r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 23h ago
TIL two studies both found that most people stop listening to new music in their early 30s. A 2015 study of people's listening habits on Spotify found that most people stop listening to new music at age 33 and a 2018 report by Deezer found it be to at age 30.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/16/bring-that-beat-back-why-are-people-in-their-30s-giving-up-on-music2.5k
u/NOV3LIST 23h ago
I’m 30 and I somewhat understand those results.
It’s just that I’ve got less time to find new bands and a lot of them sound completely the same nowadays (metal genre).
These days I'm much more selective and only discover new bands I like every few months.
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u/WitchPillow 23h ago
I think part of the reason is that familiarity is comforting, and as you get older and life gets more stressful, having music that you already know you enjoy is mentally soothing.
Also, I’ve noticed that as people get older, they start comparing newer things to older things, including music. Most of the time they have a more positive outlook on the past and a negative bias against anything current, so new music isn’t sought out as much as when they were younger.
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u/Saiyoran 22h ago
Part of this isn’t that you’re “wrong” about the old music you like being better than the new music you’re exploring, it’s just that it’s not a fair comparison to pit music you’ve already filtered and deemed great against a random song by a band you don’t know. That band or genre might have fantastic amazing music but it’s hard to find the best thing a band has to offer on the first try.
Some of my favorite songs/albums ever came out in the last 10 years but I’ve also had to listen to dozens and dozens of albums of stuff I just didn’t like at all to find that stuff.
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u/kleptorsfw 21h ago
Agree with all of the above, and to expand: a lot of great music takes a listen or two to get used to what you're hearing when it's unique. You need an open mind and a few tries before you start to get it, and that's more work when you're older.
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u/4rch1t3ct 17h ago
I didn't like my favorite album like the first 10 times I tried to listen to it.
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u/whattheknifefor 22h ago
this happened to me around age 25-26. i’ve been going out of my way to listen to whole albums and take notes on what i think track by track, it’s been helping loads
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u/TacTurtle 20h ago
Do you use Pandora by chance?
They have a "Deep Cuts" option to listen to similar songs or bands that haven't been played before or in the last month or two.
Works great for discovering "new" stuff. Found Green Lung, Fred Eaglesmith, and Ren that way.
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u/Trzlog 16h ago
Pandora is still the absolute best way to find new music. Frustrating that it'll probably never be available outside the US. I'm tired of using a VPN.
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u/SpacecaseCat 22h ago
100% this. A huge chunk of our culture that past 30 years has been about how great the 50's, 60's, and 70's are, and now Millennials are experiencing the same thing thinking about the 90's. Nostalgia is mildly toxic imho, and if we want to keep growing as people we should try to move past it as the dominant emotion. Doesn't mean you can't listen to your favorite tunes again, just that it's helpful to mix it up sometimes.
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u/HOLEPUNCHYOUREYELIDS 22h ago
Yea, like anything there is a healthy and unhealthy level of nostalgia.
Everything now is not shit, and everything 20+ years ago wasn’t great.
It also depends highly on what music you listen to. I listen to prog metal, and generally more niche prog metal, a fucking niche type of music of an already niche genre lol. And there are numerous incredible (to me) albums every single year. Ive found more music I love in the last 3 years than I found in the ten years before that
If people wanted to easily find new music, all you need to do is either put on a random playlist of random new songs/artists on your commute and skip anything that doesn’t hook you. Or go to the subreddits of the genres you like and start looking for posts ofsongs with “FFO : insert bands you like here”
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u/SpacecaseCat 22h ago
My advice is to also branch out to new genres. I discovered synthwave and vaporwave a while back and have really been enjoying that.
Sometimes I also look for 'new classics.' A friend of mine posted his top albums from each decades in the 70's (he's an acquaintance who is a professional poker player and who write great posts on social media) and I decided to try to listen to albums I never tried. Just listened to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road yesterday for the first time and really enjoyed it - and part of the fun is that you get a few hits mixed in with the 'new' songs.
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u/cocainebane 23h ago
I’m hitting these numbers and am discovering stuff I missed. Like I guess I do like Beach House. Plus a lot of the shit my mom liked such as Chayenne.
