You have to try new things all the time if you're really into music IMO, or you just silo yourself into a comfortable, but eventually boring and too safe little world.
I stumbled upon an interesting article a few months back that may explain some of this: Why Do We Stop Exploring New Music as We Get Older? I feel like I’m guilty of this, especially with my Ed Sheeran and Justin Beiber Spotify Playlist that’s been on constant rotation for the past two years :) Some interesting parts:
A major 2013 study involving more than 250,000 participants confirmed these changing behaviours. It also showed that the significance we ascribe to music after adolescence declines, and the amount of music we listen to reduces from a high point of 20% of our waking time during adolescence, to 13% in adulthood.
These same researchers point to age-related changes to hearing acuity – specifically a lowering tolerance for loud and high-frequency sound – as one cause for a reduced interest in new music for some people.
There is consensus that people are highly likely to have their taste shaped by the music they first encounter in adolescence.
Adolescence shapes musical taste firstly because our brains are developed to the point where we can fully process what we’re hearing, and secondly because the heightened emotions of puberty create strong and lasting bonds of memory.
What we think of as our “taste” is simply a dopamine reaction arising from patterns our brain recognises which create the expectation of pleasure based on pleasures past. When we stop actively listening to new or unfamiliar music the link between the musical pattern and pleasure is severed.
It may take a decade or two to get there, but the result is, eventually, “young people’s music” will alienate and bring no pleasure.
I don’t necessarily believe in absolutes; I’m sure there’s quite a bit of variability between the lines above. I found it interesting nonetheless.
