Super interesting stuff, although interestingly none of it applies to me. I’m 32, and I’m still constantly discovering new music. I have always been hungry for more new sounds my whole life. I was actually more conservative as a kid, because kids tend to only like what’s hip, mainstream, or at least commercially accessible in some way. Now I like more extreme kinds of music.
Thanks for this post! I have noticed a LOT of what you have included here. Fortunately for me I started a Top Ten party with friends back in the early 80s when we were in our early 20s. There's a group of ten of us that still participate every year. The rule is: each year's Top Tens MUST be new songs! As a result, each person has been forced to explore new music every year. Some of our tastes have changed a lot while others are still fairly grounded in what they were interested in years ago. I think anyone who has ever loved music should do something like this! It keeps us alive and far from stagnant!
I read this and looked at the graphs and can't help but wonder how much the graphs were cleaned up for "flyers" like myself? 65 and always finding new music. Sure I have preferred genres and a few sub genres I won't listen to but by and large my play list continues to grow.
I just turned 65 and yes just started Medicare. I’m finding new music on Spotify every Friday with their Radar Releases. I would have never listened to the new Beyoncé if it wasn’t on RR. I’ve been turned on to other artists like Dixon Dallas, Harry Stiles, Stephen Sanchez, Dua Lipa, Crisp and Dave Lee. Please keep the new music coming.
1. The degree of importance attributed to music declines with age...
2. Young people listen to music significantly more than middle-aged adults.
3. Young people listen to music in a wide variety of contexts and settings, whereas adults listen to music primarily in private contexts.
The issue of music discovery does not originate from infinite choice; instead, this problem likely stems from decreased listenership (point 2) and a waning commitment to exploration."
Eh? What happened to the critical importance of context?
I'm in my 50s, and don't listen to much music at all, but I least want to listen to the songs of my youth. I heard them too much when they were new. I'm Gen-X, and if I had to pick a "best" era for music I'd probably say the 1940s or '50s.
My overall experience has been that when I was young I was into music that was new, and as I hit my late 20s I stopped caring about music. From age 35 to 40 a lot of sad things happened in my life, and music was a solace, so I became deeply involved in it, and discovered lots of then-new songs. Once life stopped being sad, I again stopped caring much about music.
I don't know if my experience is the norm, but I wonder if to at least some degree, when we are confused, sad, or otherwise unsure in our lives, music can console us, and once we grow up, get married, and have kids, and life is happier and more secure, we have less of a need for it.
This is rubbish. What constitutes “New” music? If I discover an album that was released 20 years ago - but I’ve never heard before - is that considered “new”? It’s new to me. How about a brand new album from a “back in the day” artist? Is that “new” or “old”? How about if I ignore a brand new album, by a recent artist who is just regurgitating stuff from back in the day that I am long since sick of? (Greta Van Vleet I’m looking at you). I am 64 years old. I have been an avid listener since the mid 60’s. I still seek out new music - whether it’s “new-new” or “old-new”. Part of the problem I find with new music is that I’m jaded - “yeah, I’ve heard this before” -which kind of shoots the premise of not liking new music in the ass.
Enshitification. Music that we listen to is controlled by the “Big Few”. See Chokepoint Capitalism for explanation. “I❤️Radio” killed radio and other media and took control of what is left. Radio and tv should be locally owned, not have music and dj shows piped in from New York and LA. Locally owned is how you break new music to the world.
I will be 67 in a few days. I am still discovering new music and listening to music of my younger days. My saving grace is my iPod. I have 18000+ songs on the device and I keep adding to the library. I have one large playlist made up of all 18000+ songs played randomly with no repeats until all 18000+ songs are complete. With my listening habits It takes about 1.5 years to finish the playlist. I like my iPod much better than Spotify. The Spotify algorithm played too many repeats too often.
I really liked this post! recently I followed the advice of some music reviewer I heard in a podcast who said that if you wanted to get up to date on what the kids were listening to these days, check out the Billboard 100. I did and was shocked to realize how little of what I would call "rock" was on there. back in the 80s and 90s, almost everything would have been screaming guitars, which I really miss. Now I'm trying to find newer bands that sound like the 90s.
1. If your Dad likes the Washington Nationals he does like new things. If he was truly set in his ways he'd be an Orioles man.
2. I always find this kind of thing fascinating because I utterly hated the popular music of my teenage years (the 90's). I still like the music I listened to as a teen (which was mostly not contemporary) but rarely listen to it now. Just because it's kinda played out for me. It's interesting, to me, that this doesn't seem happen to more people.