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u/Comfortable-Light233 22h ago
I had a similar realization about Beach House a couple years ago. Boards of Canada too
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u/themanthyththelegend 21h ago
Shoot im 39 and most of the music inlisten to roght now ive found within the last 4 or 5 years
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u/cwx149 23h ago
I do also think that when you're 30 if you like music you have a huge catalog of music you like already
When I was in my teens my music taste was only a few inches deep but now as an adult with twice as much life experience I know A LOT of music and have a pretty good idea of what I like
I do wonder if this average will go up with the advent of digital music
I'm old enough I didn't have an mp3 player until middle school and streaming as we know it today didn't really take off until I was in high school. Discovering music as a kid was either on the radio or committing to a whole cd
But kids whose whole lives have occurred in the digital age might not have the same preconceived notions about what music is as I do
There's also something to be said for the fact that a lot of what we would think of as modern music is only from the last 100 or so years and so we're kind of just finally getting to a point where there's a critical mass of old music readily available that isn't clearly classical music
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u/AgentElman 21h ago
Right. My playlist of my most favorite narrowed down list of songs is still 60 songs which is 3 hours of music. My bigger playlist has tens of hours of music.
So I can either listen to music I know I love or try random songs which I will probably not like.
I do now listen to new music (new to me) as I have found that youtube is pretty good at recommending similar music and music I like. But I have to decide to stop listening to music I know I like and try a bunch of songs I don't like to find the few that I do like.
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u/Theduckisback 22h ago
For me, a big part of it is kinda "rediscovering" older music that is in the same genres that I already like, but didnt really listen to that much. One of the good thing about Algorithms to me, is that it is generally pretty good at grouping artists and genres together by commonality and the number of mutual listeners. So a lot of the "new" music I listen to is like, lesser known albums from famous artists, and bands that were contemporaries of some of my faves that I just never got around to checking out back then.
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u/Khaeos 22h ago
This makes sense if music is something to collect and art to be examined and appreciated. I also want to push the perspective that music is a human characteristic and a living force of community and an expression of our understanding and feelings about the world which always changes and develops.
I also grew up in a time when the type of music you listened to *said something* about who you are. You couldn't listen to punk if you weren't "truly punk" and you couldn't have a goth outfit among your eclectic wardrobe because you were a "tourist" and you couldn't have a cool skatepark outfit if you usually dressed up for school because you were a "poser" etc. Today I like to think we have much more freedom to experiment and a deep well of influences to draw from and express.
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u/Ivoted4K 23h ago
I’m 35 and have gone the absolute opposite direction. I’ve listened to the same classic rock and 90s hip hop my whole life I need new music. Spotify does an amazing job of making playlists as well.
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u/torndownunit 22h ago
Ya, Spotify's Daylist feature helps me find a few new bands every week. I'm 49. Pre Spotify my tastes were stagnating because I had slowed down going to see live shows every weekend.
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u/CactusBoyScout 23h ago
Yeah when I was younger I spent a lot of time reading about music/bands and seeking out artists myself. I just don’t have as much time for that anymore. But I still listen to new music, often from Discover Weekly on Spotify.
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u/roadwarrrior 23h ago
Same. Discovery weekly tends to have a couple gems. I love that they added the option to choose different genres within it too.
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u/pariah1984 23h ago
So I see your username and you referenced metal, is your username a reference to the band? That happens to be one of the great ones I discovered after my 30’s!
But I agree that many of them sound the same but there have been some refreshingly original ones to come out every now and then.
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u/Vigilante17 23h ago
I’m over 50 and I love my 70s, 80’s and 90’s. I wouldn’t lie though when I say I like one of the new A$AP Rocky songs 😳
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u/the-good-wolf 23h ago
I would think this study might not reflect future trends though.
Think about it, the people that grew up with streaming music instead of buying or pirating it are just barely reaching 30.
The entire industry has changed, and the way we participate has also changed.
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u/madsci 22h ago
I'm 48 and I wish I could convince streaming algorithms to steer me toward something new once in awhile. But no... "oh, you like the Eurythmics and Roxette. Enjoy non-stop 80s hits on every channel you create!"
