How old are you and how much new music do you listen to? What is the most recent artist you REALLY got into and when? How often do you find something new that you really get into? Do you find yourself sticking to a certain genre and how has this changed since you were younger?

18 comments

  1. Personally at 32 I do feel as though I’m less interested in hearing new music most of the time. When I was young I got really obsessed with the bands I liked and these days I can’t really muster the energy to care that much about bands I don’t already know all about. I always said I wasn’t going to be one of those negative whiny people who thinks new music by people younger than myself is garbage, and I intend to keep an open mind, but I may have to accept that my ability to fall in love with music has fundamentally changed in the last 10 years.

    Every once in a while I hear a new song I really like and very occasionally I get very into an artist. Last year I fell deep into Olivia Rodrigo. But even then I haven’t watched her Sour Prom film and some of her videos. I didn’t listen to her album (aside from a few songs) over and over and over. It’s not like it was when I fell in love in high school.

  2. Give it time… It evolves. I’m now 41.

    For example, my taste in music pretty much ran stagnant into my early to mid 30’s, listening to pretty much the same genre I was listening to in highschool and my 20’s. Skate Punk mostly, or 90s Hip Hop.

    Then kids came, and I got the pleasure of opening up to bubble guppies, Disney crap, and other kids stuff… However I then heard some catchy tune in passing from a different genre (Americana/New Country/Folk), and I checked out that particular band, then another one, and another one. It was a relief to have something else besides the kids stuff, that was clean and not too harsh for the little ones ears. Then that evolved into listening to Classic Rock. Crap I hadn’t really listened to since my childhood.

    I got into the song lyrics, and found a certain sound that I really enjoyed in addition to my previous likings.

    Just go with the flow OP. Don’t put too much thought into it. If you have an open mind, and an easy going disposition you’ll find a ton of hidden gems.

    Good luck on your journey. I hope you find something good.

    For me. My latest favorites are Whiskey Myers, Ryan Bingham, Explosions in The Sky and “older” things now like Goldfinger, Green Day, Snoop, or Queen.

    It’s weird still referring to Snoop Dog as an Oldie. But that’s the reality.

  3. So, I feel it depends. There was a study by Berkeley a few years ago (I am sorry, cannot find the citation), but the bottom line was that the vast majority (like 85%+) of people world-wide stop listening to new music when they hit 25 years old. I was more or less stunned because I continued to seek out new music for years. Now, I look for something that sounds unique, but not so crazy that I cannot relate. So, mostly instrumental stuff at this point. Interestingly, I found a group that I started to support after their Kick Starter back in 2014, and they put out everything from hip hop rhythms to guitar solos to EDM. It is nearly all instrumental. I figured that this was going to be a bunch of young college aged kids that had too much time on their hands after going to a music school and ended up unable to support themselves with music, but actually the lead composer/engineer/producer is a soldier that lost a lot his hearing in combat. Anyway, they just released a new album and have a Mardi Gras album coming out in a few weeks. I am always looking for their new releases. Does that help?

  4. A fair amount, Spotify discovery feature is actually really good at finding newer music that you like. Out of 20 songs I always find at least 1 new artist that I end up loving.

  5. Being musically inclined may make me biased here but I follow indieheads on Reddit. They post all the newest indie rock music and that has allowed me to discover Death Grips, The War on Drugs, Car Seat Headrest, Deafheaven, Frank Ocean, and so much more!

    I ritually check that sub out every weekend as they have NMF (New Music Friday’s).

    I’ll probably do this forever. Yes I love my NIN, Smashing Pumpkins, Wilco, etc but I’m always on the hunt for the next thing!

  6. I’m in my late 30s. I felt like I was really up on new music (at least, new music in the indie/alternative genre) until about 30. Then for the past few years I noticed that I wasn’t really getting excited by most of the new music, and it made me kind of sad.

    Lately I’ve started checking out Pitchfork reviews every week and sampling each of the albums. I still don’t love everything but it led me to discover a newish wave of post-punk-inspired bands coming out of the UK. Yard Act and Do Nothing are two of my current favorites.

  7. I’m 38 and I’m one of those assholes who claims they’re into all kinds of music but I’m one of the assholes who really means it. I remember where I was when I first heard Faith No More at 6 years old so the fact that I’m as likely to put on Stevie Wonder as I am Einsturzende Neubauten should surprise no one familiar with Faith No More. They’re the only band I know of that’s covered both G.G. Allen and The Commodores unironically. Point being that kind of set the stage for my musical interest for the rest of my life and I’m eternally grateful for that.

