.

And with all the Traffic, I'm stuck in a Roundabout.

Oh shit, you mean my time's nearly up??? I'd better cram all the new music I possibly can into my skull, before the window closes and I become officially Set In My Ways.

Are there people who only read old books? Because I'm about as likely to stop listening to new music when I turn 33 as stop reading new books. Or watching new movies.

Xelebes said:

So if you are over 33, do you still hunt for new music or do throw the pillow at futurestep, new wave revival, moombahton, chanson nouveau and what not or do you find yourself falling back?

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I'm 44 and I love finding new music. I don't particularly give any craps about the fancy niche music genres and find them a bit pretentious. If I enjoy what I hear, I'll download it. I don't care if it's dolphin lagoon acid jazz sea-metal or whatever.

I don't think appreciation of timeless bands like Floyd or Zeppelin (for example) are "falling back." Sometimes, the mood calls for certain things.

Mr. Crasters is different in that he does not like new music and doesn't seek it out unless it's by bands/artists that he's already come to enjoy. Like, the new Slayer album or the new Rush album. But with sites like soundcloud, he has gone out and found a few new artists that pique his interest.

I scour the past and present for new music. Anything from classical to classic punk rock to acapella dubstep. I make a religion out of recording any new music I find and tracking it down. And that includes the background music I find in the local Chinese grocery stores, and at street performances around the world. What's the fun in music in you don't hunt for new stuff, past or present? I find, rather than like or dislike a specific genre, I like individual songs. Meaning each song on my playlist is handpicked. I just scored a nice AWOLNATION song I'd missed, Vance Joy, some old Goo Goo dolls, Manu Chao, Carolina Chocolate Drops (the best), Neon Hitch, Kongos--and that was from last week.

Do yourself a favor and YouTube Carolina Chocolate Drops, Kina Grannis or Julia Westlin. If they aren't your style, there are thousands of others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BA13ntdkB0

I find many younger listeners are way too conservative and set in their ways Seriously, music is better and stronger than ever. Most people just don't know where to look, and depend on radio (yuck.) I could find you a dozen dynamic performance on Youtube from people who don't even have record labels.

Xelebes said:

From NME

So if you are over 33, do you still hunt for new music or do throw the pillow at futurestep, new wave revival, moombahton, chanson nouveau and what not or do you find yourself falling back?

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I stopped searching for new musical artists somewhere around 1995, when I was about...33 years old. So yeah, my own experience supports Ajay Kalia's research. I actually still consider some of the breakthrough artists of the mid-1990s as "new bands" -- Sheryl Crow, The Wallflowers, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, etc. I can't remember the last time I heard a brand-new rock/pop song that I like. For someone with my musical preferences, the 2000-2015 years have been a real drag.

But the thing is: I'm really not interested in finding a new favorite band or new favorite singer-songwriter, because I'm always on the lookout to discover old stuff that I'm not familiar with. That includes old rock music (lately I've been really getting into John Hammond Jr.'s electric blues-rock albums from the late 1960s), but also quite a bit of jazz and classical recordings.

I stopped voluntarily listening to radio top 40 when I hit 9th grade. Lately I rely on a local FM alt/progressive station that plays "standard" alt music by day but on Fridays and Sundays highlights a lot of new music and local unknowns. They're committed to it, which is nice. I've been exposed to a lot of music I wouldn't otherwise have heard. (Yeah, like Alabama Shakes, Cumplet. They're da bomb.)

My husband and I are convinced history will prove we've gotten to live during a musical renaissance era, probably starting in the 20's and going through at least the early 90's, not unlike the period of the great classical composers. It's a pretty high bar to hurdle, being on the tailing side of such a creative, innovative period.

benbradley said:

And with all the Traffic, I'm stuck in a Roundabout.

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You should have paid attention to the Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys. Sadly, I am 28 and can't comment on this thread with true validity.