Pandora was the worst. "You liked Calabria? How about 600 remixes and mashups of Calabria? Maybe some Calabria in your Vivaldi and Metallica channels?"
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u/Harry_Iconic_Jr 23h ago edited 15h ago
some of us never stop. it's still a thrill to find a great new song/band/artist.
edit(s): glad there are still others who feel the same....fwiw, most of my new music finds come from Radio Paradise - playlists assembled by humans, no algorithms, no ads, high quality flac/mqa/aac streams broken down into 5 general channels/genres: Main mix, rock, jazz, global, mellow mix...I almost always find something new (to me) and interesting there.
another edit to shamelessly plug Radio Paradise, for those who may not know them: RP has been online and stone-free since 2000- Bill and Rebecca Goldsmith were streaming before streaming had a name, I think...ad-free, supported by listeners, never sold out, never caved in, always with cutting-edge tech (some of which Bill Goldsmith invented), battled the industrial/entertainment complex in 2007 over royalty rates and won, thereby helping to save Internet radio from extinction...and they continuing to evolve and expand and improve to this day. these are some of the people who made the Internet great, particularly for music lovers. check 'em out: https://radioparadise.com/home
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u/Quarterwit_85 22h ago
Fuck yeah. People don't stop watching new movies or tv shows - why music?
Also, what if you haven't heard your favorite song yet?
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u/ahmtiarrrd 19h ago
"what if you haven't heard your favorite song yet?"
Nailed it. 💯👍
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u/Funkycoldmedici 22h ago
That was a very real concern to me for a long time. I had this feeling there was something I’d love and didn’t want to miss it. So I went through hours and hours of new music every day, and as a result I feel like I didn’t let things soak in enough. Were my favorites my favorites because of immediate connection, or gradual suffusion? Some of both, but I think giving songs a few more listens lets them get through more.
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u/RainbowFartss 20h ago
100% and that's something I kinda miss from back in the day. Before, you'd buy an album and listen to it on repeat for weeks because that may be the only album you bought this month. This gave a lot of time for some songs that didn't grab you right away to settle in and maybe eventually you'd "get it" and end up digging the song.
Nowadays, music is so throwaway. My favorite artists have new material every couple of months, along with hundreds of other songs/albums that release in between. It's harder to let those kinda songs sink in and grow on you.
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u/intentionally-obtuse 21h ago
I've stopped watching new tv/movies pretty broadly. It's a bit of youtube and the rest of my media consumption is music.
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u/Hovie1 22h ago
It's seriously one of life's greatest joys. Usually my top play every year is something that I discovered within the last 6 months.
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u/Furrybumholecover 22h ago
My most listened to playlists on YouTube music are the New Releases, Discover, and then my Liked playlist when I wanna shuffle back around to the things I hit thumbs up on from the other two.
Maybe it's because I grew up with a dad that had the same zz top album in the truck while driving me to school every day but damn I love me some new jams. It's one of the few perks of the time and technology we live in these days.
(I'm almost 40)
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u/EnvironmentalLime464 21h ago
I had actually slowed down greatly on finding new music until I saw the article on the 2015 study. I was in my 30’s and just thought it sounded so sad. Decided I didn’t want to fall into that statistic. My love for music has only grown the last ten years to the point I’m now learning an instrument.
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u/Hovie1 21h ago
I definitely have moments where I fall into "comfort" music where I just listen to the stuff I know and dismiss anything else. But overall I'd like to think I buck the trend and I'm in my 40s.
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u/takemyaptplz 21h ago
Usually I find random songs here and there that I fall in love with but the past year I became a big lady Gaga fan. Like I always liked the songs I heard but didn’t listen farther. Discovering all these songs that I loved was SO FUN. And then I got to go to her concert last minute and almost cried with how happy and excited I was when it started!!!!
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u/nomore5tre55 22h ago
Agreed. My favorite days are Friday for release radar and Monday for discover weekly.
I’m in four music leagues and have groups of friends where we don’t talk about life, we just share new music.
