Why do we stop listening to new music as we get older?

I just can't find much new music that catches my interest.Oh how I wish I could

One of my favorite radio stations is local WTMD - Towson State, MD - college radio.  I grew up in the 1970’s listening to WUSF “The Underground Railroad” outta Tampa, FL, and KFAT 94.5 Gilroy, CA, then others like Bayern 3 München or whatever country uncle sam sent me to for many years. Sure, some of the sounds can be annoying, but I find some things are still satisfying, and with digital services I can buy what I want, mix and match, not have to buy the whole record although I do sometimes.

Local college radio station WTMD is great for sampling. I use ENCORE app a LOT to figure out what’s playing (if I can’t log on for the playlist).

At 66, I’ve collected nearly everything Stephen Wilson and Porcupine tree, God is an Astronaut (my son and I went to one of their shows in DC 3 years ago, SRO and my arthritic knees are still complaining but it was awesome), we saw Forever the Sickest Kids a few years earlier, All Time Low, and I also have Jazz going back to 1920s (oldest LP is from 1949). I probably own 20 King Crimson LP’s, a dozen Todd Rundgren, then most of Flash, Genesis, Humble Pie, dozens of Shelley Manne, Miles Davis and  I rarely miss listening to Hot Jazz Saturday Night on WAMU FM or streaming, too.

My musical tastes are, one might say, a little eclectic.

I think this really depends on the spirit of the person. Some people are like that with books, too. 

I got that way with television though years ago. In the words of my neighbor Herr Hermann Hegele (a one-time medic in WW1) regarding TV “das is Mist” (“mist” being local slang for the liquified human waste sprayed on farms). 

But music, even 18th century performances of old dead white guys, never gets old, only we do.

Most people that I know in my age group do not listen to new music at all.  That is not me.

Streaming has enabled me me discover lots of music that is new to me.  That includes brand new releases, new artists, and older music that I have not listened listened to. 

Discovering new music is far more important to me than the minutia fo tweaking the sound quality of the music systems in my home.  Roon's ability to play or suggest new music to me has enhanced my music enjoyment far more than any gear upgrades that I have made.  To me, it is all about the music..

Modern music is rubbish compared with yore

Some chap analysed it and found it was repetative, more simple and less of everything

Funny..

As raised previously was the question as to what constitutes ‘new music’.  I bet that many of you consider ‘new’ to be the same as the old, but a different version, or unheard artist.  So, new doesn’t really introduce you to a substantially different experience.  There is a reason the music is repetitive.  It’s much easier to sell what has proven to be popular.  Much of the music that I listen to is more entertaining on video.  The outfits,  choreography and dance add so much to the performance.  I put a good bit of money into my home theater, but the experience would be so much better if it were on the same level as my two channel listening room.

My experience is probably similar to many of you.  In my teens with the British Invasion and the Beatles changing the sound of rock and roll, I was entranced.  I became passionate about music.  Most of my friends were the same.  I explored jazz, blues, British blues, progressive rock, bought cut-outs for 99 cents each and 4 for a buck on sale just to hear… NEW.  My reinforcing social/music circle of high-school buddies continued and actually strengthen in college as part time jobs funded our first audiophile equipment where the sound was fantastic.  There was guidance from the ether too.  All through high school and college, local progressive rock disc jockeys reinforced and broadened The Journey.   One DJ in particular would play the Jefferson Airplane, and then the next tune was an obscure cut off a Dave Brubeck album he liked.  New music!   Always discovering, always searching for the next heavenly sound.

When the national media corporations took over in the mid to late 70s, everything was different.  Top 40 was it, Top 40 was all.  DJs no longer could play what they liked, they had to play what corporate marketing research told them to play, and nothing else.  This came at a time when my social circle began to disintegrate and spread out across the country as we all got jobs, families and careers.  We got busy.  Too busy to sit back and just listen except in the car.    But there wasn’t anything to listen to new in the car and our circle was gone.    Plus, some of us got wives who absolutely refused to accept speakers and wires and a bunch of black boxes in the living room. Change.

