Age and changing musical tastes: Is there a time to move on from Black Sabbath?

Before I ask or state anything in this thread let me preface it by saying:

People can like whatever they want to like in music. This thread is not to bash anyones age related tastes. Or persons of any ages. Its just as much a self examination as it is an inquiry. Its not meant to insult anyone but rather to understand and to get opinions.

It could very easily get nasty and go off the rails. Please lets keep it civil and throw some objectivity into the mix

This thread all comes down to a band that keeps popping up in my mind. Black Sabbath. It all comes down to Black Sabbath. Ok, not really, but heres what Im getting at....

I was reading a few posts about how awesomely awesome a particular digital version of "Masters Of Reality" sounds. And no doubt it probably is just the greatest ever. Eventhough this version is oop, I find myself jonesing for it pretty badly (yes, I have those japanese cds and the vertigo uk mint lp etc etc. makes no difference I *need* the next bestest ever version!) At the same time I have the "Reality" that I am now pushing 50 and have this little wonderment that keeps popping up in the back of head and heart:

"What the heck do you need another copy of a Black Sabbath album for? Youre nearly 50 years old. Do you really relate to the content of Black Sabbath? Come on man, it was cool for many years but the time really has passed on the dark brooding "evil cool" sounds and lyrics, now hasnt it?"

Or

"Dude, you have a stack of classical sacds you could be exploring. Grow up. Black Sabbath is over for you. Look at all the music you are missing. Go listen to some jazz or maybe a group you werent listening to over and over since you were 17. Its time to move on"

And though I realize its not really any of my business what others like or listen to; I find myself kind of thinking and imagining a wall of stuff some other person has and still listens to of Black Sabbath or ______ <<<<<insert old "cool" band here. And I cant help but get this picture of a 50 something yr old man "grooving" to Dy'er Ma'ker playing air drums on the break.

And I think to myself as I reflect on that image...eeek...uh...thats ..me lol.

Anyway, thats the general idea. Look, for be it from me to judge anyone or put an age limit. In reality, if it makes me smile or others happy to rock out to "Movin On" by Bad Company at 50 or 90 yrs old, then go for it.

I have to wonder though if there is a time to "move on and grow" and stop chasing the best sounding or any version of Masters Of Reality and face the reality that is time to close that chapter ( past time perhaps). There is a world of music that I didnt care about at 25 or even 35. Maybe its time for me to get into Brahms and Coltrane and find out what it feels like to play air cello and soprano sax instead.

Kind of a creepy thought (and not in a cool way) to think Id still be "jamming" to "Paranoid" in 15 yrs at 60

How do you feel about this subject? Do you feel like maybe youve been stuck in the "rock god" thing too long?

Do you think musical tasts should change with age? Or "long live rock n roll!! And Ill use my damn canes as air sticks to imitate Charley Watts hitting the cowbell as long as I want!"?

Should there come a point where we reassess and maybe think "Gee, uhh, yeah I guess it is kind of embarassing. I should put away the Ozzie at some point."?

Is there a time and an age to put the upside down crosses, wah wah peddles and Frampton voice boxes down and to realize "Hey, that was great. Thanks for the party Jimmy, Tommi, Mick, Pete and John...but its time for me to look ever onward and face reality."?

Is there an age that one should consider "Hey, move on musically."?

 

sure but then I always go back to the RAWK, my first love.

 

hehe......I was listening to a pre-FM Sabbath KBFH recording from Asbury Park 1975 last night and thinking "sheisse, this stuff is even more brutal than the studio tracks"!

I've been moving on musically every step of the journey so your premise does not compute.

 

Isn't this thread rather about "Why do I keep buying the same albums over and over again?"?

 

No, not really. Though that could be a sub sub topic .

 

.....but I don't think there's anything wrong with revisiting your youth. I mean...at least you are listening to BS and not collecting some stamps, football cards or Star Wars action figures

 

Just enjoy your life the way you want to live it. Don't worry about what others think or what you're "supposed to be" listening to at your age.

