This is especially interesting for those on this forum that are over 30 years old.
We commonly hear about the good old days, when music used to be much better. This isn't an @ at trance or anything like that, but music in general. I'm sure that if you surveyed X number of people at random, you will find that most of their favorite songs were released back when they were teenagers or young adults (high school/college age). In fact, according to an article from The Verge [1], a study by the NYT on Spotify data found that men were on average ~14 years old when their favorite song was released. For women, the average age was ~13. In that study, the NYT analyzed Billboard chart-topping songs from 1960 to 2000. For example, Radiohead's Creep was pretty popular (#164 most listened) among men aged 38, who would have been ~14 when the song was released. Yet, this song wasn't within the top 300 for men below 28 or above 48.
This difference in popularity is one of the reasons the Superbowl reportedly shows artists that were popular 20 years ago [2] along with current trendy artists. According to the same skynetandbert post that used Spotify data from 2014, teenagers' music taste is largely dominated by popular music. As people grow older and into their 20s, their taste is shaped less by popular music. What struck me the most was that, past 30 years old, one's music taste "matures." There are other factors at play, too, like gender and having children. Men decrease their pop music consumption faster than women, and people with children (inferred by the author) listen to less popular music than people of the same age without children. Here's a weird-looking circular graph from the article. The closer to the center, the more popular the artist is.
The author suggests that the transition away from popular music happens due to two driving factors:
In summary, peak influence for one's musical taste occurs very early on, in late middle school and early high school. A person's musical taste then quickly develops, peaking at around 24-25, then it slows down until maturity at age ~30. The reasons for this vary, ranging from having children to having not enough time to discover new music to reminiscing on the good old days of high school and college (thank you, brain chemicals!).
[1] Our musical tastes peak as teens, says study. URL.
[2] Music was better back then: When do we stop keeping up with popular music? URL.
[3] We stop discovering new music at age 30, a new survey suggests - here are the scientific reasons this could be. URL.
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The questions I would like to raise to other trancefixers:
Has your music taste stopped evolving? Why or why not?
For those whose music taste has not stopped evolving, how do you keep up?
For those whose music taste has stopped evolving, would you like to discover new music?
Personally, it's a bit scary to know that I'm right at the peak of my musical taste (24, along with @Gagi). Discovering new music is one of my main hobbies, and I can't imagine reaching 30 and just... not finding out new things. There's no shame in that, but that doesn't sound like me, haha. As a late millennial, I think it's cool that I can still enjoy some of the generation Z music (Billie Eilish, Soundcloud rappers, recent Ariana Grande releases and so on) while still remembering the music that was trendy in high school (Skrillex/Deadmau5/LMFAO/other early 2010s acts). It's just weird to know there's a limit. I also wanted to learn more from ohers who may (or may not) have experienced this musical maturity.
We commonly hear about the good old days, when music used to be much better. This isn't an @ at trance or anything like that, but music in general. I'm sure that if you surveyed X number of people at random, you will find that most of their favorite songs were released back when they were teenagers or young adults (high school/college age). In fact, according to an article from The Verge [1], a study by the NYT on Spotify data found that men were on average ~14 years old when their favorite song was released. For women, the average age was ~13. In that study, the NYT analyzed Billboard chart-topping songs from 1960 to 2000. For example, Radiohead's Creep was pretty popular (#164 most listened) among men aged 38, who would have been ~14 when the song was released. Yet, this song wasn't within the top 300 for men below 28 or above 48.
This difference in popularity is one of the reasons the Superbowl reportedly shows artists that were popular 20 years ago [2] along with current trendy artists. According to the same skynetandbert post that used Spotify data from 2014, teenagers' music taste is largely dominated by popular music. As people grow older and into their 20s, their taste is shaped less by popular music. What struck me the most was that, past 30 years old, one's music taste "matures." There are other factors at play, too, like gender and having children. Men decrease their pop music consumption faster than women, and people with children (inferred by the author) listen to less popular music than people of the same age without children. Here's a weird-looking circular graph from the article. The closer to the center, the more popular the artist is.
The author suggests that the transition away from popular music happens due to two driving factors:
- Discovering less-familiar genres that were not played on radio stations back when they were teens
- Returning to old music that is now no longer popular
- People stop listening to new music at just 30 and a half
- Peak age for discovering new music is ~24
- Too many music options available - 'musical paralysis'
- Job is too demanding - cannot spend much time discovering new music
In summary, peak influence for one's musical taste occurs very early on, in late middle school and early high school. A person's musical taste then quickly develops, peaking at around 24-25, then it slows down until maturity at age ~30. The reasons for this vary, ranging from having children to having not enough time to discover new music to reminiscing on the good old days of high school and college (thank you, brain chemicals!).
[1] Our musical tastes peak as teens, says study. URL.
[2] Music was better back then: When do we stop keeping up with popular music? URL.
[3] We stop discovering new music at age 30, a new survey suggests - here are the scientific reasons this could be. URL.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The questions I would like to raise to other trancefixers:
Has your music taste stopped evolving? Why or why not?
For those whose music taste has not stopped evolving, how do you keep up?
For those whose music taste has stopped evolving, would you like to discover new music?
Personally, it's a bit scary to know that I'm right at the peak of my musical taste (24, along with @Gagi). Discovering new music is one of my main hobbies, and I can't imagine reaching 30 and just... not finding out new things. There's no shame in that, but that doesn't sound like me, haha. As a late millennial, I think it's cool that I can still enjoy some of the generation Z music (Billie Eilish, Soundcloud rappers, recent Ariana Grande releases and so on) while still remembering the music that was trendy in high school (Skrillex/Deadmau5/LMFAO/other early 2010s acts). It's just weird to know there's a limit. I also wanted to learn more from ohers who may (or may not) have experienced this musical maturity.
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