With all of the changes, my ability to find new music and interesting artists, even with satellite radio in the car, was diminished substantially.  Besides, what could I play it on as my stereo was now limited to a small home office with smaller speakers that I really didn’t like and an amp that sucked.  Music didn’t matter anymore.   it was just something in the background keeping me company.

Then came streaming (for me two years ago) along with YouTube audio reviewers, a new circle element had formed, it was basically one-way, but hey, you can’t have everything.  I learned about this from one of my old high school friends whom I still speak with semi regularly even though we are a thousand miles apart.  He suggested I watch a video from John Darko.  I have always been open to new technology and streaming and servers (I love databases) seemed like something I would like.  Technology brought me back.  The You Tubers have replaced the local DJ and streaming has opened up the world of music like nothing ever has.  I am now listening to genres that I never knew existed a couple years ago, much less hearing them.  And I am back in love with music and the audiophile journey towards the perfect sound.  BTW, I now have two systems, one in my office for experimentation and one in my great room.  Things change.

I welcome all new or old music I have not heard before! Through Qobuz I have found 20 30 year old music that is new to me. Anything with a good guitar player is enjoyable to me.

 Just turned 77, with the Daily Discoveries streamed on Tidal, and through posts of music here on Audiogon a whole new worlld of tunes has opened up for our listening. When we find a new song we like tend to play it to death, so a constant stream of new to us songs keeps are music interest up!

@tatyana69 - well, I guess if some chap analyzed it, that settles it. End of story. 

Speak for yourself.

I have never stopped listening to new music. Beatles, Brian Eno, Led Zeppelin, Bowie, Kraftwerk, Weather Report. Were my first and second wave. At the time there were actually new inventions such as stereo recording, synthesizers, etc

Now that streaming has come around, I can go back and listen to albums I kind of remember or never had a chance to listen.

Then there is the new and other stuff I never knew up.

When i got my system set up properly, it all seemed like new music. You could tell the intention of the artist, engineer or producer. I didn’t know that was what the song really sounded like. .This is a great retirement activity I must say..

Some very interesting perspectives here. For myself, while I do wish I could listen to more  "new" or at least unfamiliar music, it's really a matter of time. I'm older but still work full time in my own business & enjoy listening & relaxing to music that moves me but often I don't have the time and / or energy to seek out new stuff.

Additionally, I only recently got into streaming w/ a really nice set up w/ a good tube amp & good speakers set up well so I'm hearing  things & enjoying music I thought I knew well even more than ever before. Hopefully when I retire this will change & I can explore lots of other great music  know is out there. 

I use a download service Jamendo.  It allows free downloads no charge from artists who are trying to get exposure.  You need to sign up for it but I have found lots of good music (and bad) there.  All genres

@flyfish77 +1 "Discovering new music is far more important to me than the minutia of tweaking the sound quality of the music systems in my home.  Roon's ability to play or suggest new music to me has enhanced my music enjoyment far more than any gear upgrades that I have made.  To me, it is all about the music.."

Bravo.  

+1 @dinov 

+1 @waytoomuchstuff 

I've listened to mostly soul and R&B since the 60's; during that time, I also enjoyed some soft rock and contemporary jazz.  Lately, I've spent time discovering blues and more jazz. 

I've never been a fan of rap, and I don't particularly care for hip hop for a number of reasons.  There are a few new "soul/neo soul" artists that a good friend turned me on to.  I haven't found one yet that's produced a full album that I truly enjoy.  On the other hand, I have hundreds of old school vinyl albums and CDs that I enjoy every song.

I'm 75, at this point in my life I spend a little time exploring new stuff.  I spend a lot more time, just chillin' and listening to the music I've enjoyed during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  

So glad to see so many "fossil units" join in on this discussion.  Every time I get around my early-twenties grandson, the 2nd question I ask is: "Have you heard any good music lately?"  I make good notes (no pun intended) in my notes app and do a search later in Tidal.  I give them a fair shake, but nothing has shocked my world -- yet. It's good to share a interest music with the youngsters in my family.  (Hot Rods, not so much).  He has a pretty "low give a s---t factor" about sound quality.  That's a different subject altogether.

