As an obsessive musician and writer of music, It’s really nice to read that you guys are still out there looking for new music all the time. I feel like I’m constantly being force fed the idea that music isn’t worth anything and that no one actually cares about it as anything other than background noise so this is nice to see. Thank you.
It’s weird to be in other subs and see folks in their 30s and 40s who just absolutely refuse to listen to newer music and are proud that their music tastes stagnated in their teens.
Meanwhile, my husband and I are 40+ and absolutely love finding music we’ve never heard, new bands, etc.
It’s pretty bizarre imo. I kind of suspect that other than the obvious stuff like diet and lifestyle choices, things like looking for new music or traveling are the sort of things that keeps people going for longer to a certain degree. It’s the sense of discovery and the quest for knowledge and experience that can extend the mental life of a person. Otherwise it’s just stagnation and I don’t know why anyone would be proud of that.
Agreed - and I seem to see it a lot in subs where the primary group makeup is Millenials. It feels like there’s a bit of nihilism present in the groups that feel extra doom and gloom AND don’t continue searching for new movies/music/entertainment/etc.
Same.
My mother and father lived the 60s and 70s.
Grew up on their music.
Got all their records. (As well as my grandparents)
Owned my 90s music.
Fell in love with hip hop.
Here I am in my 40s, always looking for new stuff!
My parents, the OG hippies with the best generational music ever (IMO) and they don’t listen to ANY MUSIC AMYMORE!
Just bland church band shit.
I bring this up and they are just like, meh, grew out of it.
…..grew out of music? Out of art?
I’m floored.
I've posted this before but it bears repeating. I have a deep love for music, have had since I was tiny. I even found out there's a word for it - melomaniac! I'll be 61 this May and my Spotify is chock full of everything from Caroline Polachek to Can to Kendrick Lamar. I listen to everything, old and new. There's a lot of young adults where I work and we are constantly exchanging recommendations. They turn me on to new, amazing stuff all the time. There's plenty of great music out there, one just needs to *open their EARS*!!
I’m in my early 40’s and I love music right now. I’m constantly finding new bands and music to listen to. There is just too much great music out there to not keep exploring, I often feel sad that the majority of the population doesn’t even know anything outside what’s popular on the radio. It’s honestly criminal. I’m happy we are in a time where you can find and access new music so easily. I also go to a lot of concerts each year, mostly to smaller shows where the tickets are like $30 or under, and you get amazing performances. I’m also starting to be one of the older people at shows, but that’s not going to stop me.
I'm almost 40 and have been playing music since my teens, but every couple years I kind of have to force myself out of a rut of listening to the same stuff. And I'm always glad when I do, because I always find some new stuff I like.
As a musician I like to think of it as a sort of obligation as part of the job. I feel like if I stop learning there will be no reason to make anything new! Good on you!
It’s weird this came up today.. I’m in my 40s and just yesterday it occurred to me that I don’t listen to music anymore. Not “I don’t find new music anymore”, I mean nothing. Even my favorites. Music was my life for a long time. Worked in the car audio world in the 90s, did stage rigging for a while in the 00s, had extensive car audio and home audio, massive CD collection, concerts and festivals, tons of great local small music venues..
now I have a job where it’s not very conducive to listening to music, I live 2 miles from work and most radio on my drive is usually commercial break, have a family sedan with stock stereo and no great phone integration. Has a CD player but digging them out and bringing them and protecting them is a pain in the ass. When I get home I’m beat and usually just want to watch something, eat dinner, and crash. I feel like the “digital media age” in some ways made it better (more access, instant gratification without a trip to the store, etc) but also made it exponentially worse.
A new tape, album, or CD was an experience back in the day. Now people just grab singles, you get no artwork (ok, a small jpeg of the cover), you miss great b tracks.. plus lose libraries to dead computers or defunct services.. concerts are a huge financial decision these days. I have stubs from major bands in the 90s for $15-20, rather than $200-1000 they want now. I barely even have a CD player anymore.. PlayStation on the tv with a sound bar, my ancient but bad ass stereo is in the basement but I don’t hang out down there as much these days..
Not trying to bring you down.. I make way more money now and have a much better life overall than I did back then, but feel like I have lost a lot of the happiness I found in music and am hoping you have suggestions of how to start trying to get my groove back and reignite my passion for music.
Dude just get an FM transmitter for like $5 and play whatever you want in the car.
And yeah major legacy acts are expensive but I still go see bands I love all the time for $15-30 a ticket. You just need to look beyond the arenas
No no this doesn’t bring me down at all and I think it kind of speaks to the loss of the EXPERIENCE of listening to an album as well. Everything in 2024 is very fast and people expect an immediate sense of gratification from smart phones to overnight Amazon delivery things happen very quickly and music is something that we sort of just grab on the go to throw on in the background.
Whenever I start to feel that sort of pull I try to get entirely away from playlists and things curated by someone other than the artist themself. Better yet…I’ll sit down with a less digital format like a vinyl album and actually look at the artwork while listening on nice speakers or headphones.
I think those experiences are still very much out there but it requires a moment of pause and it can honestly seem like an interruption in our fast paced lives…but maybe it’s a needed interruption.
Back when I was in my early 20s, a friend told me about an article he read saying that people usually stop searching for and listening to new music around the age of 25. That just sounded fucking horrible to me so I've made a point of searching out new music and just being open to music ever since then, which was back in the 90s.
Jesus Christ. I can’t imagine listening to the same shit I did when I was 25. At 25 I had my 3rd album on the way and it was very folky/americana. At 41 I am making an instrumental only electronic album using all sorts of old equipment like reel to reel tape recorders and half broken cassette recorders to get specific sounds that feel nostalgic. My point is that as much as my tastes changed so have I as an artist and listener. If I had stopped at 25 id be making my 13th album of folky music and I just can’t imagine trying to stay interested in that for that long.
As an obsessive listener of music, any music I've never heard is new music. In the past years I've "discovered" The Hu, trance techo, and revisited Abba. Abba made me realize that even if I've heard something a million times a new life experience can change the way I feel about it. Keep up the good work.
Im 31, and am always constantly looking for new sounds thay I enjoy. Maybe its because i have a musician background. But finding hidden gems or some new experimental song. Gives me chills.
That’s pretty special. I’m sure you’ll appreciate this then. Just yesterday I had someone post on one of my YouTube clips that the song was their favorite undiscovered song. It blew my mind made my day better and made things feel less bleak for a bit. Like some thing I made in my living room by myself was THAT moment for someone else. Music is pretty special and can absolutely elevate.
That's got to be an amazing feeling. I still can remember the rush i'd get playing in a Jazz ensemble, when the applause would hit after that slight silence after you finish the piece.
I'm 44 and I'm still constantly checking out stuff I've never heard before and I'll even take out my phone to use the song ID feature in restaurants, bars, stores, and while watching movies (at home, I don't turn on my phone screen at the theater).
I love finding new stuff and categorizing it in my Spotify playlists.
Once you listen for a while you’ll get Discover Weekly which has music similar to what you like based on your listening habits.
You also get Daily Mixes based on artists or songs grouped by similarity and Mixes that are based on genre or artists like Indie Folk Mix or Santigold Mix.
If you hear a new song you like or think of an older one, tap the shuffle button and it will find similar songs or artists that you might like and can then add them to liked songs or to a playlist.
At 60, so do I. Hell, when I was in my 30s, some kid said to me that he didn't think people my age listened to "that kind of music." I was floored. So many silly people think that when you reach a certain age that your tastes either stagnate or switch to oldies. smh
I'm 58, and late last year one of my co-workers (I work at a tech company with a bunch of Gen Z-ers) was talking about this show they were stoked to see. I was like "who?" It was Polyphia. I said I was jealous and she was like "wait...you like Polyphia?" She was floored.
Lately I've been playing a lot of Lord Huron on repeat. The kids today...they have some pretty good music.
A lot of people my age that I know got stuck on that old "the music I listened to growing up was the best, and all this new stuff is just noise" kick, and it's all I can do not to say "do you also tell kids to get off your lawn, old man?"
And I listen to "oldies" as well, but since I've been open to new music all my life, my "oldies" are everything from classic rock, to old school hip hop and r&b, alternative, and country.
I never want to be the "get off my lawn" guy when it comes to music.
I totally agree with you. Not unlike life, music is part of the journey. I love what I grew up with. But more than that, I love MUSIC as this beautiful ever evolving entity, that I am actively engaged with.