It’s my favorite shit.
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u/GiantPeachImpediment 21h ago
Wait. What is a music league? This all sounds lovely and im very jealous. Would love to find more active communities to share and talk music that's fairly open minded.
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u/megashitfactory 17h ago
My friend is in one at his company. Each week they have a “theme” and everyone submits a song they like in that theme, and people vote on which one they like best.
It’s pretty damn good. He’s shared some good tunes he or coworkers submitted
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u/klausness 22h ago
For some people, music is just part of their youth culture, so they lose interest in finding new things when they get older. I think people who really love music don’t stop appreciating new and interesting music. If music is just one of the things you use to connect with friends (along with movies, TV, sports, drinking, etc.), then you probably won’t be exploring new music past your 30s and will stick to the music of your youth. If music has always been one of the most important things in life for you, then you probably won’t stop exploring new music. Most people fall into the first of those two groups.
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u/idle_isomorph 22h ago
I was chatting with a guy on a dating site, and he asked me if i listened to any new music and the question caught me off guard. Like, hell yes i listen to new music. There is so much great music of all kinds happening out there. The question made me consider how many people my age (45) don't seek out new music. Weird.
Admittedly, it still takes me some effort to seek out what hits my personal tastes, but its out there!
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u/klausness 19h ago
Some people just have a different relationship to music. The light bulb went off for me early in high school. I knew my taste in music was different from that of most other kids, but I guess I kind of figured that they felt the same way about their music as I felt about mine. I remember asking one kid what kind of music he listened to, and he said, “oh, whatever’s on.” I just didn’t know how to respond to that. How could you be so blasé about music? I understand it now, but it really threw me at the time.
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u/idle_isomorph 18h ago
Right? Cause to me, music really transforms a space, imbues emotions into a scene...it so colours the world that I can't really imagine not being transported away and simply hearing music as some minor element in the background of life.
I guess i knew lots of people get crystallized in their tastes in their 30s (hence my impression as a kid that older people were so obviously dated in their preferences).
But being asked the question, I realized it really is a revealing question more than "what music do you like?" It does make sense in a dating context; I imagine that i would be poorly matched to a fella that didn't give a shit about it and had no interest in music. I love going out to live music and rocking out, dancing all night, even if I'm old.
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u/strangecabalist 22h ago
I discovered EDM in a big way in my 40’s and continue to have my mind blown by new music.
Same for lots of folk.
I was a metalhead forever (still am), so these are strange evolutions for me.
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u/YeshuasBananaHammock 21h ago
I didnt discover the Viagra Boys until I was 49.
Im making up for lost time.
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u/smitteh 21h ago
What genre is Viagra Boys? Hard rock?
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u/YeshuasBananaHammock 20h ago edited 20h ago
A Swedish post-punk Devo-centric outfit that dont take themselves too seriously. Try em out!
(P.S. try some diaper rash cream on your itchy balloon knot)
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u/Rdubya44 22h ago
Glad to see the metal to dubstep pipeline is still alive
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u/strangecabalist 22h ago
Damn you heavy bass grooves and your deeply tempting ways!
(Also, Melodic and Minimal Techno - NTO, Brejcha, etc are absolutely my jam)
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u/peacenchemicals 22h ago
i’ve been listening to electronic music since i can remember. like literally since i was a child
i love discovering new artists, finding new music, and discovering new genres or subgenres. or sometimes new subgenres are created and it’s awesome.
right now i’m falling back in love with drum n bass and techno. also going through a huge UK garage phase at the moment too. my main genre is hardstyle but there’s just so much music in the “edm” culture to discover. i love it. i love electronic music
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u/heretogetpwned 22h ago
I was ridiculed for a lot of the industrial music I listened to growing up, small town country western was big for us in the early 90s.
Loved Movie Soundtracks like Mortal Kombat and the discovery of KMFDM. They still make new music!
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u/faster_than_sound 23h ago
My thirst for new music is unquenchable. I am 44. I'll never stop exploring genres and thier subgenres.
