The Data Is In: You Like The Music You Heard When You Were 14

Without having read the entire thread, I would think it would be earlier than 14 years old. I know I still love the stuff my parents would play when I was very young (Queen, Abba, Elton John, Bee Gees, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, etc). I think those early years imprinted the musical styles I started to embrace when I reached 14 and what I still listen to today.

 

Some music, yes (then and now)... some music, no (then and now).

I can name a slew of AM radio "hits" from '73 and '74 that proves not all music was great when I was 14.

I'm talking to you, "Seasons In The Sun", "Kung Fu Fighting", "Billy Don't Be A Hero", and others like you who I can't recall at the moment but you're never too far away thanks to my friend Google.

That boys start developing their taste for music as early 13/14 is no surprise. That's when puberty begins and testosterone starts to works its hormonal magic.

That girls start developing their taste for music as early as 11/12 is also no surprise, as girls typically start puberty a year or two earlier than boys.

 

That gets to the root of all these ridiculous polls and articles. Let's measure the herd by the herd.

 

Its hard for me to be objective since the best music ever made was actually released between 71 and 72 - when I was 14.

 

and this is your gauge, that they went wild when Smoke on the Water came on?

 

They're not really given an "easy" opportunity to learn this stuff: most can barely remember title and artist, even though they must have heard the same damn jock tell it to them over 3,000 times. When was the last time you heard a host of a music show explain to you what the Bo Diddley Beat was? Or sound processing (whether in the music, or in the audio chain of his own station)? Or why Motown wasn't the only label Berry Gordy started? So they weren't "told" these things mattered.

And in truth...they didn't. The best radio was never about RADIO; it was about their listeners. No, not who you listeners are, or what your tastes and opinions are, but, we're just like you and we love this stuff too - now, let's talk about minivns and soccer practice for "our" kids... The music wasn't the typic radio listeners' lives. But it FIT INTO the listeners' life - which was already in progress.

Where music is concerned, Age 14 wasn't just an age: it was a recipe of hormones, enzymes and body changes concurrent with the gaining of certain freedoms in our lives. You discovered how far out of Mom's shouting range you could be on a bicyele; yo could pick and choose your friends according to your own experience with social interraction, rather than the same old group at church, neighborhood and kindergarten, or whomever your parents always plopped you down next to whenever they were out; you could amass huge (seemingly) amounts of money, and learn the consequences of how you used it; and, oh - did I mention hormones, enzymes and body changes, and the wisdom that all the trouble doesn't start when you kiss them ON the mouth...but, IN the mouth! Work; cooking for yourself; reading what you choose; CHOOSING what you READ!

This is why this is your favorite music - because it was the psychological wallpaper in the background of all your first, relatively-safe steps out into the world. How could you NOT create a deeper bond with those songs!

 

My parents favorite record was the Camelot original cast album, and I just sang part of "C'est Moi" to my wife the other day.

 

Hmm... This seems suspect to me. I didn't listen to much, if any, Grateful Dead at age 14 and that's pretty much all I listen to now.

 

I started listening to the Grateful Dead around 13-14 (1980).............it's stuck with me 38+ years.

 

I was 14 in 1967, so needless to say I am still listening to that music!

 

Turned 14 in 1968. So yeah, I still like the music I was listening to back then. That said, it's definitely not what I listen to most today.

 

I still like some of the music from when I was a teenager, but I mostly listen to different music today. I grew up on classic rock but was reorganizing my records last night and see that I have more Frank Sinatra records than any other artist.

 

Well, I was 14 in 1975. Let’s see . . . . Blood on the Tracks, Physical Graffitti, Wish You Were Here, Born to Run . . . . I still like all of those albums. It MUST be because I was 14 when they were released.

Amazing!

 

What a difference 30+ years in age makes. I was in my early thirties by then. While I've heard all but five of the albums on that list, the only one I ever listen to is Mister Heartbreak by Laurie Anderson. I have most of her catalog.

 

My thoughts as well.

I already know that if my own playlists were tabulated it wouldn't likely gel with this pattern, but I also know that I'm the odd-man-out when it comes to this stuff. I think I generally veer between music made before I was born [but wasn't listening to when I was 14, ie. Jazz] and stuff created in the last decade.

 

Sorry but I don't listen to hair metal all day. Most music I listen to came out before I was born or before I was ten.

 

Also the article is full of crap

"Spotify provided the data, and Stephens-Davidowitz measured every Billboard chart-topping song released between 1960 and 2000 and the ages of their biggest fans when those songs first came out"

Then they used Radiohead's Creep as an example. The problem is creep was not a billboard chart topper. It didn't make number one on the hot 100, mainstream rock or alt rock charts.

 

Which makes it Not Data, imo.

 

And what about those teens who often are not keen on the trends imposed by the social influence of their group of friends? I was one of those when I was 14.
I remember that didn't like Bossa Nova nor most of MPB and was sometimes a bit nitpicking on the 70's international disco & pop music that I was massively exposed to. In fact, there were just a few that I liked back then and still enjoy today: Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie, George Benson, Rod Stewart, Bee Gees and some others, but am far from wanting to listen to most of them today.
Until I completed 18 years old I didn't have a clue of what Rock really was and that it would become my favourite music at those times. Nevertheless, I was just a child the first time that I listened to 'Sultans Of Swing', and it got stamped on my memory ...'till I got an incredibly delightful refreshes of it just during my adult life, when at last I knew which band composed it. Almost every music that I enjoyed during my childhood I still love, Classical Music being my favourite today.

 

This certainly applies to me somewhat. The year would be 1981 for me and the music from that year and the following years are still up there. Also got into The Beatles/60's music/70's music and The Beatles are still my favourite band. But I also got into the Smiths at 21 and Radiohead at 32 - both band in my top 10

 

I like the music I heard from the time I was an infant to now.

If I had to pick a favorite decade, it would be the 70s. I began the 70s as a 7-year -old and ended it as a 17-year -old. But I really do love stuff I first heard as an infant all the way to stuff I first heard in the past year.

 

I don't think they meant only #1s.

 

I have to go against the grain here: I began listening to the majority of the artists that I presently most treasure during all of those age-ranges (including the age for females, although I'm not one lol).

 

I had awful taste at that age. Nope. Nope. Nope

 

I guess it depends when you were 14...