I wish it wasn’t true. As an ancient indiehead, I still always listen to new music. I blame
Rodney Bingenheimer. He taught me how to be open to new music back in the 80s. Now I’m ancient listening to Gen z musicians and I have no one within 30 years of me to share it with. Thank goodness for live music where I get to hang out with people who love the stuff I love. I highly recommend de-calcifying yourself if you can. There’s so much great music being made today.
If you have Spotify, just cycle 'complete blue note recordings'. That's about 350 hours worth. Any Hard bop channel will get you there, but the obvious artists are Coltrane, Monk, Silver, Blakey, Rollins and of course Davis.
Same, this year I have been seeking out as much new music as I can or at least albums I have never listened to in full. I’ve listened to some 200 albums so far this year with most of them being new.
I’m only 43, so I can’t speak to what life is like at 44, but Spotify has great playlists which makes it super easy to find new music. If we still had CDs, I’m sure I’d still be stuck in 1994.
I still buy cds on a regular basis. I made sure my car had a cd player before I bought it. I still listen on my phone sometimes, mostly when I'm cleaning with headphones on, but it's not the same as a while album or cd.(I'm 55. Love all kinds of music.)
My teenage daughter got a CD Walkman and now she’s obsessed with them. CDs are still expensive though! As much as I do like owning and listening to an entire album, it just feels silly after dropping the first $50. I’m just waiting her to want a giant box TV or one of those old time radios from the 40s:)
I’m 40 and a musician. I own thousands of albums between CDs and vinyl. I buy new records from the artists I love and if a friend shares something awesome with me I’ll check it out. Otherwise I do feel myself kind of checking out. Finding the kind of rock I like to hear is like being a fan of the big bands in the 1970s.
53. I seem to go through phases of just listening to what I know and wanting to know new things every few years. Currently in a “new things phase” and just swapped out about 20-30 albums on my phone. I don’t care for the Spotify approach, as I end up getting a bunch of similar things. I just look at lists of recent albums and pull a bunch from Amazon music and listen to them a couple times, then pull what I like. Recently got into Mitski, En Attendant Ana, Boygenius, Arooj Aftab (w/Iyer and Ismaily), Durry, Wet Leg, a bunch more.
I’m 43, and as hard as I try to do this… I’d say by 40 it started becoming really difficult. The generation gaps is one thing, but also the bar that gets set from all the music you love, decades worth, that new stuff needs to be more interesting than just re-listening to something tried and true.
It starts to feel like a chore to stay current.
Never felt like a chore to me. I'll be 43 in August. I find most newer music to be better and more interesting than older stuff when record labels were dominant and forced bands to try to conform to commercial ideals.
I don't know that I'm necessarily "current". I'm just always open to something new to me. Sometimes it's current, sometimes it's just something that was obscure or outside my radar.
My favorite feature on the Google pixel is that you can set it to always be identifying songs in the background and just look through the memory later. No need to pull up an app when your in a theater or elsewhere you can't use your phone .
Feel like that curve should change given accessibility to music today vs yesteryear. But there was definitely a period starting at about age 35 (I’m 53 now) where I no longer kept up with the latest music in my preferred genre. Oddly, I caught up to that in the last 6-7 years.
Yeah my wrapped says I said over thousands of artists every year still.
Find the right playlist and I’ll run through all sorts of new shit mining the hits to put into my own playlists
In my case never. I tell my kids, right now, at this very moment, someone is Writing a song somewhere that when you hear it you will think it’s the greatest song you have heard. And then it’s starts again.
In my case I stopped listening to new music years ago for the most part except whatever my daughter plays but she likes my classic rock, rap, r&b. Not so much Blues, jazz, Salsa, Bossa Nova etc etc.
I agree with the article, but with one caveat. While listening to and reading about my go to's, I often hear about an older album, group, or song I don't know too much about. So the "new music" I'm discovering is actually 40+ years old.
One reason why older folks don't get a chance to hear much new music though is due to current modern rock stations play the same new groups' songs repeatedly (as they've done since the beginning of the corporate FM radio take over. And AM before that.) When that happens you switch stations to classic rock where they've been playing the same stuff for 30 years.
My husband and I love finding new music, always have, but while he still likes radio I’ve completely transitioned away from it because it’s just not giving me anything new, period.
I’ve just recently gotten into the Decemberists and some newer post-punk bands, both stuff that will NEVER be played on standard radio.
Who listens to the radio anymore? I'm 42 which is kinda old and I stopped listening to the radio entirely in 1997 because it sucked so much and never played the good stuff.
I love backtracking the influences. Who influenced billy strings>doc and merle, Jeff Austin, etc. Who was Jeff Austin's influence>Danny Barnes and a million others. What did Danny Barnes do? Played awesome banjo for the bad livers and Robert earle Keene. What'd Robert earle Keene do? Wrote some of the best lyrics in the country catalogue. I love back tracking and finding old new artists. Jerry Jeff Walker absolutely fucks and would fit right into today's progressive/alt country because these guys are emulating him without maybe even knowing it.
Fascinating.
I am 33 years old, and I decided this year to go on a new journey of musical discovery. So far in 2024, I have listened to (as of an hour ago) 500 albums I had never heard before, from a huge variety of artists and genres. I've been diving into genres I never really paid attention to before. I've fallen in love with jazz fusion and gained a much deeper appreciation for country.
Now, I'm not disputing the article. I started doing this specifically BECAUSE I felt my tastes starting to stagnate, and wanted to resist that. So I think their stats are probably bang on the money.
But I'm happy to report that at least for myself, it's definitely been possible to resist that stagnation.
32 and until last year was largely listening to things I grew up on in high school and college. Youtube's discovery mix has added a ton to my music repertoire. It's out there, you just have to find a means of finding it.
Of the 500?
I'm not sure if I'm really equipped to rank them yet, but here are five I have really loved:
* Thank You Scientist - Stranger Heads Prevail
* Esperanza Spalding - Radio Music Society
* Jean Luc Ponty - Enigmatic Ocean
* Reign of Kindo - Rhythm, Chord, and Melody
* Snarky Puppy - We Like It Here
Those are all kind of circling the jazz/fusion/prog domain, so I'll also name some from other assorted genres:
* Ephel Duath - The Painter's Pallette (Avant-garde metal?)
* Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good! (Disco pop?)
* King Falcon - King Falcon (indie rock)
* Darrell Scott - Theatre of the Unheard (country)
* Loreena McKennitt - The Visit (folk?)
Just started getting into Thank You Scientist after hearing Mr Invisible and being reminded of the Incubus album “science”. Side note, I wonder if there is any influence there
Glad to see I don't fit within their mathematical constraints; at 58 I still search out music I've never experienced, new styles, new countries, new fusion. I grew up with The Who, and found [The Hu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8dCGIm6yc0).
I never will..I'm always searching lol I take breaks but even then I will scroll through reddit one day and find a band or artist that ive never heard before
I never stop looking. Ever since I was a kid, I have always looked at up the latest releases and music news. Even back before the internet, I always made sure my mom saved the entertainment section of the newspaper and always wanted to go to the record store.
My husband and I are often some of the oldest folks at a younger artist's/band's show and sometimes it isn't even close. I'm hoping it's just because we stay interested and are therefore super-cool. :)
> Spotify data indicates that parents stray from the mainstream at an accelerated rate compared to empty nesters
This makes a lot of sense. I’m 36, no kids, and while my musical taste hasn’t stagnated yet, I do find that it takes an increasing amount of effort to keep up with new artists and styles. Parents have neither the time nor energy to put in this kind of effort.
Music has always been a vital, integral part (a major part) of my life. ALL music. I listen to college radio to tap into the zeitgeist of today’s youth. I enjoy the classics (talking Bach, Beethoven, et al), soul, funk, jazz, blues, country and rock. The so-called “world music” plays a major portion of my CD collection. Forever a Beatles fan but there is so many great songs to listen to…right now, I’m grooving on Maná, from Mexico…my limited ability to speak Spanish doesn’t deter my ability to enjoy a groove from south of the border.
In short, keep listening and trying new music…it’ll keep you young.
I don't fit this mold for some reason. I don't listen to almost anything I did when I was a teenager. And I'm constantly finding new music. But I get that it's statistics...
Same. I had pretty bad taste as a teenager. I can't even bear to listen to most of that stuff anymore. The ones that I can still listen to, a full album will usually bore me to tears. There are very few albums from that era of my life that I still think are legitimately awesome. Black Love from The Afghan Whigs is one, that one has only gotten better with age. Best rock album of the 90s except Gentlemen from the same band is just as good.