@normb +1 on WTMD. I found a lot of new stuff there when I lived in the area. The same with 103.1 before they changed formats. 

I'm not sure how to quantify the question.  Is new music something beyond Jazz, RocknRoll, pop or classical? If I listen to one of the jazz standards from the 50s performed by a more recent artist with there own twist would that be new?    I don't usually like a covers of an established song performed almost note for note from the original but I do enjoy a more modern interpterion of quite a few songs.

I don't enjoy modern pop much as it's pretty much the same from artist to artist so I wouldn't classify that as new but I'm now able do to the invention of streaming listen to music from all over the world.  So "new to me" is more what I chose.  I have over 300 albums that I collected from my youth that while they are still good not what I choose to listen to on a day to day basis.

My assertion looking at the above posts that most of us don't fit that assumption that we still only listen to Boston, Queen or the Who and while they're still enjoyable we've expanded our horizons to include lots of other styles of music that just weren't available to us 40 years ago.  My wife on he other hand who doesn't get stereo at all sings along on a Bluetooth speaker the music she listened to 40 years ago and is perfectly content.

@musicfan2349 

Although it would seem that some of are still enjoying new music there doesn't seem to be any consensus as to who today's best music acts might be.

If you look at the covers of today's bighest music magazines (Mojo, Uncut, Rolling Stone etc) you are still more likely to the likes of Springsteen, Young, U2, Zeppelin, Dylan, Madonna, Hendrix, Beatles etc.

If you read the music section of audio magazines then you are likely to find more interesting articles on reissues of classic albums than any new groundbreaking current release.

As @frankmc195 said earlier, 1980 seemed to be a key year when it came to a slowing down in musical development.

By the end of 1980 we had seen more or less every significant musical genre as well as the murder of John Lennon just after his return to recording.

@musicfan2349 

I don't think any of us are in any serious danger of getting jaded in our tastes. Most of us here seem to be finding plenty of 'new' music to enjoy.

New to us, that is.

Until some current artist (other than Roger Waters, Eric Clapton or Morrissey etc) is willing to stick their head above the parapet and speak up as to what is happening in the world today, then their music can hardly be called current.

Given the enormous social changes we've all been witness to these last 20 years or so I think it's fairly safe to say most of the music produced in that in that time has little more than ephemeral value.

Here today, gone tomorrow.

I think that one  big reason is relating to the artist and or song writer. If someone is 22 years old it is hard for me to relate to their experience- especially when it may be very different from my own personal experiences at that age, which is fast approaching forty  years ago. Today many young artists are  extremely tenanted and their work is highly professional in all ways, but their perspective is not something that I am always willing to pursue.

I do like new music but it is more limited in scope. Plus there are so many genres out there these day, who has  the the  time to  listen to it all?

I simply don’t care for most of the new music. Some yes, but not most. Rather, I go back in time and listen to more and more music from BEFORE the time frame of what I like best. It’s nice to see where "my music" came from.

Still love metal, punk, blues, rock 
born with Sad wings of destiny lp attached to my back with womb fluid !

\,,/

One other observation I would like to make is that when you get older your choice of music matures... You also begin to realize that some of the contemporary singers can't sing very well and albums are made that promotes singers who aren't really good and cover their voices with background singers or special effects. Music from the 50s to 79 seem to have artist who were brilliant in presenting what music should be. It does happen in modern music but is much more rare than from that time.

I don't know for sure but I would bet that most older audiophiles would tend to prefer jazz singers over other types of genres because of this maturing. It's mostly pure vocals with nice background music.... What do you think am I right or completely off base?

@frankmc195 - I think you are probably right; I'm 71, and my tastes are VERY different from most people I know in my age group, who like those jazz/nice music things that I don't like or that put me to sleep.