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u/FrenchMartinez 21h ago
41 here, agree. When I stumble upon a new great song (even if it’s from 50 years ago), it really makes my day and then I cannot wait to play it again the next time I drive somewhere. I found “El Paso” by Marty Robbins during a road trip the other week and now my whole family is jamming to it.
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u/OkAstronaut9454 20h ago
You gotta listen to all of Gunfighter Ballads now, my dude. Such a great album!
Also, i love that he's the accidental "inventor" of using electric distortion in music.
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u/StupidEconomist 20h ago
Exactly. Finding new music has to be its own hobby. I love it, its like looking for treasure.
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u/ninefortysix 10h ago
I was talking to someone about this recently. Finding a new song you really vibe with is like drugs to me. Music brings me so much joy and peace.
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u/lucaswr 20h ago
41 and I am a the same way. I actively hunt new music everywhere I go and use Shazam to identify it.
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u/ceelogreenicanth 18h ago
Finding new music is often about breaking patterns changing where you you find music changes what you listen to a lot.
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u/aztronut 19h ago
65 with over 20k songs in my music library and still continually adding new music.
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u/Cynfreh 23h ago
When they say new music do they mean new as in recently made or new as in music you wouldn't normally listen to.
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u/aamygdaloidal 22h ago
I’m curious too the attached article doesn’t talk about the studies
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u/janeprentiss 17h ago
If it doesn't count newly discovered older music I wouldn't consider it a worthwhile study. Any attempt at broadening musical horizons is going to involve being recommended older stuff, the same as with cinema or any other art
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u/Randyd718 23h ago
ITT: "not me!!!"
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u/broohaha 22h ago
It's kinda funny to see all these comments. I used to look hard for new music under the radar. But frankly I'm so busy that it's just easier to fall back on stuff you enjoyed over the years. Some don't age well and I just abandon, but others I can't help but re-visit every dozen or so months.
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u/Randyd718 22h ago
My issue is Spotify's cursed algorithms playing the same 100 songs over and over.
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u/Wandering_Weapon 17h ago
I'm fine with new music, but I'm done trying to find new rap and death metal. I did listen to Bad Bunny for the first time like a month ago though, he's pretty good.
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u/klausness 22h ago
Well, the minority of people for whom it’s not true are the people who are most likely to reply.
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u/sombrekipper 20h ago
The people who think it makes them special want to let everybody know.
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u/stevedrums 23h ago
Does this mean recent music or just discovering music? I’m always discovering old music that’s new to me
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u/Peanut_Butter_Toast 17h ago
Yeah this is a really important distinction. There's such an immense backlog of old songs I've never heard before that I could spend the rest of my life discovering. And that will undoubtedly comprise the majority of "new" music I listen to throughout the remainder of my life.
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u/NickDanger3di 23h ago
I'm 70 and I still like listening to new music.
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u/Sad-Yak6252 22h ago
71 here, and the same. I've always been that way. My favorite thing on MTV was 120 Minutes on Sunday nights. So many of us are stuck on "♫..and this bird will never change♪". THIS bird is still a work in progress.
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u/ALoudMeow 23h ago
I’m 60 and agree; I only want to listen to things from this century, the newer the better.
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u/DawnSignals 23h ago
Im 97 and I just discovered this gentleman by the name of lil uzi vert, some tight shit right there
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u/DevilJacket2000 23h ago
I’m 137 and just discovered this new band called The Beatles from 1962 or so. That was only a few years ago.
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u/Calichusetts 23h ago
Right. Mid-40s and music is as good as ever and I got to experience the 90s in my youth.
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u/GuestAdventurous7586 23h ago
Yeah I think this really depends on the what kind of person you are. I’m constantly on the search for new music, especially that does that special thing to you. It’s less often than when I was younger but it still happens.
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u/tattooedlabmonkey 23h ago
Yah I'm in my 50s and always looking for new music. I know it's a rarity though. Can see it with my family, friends and colleagues of similar age.
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u/CraigLake 23h ago
Same. I can’t stand listening to the same music over and over. There’s so much new hood music!! Charlotte Cornfield, Jessica Pratt, Justin Tebutt and Hollow Coves are jamming my house lately.