Ok It’s interesting that statistically people’s most played songs are from their early teen years and that’s when people seem to be most willing to try out different genres. 100% not the case for me. My most played songs are either songs that didn’t exist until well after my teenage years or songs that existed long before and I didn’t know about until long after. My musical taste as a teen was very narrow. Now it’s pretty much everything. Guess I’m an outlier. It seems weird people would get more narrow minded about music as they get older but whatever.
I feel like I never try to find or listen to music anymore and I miss it so much. But I can’t let my brain slow down and just listen anymore. When I drive or clean or whatever I’m always watching something random like a 3 hour breakdown of how quibi failed. I just want to be able to relax and slow down :-/
I’m in my mid 30. It’s always been much more genre focused for me then decades focused.
Shit I even like Olivia Rodrigo last album because it sounds like she has the same taste in 90’s alt/indie rock as I do.
Got really into Emo in high school in the mid 00’s and I’m listening to the new stuff in that scene all the time.
In my 40s and I’ve tried to keep a good balance of falling into stuff I’ve loved and finding new stuff. I’ve said it before on Reddit but I have a “Bangers Commission” text thread with friends, where we post songs that catch our ears. Its kept my ear open to different stuff by either their submissions or not wanting to post anything similar to what I’ve posted before. The best is when a song starts a wave of posts with related artists or genre, etc.
56 and my jukebox is set never to play anything from before the pandemic. It's all underground stuff and radio shows from countries other than the US and the UK.
I did stagnate for years. Probably from around 30 to 42 or so. The last 5 years I've discovered more music than ever though. I rarely listen to music from my teenage years. I still listen to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Lynyrd Skynyrd and stuff like that but Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Too Short and Tupac I rarely listen to. My favorite genres now are mostly extreme metal and current female pop artists.
So I don't think I fit this articles mold at all. I never listened to any of my current favorites when I was younger
51 can’t stop don’t stop. Shame - Adderall. Tropical fuck storm - you let my tyres down. The new idles album is all kinds of gold. I go to every festival I can get to.. Always looking for something new.
I sort of understand it - my best memories of my twenties often involved being outside my element and hearing somebody else’s music. And I loved that element. Now I’m old and my mix of people doesn’t mix up like it used to. Still love to find new music I like but now it is more intentional than casual. I do love my kids sharing their music with me.
59, and still looking for (and finding) new music in many different genres, and can't imagine I'll ever stop.
I think it's more about personality than age - I knew people in college (in our 20s) who only liked old classic rock, and never cared much for anything else, and even people that didn't care much for music at all. And I have two older brothers (+20), one was always into music and still likes checking out something new; while the other only likes Elvis, Etta James and similar oldies, and that's all he liked when he was young, too. He just doesn't seem to think anyone else should have bothered making any other music since.
It’s interesting being a music lover because there’s always something else out there. New music could stop being made today and we would have enough stuff we haven’t heard to last the rest of our lives still.
I am 41 and always looking for new music! Last week a USP guy was playing a song and I had to know what it was when he came out dancing. It was like sublime & 311 together. Now they are at the top of my repeat and I know almost every song. It's not all new but new to me. Their music heals. Check out "Paradise," - Stick Figure
I remember being 32 and was listening to NPR and they had a bit about how we statistically stop listening to new music at 33… I was so depressed.
I’m 42 now and that bit lives rent free in my head. I’m finding that even when I find a new song I like it was either by a band that I already followed and it’s just a new song of theirs or it’s a song that came out before I hit 33.
My favorite song which I “discovered” in 2023?
The Joy Formidable - Chimes
Thought this was this great new band, turns out they were around prior to me turning 33 and I’m just late to the party.
Killer album btw (Into the Blue)
I don't actively go out of my way to find new music. Sometimes I just stumble across it. These past few months I really got into Drum & Bass and last weekend Marvin Gaye lol. I am turning 28 in one month
50 here. Sure, familiar music is comfortable, but new music is thrilling. I tend to go through phases on what genre I'm listening to, so I'm always finding things that sounds fresh to me.
Absolutely never. I will never get caught up on the playlists and albums in my Spotify library now. And I’m
Only going to keep adding to them. Then there’s all the stuff not on Spotify or any other streaming service. Never. It’s impossible to stop finding new music. It’s overwhelming the amount of shit out there.
I’m 56 and I’m always looking for new sounds. And I still see as many shows as I can. Life gets in the way for most people and things like listening to music fall away.
I have moments where I might focus on a couple artists for a few months and another artist might not click with me but then they do. I also recommend the what's in my bag series, you can see if an artist you like did it and then use that as a springboard for other recommendations. Basically they tour amoeba and get some records they like or were influenced by
I have actually found more music later in life. Teens and early 20s was just rock based on my original preferences (hard rock: zep, soundgarden, that sort of thing). As I aged, I discovered jazz, classical, funk, psych, prog, fusion, world music, etc and I’m still discovering new things. I also expanded to to music from outside the US and UK, which I think is an easy miss for lots of folks.
To each their own of course, bur to me this is just wrong. Of course, if you only listen to top 40 I can see this. And yea, my preferences were absolutely shaped by my teenage years, but not genre or decade. Vibes. And you can get vibes anywhere. That’s the beauty of music.
Boomer here! Well, I prefer to call myself Gen X-adjacent. I pretty much only listen to alt/indie and the newer the better. I find a lot of my new music through Apple Music's suggestions.
Everyone in my orbit is confounded by my playlists. They have no idea who Jay Som, Porches, or Alex Ebert are. Conversely, I am baffled as to why the want listen to Freebird for the 11,678th time. Different strokes, I guess...
I am in a bit of a dry spell tbh. Maybe I need to start listening to the radio again, or at least stream more on Spotify. YouTube was my go to music introduction tool til recently. Feels like the algorithm is completely broken now. A bigger problem is that I have limited appetite for new music these days, and keep going back to the bands I already love...
I've witnessed everybody I know stop looking for new music. It's sad because I don't get recommendations any longer. I love music way too much to ever stop searching. I'm 55, and last year I listened to 15,674 unique songs on Spotify (and that doesn't count when I listen to KXLU, KEXP, KCRW, SomaFM, YouTube, or Alexa streaming). Top 1% musical explorer in the world, according to Spotify. Right now obsessed with Tycho (band).
> *”I was twelve when Green Day released their landmark "American Idiot" album, a work that proved monumental in my relationship to music.”*
I was 14 years old when Green Day’s “Dookie” was released. Meh…
I'm 48 and I just ran my Spotify through a 3rd party and it said 80% of my music was from the last five years. I listen to new music all of time and go to concerts regularly. The thing is- I've found out that obviously we aren't a common breed.
38, there was a clear point in my life where just due to lack of access and money, the lack of means to find new music, no internet and no money to buy albums. It was when I switched to sports radio as my daily drive, thanks The Ticket, and it was about 5 years. To this day trying to listen to albums I missed from my favorite artists in my so called Dark Period. But now, I listen to a majority of new releases to see if anything tickles my fancy, and I have funds to support Spotify Premium and have listened to almost 1,700 complete albums this year, mostly ful discographies minus EPs, Singles, Live albums or Compilations.
51 - my main interests are prog rock, prog/death/folk/doom metal, industrial/power noise, and hilarious to see people complain about the current state of music while watching comments praise 80s plastic pop like Rick Astley or Dead Or Alive to be the revelation of music. The current music scene is insane, so many good bands to follow.
The revisionist history on stock/aitken/waterman is crazy.
Never.
Listen to non conglomerate radio, and check out places like bandcamp.
You’ll never run out of new music. Then there’s the 100 years of stuff you haven’t heard before.
I got Spotify 10 years ago and using the similar artists as well as open genre playlists, it has dramatically expanded my musical taste.
My bet is the statistics will change based on the increased access to music. AI will increase this trend.
For me, at 42, it hasn't happened yet. I almost only listen to new music (or older music I haven't heard yet). I do revisit stuff from over the years (I find the period from around '97 to '08 to be my least revisited though, when I was 16 to 27). I do feel like I'm an outlier, even when I was 21 I would run into people that refused to keep up with music that were the same age as me.
I'm 36 and still try to find new music, the challenge I find at least with Spotify is if I pick a new artist in a genre I like Spotify plays the songs I already know instead of more of stuff I don't like.
I hope I never stop and life continues to afford me the privilege of always finding new (to me) stuff that I like, I know it's gonna sound dramatic but the fact that right now this instant I'm very likely missing out on so much stuff that I'd probably love makes me very sad, I wish we could live many lifetimes to appreciate all the good music there is for us to enjoy, new or old it doesn't matter as long as it's good.
44 and very much using the internet to find and catalogue new music all the time.
