How Middle Age Affected My Musical Tastes

I love the Beatles, but not with the same fervour as when I was younger.

The Stones were my second favorite group for decades, but in the long run they have become my #1 overall favourite band.

 

49 here. Once I hit 40, my interest in 90's and 2000's Bowie outpaced any decent but moderate interest I had in very much pre-90's Bowie, and I still have only a passing interest in anything before Young Americans.

Back when I was 20 or 30, David Gilmour was a HUGE part of Pink Floyd to me, but I never really thought of him as an actual person. Now I listen to his solo stuff plus The Division Bell + The Endless River as much as I do almost any particular earlier Floyd output. AND YET, I also bought the entire Early Years box, and have been equally fascinated by all of it.

Post-Wish Cure speaks to me WAY more now than I ever would have imagined 15 or even 10 years ago. And Robert Smith seems more like an actual person to me now, and less of a character (or caricature) than he did 20+ years ago.

Pete Townsand's solo stuff (or most of it), speaks to me way more than The Who.

And I *just* discovered Gang Of Four about a year ago, who I only knew in passing from their History of the 20th Century comp, which I bought on CD about 10 years ago, burn hadn't listened to more than 5x since I first got it. And what it took was going a German Football (Soccer) bar in my neighborhood that had a Pandora station on ALL the time based solely on Gang Of Four as the single initial seed. My wife and I are there 10 times in a year, and I probably heard 30 GOF songs over all those visits, and I now own 7 GOF CD's... so far!!!

 

For better or worse, I still have zero interest in what I viewed as the "older" generation's music when I was a kid, e.g. Elvis, Sinatra, Streisand, etc. I'd much rather rock out to metal, even more so than I used to.

I'm actually gravitating back t0 the albums I got into in the mid-late 80s such as Jackson Browne "Lives In The Balance", 10,000 Maniacs "In My Tribe", Fleetwood Mac "Tango In The Night", Springsteen "Tunnel Of Love", Neil Young "Life", REM "Green", Rolling Stones "Dirty Work", Suzanne Vega's first two releases, Tracy Chapman's debut, Pete Townsend "White City", etc. For some reason that particular era is sounding good to me lately and I've put both classic rock and more recent faves on the back burner for the time being.

In middle age I guess I'm rediscovering a favorite era of music and enjoying it more than ever.

 

From age 15 to age 35 all of my music exploration was about discovering what's new and cool.
From age 35 to 50, my music exploration has been about discovering what's old and REALLY cool.

 

Generally speaking of course; I'm still searching... but I seem to be looking backwards towards the source; the forerunners rather then todays "youth". I, again speaking generally find more authenticity and "music for the sake of and love of the music" in the past. I find an exception to be many of the current; or shortly past blues players who still seem to be concerned with authenticity and the "music". I find too many of the current artists as being interested in the fame / image as much as; if not more then the music itself. A means to an end if you will. Maybe it's unfair; but this offends me; my musical sensibilities.

I also find myself focusing more on melody, writing and arrangement then in my younger days... when the vibe, the groove and expirimentation was key. Not that "The Groove" still isn't instrumental. Soul; the soul of a piece of music; regardless of the genre has been a constant.

 

I am into the blues a whole lot more, ballads a whole lot less, i know love is an illusion and time goes by too fast. People matter and belongings dont. Quality matters more than quantity and hate sells more than peace. Rap is still crap and rock has lost its roll. Rhythm no longer goes with blues and soul has lost its soul.
Nostalgia aint what it use to be.

 

Interesting thread.

I'm 40. Over the years I have let down almost all of the alternative rock (but I still listen to stuff like Nirvana or Soundgarden) I was listening in my 20s, but everything else aged really well.b My musical peak has probably been the summer of 1997: Radiohead, Spiritualized, Primal Scream, SFA, The Verve...all bands that I still follow religiously.

Other than that, I developed a taste for world music (you know what I mean), especially Brazilian and African music. I started listening to lots of jazz and black music, genres that were alien to me during my teenage years.

The genius of Bob Dylan was pretty clear from me as soon as I listened to Like a Rolling Stone, but I still don't get Astral Weeks no matter how much I try. One day I'll get the revelation.

 

Jazz Fusion and New Age for me.

 

Turning 60 years old today.

I still think Plastic Ono Band rules over Ram.

I have somewhat recently started to appreciate Frank Sinatra’s albums, but more so the backing bands, Like Count Basie, especially “Live At The Sands”. Frank is still corny as far as his humor goes.

I don’t feel my musical tastes have ever changed. Never liked punk that much. Usually never liked anything mainstream since the early 70’s. Never liked rap except when it first started, because I lived in NYC then.

Frank Zappa I never tire of.