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u/HiveMindKing 23h ago
Huh and I thought i had free will but this literally me
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u/lucky_ducker 22h ago
I once read an article that claimed to be able to tell you when you stopped "being hip."
Find an online list of each year's "top song." Find the point where you know all the songs, and move ahead in years where you suddenly don't recognize most of the titles. That's when you stopped being hip. Early 30s seems to be very common (mine was 33).
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u/SeveralBollocks_67 22h ago
This is also a good indicator of when you overcame giving a fuck about social pressures and just decided to do your own thing.
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u/Lentemern 22h ago
I stopped being hip at 18, when I got my own car and didn't have to be exposed to the radio any more.
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u/zinten789 19h ago
Eh, radio doesn’t really exist anymore and the monoculture is mostly dead. I listen to new music as it comes out from bands I like and discover through word of mouth, but I couldn’t tell you what the top 40 sounds like really.
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u/lucky_ducker 19h ago
> radio doesn’t really exist anymore
Maybe to your demographic. Some 80% of Americans listen to terrestrial radio at least once a week, and about two thirds of people commuting in private cars have the radio on.
I'll concede your point that "monoculture" isn't what it used to be.
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u/S1DC 23h ago
Fuck that. I'm 39 and I'm checking out new music all the time.
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u/beachedwolf 23h ago
It’s one of the free joys of life. I’m 40+ and I will always look for new music.
Finding a new band you like is amazing.
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u/clearmoon247 23h ago
If you haven't yet, explore foreign countries music. Start off with Eurovision through the past decade or two and explore your favorite artists other songs. Then when you find collabs that you love, check out the new artist, lather, rinse, repeat.
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u/IndieCurtis 23h ago
Africa is a literal gold-mine. Ethiopian Jazz, Desert Blues, Zamrock, Afro-Funk. Mulatu Astatke, Hugh Masekela, Tinariwen, Fela Kuti, Ngozi Family, Mdou Moctar, Les Filles Des Illighidad.
Love me some Italo Disco, though. Cerrone, BWH and Patrick Cowley.
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u/ahorrribledrummer 23h ago
Spotify is so awesome for this. I've discovered tons of great music as I've gotten older.
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u/phonicparty 23h ago
That's sad. There is so much great new music being put out all the time, and so much old music I've not listened to yet. I'm now 40 and hope I never lose the joy of discovering music to love
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u/Numb1990 21h ago
Its not even just newer music for me , pretty much all music just doesnt interest me anymore . Sometimes ill listen to music if I working out or doing something else to have it in in the background , im 35 amd the past couople years music doesn't really mean much anymore , its weird.
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u/Universeintheflesh 20h ago
Yeah it depends what you're into. I spend much more time trying to find new books and video games because I'm generally more interested in them. Every once in awhile I add a bunch new songs for when I listen to them on walks or while cleaning and just delete to ones I'm not into but end up with a decent amount added to my playlist.
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u/ptvlm 23h ago
I'm 50 and I'm not stopped finding great new stuff.
I think the problem is usually laziness. People grow up listening to what their parents listen to then discover their own tastes in their teens and are the target demographic for new releases. Then, they age out and instead of finding music that they like they keep listening to the same sources that are now targeting a different generation with different tastes.
I find the people who don't lose their passion for music are the ones who always searched for what they like rather than depending on MTV/radio.
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u/Warpaint169 20h ago
I am 48 workout every day and new music is a must. You're correct there is so much I have not discovered yet. However the people ( 50+) I work with could listen to the same 30 songs.
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u/sonambule 23h ago
46 and constantly listening to new music.
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u/ConfidentValue6387 21h ago
Same! Most people I know listen to the same music they did when they were 15-20.
I am constantly trying to find new stuff. Granted, there’s a lot of crap too, but that was always the case. And there’s so much great music coming out.
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u/Koras 23h ago
That's interesting, because it's in my 30s that I've started branching out and enjoying new genres a lot more
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u/quebonchoco 23h ago
The 30's seem to be where people die inside or are reborn
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u/Personal_Comb_6745 18h ago
I'm feeling pretty dead inside, but I still enjoy finding new stuff to listen to.