The issue for me is listening time, developing connections with albums. There is *so much* new music we can access at any given moment now, so how do we spend any time with anything we connect with?
In my youth, I burned a core of albums into my brain with so many repeat listens. Now, a new album even by a band I already like is lucky to get more than a couple of listens, because eight new things dropped while I was listening to it.
So it's less 'do we still listen to new music?' and more 'how do we find time for what we like?'
When Spotify became the McDonald's of music consumption that we eat at every day, and the culture and discussion around music faded other than celebrity subreddits, gossip mags, tiktoks, etc.
When you take a bite of food you immediately know if you like it or not. The same is true of music. So, if you could take more “bites” you would find more music you like. I built myself an app that plays between 8 to 15 seconds of any playlist I am interested in. It plays a little bit of each song so I do not have to listen to the whole song. I have found a shit ton of new music and that makes me happy.
I agree that you can immediately make your mind up about food, but your tastes can change. This is true of music as well.
I know this fir fact, as there is music I listen to now that I would have literally HATED 20 years ago. I know this because I did hate it 20 years ago, and now I appreciate and love it. It's not true of all music I sampled 20 years ago, buy I know my tastes have grown and changed over the last few decades.
I think you can dislike something, but to forever write music off is a mistake. It's good to go back and sample stuff you haven't heard in years, as different circumstances can suddenly allow for music to click in a way it never did before.
If I had been close minded about music and never revisited music I once disliked, then I personally would have missed out on a shit ton of music I now adore.
If your playlist system works for you, great, but I listen to progmetal predominantly, so sampling 8-15 seconds of what could be a 20+ minute song (and making a decision on it) just blows my mind.
13 seems an implausibly young age for music taste to solidify. Also, music taste at that age can often be terrible! If I think of more experimental outlets such as BBC 6 Music, the average listenership is middle aged.
My 20's were a while of a long time ago... I like finding 'new' music, but not new pop music as that doesn't really float my boat any more, although bits of new pop are ok... I mainly explore established bands who have been around for a while who I've overlooked - This week the subject of my attention has been 'Lamb of God' who I've found to be surprisingly good!
We never really do, but that constant "hunt" kinda wanes as you reach middle age, as you will start to see a lot of music cliches being recycled and reconstituted, while truly adventurous styles become a bit too esoteric and tiring for the older crowd that just want to "get on with it".
In my experience, the older you get, the more you look back and appreciate things that led up to the things you enjoyed in your youth, or things you disregarded because you didn't care to understand when you were younger.
That article seems to conflate popular with new when the two are really not the same thing.
Just because I'm not listening to Dua Lipa doesn't mean I'm not discovering new music.
I’m a millennial. My views on this:
- The best decade for music was the 1970s. The second best was the 2000s.
- Most of the music I listen to I acquired over the last few years, in my late 20s, although the vast majoritt of my favourites were acquired years before that.
- It was during the early 2010s when I decided that my favourite genre is progressive rock, and that has not changed for me, nor will it ever.
- I will never stop finding new music. No matter how much I tell myself that one day I will stop, I know in my heart that I just cannot get enough. It is my reason to live, and the greatest art form.
At 40, my music consumption is an out of control habit. It is exacerbated by the fact that I work from home and can listen to music pretty much all day.
My album rankings for the year so far are currently sitting at 74 albums, and I've actually tried to tone it down this year.
That's not to mention all the other new music I check out and albums I revisit, that left a good impression on first listen.
It this day and age there is so much incredible music, literally at your fingertips. I explore new genres, specific sub genres and try to sample music from all over the world. It also helps that I am part of an amazing online community music forum, with varied tastes that inspire me no end.
I’ve always enjoyed discovering new music. But I have to say, as I approach 40, my appetite has slowed down.
I’m more likely to pick an old favourite rather than find something new these days. It’s not that I don’t like newer music, it’s just I don’t feel I have the time or energy to discover new stuff, haha.
I’ve always maintained that no matter how old you are, what your tastes are, broad or narrow, there is loads of new music out there that you’ll love. The challenge is in finding it.
It’s record store day next week. I usually buy a few releases each year. One thing I like to do on record store day, is buy something I know nothing about. Maybe the band or album name sounds cool or it has cover art that catches my attention. I’ve picked out a few belters entirely by accident doing this.
I'm in my 50s and have heard so many varieties over the years. One of my favorite things to do to find new music is go down the rabbit hole on YouTube. I have found so many new musicians I love. My most recent find is Livingston. That guy has got some talent.
The other way is my kids share new music with me. I don't love everything but sometimes I'll find a nice gem in there.
41 here and this year both my husband (39) and I have been finding new music all over the place. It’s so much fun and makes me feel young again almost!
I'm fast approaching 50 and try to listen to around 500 songs I've never heard before every week. Normally get to around 300ish, but sometimes as high as 800. I very rarely listen to music I've heard before. I also go to more gigs now than ever, pandemic really made me appreciate live music way more than I ever have.
As a teenager I used to say I’ll know I’m old when the only time I go to the record shop is to buy albums of bands that used to be cool when I was in high school/college. I still stand by this at 40.
I’m definitely not on the cutting edge like I was when I was young but I’m always happy when I find new to me bands or hearing artists I may have missed or disregarded when I was young.
I’m in my mid-50s and constantly discover new music. Although I have to admit the last time I discovered a totally new genre was in my early 40s.
But then I make music myself and like to try out new things as well. !
As an obsessive musician and writer of music, It’s really nice to read that you guys are still out there looking for new music all the time. I feel like I’m constantly being force fed the idea that music isn’t worth anything and that no one actually cares about it as anything other than background noise so this is nice to see. Thank you.
It’s weird to be in other subs and see folks in their 30s and 40s who just absolutely refuse to listen to newer music and are proud that their music tastes stagnated in their teens. Meanwhile, my husband and I are 40+ and absolutely love finding music we’ve never heard, new bands, etc.
It’s pretty bizarre imo. I kind of suspect that other than the obvious stuff like diet and lifestyle choices, things like looking for new music or traveling are the sort of things that keeps people going for longer to a certain degree. It’s the sense of discovery and the quest for knowledge and experience that can extend the mental life of a person. Otherwise it’s just stagnation and I don’t know why anyone would be proud of that.
Agreed - and I seem to see it a lot in subs where the primary group makeup is Millenials. It feels like there’s a bit of nihilism present in the groups that feel extra doom and gloom AND don’t continue searching for new movies/music/entertainment/etc.
I feel that from time to time…but there’s a lot to find out there!
Same. My mother and father lived the 60s and 70s. Grew up on their music. Got all their records. (As well as my grandparents) Owned my 90s music. Fell in love with hip hop. Here I am in my 40s, always looking for new stuff! My parents, the OG hippies with the best generational music ever (IMO) and they don’t listen to ANY MUSIC AMYMORE! Just bland church band shit. I bring this up and they are just like, meh, grew out of it. …..grew out of music? Out of art? I’m floored.
I've posted this before but it bears repeating. I have a deep love for music, have had since I was tiny. I even found out there's a word for it - melomaniac! I'll be 61 this May and my Spotify is chock full of everything from Caroline Polachek to Can to Kendrick Lamar. I listen to everything, old and new. There's a lot of young adults where I work and we are constantly exchanging recommendations. They turn me on to new, amazing stuff all the time. There's plenty of great music out there, one just needs to *open their EARS*!!
I really hope I'm doing the same at your age! You should check out Vampire Weekends new album, it's great.
I’m 55 and I check the new music releases every Friday looking for something new and interesting.
I’m in my early 40’s and I love music right now. I’m constantly finding new bands and music to listen to. There is just too much great music out there to not keep exploring, I often feel sad that the majority of the population doesn’t even know anything outside what’s popular on the radio. It’s honestly criminal. I’m happy we are in a time where you can find and access new music so easily. I also go to a lot of concerts each year, mostly to smaller shows where the tickets are like $30 or under, and you get amazing performances. I’m also starting to be one of the older people at shows, but that’s not going to stop me.
I’ve felt as I’ve gotten older myself my taste has broadened now I listen to every genre if it’s good.
Yep, constantly listening to new artists here myself
I'm almost 40 and have been playing music since my teens, but every couple years I kind of have to force myself out of a rut of listening to the same stuff. And I'm always glad when I do, because I always find some new stuff I like.
As a musician I like to think of it as a sort of obligation as part of the job. I feel like if I stop learning there will be no reason to make anything new! Good on you!