I heard about the 30s cut-off point early on and swore I wouldn't succumb to it. Something did end up happening after all, but it's different from the stats, and mostly motivated by industry aversion. It's hard to enjoy the new output when you're pre-occupied with the sausage making.
One of my tricks has been to keep an eye on upcoming local gigs and checking out those artists. Finding a new cool artist and getting to see them live is a great combination.
Finding new commercial music, or finding music that is actually new? Excitingly new. A comment I wrote to a YouTube video on 15 note poly tempos by Jeremie Carrier is relevant:
“This is the most exciting music my ears and brain have heard since I was a teenager, and everything was wondrous and brand new to me. […] This music should be famed for breaking up any musical writing blocks.”
To me, this article is actually about: willingness to conform, tolerance of repetition, access to wider music, need for meaningful lyrics, need for new sound for the ears. Commercial entertainment based music does not do any of that for me. I don’t choose to listen to the music of my youth, nor the latest popular music. I need more. Usually I get it in world music: Arabic, African, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese. Eerie sounds, different rhythms and musical language, feed my need.
I am angry that western music is ordinary, and that I am supposed to love it. Well I don’t. My tolerance and faith is eroded. I no longer care about conforming to the crowd. Isn’t that what the Hot 100 is about? All of this is driven by careful investment strategies that chose money as their sole interest. With that, all stops are pulled out with as much wiggling breasts, and manual nut checks mid song, as the entertainer can stuff in. (Pun unintended, but accurate.) (And no, I’m not a boomer.)
After starting my own newsletter just about a month ago, I aggressively sought out writers who were covering similar topics and wrote in a similar style. To this point, I haven’t had much luck. Then I landed on yours from the Substack app and read this—my first auto-subscribe. Not only did I write about a related topic recently, but I was also planning to write about A24, which you recently covered. Maybe I’ll scrap that now, not sure. Anyway, I love what you’re doing here. Would be great to hear of any newsletters in the same vein if you can think of any to share.
Super interesting stuff, although interestingly none of it applies to me. I’m 32, and I’m still constantly discovering new music. I have always been hungry for more new sounds my whole life. I was actually more conservative as a kid, because kids tend to only like what’s hip, mainstream, or at least commercially accessible in some way. Now I like more extreme kinds of music.
Thanks for this post! I have noticed a LOT of what you have included here. Fortunately for me I started a Top Ten party with friends back in the early 80s when we were in our early 20s. There's a group of ten of us that still participate every year. The rule is: each year's Top Tens MUST be new songs! As a result, each person has been forced to explore new music every year. Some of our tastes have changed a lot while others are still fairly grounded in what they were interested in years ago. I think anyone who has ever loved music should do something like this! It keeps us alive and far from stagnant!
I'm currently writing a memoir based on the Top Ten lists I've created for every year even before we started doing these. Feel free to check it out if you haven't! https://open.substack.com/pub/danpal/p/a-top-ten-memoir-1975-im-seeing-you?r=lru5s&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I read this and looked at the graphs and can't help but wonder how much the graphs were cleaned up for "flyers" like myself? 65 and always finding new music. Sure I have preferred genres and a few sub genres I won't listen to but by and large my play list continues to grow.
I just turned 65 and yes just started Medicare. I’m finding new music on Spotify every Friday with their Radar Releases. I would have never listened to the new Beyoncé if it wasn’t on RR. I’ve been turned on to other artists like Dixon Dallas, Harry Stiles, Stephen Sanchez, Dua Lipa, Crisp and Dave Lee. Please keep the new music coming.
Something slightly screwy about the article;
"Context is critical to cultural discovery. ...
1. The degree of importance attributed to music declines with age...
2. Young people listen to music significantly more than middle-aged adults.
3. Young people listen to music in a wide variety of contexts and settings, whereas adults listen to music primarily in private contexts.
The issue of music discovery does not originate from infinite choice; instead, this problem likely stems from decreased listenership (point 2) and a waning commitment to exploration."
Eh? What happened to the critical importance of context?
I'm in my 50s, and don't listen to much music at all, but I least want to listen to the songs of my youth. I heard them too much when they were new. I'm Gen-X, and if I had to pick a "best" era for music I'd probably say the 1940s or '50s.
My overall experience has been that when I was young I was into music that was new, and as I hit my late 20s I stopped caring about music. From age 35 to 40 a lot of sad things happened in my life, and music was a solace, so I became deeply involved in it, and discovered lots of then-new songs. Once life stopped being sad, I again stopped caring much about music.