 

I have become more open minded towards older music and less open minded towards newer music.

 

Listen to Steely Dan way more than my other favorites, usual suspects

 

more discordant freak out noise for me ... having said that, I am listening to a lot of joyous, uplifting soul and reggae too. actually, don't think my tastes have changed that much at all ... maybe just MORE SO

 

I'm 38. Years ago I couldn't stand jazz and now I'm a big Ornette Coleman and Coltrane fan

 

56 here. I was fortunate to sit next to a music lover for several years at my job - introduced me to RHCP, James Brown, Rage, George Clinton, and Prince - I’d never listened to Funk, but now it’s a go-to. He’s responsible for the few hip hop artists I enjoy, as well as some 80’s stuff that I’d overlooked. That’s always been the case for me - many of my favorites were passed on from friends which is pretty cool.

Recently, it’s been John Prine, Gram Parsons, and Emmylou Harris - a big surprise to me as I’ve never really listened to music like this before. Nashville Skyline blew me away. Steven Stills’ Manassas gets a lot of play currently.

 

Coltrane is the DADDY!

 

In 1984, at 16 I hated Springsteen and Michael Jackson... I was listening to the Yardbirds and Butterfield Blues Band... I turned 50 last week... I still love Butterfield and the Yardbirds... I still loathe Springsteen and MJ... however, I listen to pre-war blues, bluegrass and old timey now, genres I was only vaguely aware of in 1984... I became more aware of acoustic music in 1988 when I began working for a lawn grooming service and one of our customers was Doc Watson...

 

Turning 48 also . 30 years ago I was into my 2nd/3rd job after leaving school at 15 . I had 1 kid and 1 on the way and music was
everything Ska , 2 Tone , Punk , 60s English , Motown , Aussie Pub Rock . Alternative was becoming more important by the day , bands like REM ,
10 000 Maniacs , NWA . We liked Floyd when smoking pot and chilling but it was a time of nightclubbing and pubs , New Order
and the re-birth of good dance music . These days I mainly listen to 70s classic rock , pre 80s C&W , Bluegrass , Aussie , Reggae ,
Alternative and Blues . Nothing much has changed except that I appreciate more styles of music . I try to keep up but there's so
much out there it's difficult but I do try to buy 20 new recent releases a year . Just bought Lindi Ortega - Liberty (still waiting
on delivery) and Caroline Rose - Loner (fantastic , recommended) .

 

It did not affect my tastes at all, but being retired and 60+ certainly did. I finally had a chance to slow down and listen and "discovered" Steely Dan, Little Feat, Dire Straits, Traffic/Dave Mason/Steve Winwood, King Crimson, to name a few.

 

Some things I’ve discovered, others I’ve warmed up to over the years... There’s a lot of older stuff I’m ‘ready’ for now. I haven’t turned against any of the stuff I liked when I was a kid, though... Whether it’s nostalgia speaking, I’m not sure. I read a lot of people who now hate the records/artists they liked as youngsters and can never quite understand that.

 

Some of the old stuff always falls by the wayside. Some of it just wasn't that good outside of the moment it was written.

I listened to T.Rex and David Bowie at 14 and 15. I grew out of them by my 20's, because I had quickly developed tastes in non-mainstream music (e.g. Bartok, Terry Riley, Faust, Soft Machine, Henry Cow, The Velvet Underground, Pere Ubu, The Residents (early-period) ). I rediscovered my love of classic period T.Rex and Bowie much later (in my 40s, I guess).

I still don't listen to mainstream music (much). But, I'm more open-minded now. I tried to listen all the stuff I didn't like at 15-25 (i.e. those main rock acts) and I still on the whole don't like it. I usually feel justified in my adolescent rejection of it. Sometimes I find an overlooked gem, like hearing early Lee Perry when I got to my 40s, or loving Burt Bacharach.

Main change is that I spend much more time listening to complex modern music Bartok, Feldman, Ligeti, Xenakis etc. than before – that is in addition to all the old 'rock' stuff I still like. I find modern 'classical' just stimulates me more than any new 'rock and pop' material out there.

There's always the odd new band to find and many slightly earlier odds and ends to get a thrill from. Like Mr. Bungle and Ween for example. Those 90s acts I had missed or ignored at the time have been added to my listening lists comparatively recently (the last ten years).

I still find my thirst for stimulating new music remains unquenched.

 

My musical tastes hit a definite change in my 30's.

Like most, I listened mostly to rock. Most of the usual culprits. pretty much like everyone else.

I then chanced on some Jazz, and it was Jazz that really broke down the barriers for me. Many people get into Jazz by listening to the greats - think Blue Note - but my introduction was through the likes of Tim Berne, Marilyn Crispell, Anthony Braxton, and Cecil Taylor. In those days Berne and Crispell were in their wild phase. I then got into late Coltrane etc.