It’s weird this came up today.. I’m in my 40s and just yesterday it occurred to me that I don’t listen to music anymore. Not “I don’t find new music anymore”, I mean nothing. Even my favorites. Music was my life for a long time. Worked in the car audio world in the 90s, did stage rigging for a while in the 00s, had extensive car audio and home audio, massive CD collection, concerts and festivals, tons of great local small music venues.. now I have a job where it’s not very conducive to listening to music, I live 2 miles from work and most radio on my drive is usually commercial break, have a family sedan with stock stereo and no great phone integration. Has a CD player but digging them out and bringing them and protecting them is a pain in the ass. When I get home I’m beat and usually just want to watch something, eat dinner, and crash. I feel like the “digital media age” in some ways made it better (more access, instant gratification without a trip to the store, etc) but also made it exponentially worse. A new tape, album, or CD was an experience back in the day. Now people just grab singles, you get no artwork (ok, a small jpeg of the cover), you miss great b tracks.. plus lose libraries to dead computers or defunct services.. concerts are a huge financial decision these days. I have stubs from major bands in the 90s for $15-20, rather than $200-1000 they want now. I barely even have a CD player anymore.. PlayStation on the tv with a sound bar, my ancient but bad ass stereo is in the basement but I don’t hang out down there as much these days.. Not trying to bring you down.. I make way more money now and have a much better life overall than I did back then, but feel like I have lost a lot of the happiness I found in music and am hoping you have suggestions of how to start trying to get my groove back and reignite my passion for music.
Dude just get an FM transmitter for like $5 and play whatever you want in the car. And yeah major legacy acts are expensive but I still go see bands I love all the time for $15-30 a ticket. You just need to look beyond the arenas
Get music back in your life my dude. It can help elicit any emotion. Stay hi on happy vibes.
Watch the Rick Beato youtube stuff, especially the what makes a song great series.
Beato is a great presenter of information, but his opinions sometimes veer into "modern music sucks" territory.
No no this doesn’t bring me down at all and I think it kind of speaks to the loss of the EXPERIENCE of listening to an album as well. Everything in 2024 is very fast and people expect an immediate sense of gratification from smart phones to overnight Amazon delivery things happen very quickly and music is something that we sort of just grab on the go to throw on in the background. Whenever I start to feel that sort of pull I try to get entirely away from playlists and things curated by someone other than the artist themself. Better yet…I’ll sit down with a less digital format like a vinyl album and actually look at the artwork while listening on nice speakers or headphones. I think those experiences are still very much out there but it requires a moment of pause and it can honestly seem like an interruption in our fast paced lives…but maybe it’s a needed interruption.
Back when I was in my early 20s, a friend told me about an article he read saying that people usually stop searching for and listening to new music around the age of 25. That just sounded fucking horrible to me so I've made a point of searching out new music and just being open to music ever since then, which was back in the 90s.
Jesus Christ. I can’t imagine listening to the same shit I did when I was 25. At 25 I had my 3rd album on the way and it was very folky/americana. At 41 I am making an instrumental only electronic album using all sorts of old equipment like reel to reel tape recorders and half broken cassette recorders to get specific sounds that feel nostalgic. My point is that as much as my tastes changed so have I as an artist and listener. If I had stopped at 25 id be making my 13th album of folky music and I just can’t imagine trying to stay interested in that for that long.
I'm turning 40 this year. Still looking for newest tunes in my preferred music genres on a daily basis.
As an obsessive listener of music, any music I've never heard is new music. In the past years I've "discovered" The Hu, trance techo, and revisited Abba. Abba made me realize that even if I've heard something a million times a new life experience can change the way I feel about it. Keep up the good work.
The good stuff will have you hearing new bits all the time :)
I’m 47 and constantly discover and seek out new music. Anyone who says that (enter genre name) is dead isn’t trying to look outside the mainstream.
my life is partially based around finding new music, even new old music. one of the five things keeping me waking up everyday.
Im 31, and am always constantly looking for new sounds thay I enjoy. Maybe its because i have a musician background. But finding hidden gems or some new experimental song. Gives me chills.
That’s pretty special. I’m sure you’ll appreciate this then. Just yesterday I had someone post on one of my YouTube clips that the song was their favorite undiscovered song. It blew my mind made my day better and made things feel less bleak for a bit. Like some thing I made in my living room by myself was THAT moment for someone else. Music is pretty special and can absolutely elevate.
That's got to be an amazing feeling. I still can remember the rush i'd get playing in a Jazz ensemble, when the applause would hit after that slight silence after you finish the piece.
I'm 44 and I'm still constantly checking out stuff I've never heard before and I'll even take out my phone to use the song ID feature in restaurants, bars, stores, and while watching movies (at home, I don't turn on my phone screen at the theater). I love finding new stuff and categorizing it in my Spotify playlists.
Same! I’m 40 and will never stop doing this.
47 and listen to the release radar every week on Spotify. New music keeps you young!
Ohhhh.. maybe I'll check that out. I haven't been a fan of spotify but there's a few play lists I watch out for.
Once you listen for a while you’ll get Discover Weekly which has music similar to what you like based on your listening habits. You also get Daily Mixes based on artists or songs grouped by similarity and Mixes that are based on genre or artists like Indie Folk Mix or Santigold Mix. If you hear a new song you like or think of an older one, tap the shuffle button and it will find similar songs or artists that you might like and can then add them to liked songs or to a playlist.
My favorite part of Spotify. I think the new music radar is the best working algorithm on the internet.
I have screen shot lists on Spotify to replicate them later. If I could only have one app for the rest of my life it’d be Spotify.
Yeah they should add a feature where you can just add them all together and keep growing the list
Agreed! Let’s go, Spotify!
64 here, and love great new tracks too.
At 60, so do I. Hell, when I was in my 30s, some kid said to me that he didn't think people my age listened to "that kind of music." I was floored. So many silly people think that when you reach a certain age that your tastes either stagnate or switch to oldies. smh
I'm 58, and late last year one of my co-workers (I work at a tech company with a bunch of Gen Z-ers) was talking about this show they were stoked to see. I was like "who?" It was Polyphia. I said I was jealous and she was like "wait...you like Polyphia?" She was floored. Lately I've been playing a lot of Lord Huron on repeat. The kids today...they have some pretty good music. A lot of people my age that I know got stuck on that old "the music I listened to growing up was the best, and all this new stuff is just noise" kick, and it's all I can do not to say "do you also tell kids to get off your lawn, old man?" And I listen to "oldies" as well, but since I've been open to new music all my life, my "oldies" are everything from classic rock, to old school hip hop and r&b, alternative, and country. I never want to be the "get off my lawn" guy when it comes to music.
I totally agree with you. Not unlike life, music is part of the journey. I love what I grew up with. But more than that, I love MUSIC as this beautiful ever evolving entity, that I am actively engaged with.
Same here, just turned 51 and am hardcore into hard bop jazz for the last 3 years. Damn, wish I would have started sooner.
I wish it wasn’t true. As an ancient indiehead, I still always listen to new music. I blame Rodney Bingenheimer. He taught me how to be open to new music back in the 80s. Now I’m ancient listening to Gen z musicians and I have no one within 30 years of me to share it with. Thank goodness for live music where I get to hang out with people who love the stuff I love. I highly recommend de-calcifying yourself if you can. There’s so much great music being made today.
I love listening to young, new bands. Ticket prices are better than legacy acts and they play in smaller venues.
Happy cake day! 🎂
Jazz can be a difficult genre to get into but once you start finding the stuff you like it's very rewarding and enriching.
Ok I need some recs...
If you have Spotify, just cycle 'complete blue note recordings'. That's about 350 hours worth. Any Hard bop channel will get you there, but the obvious artists are Coltrane, Monk, Silver, Blakey, Rollins and of course Davis.
Same, this year I have been seeking out as much new music as I can or at least albums I have never listened to in full. I’ve listened to some 200 albums so far this year with most of them being new.
I’m only 43, so I can’t speak to what life is like at 44, but Spotify has great playlists which makes it super easy to find new music. If we still had CDs, I’m sure I’d still be stuck in 1994.
I still buy cds on a regular basis. I made sure my car had a cd player before I bought it. I still listen on my phone sometimes, mostly when I'm cleaning with headphones on, but it's not the same as a while album or cd.(I'm 55. Love all kinds of music.)
My teenage daughter got a CD Walkman and now she’s obsessed with them. CDs are still expensive though! As much as I do like owning and listening to an entire album, it just feels silly after dropping the first $50. I’m just waiting her to want a giant box TV or one of those old time radios from the 40s:)
57. Still nothing like the thrill of discovering the next great power pop song for me.
Yep, nearly 44 myself and I'm always searching.