    I go through phases of being intensely into stuff but I don’t drop it when I’m done, the intensity just dies down. So about 5 years after UK grime was at its height I stumbled onto that and got way into it (I still check in w/Dizzee and Foreign Beggars, shame about Wiley). I got into gypsy punk late af and went all in there too, all the way back to Firewater because I almost always go hunting for roots as well. I discover new music pretty frequently. I keep an eye out for cheap Bandcamp discographies and I will basically buy anything (when I’m not broke af like I am atm). The last big one I did was DMT Tapes (vaporwave) and I’m really digging Haircuts for Men from that label. Completely random shit will send me in one direction or another. I read an article in the Guardian about a George Orwell prize winner, dude who wrote a book called “Poverty Safari” by the name of Loki the Scottish Rapper and got way into that dude. Right now I’m in a period of being deeply in love with Monster Magnet again which happens to me every few years. Milking the Stars is a fucking masterpiece. That means I’m also on a larger stoner rock tear because I can’t just sit in one thing. This year (and by this year I probably just mean “at some point in the pandemic”) I finally discovered Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. *Really* digging the shit out of them.

    I’m poor and hate Spotify (most musicians who understand economics do) so frequency can be tricky but I’m *always* listening for new shit. Back in the day I’d get soundtracks and tribute albums from thrift or pawn shops and proceed to hunt down every band on there that I thought sounded remotely cool. Like I got into Helmet, Butthole Surfers, and Reverend Horton Heat from the Saturday Morning’s Greatest Hits record ffs. I’ll still occasionally go to a thrift shop and just buy a few random things with interesting covers. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s how I got into A-Yue (Taiwanese) and Zemfira (Ukrainian iirc). I’m just as inconsistent with the music I make, which is how I’ve ended up with multiple songs with an ehru VSTi in them.

    Honestly I guess the short answer to the whole question is I just kinda chase vibes, and so far I’ve been willing to chase them to the ends of the earth. I hope I never get rigid like most of the older people I know, but I’ve also known quite a few old folks who never stop discovering so I know it’s not entirely uncommon. I look forward to being the old guy with whatever the 30 years from now equivalent of having a favorite dubstep artist (ftr probably Getter) will be.

  9. Not much nowadays. One or two artists I tend to follow and listen to if they put new stuff out, but otherwise I’m happiest with my older music

  10. I’m almost 40. I never listen to the radio (I absolutely hate commercials), and mostly discover new music through Pandora suggestions. I listen to just about everything except for pop-country and jazz.

    Through my Sublime channel, I’ve become a fan of Bryce Vine, AJR, and The Dirty Heads.

  11. Mid 30s. I would say there is a slower pace of new music, but it’s coming. Just recently (last 6 months) I discovered 2 new bands. Before that another dude during the pandemic. Before that there was a longer while of no new stuff (that sticked).

  12. Everyone who says this I find doesn’t spend too much time digging for new music. There are TONS of great artists out there. You just have to find them.

  14. 39. Class of 2000
    Dude I don’t even know where to start.
    I live in Sacramento, California.
    Feels like I don’t have time for music anymore. I work at home, my work requires super focus. I used to listen to the radio on the drive to work. Feels like they play the same 25 songs on the radio, and it’s not even the new stuff if the rap/hip hop from the 2000 era. I changed my car battery last year and lost all my preset stations.
    In my head the music is still from 90’ and 2000’s.
    I loved the Super Bowl halftime show this year. I know all the lyrics, and made me happy. I tried to get back into music a few months ago via YouTube. I started a list of interesting artists. So far I have 3.
    LMFAO, the weekend, and Masked Wolf.
    You remember those CDs they made in the 2000’s called (Now) my music knowledge is from the first Now CD to probably Now 10. As for rock and Alternative Rock I enjoy a good amount, but from 90’s -2000’s also.
    Older music I only know from movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy for example. I’m almost 40 and there has to be an easy way to find (good) new music without spending a lot of time. What’s sad is, I have an amazing home theater system. I do watch a lot of movies.

  15. I’m 30 and I listen to almost all genres, but mostly sticking to rock and all its derivatives. Don’t find new music as often as I’d like but then again I am always on the prowl, and good new music doesn’t drop every day. But I’m constantly adding new bands and songs to my playlists, so I guess that speaks for itself.

    Not much has changed since I was younger except now I’m actually allowed to listen to things, like rap, unlike in my childhood. So I can appreciate certain artists I didn’t really have access to in my youth.

  16. I find new music that I enjoy all the time, largely through YouTube. The songs come from a wide variety of genres, including some that defy genre classification and some that are in languages I don’t understand.

    I haven’t had as much luck finding new music that I enjoy on the radio for a while now. Most of what falls under the “pop” category that dominates much of radio these days isn’t stuff that I like, and most of today’s country music sounds too similar for me to be able to get into it (as opposed to the classic country of the 70s on back). I’m not a big fan of rap in general, and hip-hop is very hit or miss for me. Some decent new rock makes it onto the radio, but not enough to make it worth listening to the radio when I could be listening to a playlist online.

    There are a lot of other genres I enjoy, but they don’t tend to make it onto the radio in this area, outside of a few specialty shows on some small local channels. There are also a lot of groups that fall into the more generic rock, pop, and country genres that I like, but they don’t tend to make it onto the local radio, either. The suggestion window on the side of YouTube has been a goldmine for finding new music.

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