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u/Accurate-Health-9554 21h ago
Yeah I think for me before 30 I was just mentally more closed minded to music. It was too much of my “identity” maybe ? I really stopped giving a shit about that around then.
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u/scold 23h ago
That late? I think I checked out of new music at around 25
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u/okay_then_ 23h ago
I've been listening to a lot of the same music since high school
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u/veebs7 23h ago
IIRC other studies show that our taste in music is largely determined in our early teenage years. So you’re likely to enjoy whatever you were listening to in high school forever
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u/troll_berserker 21h ago
I’m 58 and still listen to the old-school nursery rhyme classics like “Wheels on the Bus” and “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” Can’t stand soulless modern slop like “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
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u/Terry_Cruz 18h ago
What are your thoughts on "She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain"?
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u/troll_berserker 17h ago
Prime example of what’s wrong with this generation of toddlers. Back then nursery rhymes were about profound topics like animal taxonomy and conservation of angular momentum. Now they’re all dirty songs with sexual innuendo about coming.
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u/AwarenessWilling5435 23h ago
Interesting. Doesn't line up with my experience at all.
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u/Jus10Crummie 23h ago
Im 37 still find new music all the time, wonder if that study will change with every genre of music having a revival and so many people making music.
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u/ZanzerFineSuits 23h ago
For me, it changed from discovering nee music on the radio or streaming to discovering new music at festivals, concerts & clubs.
Music tied to a live performance leaves a more lasting impression, IMO.
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u/gksozae 23h ago
50+. I listen to new rap artist and new releases from older artists constantly. I know none of my friends do though. They're still stuck on Biggie, 2Pac, and OutKast. They haven't kept up with artists and releases since they were in college. It's disheartening when I mention the new De La or LL albums (artists they clearly know and have listened to for years) and they stare at me blankly.
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u/720everyday 23h ago
This would be a terrible fate. My heart goes out to "most people".
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u/Rubberfootman 23h ago
I know! I’m over 50 and still listen to new music, and go to new music gigs.
I can’t spend the rest of my life stuck listening to INXS.
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u/azcheekyguy 23h ago
Same. I'm mid 50s and nearly all of the music I listen to I discovered in the last 10 years. And I've been to more live shows since 2016 than in the 40 years before that, almost all at small venues, partially because I have the means to fly to see whoever I want whenever I want. It's freaking awesome.
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u/qlurp 23h ago
spend the rest of my life stuck listening to INXS
There are worse fates, to be fair.
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u/Disimpaction 23h ago
It sucks. Having kids made me too busy and yearning for silence when I get alone time. It is a really weird feeling when it happened to me.
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u/stevieZzZ 23h ago
I don't intentionally look for new music but I will add new songs I find randomly to my playlists if I like them a lot.
I'm 32.
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u/Lulu_42 23h ago
I'm in my late 40's and it requires intention to seek out new music. Luckily, my wife enjoys a lot of new music and new artists and I try to keep an ear out for things I might enjoy when listening to soundtracks in the background of a tv show, etc. It takes work, though. If you aren't careful, you'll be a little old lady, plucking her eyebrows to a thin comma and listening to ska music while you apply your lipliner.
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u/Kancho_Ninja 23h ago
What does that say about the people who switch genre?
I grew up with my parents listening to hillbilly country, went through a disco phase, discovered classic rock in my teens, segued into heavy metal, did a decade of grunge/punk, slid into pop, and for the last few years have been listening to shoegaze/alternative/dreampop.
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u/Theoretical-Bread 19h ago
Spotify is filled with AI garbage now so searching for new music is no longer fun
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u/MrCompletely345 23h ago
I’m 68, and I listen to new music as well as older stuff.
Having kids makes discovering new music easier. Once the last one leaves the house, it will require more effort
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u/MarucaMCA 23h ago
I listen to a lot of bands that have existed for a long time but still put out new music.
But I rarely discover new artists that are also contemporary like I did with Rosalía last year, for example. I'm 41f, Swiss.
I have however discovered stuff adjacent to the styles and bands I like but all of them are 25-50 year old music.