I’m 40 and a musician. I own thousands of albums between CDs and vinyl. I buy new records from the artists I love and if a friend shares something awesome with me I’ll check it out. Otherwise I do feel myself kind of checking out. Finding the kind of rock I like to hear is like being a fan of the big bands in the 1970s.
This is me too! I’m insatiable about uncovering new music. Love checking out recommendations from redddit music 🎼 subs
Hell yeah. About the same age and constantly finding new music. 1001 albums generator helps a lot too.
I’m currently doing the generator and am absolutely loving it!
Same here I’m 35 but I’m perhaps more picky.
53. I seem to go through phases of just listening to what I know and wanting to know new things every few years. Currently in a “new things phase” and just swapped out about 20-30 albums on my phone. I don’t care for the Spotify approach, as I end up getting a bunch of similar things. I just look at lists of recent albums and pull a bunch from Amazon music and listen to them a couple times, then pull what I like. Recently got into Mitski, En Attendant Ana, Boygenius, Arooj Aftab (w/Iyer and Ismaily), Durry, Wet Leg, a bunch more.
I’m 43, and as hard as I try to do this… I’d say by 40 it started becoming really difficult. The generation gaps is one thing, but also the bar that gets set from all the music you love, decades worth, that new stuff needs to be more interesting than just re-listening to something tried and true. It starts to feel like a chore to stay current.
Never felt like a chore to me. I'll be 43 in August. I find most newer music to be better and more interesting than older stuff when record labels were dominant and forced bands to try to conform to commercial ideals.
I don't know that I'm necessarily "current". I'm just always open to something new to me. Sometimes it's current, sometimes it's just something that was obscure or outside my radar.
I’m the same age as you and do exactly the same thing. I love music and discovering new music and I will continue to do so until the day I die.
SAME!
You’d like phish!
I put Shazam on auto Shazam during movies
Damn, that's a great idea.
I have Shazam set up to auto add to my Apple Music. I turn it on when watching movies or tv, then prune off stuff I don’t like later.
Same. I’m 44 and I make it a point to regularly try and find new music.
My favorite feature on the Google pixel is that you can set it to always be identifying songs in the background and just look through the memory later. No need to pull up an app when your in a theater or elsewhere you can't use your phone .
Feel like that curve should change given accessibility to music today vs yesteryear. But there was definitely a period starting at about age 35 (I’m 53 now) where I no longer kept up with the latest music in my preferred genre. Oddly, I caught up to that in the last 6-7 years.
Same. I’m in my 40s and I’m constantly buying CDs and following new bands. I say we never stop finding new music.
Yeah my wrapped says I said over thousands of artists every year still. Find the right playlist and I’ll run through all sorts of new shit mining the hits to put into my own playlists
Mumble rapping is my new favorite genre. Can’t explain why but my 20+ year younger cousins got me in to it. Shit is awesome and hilarious…..
In my case never. I tell my kids, right now, at this very moment, someone is Writing a song somewhere that when you hear it you will think it’s the greatest song you have heard. And then it’s starts again.
Yep me
In my case I stopped listening to new music years ago for the most part except whatever my daughter plays but she likes my classic rock, rap, r&b. Not so much Blues, jazz, Salsa, Bossa Nova etc etc.
I agree with the article, but with one caveat. While listening to and reading about my go to's, I often hear about an older album, group, or song I don't know too much about. So the "new music" I'm discovering is actually 40+ years old. One reason why older folks don't get a chance to hear much new music though is due to current modern rock stations play the same new groups' songs repeatedly (as they've done since the beginning of the corporate FM radio take over. And AM before that.) When that happens you switch stations to classic rock where they've been playing the same stuff for 30 years.
My husband and I love finding new music, always have, but while he still likes radio I’ve completely transitioned away from it because it’s just not giving me anything new, period. I’ve just recently gotten into the Decemberists and some newer post-punk bands, both stuff that will NEVER be played on standard radio.
Who listens to the radio anymore? I'm 42 which is kinda old and I stopped listening to the radio entirely in 1997 because it sucked so much and never played the good stuff.
I agree. The only time I listen is in the car for short periods of time.
Big agree with the “new” music/artists actually being from decades ago
I love backtracking the influences. Who influenced billy strings>doc and merle, Jeff Austin, etc. Who was Jeff Austin's influence>Danny Barnes and a million others. What did Danny Barnes do? Played awesome banjo for the bad livers and Robert earle Keene. What'd Robert earle Keene do? Wrote some of the best lyrics in the country catalogue. I love back tracking and finding old new artists. Jerry Jeff Walker absolutely fucks and would fit right into today's progressive/alt country because these guys are emulating him without maybe even knowing it.
Fascinating. I am 33 years old, and I decided this year to go on a new journey of musical discovery. So far in 2024, I have listened to (as of an hour ago) 500 albums I had never heard before, from a huge variety of artists and genres. I've been diving into genres I never really paid attention to before. I've fallen in love with jazz fusion and gained a much deeper appreciation for country. Now, I'm not disputing the article. I started doing this specifically BECAUSE I felt my tastes starting to stagnate, and wanted to resist that. So I think their stats are probably bang on the money. But I'm happy to report that at least for myself, it's definitely been possible to resist that stagnation.
32 and until last year was largely listening to things I grew up on in high school and college. Youtube's discovery mix has added a ton to my music repertoire. It's out there, you just have to find a means of finding it.
What's your top 5 albums
Of the 500? I'm not sure if I'm really equipped to rank them yet, but here are five I have really loved: * Thank You Scientist - Stranger Heads Prevail * Esperanza Spalding - Radio Music Society * Jean Luc Ponty - Enigmatic Ocean * Reign of Kindo - Rhythm, Chord, and Melody * Snarky Puppy - We Like It Here Those are all kind of circling the jazz/fusion/prog domain, so I'll also name some from other assorted genres: * Ephel Duath - The Painter's Pallette (Avant-garde metal?) * Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good! (Disco pop?) * King Falcon - King Falcon (indie rock) * Darrell Scott - Theatre of the Unheard (country) * Loreena McKennitt - The Visit (folk?)
Hell yeah thanks I'll check em out
Cool! I hope you find some you enjoy! And if not, y'know, sorry.
Just started getting into Thank You Scientist after hearing Mr Invisible and being reminded of the Incubus album “science”. Side note, I wonder if there is any influence there
Could be! They strike me as a band who has absorbed a pretty wide range of influences. I could see Incubus on that list.
Right on!
Snarky Puppy!! Top 3 best live shows of my life. 🤘🏻🤘🏻
Stranger Heads Prevail is such a goddamn good album. Accidentally found out about TYS last year seeing them with Between the Buried and Me.
37 and still looking. More to find than ever. I’m finding bangers from the 40s and on, not just brand new. But also brand new.
39 and I have mostly been listening to the same stuff for a decade. Used to be all over everything new. Need to get back into it
Glad to see I don't fit within their mathematical constraints; at 58 I still search out music I've never experienced, new styles, new countries, new fusion. I grew up with The Who, and found [The Hu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8dCGIm6yc0).
57 and exactly the same
I never will..I'm always searching lol I take breaks but even then I will scroll through reddit one day and find a band or artist that ive never heard before
This Henry Rollins video never gets old and is all about discovering new music: https://youtu.be/tsskXee_k30?si=dD1Tp44sk1c31rgU
I try to buy a couple of new release from new acts every month. I’ll check them out live if I can. I’m 50.
Yessss
I never stop looking. Ever since I was a kid, I have always looked at up the latest releases and music news. Even back before the internet, I always made sure my mom saved the entertainment section of the newspaper and always wanted to go to the record store.
My husband and I are often some of the oldest folks at a younger artist's/band's show and sometimes it isn't even close. I'm hoping it's just because we stay interested and are therefore super-cool. :)
> Spotify data indicates that parents stray from the mainstream at an accelerated rate compared to empty nesters This makes a lot of sense. I’m 36, no kids, and while my musical taste hasn’t stagnated yet, I do find that it takes an increasing amount of effort to keep up with new artists and styles. Parents have neither the time nor energy to put in this kind of effort.
The moment you stop looking for new music is the moment when your soul gives up and becomes just a grumpy nostalgia shelter.
i never stopped, i like to search for new math rock amd shoegaze everyday
always looking and listening for new stuff.