I got about another 20 years or so before I'm ready for that! 😁

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.

@bdp24 +1 The religious aspect of Bach could keep some away.

@larsman -1 What would make you think at 91 you would like jazz?

To answer the OP’s question the recording and production quality of newer releases(past 10-15 years) especially on vinyl has been very disappointing. Warps bent/creased jackets and poor sound quality. I ordered a Jayhawks recent release several years ago, being warped wasn’t enough the inner paper sleeve was glued to the vinyl. We are at the point where London Grammar and Billie Eilish are vinyl demo discs? What happened to the vinyl SQ standards Sheffield Labs set 45 years ago?

JSB wrote enough music to keep one busy for at least a lifetime.

Even only one of his works can keep somebody busy for a long time.

My major period of exploration was from about age 25 through 45, focused on Jazz.

Since then, the new music I've enjoyed has pretty much all been Americana/New grass.  

However, I seem to be finding less and less new music enjoyable. I once regarded music listening as an immense "playground" and it's disappointing to discover there are real limits to my capacity for music appreciation. However, I can't force myself to like what doesn't appeal to me. 

There's also the question of what is meant by "new". At this point, it's quite challenging to create music that sounds significantly unlike anything that's come before. 

After 1980 huh, sorry Madonna, Celine, Maria, Whitney and others, you better start treating your voices.

It I haven't heard it before, it's new music to me - regardless of when it was recorded.

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

Oh you can stick some late 50's in there to,  I'm 52 by the way.

@flyfish77 

Roon's ability to play or suggest new music to me has enhanced my music enjoyment far more than any gear upgrades that I have made.

I agree with you.

To the OP, the answer is - if you do stop listening to new music, you are only cheating yourself.  Listening to new music does not mean you have to like the old stuff any less.  Abundance, not scaricity.  You should follow your own advice,

With the maturing of streaming as a music delivery platform, and the ease of being able to surf new artists and music, it might be time to break my old listening habits and find some newer artists.

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.

Someone said it well already, we form the soundtrack of our lives when we are young, and no matter how much new music we may find, we have in our heads music that is linked to memories of previous times and places that is custom to only our personal memories. Being older now I understand when my parents would say the current music is garbage. They never listened to rock n roll, they never searched out new music. They were mentally locked in the past musically. While I will not let that happen, I still think there is a lot of garbage music out there that is simply not musical in any way. I think this is always true.

Lots of interesting comments here. I agree with many of them. Here are my two cents.

Nabokov said that you don’t really know a book, understand the artistic achievement or quality, until you’ve read it five times. We can quibble about the number of readings required, but, as a general proposition, I agree with him. Now, I don’t read very many books five times, but I usually read books I especially value a second time. And, I think Nabokov’s observation even more true of music. I discovered long ago (way before I became a septuagenarian) that I get substantially more aesthetic satisfaction and pleasure listening to the same recording 10 or 12 times than from listening to 10 or 12 new recordings one time each. For me, multiple listenings is the only way new music has any chance at all to seep into me, alter my aesthetic and expand my musical preferences. 
 

So, although I spend time most weeks listening to music new to me, especially genres I don’t know well, I’m more likely to “re-spin” a recent discovery several times in the next week or so than to search for more “new” music. Do these “re-spins” qualify as listening to new music? My answer is yes.

There is a second dynamic at work in my listening habits, and this one is definitely related to aging. I already know and own plenty of books, records and CDs to keep me blissful to the end, even if I didn’t enjoy a rich social life. So, there is no imperative to dig for more. I sign into my Tidal account less frequently each year, not because I don’t like the new stuff (I know there are lots of gems yet to be discovered), but because I don’t need it so much anymore. I enjoy the hunt less now, because I have less time left and am no longer as willing to spend my time on the throw away music one must wade through in search of the gems. I’m happy to commune with the familiar, as long as it continues to enrich my days. And, for now, it does. Hail, hail, rock ‘n’ roll! Or, whatever rings your bell.
 