 

*looks at Neonbeam through my StormTrooper mask*

....True!

 

"Growing up in the 1970s, you were often told by your elders that pop's tyrannical rule over your life would not last. Pop, they said, was just a phase you were going through, a kind of teenage mood. It would clear, like spots, as you entered your twenties, to be smoothly replaced by an adult taste for classical music - orchestras, operas, the real thing, music which demanded more of you than a three-minute spasm of helpless assent and (the rumour was) gave you so much more in return.
-- it still hasn't happened. Now it looks as though youth was just a phase pop went through. I've grown up with pop and pop has grown up with me; and both of us are very different now from the way we were in 1970."

- Giles Smith, Lost in Music

 

The beautiful thing about rock music is that it's eternally youthful, what Ponce de Leon went searching for several hundred years too early and didn't realize was delivered not from some mythical fountain but in 4/4 time with a killer backbeat. You can be too young for Black Sabbath, but you can never be too old.

 

I mean only last week I was browsing the "Fan Letters" section in the "Donald Duck" comic book the son of my girlfriend was reading and the one that stuck started with: "Hi, I'm 40 and have been reading this magszine for almost 30 years now..."

I thought his was hilarious, creepy and pathetic and all at the same time. Grown up men (of course the writer was male) writing fan letters to the German "Donald Duck" magazine. There definitely are things you should leave behind in your life...but BS? Metal? Even the generation "Techno" is coming of age. As long as you act (and dress) gracefully there is nothing wrong with continuing to hold on to what you love

 

I don't consider my self sophisticated and there are times musically, where I do need to stretch my music likes and learn something about why others like something that is not quite so obviously great initially to me. With that being said, I do not listen to music I do not like. How long should I look at art that doesn't move me? Not long. There is too much great music to enjoy to waste time on "academic exercises" trying to enjoy something you just can't bring yourself to like. Life is too short and my hair to gray to not listen to what I like or spend time doing recording for friends who want to play/sing and make some CDs or 2496 DVDs of their performances. It has to be fun or I'm out.

I do buy some recommendations from folks here...some hits and some misses, but usually I get used cds so I'm not out much if the music is not for me. What I do find interesting is how many bad recordings there are out there, compressed, EQ'd to death and not even close to listening to a flesh and blood performing. So when I do find one I stick with it.

I generally do 2496 as I love the more analog-like sound of hi-rez, but redbook can sound very good first generation if you don't muck it up with all the mastering possibilities most software has. Just because you have plug-ins doesn't mean you HAVE to use them. Track it right and leave it alone.

I do listen to more classical music in my old age, jazz, and a lot more acoustic music and vocalists who have some chops.

Just my 2 cents.

 

thanks for the refreshing thread...it's nice to see someone not bitching and moaning about the love for the Beatles here on the forum.
I have no problem with any band getting attention... no matter how many threads are started about them.

 

That´s up to you - do you want to move on from Black Sabbath?

 

Good music is timeless, no matter what your age. Sabbath have been a top 5 band of mine for about 40 years, and I only aim to please myself, not the stereotype expected of someone my age.

 

There is nothing more repulsive than the word "should" when it comes to music and preferences.

I am 55 years old, and I would say that have grown up with rock music. I can't see why my taste in music "should" change due to getting older. I am still into rock music, but a lot of other genres has been added to my overall taste in music. Musical preference is constantly changing for me, depending on mood, most recent purchases. And what I've just read here on the forum or in the papers.

However, in my experience, taste in music will change or, rather expand and be more elaborated when you are getting exposed to a larger variety of music, and styles of music. Sometimes it clicks straight away, in other cases it clicks a few years later, and in some cases it never clicks. It all depends on how much effort and time spent listening to music in general, I suppose. To some extent it boils down to curiosity and drive to pursue unfamiliar areas of music. Even the most obscure expression of art will become familiar once you start learning more about it, either by active choice or by chance as well as influence from people around you.