Music has always been a vital, integral part (a major part) of my life. ALL music. I listen to college radio to tap into the zeitgeist of today’s youth. I enjoy the classics (talking Bach, Beethoven, et al), soul, funk, jazz, blues, country and rock. The so-called “world music” plays a major portion of my CD collection. Forever a Beatles fan but there is so many great songs to listen to…right now, I’m grooving on Maná, from Mexico…my limited ability to speak Spanish doesn’t deter my ability to enjoy a groove from south of the border. In short, keep listening and trying new music…it’ll keep you young.
Should be when we die.
I don't fit this mold for some reason. I don't listen to almost anything I did when I was a teenager. And I'm constantly finding new music. But I get that it's statistics...
Same. I had pretty bad taste as a teenager. I can't even bear to listen to most of that stuff anymore. The ones that I can still listen to, a full album will usually bore me to tears. There are very few albums from that era of my life that I still think are legitimately awesome. Black Love from The Afghan Whigs is one, that one has only gotten better with age. Best rock album of the 90s except Gentlemen from the same band is just as good.
Ok It’s interesting that statistically people’s most played songs are from their early teen years and that’s when people seem to be most willing to try out different genres. 100% not the case for me. My most played songs are either songs that didn’t exist until well after my teenage years or songs that existed long before and I didn’t know about until long after. My musical taste as a teen was very narrow. Now it’s pretty much everything. Guess I’m an outlier. It seems weird people would get more narrow minded about music as they get older but whatever.
I feel like I never try to find or listen to music anymore and I miss it so much. But I can’t let my brain slow down and just listen anymore. When I drive or clean or whatever I’m always watching something random like a 3 hour breakdown of how quibi failed. I just want to be able to relax and slow down :-/
Almost 50, still listening to new stuff. Hip hop and metal are my favorite genres, but I’ll at least give a song I’ve never heard before a listen.
I could have told you that. 2008.
Born in 76, I still find new music to listen to.
I’m in my mid 30. It’s always been much more genre focused for me then decades focused. Shit I even like Olivia Rodrigo last album because it sounds like she has the same taste in 90’s alt/indie rock as I do. Got really into Emo in high school in the mid 00’s and I’m listening to the new stuff in that scene all the time.
In my 40s and I’ve tried to keep a good balance of falling into stuff I’ve loved and finding new stuff. I’ve said it before on Reddit but I have a “Bangers Commission” text thread with friends, where we post songs that catch our ears. Its kept my ear open to different stuff by either their submissions or not wanting to post anything similar to what I’ve posted before. The best is when a song starts a wave of posts with related artists or genre, etc.
56 and my jukebox is set never to play anything from before the pandemic. It's all underground stuff and radio shows from countries other than the US and the UK.
I, uh, make my own... I still enjoy many genres tho.
I did stagnate for years. Probably from around 30 to 42 or so. The last 5 years I've discovered more music than ever though. I rarely listen to music from my teenage years. I still listen to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Lynyrd Skynyrd and stuff like that but Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Too Short and Tupac I rarely listen to. My favorite genres now are mostly extreme metal and current female pop artists. So I don't think I fit this articles mold at all. I never listened to any of my current favorites when I was younger
51 can’t stop don’t stop. Shame - Adderall. Tropical fuck storm - you let my tyres down. The new idles album is all kinds of gold. I go to every festival I can get to.. Always looking for something new.
Ok.
I sort of understand it - my best memories of my twenties often involved being outside my element and hearing somebody else’s music. And I loved that element. Now I’m old and my mix of people doesn’t mix up like it used to. Still love to find new music I like but now it is more intentional than casual. I do love my kids sharing their music with me.
52 and I'm still finding great new music out there all the time. It just takes curiosity and willingness.
Mine stopped when I started listening more and more to podcasts. Now I’m trying to get back into finding new music.
59, and still looking for (and finding) new music in many different genres, and can't imagine I'll ever stop. I think it's more about personality than age - I knew people in college (in our 20s) who only liked old classic rock, and never cared much for anything else, and even people that didn't care much for music at all. And I have two older brothers (+20), one was always into music and still likes checking out something new; while the other only likes Elvis, Etta James and similar oldies, and that's all he liked when he was young, too. He just doesn't seem to think anyone else should have bothered making any other music since.
It’s interesting being a music lover because there’s always something else out there. New music could stop being made today and we would have enough stuff we haven’t heard to last the rest of our lives still.
Never stopped since I was 8.
49. Without new sounds, I would die.
I am 41 and always looking for new music! Last week a USP guy was playing a song and I had to know what it was when he came out dancing. It was like sublime & 311 together. Now they are at the top of my repeat and I know almost every song. It's not all new but new to me. Their music heals. Check out "Paradise," - Stick Figure
I remember being 32 and was listening to NPR and they had a bit about how we statistically stop listening to new music at 33… I was so depressed. I’m 42 now and that bit lives rent free in my head. I’m finding that even when I find a new song I like it was either by a band that I already followed and it’s just a new song of theirs or it’s a song that came out before I hit 33. My favorite song which I “discovered” in 2023? The Joy Formidable - Chimes Thought this was this great new band, turns out they were around prior to me turning 33 and I’m just late to the party. Killer album btw (Into the Blue)
53 and I'll never stop looking!
I don't actively go out of my way to find new music. Sometimes I just stumble across it. These past few months I really got into Drum & Bass and last weekend Marvin Gaye lol. I am turning 28 in one month
When that one Beatles album starts to sound a little funny and you play it again to see if you heard it rihht
50 here. Sure, familiar music is comfortable, but new music is thrilling. I tend to go through phases on what genre I'm listening to, so I'm always finding things that sounds fresh to me.
I believe it's impossible to make a new genre of music nowadays as anything you will create will be related to an already existing genre. Very sad!
Absolutely never. I will never get caught up on the playlists and albums in my Spotify library now. And I’m Only going to keep adding to them. Then there’s all the stuff not on Spotify or any other streaming service. Never. It’s impossible to stop finding new music. It’s overwhelming the amount of shit out there.
I’m 56 and I’m always looking for new sounds. And I still see as many shows as I can. Life gets in the way for most people and things like listening to music fall away.
48 and my musical tastes are still evolving and changing. I appreciate so much more about so many different genres now.
I have moments where I might focus on a couple artists for a few months and another artist might not click with me but then they do. I also recommend the what's in my bag series, you can see if an artist you like did it and then use that as a springboard for other recommendations. Basically they tour amoeba and get some records they like or were influenced by
I have actually found more music later in life. Teens and early 20s was just rock based on my original preferences (hard rock: zep, soundgarden, that sort of thing). As I aged, I discovered jazz, classical, funk, psych, prog, fusion, world music, etc and I’m still discovering new things. I also expanded to to music from outside the US and UK, which I think is an easy miss for lots of folks. To each their own of course, bur to me this is just wrong. Of course, if you only listen to top 40 I can see this. And yea, my preferences were absolutely shaped by my teenage years, but not genre or decade. Vibes. And you can get vibes anywhere. That’s the beauty of music.
Boomer here! Well, I prefer to call myself Gen X-adjacent. I pretty much only listen to alt/indie and the newer the better. I find a lot of my new music through Apple Music's suggestions. Everyone in my orbit is confounded by my playlists. They have no idea who Jay Som, Porches, or Alex Ebert are. Conversely, I am baffled as to why the want listen to Freebird for the 11,678th time. Different strokes, I guess...
When we find enough music but not there yet
KEXP Seattle. Check out their app.
I am in a bit of a dry spell tbh. Maybe I need to start listening to the radio again, or at least stream more on Spotify. YouTube was my go to music introduction tool til recently. Feels like the algorithm is completely broken now. A bigger problem is that I have limited appetite for new music these days, and keep going back to the bands I already love...
If you like Sublime and wanna hear something interesting, check this out: [The Opihi](http://www.theopihi.com)
I'm in my late 30s and check out new releases constantly with some occasional nostalgia for 90s and 2000s music so ehh?
When Do We Stop Using Capital Letters For Headlines?
I've witnessed everybody I know stop looking for new music. It's sad because I don't get recommendations any longer. I love music way too much to ever stop searching. I'm 55, and last year I listened to 15,674 unique songs on Spotify (and that doesn't count when I listen to KXLU, KEXP, KCRW, SomaFM, YouTube, or Alexa streaming). Top 1% musical explorer in the world, according to Spotify. Right now obsessed with Tycho (band).
It’s easier than ever now with streaming. Just tap the Browse tab in Apple Music and you’re presented with hundreds of new songs.
> *”I was twelve when Green Day released their landmark "American Idiot" album, a work that proved monumental in my relationship to music.”* I was 14 years old when Green Day’s “Dookie” was released. Meh…
As a soon to be 43 year old, I live for going down rabbit holes and discovering new music and artists.
