| Author | Message | ||
     Paul Swinford Member Username: Prema Post Number: 13 Registered: 11-2005 |
Interesting piece from National Public Radio in the U.S. on why people (and other critters) tend to become less adventurous as we age. A noted 40-something neuroscientist decided to study why his 20-something assistant's diverse musical tastes were driving him batty. Listen in: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5652676 Now I understand why I'm locked into the '80s . Thank goodness I discovered the Go-Betweens at age 20! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 552 Registered: 03-2006 |
Veddy interesting, Paul. I think undeniably true and we've all seen this manifested in ourselves - we love music we associate with certain fun, romanticized times in our lives. For me, it was going to college (sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but most of all freedom!), so I love all the music that was the soundtrack to those times. I fell in with a "bad crowd" that was into Costello, Springsteen, the Clash, R.E.M. et al., and that's largely what I love today...The GoBs did come a little later, but still the same principle was at work... | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 490 Registered: 03-2005 |
Damn! Wish I could get that file to play on my computer. I suspect that it's twaddle though. Most people simply stop challenging themselves in all aspects of their lives, period. I reject the idea that there's any organic reason people only listen to what they liked during their "peak" years. My favorite music nowadays is stuff I hadn't even heard of when I was in my 20s or 30s. I love the discovery. Surely that's true for all of the older folks on here. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 555 Registered: 03-2006 |
Not complete twaddle. I am largely with you - music is too important and mysterious and f-ing ineffable to be explained away by biology, neural responses, etc. But certain things are undeniably true. We geriatric souls on this board ARE completely open to discovery, but we're exceptional, ahead of the curve. Most (late) 30somethings and 40somethings I know are hopelessly mired in the music of their "youth"... But this piece said a few things I think you'd like, Randy. It correlated trying new experiences with personal growth (it got, for a science-based piece a little touchy feely and humanistic) and equated openness to new experience with open-heartedness. Right on, Scientist Dude! And someone in it said "It's not the music, but where the music takes you", which made me think of the GBs. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 660 Registered: 05-2005 |
Spot on Randy although LK is also correct up to a point about us being "exceptional". Of those 30somethings and 40somethings who arent hopelessly mired in the music of their "youth"... ,those that buy "new" music are force fed this music by being told they should like it by radio, TV etc, or clever marketing, or saturating big stores with this evil blandness. Of course, thats a pretty big generalisation on my part but I can only go by the 30/40 somethings I know, and thats a lot. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 584 Registered: 05-2005 |
Dave Graney said once, "drugs are wasted on the young!" | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 491 Registered: 03-2005 |
I LOVE that song, Spence! Thanks for reminding me. Onto the iPod it goes . . . . Now, off to Amoeba. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 481 Registered: 05-2005 |
My closest friends who loved music when we first met still love music. We bonded over R.E.M,, Husker Du and the like and still swap tips on new bands such as HAL, M83 and others. But I see it happening with acquaintances that they lose interest in anything other than the music of their youth. What's worse is when they even lose interest in that and look back on it, if at all, as childish things to be put away in the attic. I find that very sad. I do get a thrill sometimes, though, in buying something that reminds me of my youth. A good example was my recent purchase of the two CD re-release of Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend album. And hey, we've all bought the Go-Betweens albums in various editions and no doubt sometime next year the whole shebang will be re-released yet again by EMI. (Hopefully there will be one or two box sets containing everything.) | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 586 Registered: 05-2005 |
There's a myth that as people get older they become less creative. Bolloc*s!!. I proably embrace newer more challeging things not just in music but in everything I do than I did in my teens or twenties. I suppose I got off to a good atart at the age of 13 I was into Scott Walker, Grace Jones, Josef K and Tuxeddo Moon and XTC, so I had a taste for the wierd and wonderful that I have never strayed from. I alos have more money than whan I was younger so I can be much more adventurous and daring to delve and discover what's new in the world. I always had a soft spot for guilty pleasures too, growing up, much to the annoyance of teenage mates, so I feel less inclined to feel guilty that I am not challenging anything when I put on Billy Joel's Best of or Thriller for that matter. That's me anyhow! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 587 Registered: 05-2005 |
When I say have more money, I must point out that i am NOT loaded by any stretch of the imagination!! | ||
| jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 198 Registered: 07-2005 |
Interesting points. Personally I still love the adventure of music finding new bands and artists and reinvestigating things I was too narrrowminded (or thought too uncool )to listen to when younger. Its like a holy grail really, searching for some undiscovered gem, new or old that would thrill you. I'm certainly more open to new stuff now though some genres don't really excite me, Rap/classical just doesn't resonate with me,but I love folk,world music and load of other stuff, and I think as Spence says having more money you can afford to take a chance. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 152 Registered: 01-2005 |
I'll agree with Jerry on rap, although I like to listen to classical music on Sunday mornings while I am reading the newspaper. I bought a few early rap albums on vinyl, the first one by Run/DMC and the Fatboys. News did get into the hardcore rap that came out in the late 80's. Most of mainstream country I can't stand. Every once in a while a Patty Loveless (Mountain Soul) will release something of real substance though that will blow me away. |