Is anyone else hitting that age where they're just not up on/don't care about music like they used to be?

[Fenriswolf]

The thread on Max Weinberg's son not drummer for Slipknot anymore when I didn't even know Joey was dead made me realize....I'm getting old. I mean, I'm not old, I'm 32 I just don't know how to keep up with music these days.

Hell, I find about about bad ass songs because of stuff like this.


Even streaming music on my phone while I'm driving, it agrees that late 2000s metalcore was the pinnacle of music, so I get that, country and hardstyle remixes of basic white girl music.

 

[velvetkevorkian]

I don't claim to be able to "keep up" but I'm 37 and listening to a more amazing music than ever (thanks mainly to Bandcamp). There's so much out there that there's less of a common shared experience of being e.g. "into metal".

 

[Fenriswolf]

I don't claim to be able to "keep up" but I'm 37 and listening to a more amazing music than ever (thanks mainly to Bandcamp). There's so much out there that there's less of a common shared experience of being e.g. "into metal".

I do to, but also part of that is not being a dickhead teenager and worried about if what i'm listening to is trve kvlt, I'm open to a lot more types of music. I mean, I grew up on 90s and old school country, so I am biased towards that, but what popular country turned into made me hate it. That being said...listen to this song and tell me it's not badass.

 

[broj15]

31 years old and I'm still discovering new music all the time. I've found that the older I get the less time & energy I have to participate in/support my local heavy music scene, but I'm always finding new stuff to listen to, and even more old stuff to listen to that I wasn't aware of. Random genre specific YouTube playlists are great for that.

 

[Fenriswolf]

31 years old and I'm still discovering new music all the time. I've found that the older I get the less time & energy I have to participate in/support my local heavy music scene, but I'm always finding new stuff to listen to, and even more old stuff to listen to that I wasn't aware of. Random genre specific YouTube playlists are great for that.

Maybe I'm just algorithoming wrong or something, even the genre specific playlists I get are

but I'm still the same person that will do this shit at a red light.


I love the variety I get, because as Tiktok calls it, I'm jamsexual, but on the flip side, old man bleghs at clouds.

 

[budda]

i’ve been “behind” on music most of my life in that theres way more bands, albums and songs than time I have had available to hear them.

I still get sent new and old albums to check out and sometimes I even get around to it.

 

[Fenriswolf]

I was behind on music since about the 2010’s so i try not to let the amount i dont know overwhelm me.

Ya, that's the thing I love, main songs kinda meh, but the the breakdown comes in violent like a drunk stepdad.

 

[Demiurge]

I have definitely strayed from heavy music to an extent, but it's hard to say whether it's age or other circumstances. Time for listening has decreased, and usually when there is time, it's when I need to unwind, so I'm reaching for something mellower. Same for playing, now that I think of it.

 

[Randy]

After your 20s is definitely the time dudes start to time capsule the music of their youth and stop reaching out for new stuff.

I just force myself to listen to new music, basically. I've got some albums that are always part of my playlist rotation, but a couple times a week when I'm in the car, I'll go straight into the Spotify "new releases" and binge full albums of stuff I've never heard of before. Not all of it leaves much of an impression but inevitably something sticks.

 

[Yul Brynner]

After your 20s is definitely the time dudes start to time capsule the music of their youth and stop reaching out for new stuff.

I just force myself to listen to new music, basically. I've got some albums that are always part of my playlist rotation, but a couple times a week when I'm in the car, I'll go straight into the Spotify "new releases" and binge full albums of stuff I've never heard of before. Not all of it leaves much of an impression but inevitably something sticks.

I force newer stuff on myself but I've found that shit just don't slap like it used to. I'll find my flavour of the month band I like and pretty much quickly move on from back to the same old stuff.

 

[budda]

I got apple music via a promo a week or so ago and i checked out some band recs and music I own on CD but havent listened to in years.

 

[Thesius]

I fell behind on the bands I used to listen to. I haven't listened to say a new In Flames, Lamb of God, Korn, Gojira, BTBAM, Mastodon, etc album in the last decade, but I still listen to their old stuff. One day I'll have to do a binge session.

 

[GunpointMetal]

I’m 39 and I make it a point to find new music all the time. The one FB is still good for is the music groups. I find at least one new badass band a week just from Mathcore Index.

 

[Grindspine]

Everyone goes through phases. No, you're not the only one. You'll move onto something else in a few months and suddenly find some enjoyment in some new music you found.