@clearthinker You nailed it. 
You broke it down perfectly in terms of the machinations of distribution today compared to the past. Your comment on how relatively unrewarding it is seeking out new music today compared to the past was insightful.  
People are less likely to keep doing something when their efforts are so often unrewarded.  
Sometimes, my good faith efforts to seek out diamonds in the rough feels like something of a punishing experience. 
Just because the sea is bigger doesn’t mean finding a good fish is easier.  
The opposite is likely true.  
@dayglow I’m as anti-religion as it gets. I only considered the “religious side” of Bach’s music after I’d already been convinced of his genius. Did some reading after, research, etc…that stuff ended up having no bearing for me on his music at all. Especially when I understood the context of a musician in the early 1700s.
Some of my very favorite artists made no qualms regarding their religious piety.  
The Carter Family, Hank Williams, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, to name a small few. My favorite comedian, Norm Macdonald, is another.  
I have a ton of gospel records from the ‘40s to the ‘70s (from something like ‘Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb’ by the Charming Bells in ‘49 to ‘Like a Ship’ by Pastor T.L. Barrett and His Youth for Christ Choir in ‘71) and it is some of my favorite music.
 

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. 

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!

@simonmoon: 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.

I was introduced to the music of the master by a great songwriter I was recording with in 1974. He had grown up a fan of The Beatles, but when I loaned him my copy of Smiley Smile (The Beach Boys) he became as obsessed with Brian Wilson as was I. That album led both of us to Van Dyke Parks, another near-genius. If you've heard Van Dyke's debut album Song Cycle and like it, there's no reason you can't become enamored with Bach's insanely great music.

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.

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.

@simonmoon 

Glad to hear you have found a way around this.  You are clearly more net savvy than I am, so you do better.

Right now I am happy where I am and I don't have the time to tweak the population of stuff that's trying to access me.  Nor to I have the technical skills.

I don't even know what 'autotune' is.

Don't forget Bob Dylan has won plenty of Grammys.  Would be a pity to cut him out ever if only his current music is 'new'.

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.

@simonmoon: We all walk our our musical paths. Mine has been the reverse of yours; I started with 20th Century (Stravinsky, Copland, Ives, Vaughan Williams, Strauss, Rachmaninoff, Holst, Ravel, Prokofiev, Penderecki even (his "Threnody To The Victims Of Hiroshima" is the single most terrifying piece of music I’ve ever heard).

Then, just as I followed the bread crumbs back from the Rock music of the 1960’s to it’s origins in the Hillbilly and Jump Blues music of the 1940’s, I went backwards in Classical: through the Romantics (I love Wagner), then the Classical era (who doesn’t like Beethoven? Or Mozart? Well, except for Glenn Gould ;-).

But my love of Baroque music surpasses that of any other. Well, except Bluegrass.

@simonmoon What are the sources from which you are exposed to so much great new music?

Umm...  because most new music lacks things like melodic invention, harmonic movement, dynamic contrast...   There are no dynamics when the sound level goes from too loud to too gddamn loud.  When was the last time you heard a pop singer sing "I believe in love" and you really believed her?

Time to get a good digital setup , Roon as your music organizer ,look it up,

and QObuz for the library music from all era’s over 70 Million songs ,

you would never run out of music ,and you can even build a virtual library 

to have at your disposal, youjust pay the months fee ,or yearly  not expensive at all 

if you just have analog count on at least $10 k with dac ,quality Ethernet,and usb cables , to match or surpass your analog system 

66,and I listen to new music all the time. 

I haven't read the article yet but looking at the responses, it seems many of us are searching for new music as a sole pursuit. In our teens and twenties, you found music with your friends. Once you start your own family, that spare time is largely gone and thus an important avenue for discovering new music.

I could be totally wrong about this. It's happened once or twice before.

Music affects everybody differently.  For me, I'm constantly searching for new artists on Tidal every week.  I still enjoy all the music I've accumulated from the 60's and onward, but I know there's still many great songs to be heard....and I've been fortunate to find some of them.  The journey continues....