Jazz was something else to me. It really blew the doors off. Here was "serious" musicians causing more raucous than Sabbath, Purple, or AC/DC. These were musicians playing louder, more aggressive, more challenging music through acoustic instruments. I was blown away.

I didn't find the avant garde I was listening to easy to love. Sometimes I'd buy a CD, and after ten minutes have to turn it off. But for reasons of curiosity, they never got cast aside. When the time was right, I'd try again, and again, and again. I started to enjoy the mental challenge of making sense of what I was listening to. This wasn't music that wanted to be liked, no real melodies, no real structure, no patterns. Yet every moment was jam=packed with so much energy, dedication, and just plain life.

So I persevered., Of course, I fell in love. It was a long time before I could go back and listen to rock with it's beats, etc. It all seemed too simplistic. My love of Jazz never really extended to the Blue Note crowd. I had a few discs - probably more than a few - but it wasn't music I generally loved. It was the sense of adventure that was key for me.

The Jazz led to Classical. Like my foray into Jazz, I didn't have much interest in the greats (although later I got into Bach). Instead I was into contemporary composers and performers: Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Gavin Bryars, Stockhausen, Cage etc. Performers were the likes of Kronos Quartet, Balenescu Quartet, etc. Hearing Reichs' Music for 18 Musicians was a pivotal moment in my learning musical appreciation. To this day the opening bars of that stop me dead cold.

I'm not sure if it was an age thing, or just that I'd grown tired of the same-old same-old. But this expansion has continued into Noise, Opera, and just about anything extreme to be honest. I enjoy the challenge, the battle of wits as I try to find beauty in something inherently ugly. This mental exercise is a large part of why listening to music is so much fun, imo.

 

I dont think my advancing years has in any way affected my musical tastes etc. My children however have turned me on to loads of new music that i would never have heard otherwise. I still listen to everything i have enjoyed since being a teenager.

 

I've always listened to everything only back in the 60's I was more open minded. Now, I really don't care for extreme noise and abrasive music (and I loved Life With The Lions in late '69!) ...and frankly I burned out the Fabs royally back in the day so these days maybe once every few months I'll put 'em on

...but much of what I played in my youth I still like, jazz like Billie Holiday (I could never stand Sinatra), certain Classical works and I have a much bigger love for 50's than I did back in the day. I also love psychedelia and that has never worn out its welcome. Singer/Songwriter has also grown in cache with me over the years. Things like Fleetwood Mac and Stones are staples of my diet.

 

I'm the same age, or will be in a few months, and my musical tastes have changed a lot from the time I was a teenager until now and it's been kind of continual change over time. So BTW have my reading habits, my movie and TV viewing habits, my eating habits, the way I dress, the character of my interpersonal relationships.

It's not a total change -- there's music I liked at 15 or 18 years old that I still like, though it's not often that I want to go back and listen to familiar music from my youth, there are foods I like then than I still like (I mean, does one ever lose one's taste for a chocolate milk shake or pizza? I guess some people develop allergies later in life). But there's so much music I didn't even know about when I was 18 that I adore now -- I had never heard much of the gospel music of the golden age that I know adore, some of the jazz of the '80s and '90s that I adore had yet to be made!; there are entire genres of music, like rock and R&B, that once made up a huge percentage of my listening time which now make up a small percentage, and yup, there's plenty of stuff I once loved that I've lost my taste for (like the music of David Bowie).

Personally I can't even fathom having the same tastes in music or anything else now than I had at 18. I don't even remember the person I was at 30, never mind 18 -- that person seems like a totally different person. I look back on the things I did, the business I ran, the things I wrote, and I don't even remember doing them, they all seem like they were done by a different person.

That person, at 18, at 30, at 55, always like the music of Bruce Springsteen and Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan. But at 18 that person spent a lot of time listening to The Clash, at 55, he rarely listens to rock music at all; at 18 he barely had heard the music of Ornette Coleman, at 30 he became an Ornette Coleman fanatic, etc. At 30 that person didn't "get" Arnold Schoenberg; at 55 that person is fascinated by the music of Arnold Schoenberg. That person at 30 had spent a lot of time over the prior 15 years listening to hip hop; in the subsequent 25 years, very, very little.

The one constant is that I always want to hear new music -- newly made music and new-to-me music. I have old favorites of course, but I can't live on a musical diet of familiar music. I need to hear things I've never heard before and learn things I never knew before to feel happy, satisfied and excited.

I dunno, seems unfathomable to me not to change over decades of life.

 

More jazz and classical and less rock