Then again, music is about pleasure and I see no reason to change music just because of age, or that people say you should not go on listening to this or that.

My 2 cents

 

I've changed, so I'm not surprised my tastes have changed. But I am a tourist, and I'd like to go home again.

 

If you're jonesing for the new remastering, your gonna keep on jonesing until you get it. I say go for it; it's either going to help you relive your past and allow to to enjoy music you love, or it's not going to be quite as glorious as you had imagined and it will reaffirm your thoughts about moving on. Maybe a little of both. Yeah, go for it. YOLO, life's short, etc.

 

you can never have too much BLACK SABBATH

I prefer the old stuff, with Geezer Butler & Tony, and Bill Ward

I tolerate Ozzy because the rest of the band is so good. wish I could get their music without the vocals, it would be even better


kind of like BLACK SABBATH JAZZ

 

Once I get a great LP mastering of something I like I'm usually done searching. I remain open about enjoying a newer 5.1 mix.

Sabbath did some things sonically that I never tire of. So no matter if I'm tired of some of the bands songs. I can tune into deeper cuts steering clear of radio burnout. The production on these albums is astounding.

I think I will keep going back to Planet Caravan and Fairies Wear Boots til I'm 70. Maybe not 80, but 70 seems reasonable (if I make it that far). The other albums of the first five have each a couple of tracks I also still adore and always will want to hear how they hold up. Black Sabbath put the heavy into rock like no other.

But there is a lot of great music out there that I wish to hear. Marching forward for me has been digging into Mingus and Dolphy works. Schoenberg, Mahler, etc. Like Country a lot too. So much music to discover, you can't be too stuck in the (rock) oldies, you'll miss some other great works one should hear. "Movin' On" I will want to listen to when I am 80. Such a good feel that song has. Paul Rogers at his peak. And the drums in that song just kick to high heavens. "The Way I Choose" is also stunning. I keep going back to these two tracks and always will.

The list of things I once liked and no longer want to hear anymore is growing by the day. But Sab and Bad Co are not on the list. And most of the time it's not the entire artist or whole album I grow out of. I grow out of sometimes 8 out of 10 songs on an album. But those 2 I like are evergreens. Artists like Edgar Winter, Uriah Heep, Grand Funk, Kiss, ELP, and Rick Derringer have albums that I likely will never listen to complete again. But they all have songs on them that I plan to keep returning to. So that's good. That's not to say that this is the case for every album by Grand Funk. I can handle the whole red album when I am 60 or more. E Plurbis Funk is fairly outstanding beginning to end. It's other titles that don't endure for me.

So I say grow out of things so that you can have more new musical discoveries to hear, but still listen to the old deeper tracks that are great as well.

My building a music server system will help me separate and play the wheat from the shinola out if all this during the upcoming years. I can cut to the chase faster. There are some classic rock tunes in my collection I would not subject anyone to. Lots of things have gone bye-bye for good!

I still trust my tastes even from 13 years old.

 

My thoughts too. Who cares? I'm 57 and still dig music I listened to 40 years ago and more. And new stuff as well, if it takes my interest.

 

18 (but that is 4 years later than for The Doors)

 

Well... I will be hitting the big 60 earlier then later and Black Sabbath is still one of my all-time favorite bands. I agree with the previous poster who said listen to what you love and don't worry about what other people have to say about it ...

The only opinion that ever matters when it comes to your musical taste is your own...

 

You can "move on" without actually leaving anything behind. Take it with you on your musical journey. There are 24 hours in a day. Plenty of time to listen to music both old and new. In the last 12 hours i've listened to Royal Blood, Soundgarden, Doom Vs, St Vincent, Ringworm, Sex Pistols, AC/DC.
Yesterday it was Opeth and Rachmaninov. That's music both old and new. I'll be 50 next year and Sabbath are probably my favourite band of all time!

 

I'm 30 and have been enjoying Bob Seger-Ride Out, D'Angelo-Black Messiah, and AC/DC-Rock or Bust. Enjoy what you like!