I don't know if my experience is the norm, but I wonder if to at least some degree, when we are confused, sad, or otherwise unsure in our lives, music can console us, and once we grow up, get married, and have kids, and life is happier and more secure, we have less of a need for it.
This is rubbish. What constitutes “New” music? If I discover an album that was released 20 years ago - but I’ve never heard before - is that considered “new”? It’s new to me. How about a brand new album from a “back in the day” artist? Is that “new” or “old”? How about if I ignore a brand new album, by a recent artist who is just regurgitating stuff from back in the day that I am long since sick of? (Greta Van Vleet I’m looking at you). I am 64 years old. I have been an avid listener since the mid 60’s. I still seek out new music - whether it’s “new-new” or “old-new”. Part of the problem I find with new music is that I’m jaded - “yeah, I’ve heard this before” -which kind of shoots the premise of not liking new music in the ass.
Imagine stop finding new music, bleak
Enshitification. Music that we listen to is controlled by the “Big Few”. See Chokepoint Capitalism for explanation. “I❤️Radio” killed radio and other media and took control of what is left. Radio and tv should be locally owned, not have music and dj shows piped in from New York and LA. Locally owned is how you break new music to the world.
I will be 67 in a few days. I am still discovering new music and listening to music of my younger days. My saving grace is my iPod. I have 18000+ songs on the device and I keep adding to the library. I have one large playlist made up of all 18000+ songs played randomly with no repeats until all 18000+ songs are complete. With my listening habits It takes about 1.5 years to finish the playlist. I like my iPod much better than Spotify. The Spotify algorithm played too many repeats too often.
I really liked this post! recently I followed the advice of some music reviewer I heard in a podcast who said that if you wanted to get up to date on what the kids were listening to these days, check out the Billboard 100. I did and was shocked to realize how little of what I would call "rock" was on there. back in the 80s and 90s, almost everything would have been screaming guitars, which I really miss. Now I'm trying to find newer bands that sound like the 90s.
1. If your Dad likes the Washington Nationals he does like new things. If he was truly set in his ways he'd be an Orioles man.
2. I always find this kind of thing fascinating because I utterly hated the popular music of my teenage years (the 90's). I still like the music I listened to as a teen (which was mostly not contemporary) but rarely listen to it now. Just because it's kinda played out for me. It's interesting, to me, that this doesn't seem happen to more people.
I heard about the 30s cut-off point early on and swore I wouldn't succumb to it. Something did end up happening after all, but it's different from the stats, and mostly motivated by industry aversion. It's hard to enjoy the new output when you're pre-occupied with the sausage making.
One of my tricks has been to keep an eye on upcoming local gigs and checking out those artists. Finding a new cool artist and getting to see them live is a great combination.
Finding new commercial music, or finding music that is actually new? Excitingly new. A comment I wrote to a YouTube video on 15 note poly tempos by Jeremie Carrier is relevant:
“This is the most exciting music my ears and brain have heard since I was a teenager, and everything was wondrous and brand new to me. […] This music should be famed for breaking up any musical writing blocks.”
To me, this article is actually about: willingness to conform, tolerance of repetition, access to wider music, need for meaningful lyrics, need for new sound for the ears. Commercial entertainment based music does not do any of that for me. I don’t choose to listen to the music of my youth, nor the latest popular music. I need more. Usually I get it in world music: Arabic, African, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese. Eerie sounds, different rhythms and musical language, feed my need.
I am angry that western music is ordinary, and that I am supposed to love it. Well I don’t. My tolerance and faith is eroded. I no longer care about conforming to the crowd. Isn’t that what the Hot 100 is about? All of this is driven by careful investment strategies that chose money as their sole interest. With that, all stops are pulled out with as much wiggling breasts, and manual nut checks mid song, as the entertainer can stuff in. (Pun unintended, but accurate.) (And no, I’m not a boomer.)
After starting my own newsletter just about a month ago, I aggressively sought out writers who were covering similar topics and wrote in a similar style. To this point, I haven’t had much luck. Then I landed on yours from the Substack app and read this—my first auto-subscribe. Not only did I write about a related topic recently, but I was also planning to write about A24, which you recently covered. Maybe I’ll scrap that now, not sure. Anyway, I love what you’re doing here. Would be great to hear of any newsletters in the same vein if you can think of any to share.
Btw, hell yes to Green Day and Blink. 🤘
I loved how you weaved together scientific research with your own insights on musical evolution.
Well done!