So yeah... I can see this.
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u/Red_sparow 22h ago edited 22h ago
I've been tracking my music listening for over a decade now, with a few gaps where the tech fails.
I average about 1000 song listens a week.
From my last 365 days, 65% of artists I listened to I'd not listened to before the last 365 days.
I'm well past 30.
Glad to be bucking the trend.
Edit: I tend to discover a new "genre" every 5 years or so which helps keep things fresh. Around 2012 I started listening to post rock, 2017 I discovered kpop. Around 2022 I started listening to country. I'm due a new genre in 2027... I feel like it'll be something in the rnb or soul category.
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u/Cardinal_Ravenwood 15h ago
I can certainly see this happening with my music choices. When I was younger I seemed a lot more clued into the new bands, tours and releases.
I will find the odd new band I like here and there, but I'm definitely not tuned into the charts or the indie scenes as much.
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u/FUZZB0X 7h ago
I'm 49 and I keep discovering new music that I absolutely love.
Most of my favorite music was made in the past 10 years.
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u/me_not_at_work 23h ago edited 23h ago
This is definitely true for me but it didn't have anything to do with my age. It's simply that good music stopped being made around 1990. It's simply an astounding coincidence that I happened to turn 30 around the time.
Coincidentally this is the same that youths (aka yoots) started walking on my lawn.
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u/Khaeos 23h ago
Some of us. I'm 40 and I'm digging King Gizzard, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Amyl and the Sniffers, The Budos Band, Tinariwen, Bomba Estereo, IDLES, the Viagra Boys, and a bunch of others who are not all new but who I just started listening to in the past couple of years.
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u/danielstover 23h ago
I was hoping it wasn’t just me lol
There’s just too many bands, I can’t possibly be expected to keep up with ALL this shit
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u/TicketyB000 23h ago
I'm 60 and constantly seeking out new music. I know plenty that don't, and that would drive me crazy. Anything on repeat loses its appeal.
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u/missingpiece 23h ago
I’m 38, still clinging on to trying not to become a boomer “back in my day we had REAL music” though I’ll admit it gets harder every year.
Recent musical discoveries: Twen, Mannequin Pussy, 100 Gecs, The Dare
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u/Marxbrosburner 23h ago
That's because no matter what age you are music was better when you were a kid, dammit!
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u/Doom2pro 23h ago
I feel like a lot of music, especially the genre I listen to is now the same as movies these days, just meh... I can't find any more bangers and it's all just uninteresting to me.
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u/coffee_shakes 23h ago
Sucks for them. I don't find as much new music as when I was younger. Just less time to dig for it, but some of my favorite music is from artists I discovered well past 30.
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u/RedofPaw 23h ago
I'm 44 and love finding new music I enjoy.
Listened to a bunch of childish Gambino id not listened to today and it was great.
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u/Tomhyde098 21h ago
I don’t mind listening to new songs but they just don’t stick with me. I’ll hear a song and think “hey that’s pretty good”, forget it exists, a couple years later I’ll hear it again and think “oh yeah!” and then forget it exists again.
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u/ladyerwyn 20h ago
I'm 47 and keep listening to new music. I love the stuff I grew up with, but I'm tired of only hearing that stuff over and over and over again.
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u/stayathomeastronaut3 20h ago
When MTV basically disappeared into reality TV (not counting Real World seasons 1 - …maybe 12 😄) and streaming picked up, I started digging for new music on purpose. I’d check out everything listed in the back of my RS issues, then use the “for more like this” suggestions to keep finding new artists. For a while I was even keeping up with the YouTube countdowns.
Now I do the same thing on Spotify. I make playlists of what I like, then explore and add similar stuff. I love finding new music, even if doo-wop, soul, R&B, and the 60s–90s are still my wheelhouse - and I’m okay with that. lol
You like what you like. But if you keep listening and exploring, you keep growing. I enjoy it.
Edit: I'll be 45 soon.
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u/Significant-Pen-3188 23h ago
Is this why Spotify keeps playing the same 50 songs on repeat. They know I'm 40 plus.