Sure, I fuggin love nineties melodic death metal, metalcore from the early 2000s, and djenty progressive death metal from the 2010s, but I also listen to a ton of industrial, dub, dance, edm, and just switch to a different genre if I start feeling like things are getting stale.

 

[Strobe]

41 here, and I make a point to both hunt new music and explore areas of music I missed in the past. Getting stuck in a rose tinted rut is a real thing, but one I actively try to avoid. That said, part of getting older is understanding and being comfortable with precisely who you are, so it's not crazy if you just want to pick that thing and like it. There are no rules other than the ones you make for yourself.

 

[Werecow]

My almost sole source of discovering music now seems to be this site, and in particular the "what are you listening to?" thread. I was beginning to think i was over discovering new music, but then i discovered Slugdge in there, and they're one of my favourite bands now.

I'm weird though, and always been extremely picky about music since a teen. Like i always spent a ton of time listening to music, but not from a large amount of bands.

 

[TedEH]

I don't think age has much to do with it. I know guys in their 50s and 60s who are constantly on top of new music and get really hyped about it. If there is an age factor, it might just be that a lot of people in their 30s are in kind of a shit phase right now where you're old enough to realize the world is on fire and young enough that you're part of the group expected to deal with it now - so who really has time to devote to music discovery.

Keeping in mind too that this is a niche forum for niche instruments full of people who listen to niche genres. I've long held a theory that there's no real "popular" music - by which I mean music taste is the farthest thing from universal. Yeah, you can say that there's certain genres or artists that are "part of the zeitgeist" or whatever, but for every person who is "in the know", there's just as many or more who aren't, or just don't care. No two people share the same music tastes. And being into something even vaguely heavy, IMO, has always put me (us?) in a category of having to accept that most people's tastes aren't going to align with ours very easily.

Occasionally, I'll run into someone who is convinced that they "get the scene", whatever scene they might be talking about, and 9 times out of 10 they're just yammering about their own tastes. Which is fine. But there's no obligation to keep up.

I don't actively go out trying to find new music most of the time - rather, I let it come to me. Maybe they're an opener for a band I already wanted to see. Maybe it's something a friend is hyped about, so I give it a listen when I have the time. It's not uncommon for people to ask me to learn a song for them, so I inherit a lot of music from people that way. Most of my high-school time-capsule style music taste is stuff that people wanted to sing and asked for accompaniment. Weirdly for me, that seems to have come back around, and I've been learning a bunch of new stuff to accompany people again. I think that kind of music discovery is great - because it leans into how music is social.

 

[zappatton2]

I'm still an avid collector of physical albums, and the obsessive "collector" mindset kinda drives me to always be open to new stuff. Admittedly, the collecting thing was formented in my youth, when buying CDs and tapes and records was still a normal thing to do, so even though I still love new artists and music scenes, that is my personal "old man refusing to change" angle. At least I actually listen to it all, rather than vacuum seal it and stream the music.

 

[budda]

I bought CD’s 3-5 at a time and would listen to them all and that hasnt been a thing for me in years. Ah well.

The nice thing about the recommendations I get (usually from people who play an instrument) is they have a high success rate. They know a few bands I like or love and suggest something that I am probably going to dig. Its a good time.

Once the youngest gets more self sufficient maybe I will go back and check out more of what I missed. But if an album from when I was a teenager is gonna hit the spot at that moment, thats what Im putting on.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

I'm in my mid-30s and would say my motivation to find new bands / music has lessened over time, but my enjoyment of music hasn't.

I went on somewhat of a musical journey in my teens and early 20s (as I'm sure a lot of you did), delving into the many subgenres of hard rock and metal. My uptake of new music (new to me, rather than new releases) peaked while I was at university.

I'm now at a point where I have a huge music collection that includes lots of strong examples of a given subgenre (with many more mediocre / subpar examples of the same subgenre left by the wayside). This means I have "enough" music at my disposal to satisfy me, in a way that I really didn't in my younger years. It also means that anything new I hear will need to be that bit better / more original in order to grab my attention.

My CD collection grew from about 20 albums to 800 in the space of about 5 years (i.e. 160 per year). In the subsequent 10 years, it has grown to 1200 or so (i.e. 40 per year), but probably only by about 50 in the last 3-4 years. This slowdown in CD acquisition is despite the fact that I still primarily listen to CDs.