Yeah, there have been several studies that show that the vast majority of people stop discovering new music around the age of 30. Some say 33.
The most likely reason, is that from about one's mid teens up through their mid to late 20's, people are experiencing some of the best times of their lives. And the music they and their peer group listen to, becomes the "soundtrack of the best times of their lives". New loves, great wild parties with friends, going away to school, newly discovered independence, etc, etc, all with the music of their time playing while it is all going on.
Their experiences become inseparable from the music.
Music that comes after that time period of their lives, even if it is qualitatively no worse (or no better), does not have the same kind of connection. It is 'only music' now, it is not their soundtrack.
I actually have hardly any nostalgic feelings connected to music at all. I am never trying to relive my youth through music. For me, music lives or dies based on its own musical merits. Either it has the attributes I love in music, or it doesn't.
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Whenever I see conversations like this on music forums, and I see so many people make comments about how new music sucks, or, it's all autotune, I get the idea that these people are stuck in old ways of looking for new music.
Good new music will never be found on mainstream radio, in Billboard, made by any musician nominated for any mainstream music award, or any other mainstream sources. If those are your sources, then resign yourself to believing that new music sucks.
I listen to prog, jazz, and contemporary classical music, and my biggest problem is keeping up with all the great new, creative, incredibly well played, music.
And none of it, zero, uses autotune, teams of dozens of writers, computers, quantization, etc. All real musicians, playing their instruments.
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If one can't find anything of interest in the music of J.S. Bach, perhaps he or she does not really love music as much as he or she thinks. JSB wrote enough music to keep one busy for at least a lifetime.
Well...
@bdp24
I love music, but Bach bores me to tears. As does all classical music from earlier than about 1930.
I will stick with Elliott Carter, Berg, Ligeti, Penderecki, Charles Wuorinen, Joan Tower, Schoenberg, Magnus Lingberg, Unsuk Chin, and many more.
Elliott Carter lived until the age of 102, and continued to compose brilliant music up until the day he died.
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One possible anaysis might go:
With the net and digital, production and distribution costs of publishing music are almost nil. So millions (and millions) of recordings of new music are now published annually as against certainly no more than 10,000 a year 50 years ago.
Not all music is of high quality or worth publishing at all. Most of it would not be published if publication cost what it used to. We can’t all be great composers and performers.
The fallacious conclusion is that means more music to choose from. But the correct analysis is that you are more than 100 times less likely to find you like a piece of music you try. Therefore it can be said that trying new music is an unrewarding experience, at least in terms of time spent.
@clearthinker
The problem I see with your analysis is, it seems to assume that one is parsing all of those millions and millions of recordings, in order to find the exceedingly small number of new recordings of new music that one may like.
But it is quite easy to drastically decrease the numbers one has to look through by, avoiding mainstream sources, such as Billboard, or Grammy nominated artists, etc.
Or avoiding types or genres of music, that one knows has attributes one does not like.
My batting average in sampling new music, that ends up being something I like, is very high. And I sample and buy a lot!
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Well for me "new" music sucks, It's all Auto tune. Mostly computers playing the instruments. Really last newer band for me was Audioslave. I mostly stick to 60's 70's 80's 90's
@eryoung2k
Wait...
An easy way to avoid music that uses autotune and computers playing music, is to avoid those types of music! It's not rocket science.
There is a vast amount of new music that does not use autotune.
I hate to keep harping on this, but avoid mainstream sources for new music, and there are vast amounts of new music out there that does not use autotune.
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For a stimulating workout of your brain, give Bach’s Concerto For 4 Harpsichords And Orchestra a listen. Each harpsichord plays a separate melody (the form of the Fugue, employing a lot of counterpoint), all following the chord progressions, modulations, etc. played by the orchestra. But it’s not just an intellectual challenge, it’s also a thrilling musical ride!
For the enlargement of your soul, listen to any of his Passions.
@bdp24
Believe me, I have listened to a lot of Bach’s music. I still own a fair amount of Bach recordings. Same goes with Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel, etc, etc, etc.
Bottom line, I am just not a fan of the "Common Practice" eras of classical music. Tonal classical music bores me tor the most part.
With regards to classical music, I only like: atonal, serial, avant-garde, 12 tone, and other forms of 20th and 21st century music. I only tend to like ’challenging’ and ’thorny’ sounding music. Most of my listening of classical music, is from post 1950’s, up through the present.
I have tried many times to listen to earlier eras of classical music, but it bores me. And I return to it from time to time, including Bach, in hopes that it will someday ’click’ with me. But despite honest attempts, no luck so far.
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@bmontani I don’t find this to be true for me. I am constantly finding new music from all different time periods and genres. There are tons of new great artists but you do have to turn over some rocks. I find that having a streamer makes it very easy.
@chrisoshea Some do listen to new music...I’m 67 and am always discovering new music. Try Stereophile music reviews for some great stuff you may not have discovered yet.
I did not read the entire thread, but I am pretty sure there are other responses similar to the above examples.
I hope those of you who fit the above types of profiles, are the exceptions in the world.
This forum is not a fair sample of the general music listening public. This is a music specific forum, on an audiophile site.
The fact that people like this exist on this forum at greater numbers than the general music listening public is not a surprise. This site has the function of filtering out the more serious music listeners than would be found in the general population.
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@tylermunns How do age-related neurological changes affect one’s propensity to seek out new music?
One of the things most people lose as they age, is the search for, and love of novel experiences.
This is due to some of the changes in aging brains.
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@jrosemd I think that 99% of the music being recorded these days is crap - and my three sons, who are all. in their mid-30's - agree. They listen to the same music as me - Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, NRBQ, They Might Be Giants, Chicago, etc.
It has probably always been true, that a very high percentage of music from every era, has been crap.
Everyone remembers Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms, Weber, Mendelsohn, Schubert, but how many remember the mediocre: Machaut, Ockaghem, William Byrd? Not to mention the dozens of others that we don't have manuscripts of their scores, because they were totally unmemorable.
Do you think: Henry James, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Count Basie were the only big bands in the 40's?
Even the eras you mention as being so good, had a very high percentage of crap.
All I know, is within the genres of music I listen to, I have a hard time keeping up with all the great new music being released.
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@jdougs As a 60 year old I listen to mostly jazz now which I only discovered 3-4 years ago. As for contemporary music, not so much. That’s a shame, those vintage jazz records don’t come cheap! 😂
With apologies, posts like this frustrate me. No wonder jazz has an ever shrinking fanbase.
I am 65, and the amount of great, new, creative jazz being released on a constant basis, is hard to keep up with.
I could list pages of great new jazz artists, with chops and creativity to spare.
Craig Taborn, Michael Formanek, Mary Halvorson, Tim Berne, Alex Machacek, Snakeoil, Tord Gustafson, Steve Coleman, Gonzalo Ruplacaba, Hiromi, Johnathan Finlayson, Afashai Cohen, Mette Henriette, Ralph Alessi Quartet...
I also love the post bop, modal jazz of the past, but jazz is not a museum exhibit for me. The new, progressive jazz that is being produced is also incredible, in different ways as that of the past.
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@jdougs
You are correct. I should not have made assumptions about you. I apologize for that.
But, this place does often seem more about nostalgia, than about music.
And I was letting my frustration over the pretty consistent chorus around here of, "there is no good music made anymore", get to me.
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