How Middle Age Affected My Musical Tastes

Sounds like my high school and college days. A lot has changed since then.

 

The music community I was part of for a while featured Barney, Kids Bop and Sesame Street!

 

They're not. Just replace the surnames and the countries.

 

I feel for you, man!

When I was growing up, I was exposed to "adult" music. It was only a very short time that I had little kiddie records. I grew out of it by the age of four! I never watched Sesame Street or Disney. My friends next door had all kinds of Disney Records, though. I never really listened to them. I was into the adult stuff.

 

At almost 66 years old I lived through the sixties music which I loved. I must have went to the Fillmore East 25 times. At some point in my thirties I started listening almost exclusively to Blues (the new music sounded to me like a repeat of things already heard). At some point I started listening to Jazz which is my main musical interest today.

 

Well, to take your side, my dad was into C&W, and often played Hank Williams, Hank Snow and Slim Whitman records when I was very little. I remember obsessing over Kaw-liga.
But this is gentle music from a gentle time. I did share Beatles and Buddy Holly music with my kids, but Wave Of Mutilation and Death Or Glory just wouldn't work. That was headphones and whisky stuff.

 

Yeah, death metal didn't exist when I was a kid. Even if it had, my family wouldn't have listened to it. However, I know many of parents today who play it around their little kids.

 

One thing I have noticed about myself is that I seem to listen to less metal. In the 90s I loved death metal. The more extreme the better. Now at age 42 I just don't seem to care for it as much. I find myself listening to more hard rock from the 70s and 80s then anything else. I have also found myself enjoying bands I never liked before. For instance, I never liked Van Halen. I never really knew why. I just didn't like them. A few months ago I got this strange urge to listen to them. No reason for it, I just wanted to hear them. Now I find myself listening to them all the time.

I'm guessing it must be an age thing.

 

I had a similar thing with Van Halen this year also. They were huge when I was in middle & high school. I can't say I didn't like them but more ignored them. On this board is a Kiss thread there Van Halen came up and I decided to check out the Roth albums. It took a little bit but I eventually bought those six albums and enjoy them a lot. The songs are good and the musicianship is awesome.

 

In middle age I still seem to listen to the same stuff. I've told this story before but I will tell it again. A childhood friend called me one day (I had not heard from him in several years). He asked what I was doing and I said "Nothing, just listening to Moving Pictures". He replied "I could've called you 25 years ago and got the same answer!".

So I listen to the same stuff and like it just as much but have expanded what I listen to as well. I like this kind of stuff now where I never did when I was young:



I have several of those Ultra Lounge albums and I like 'em. Have also picked up a ton of old records like Martin Denny, Dick Schory, Les Baxter and Esquivel.

And I didn't care for early Megadeth in high school but now I can't get enough of "Killing Is My Business".