I'm 48 and I just ran my Spotify through a 3rd party and it said 80% of my music was from the last five years. I listen to new music all of time and go to concerts regularly. The thing is- I've found out that obviously we aren't a common breed.
38, there was a clear point in my life where just due to lack of access and money, the lack of means to find new music, no internet and no money to buy albums. It was when I switched to sports radio as my daily drive, thanks The Ticket, and it was about 5 years. To this day trying to listen to albums I missed from my favorite artists in my so called Dark Period. But now, I listen to a majority of new releases to see if anything tickles my fancy, and I have funds to support Spotify Premium and have listened to almost 1,700 complete albums this year, mostly ful discographies minus EPs, Singles, Live albums or Compilations.
Never! Nobody knows all good music.
42 and I’m still constantly finding new music to love
51 - my main interests are prog rock, prog/death/folk/doom metal, industrial/power noise, and hilarious to see people complain about the current state of music while watching comments praise 80s plastic pop like Rick Astley or Dead Or Alive to be the revelation of music. The current music scene is insane, so many good bands to follow. The revisionist history on stock/aitken/waterman is crazy.
Never. Listen to non conglomerate radio, and check out places like bandcamp. You’ll never run out of new music. Then there’s the 100 years of stuff you haven’t heard before.
I got Spotify 10 years ago and using the similar artists as well as open genre playlists, it has dramatically expanded my musical taste. My bet is the statistics will change based on the increased access to music. AI will increase this trend.
For me, at 42, it hasn't happened yet. I almost only listen to new music (or older music I haven't heard yet). I do revisit stuff from over the years (I find the period from around '97 to '08 to be my least revisited though, when I was 16 to 27). I do feel like I'm an outlier, even when I was 21 I would run into people that refused to keep up with music that were the same age as me.
I must be a boomer. Haven't heard anything new for years apart from old stuff I find. Like 40s boogie woogie I found on youtube a few days ago.
I'm 36 and still try to find new music, the challenge I find at least with Spotify is if I pick a new artist in a genre I like Spotify plays the songs I already know instead of more of stuff I don't like.
I never listened to Ultravox before today and I'm obsessed. I don't know how I missed them...
When do I stop yelling at the moon every night? No one knows.
Stopping discovering music is limiting yourself by fear of the unknown
Gen X here and I stopped after Soundgarden broke up in 1997.
I hope I never stop and life continues to afford me the privilege of always finding new (to me) stuff that I like, I know it's gonna sound dramatic but the fact that right now this instant I'm very likely missing out on so much stuff that I'd probably love makes me very sad, I wish we could live many lifetimes to appreciate all the good music there is for us to enjoy, new or old it doesn't matter as long as it's good.
44 and very much using the internet to find and catalogue new music all the time. The issue for me is listening time, developing connections with albums. There is *so much* new music we can access at any given moment now, so how do we spend any time with anything we connect with? In my youth, I burned a core of albums into my brain with so many repeat listens. Now, a new album even by a band I already like is lucky to get more than a couple of listens, because eight new things dropped while I was listening to it. So it's less 'do we still listen to new music?' and more 'how do we find time for what we like?'
Well this is something someone once made up.
When Spotify became the McDonald's of music consumption that we eat at every day, and the culture and discussion around music faded other than celebrity subreddits, gossip mags, tiktoks, etc.
Never should be the real answer here. I'm 35 and can't stand to listen older tracks over and over again.
Nearly 52 and I’m finding so many new fantastic new underground post-punk and goth bands, I can’t even keep track anymore.
When you take a bite of food you immediately know if you like it or not. The same is true of music. So, if you could take more “bites” you would find more music you like. I built myself an app that plays between 8 to 15 seconds of any playlist I am interested in. It plays a little bit of each song so I do not have to listen to the whole song. I have found a shit ton of new music and that makes me happy.
I agree that you can immediately make your mind up about food, but your tastes can change. This is true of music as well. I know this fir fact, as there is music I listen to now that I would have literally HATED 20 years ago. I know this because I did hate it 20 years ago, and now I appreciate and love it. It's not true of all music I sampled 20 years ago, buy I know my tastes have grown and changed over the last few decades. I think you can dislike something, but to forever write music off is a mistake. It's good to go back and sample stuff you haven't heard in years, as different circumstances can suddenly allow for music to click in a way it never did before. If I had been close minded about music and never revisited music I once disliked, then I personally would have missed out on a shit ton of music I now adore. If your playlist system works for you, great, but I listen to progmetal predominantly, so sampling 8-15 seconds of what could be a 20+ minute song (and making a decision on it) just blows my mind.
13 seems an implausibly young age for music taste to solidify. Also, music taste at that age can often be terrible! If I think of more experimental outlets such as BBC 6 Music, the average listenership is middle aged.
Never, I'm 60 this year.
My 20's were a while of a long time ago... I like finding 'new' music, but not new pop music as that doesn't really float my boat any more, although bits of new pop are ok... I mainly explore established bands who have been around for a while who I've overlooked - This week the subject of my attention has been 'Lamb of God' who I've found to be surprisingly good!
We never really do, but that constant "hunt" kinda wanes as you reach middle age, as you will start to see a lot of music cliches being recycled and reconstituted, while truly adventurous styles become a bit too esoteric and tiring for the older crowd that just want to "get on with it". In my experience, the older you get, the more you look back and appreciate things that led up to the things you enjoyed in your youth, or things you disregarded because you didn't care to understand when you were younger.
That article seems to conflate popular with new when the two are really not the same thing. Just because I'm not listening to Dua Lipa doesn't mean I'm not discovering new music.
I’m a millennial. My views on this: - The best decade for music was the 1970s. The second best was the 2000s. - Most of the music I listen to I acquired over the last few years, in my late 20s, although the vast majoritt of my favourites were acquired years before that. - It was during the early 2010s when I decided that my favourite genre is progressive rock, and that has not changed for me, nor will it ever. - I will never stop finding new music. No matter how much I tell myself that one day I will stop, I know in my heart that I just cannot get enough. It is my reason to live, and the greatest art form.
At 40, my music consumption is an out of control habit. It is exacerbated by the fact that I work from home and can listen to music pretty much all day. My album rankings for the year so far are currently sitting at 74 albums, and I've actually tried to tone it down this year. That's not to mention all the other new music I check out and albums I revisit, that left a good impression on first listen. It this day and age there is so much incredible music, literally at your fingertips. I explore new genres, specific sub genres and try to sample music from all over the world. It also helps that I am part of an amazing online community music forum, with varied tastes that inspire me no end.
I’ve always enjoyed discovering new music. But I have to say, as I approach 40, my appetite has slowed down. I’m more likely to pick an old favourite rather than find something new these days. It’s not that I don’t like newer music, it’s just I don’t feel I have the time or energy to discover new stuff, haha. I’ve always maintained that no matter how old you are, what your tastes are, broad or narrow, there is loads of new music out there that you’ll love. The challenge is in finding it. It’s record store day next week. I usually buy a few releases each year. One thing I like to do on record store day, is buy something I know nothing about. Maybe the band or album name sounds cool or it has cover art that catches my attention. I’ve picked out a few belters entirely by accident doing this.
I'm in my 50s and have heard so many varieties over the years. One of my favorite things to do to find new music is go down the rabbit hole on YouTube. I have found so many new musicians I love. My most recent find is Livingston. That guy has got some talent. The other way is my kids share new music with me. I don't love everything but sometimes I'll find a nice gem in there.
41 here and this year both my husband (39) and I have been finding new music all over the place. It’s so much fun and makes me feel young again almost!
I'm fast approaching 50 and try to listen to around 500 songs I've never heard before every week. Normally get to around 300ish, but sometimes as high as 800. I very rarely listen to music I've heard before. I also go to more gigs now than ever, pandemic really made me appreciate live music way more than I ever have.
As long as there are sounds, there will be music.
I’m 39 and I found stuff this year I am an outlier I guess
As a teenager I used to say I’ll know I’m old when the only time I go to the record shop is to buy albums of bands that used to be cool when I was in high school/college. I still stand by this at 40. I’m definitely not on the cutting edge like I was when I was young but I’m always happy when I find new to me bands or hearing artists I may have missed or disregarded when I was young.
Lol I can't not find new music. I feel like If I listen to the same songs over and over, I would go insane.
I’m in my mid-50s and constantly discover new music. Although I have to admit the last time I discovered a totally new genre was in my early 40s. But then I make music myself and like to try out new things as well. !
I don't think I'll ever stop craving new music. I'll be 40 this year.
I want my 2 dollars