Thank you for nudging Pop Up the Volume out of memory's deep storage... I may have forgotten much of the 80s, but Art of Noise has been one of my favorite bands ever since Into Battle
Can we make major musical discoveries at age 50, 65, or 80?
Most if not all of us remember our early formative musical experiences vividly. Maybe it was a first live performance, maybe some new band an uncle played on his stereo, or maybe a staticky pirate radio broadcast of a brand new British song for those who grew up across the pond.
I first heard Abbey Road in my single-digit years. Come Together probably rewired my brains right then and there, for better or for worse. My parents liked classical, and I developed a long-lasting fondness for Brahms.
Later in life, more pressing priorities take over. Careers, raising families, spouses who consider music and the gear it plays on a waste of time and money.
And later, we often gravitate back towards music.
I could have been happy listening to glam-rock and prog-rock forever, but I was always curious about new music and regularly got infatuated with new genres and groups and artists. Some of these infatuations fizzled, like with black metal and post-rock. Some, like Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux, ignited a taste for Latino music and Spanish-language hip-hop that lasts to this day. Then, random encounters with the music of Floyd Lee and Junior Kimbrough reignited a long-dormant love for the blues, for good this time.
And (very) few other artists like F ck Buttons, though discovered well into middle age, had the same transformational effect on me that Eno, Roxy Music, Kevin Ayers and David Bowie had when I was 12 years old. Sadly F ck Buttons is no more, having disbanded after just three towering, monumental albums. To this day I listen to them almost daily, and I will only consider audio equipment that satisfactorily passes the F ck Buttons audition test.
Then just recently, an Audiogon member recommended German band Bohren und der Club of Gore as a gateway to Jazz for folks who don't like Jazz. Since I don't like a lot of Jazz, I figured I'd take a quick listen and not only I loved it, it immediately attached itself to empty receptors in my brains somewhere between ambient / drone / industrial and downtempo Jazz / Classical. The band immediately went into heavy rotation here in my humble abode. It is perfect focus music, too.
Which brings me to this thread. Have you experienced musical revelations later in life that equaled or bettered those from your childhood and teenage years? What were they, and when and how did they manifest?
Thanks and Happy Listening!
Showing 7 responses by devinplombier
That is insightful. I find I do the same, although I don’t quite know what the things are that I’m looking for. It’s not lyrics. In fact words kind of distract me from the music, and from whatever I might be doing while listening. I think I’ve come to terms with that and I favor instrumental music, or music featuring lyrics in languages I don’t understand. In that way I’m going back to my beginnings: in my teen years I listened exclusively to British glam rock and prog rock though I spoke no English, and I totally liked it. The voices were instruments. I think I react well to richly layered walls of sound and slamming, looping bass that drive my amps’ heatsinks to hot-dog grilling temperatures :) But I also enjoy sparse, minimalist works; ambient, the aforementioned Bohren und der Club of Gore, or Anna Thorvaldsdottir whom I just discovered thanks to this thread. But I also love the blues, which is none of the above. I do prefer downtempo and minor keys. All I know is I know it when I hear it
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I feel the same way - for the most part. Some music is inextricably linked to some events or experiences or to a certain point in time in my life. Then I have to make a decision whether I want to listen to that music today, or preserve those memories. I don't think you can do both. The more you listen to it, the faster those ties to the past fade, like prehistoric cave paintings exposed to electric light.So there are songs like that, that I almost never play.
Exactly. And, that's made even worse by the fact that a good chunk of the "soundtrack of our youth" has become downright... embarrassing, whether because it now runs afoul of evolving social mores, or simply because it's become dated. I would no longer listen to music that would embarrass me if my kids caught me listening to it. So, not only is the soundtrack of our youth a limited pool in the first place, it also dries up as time progresses... One exception is when we revisit / rediscover artists we hated back in the day... But all the same, thank goodness for new artists |
All, A good example of "major musical discovery", for me, would be a band discovered at age 50 that is still in heavy, almost-daily rotation at age 60 (despite having ever produced 3 albums). Bands that rose to the same level of significance as the best I’ve listened to over the years, including when I was young and malleable. I started this thread out of curiosity for others’ musical journeys and I was glad to find out that a significant number of folks have had, and are having, such experiences too. Thank you all for relating your personal experiences - some were truly enlightening - and especially for sharing all those artists I’ve never heard of and into whose works I will now take a delve Happy listening!
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Thank you for the kind words @tyray I am the opposite of a folk guy. I dated and lived with a diehard folk music fan and folk musician. I went into that relationship firmly believing that the best use of a Joni Mitchell record was to protect the floor under the cat box. Over our few years together I grudgingly developed a sort of appreciation for folk music as a genre, probably due more to the cultural context than the music itself to be honest. It was during that time that I discovered Nick Drake. I loved his music at first listen. I have been going back to his too-few records ever since, whenever the mood strikes. Also, thank you for the shoutout for Chief Adjuah |
A subset of that category would be those songs that are etched in our memories for having been associated with memorable events decades ago, yet we never knew the song's name or who the artist was... It just happened to be playing within earshot of a moment that became unforgettable to us, only to be lost in time. We may remember a couple bars or a few words, fragments too small to be meaningful. ... until google that is! It doesn't take much data to identify and track down a song now. I've recently identified two songs like that... only to realize that I couldn't really play them, lest they lose their connection to the past in the harsh light of the present. At least now I can put a name on them! 🙂 |
