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<\/p>\nIf you\u2019re beyond a certain age \u2014 and really, that age can be as low as 25 \u2014 you\u2019ve probably muttered to yourself, \u201cMusic is no good anymore. It was so much better when I was young.\u201d Welcome to your adult years.<\/p>\n
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You\u2019re not the first to feel this way. Since antiquity, each generation tends to lament the musical tastes of the generations that follow. Somewhere around 400 BCE, Plato wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cForms and rhythms in music are never altered without producing changes in the entire fabric of society. It is here that we must be so careful, since these new forms creep in imperceptibly in the form of a seemingly harmless diversion. But little by little, this mischief becomes more and more familiar and spreads into our manners and pursuits. Then, with gathering force, it invades men\u2019s dealings with one another and goes on to attack the laws and the constitution with reckless impudence until it ends by overthrowing the whole structure of public and private life!\u201d<\/p>\n
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Now consider this: Polite society in England was outraged when a particular type of foreign music crept into the country in 1816. It was called the \u201cwaltz.\u201d This is from The London Times:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is quite sufficient to cast one\u2019s eyes on the voluptuous intertwining of the limbs and close compressure of the bodies \u2026 to see that it is far, indeed, removed from the modest reserve which has hitherto been considered distinctive of English females.<\/p>\n
So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses, we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is \u2026 forced on the respectable classes of society by the evil example of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later in the century, the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan were considered by some to be too upbeat, too saucy and lyrically controversial, and therefore not suitable for proper music aficionados. Oddly, it was later recommended that music lovers should avoid the popular dance music (and the devil\u2019s music that was this new American thing called \u201cjazz\u201d) and instead pursue something more respectable, thus leading to The Great English Waltz Revival of the 1920s.<\/p>\n
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Big band (good!) gave way to bebop (bad!) before rock \u2018n\u2019 roll (very, very bad) started destroying young souls. And as rock \u2018n\u2019 roll evolved, generational splits were created. Even before the \u201960s had a chance to get started, parents were decrying their kids\u2019 love for post-Elvis rock.<\/p>\n
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Why is music so specific when it comes to generations? Many a cultural studies course has been dedicated to this question. It\u2019s also been investigated by music scholars, psychologists, sociologists and technologists. Why does every generation think that the music of their youth is the greatest ever made?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a sweet spot we all live through, our coming-of-age musical years, that begin in about Grade 9 and continue until we get out into the real world as adults a decade later. Various studies using Spotify data (here\u2019s one<\/a>) have identified that you can predict a child\u2019s future music tastes by paying attention to what they\u2019re listening to when they\u2019re 13 (for girls) and 14 (for boys), with the years 16 to 18 particularly impactful. Building on that, another study<\/a> says that the most significant music for adults tends to be what they were listening to in their early 20s.<\/p>\n During this time, the music you love becomes part of your identity. As our brains mature, music helps us figure out complex emotions and who we are as people. Later, we might even use music to project our identity to the world through genre-specific clothing, cosmetics and language. The music that shapes you indelibly becomes part of you.<\/p>\n After that, life intrudes and we no longer have as much time to immerse ourselves in music the way we once did, thanks to jobs, family obligations and the pressures of day-to-day living. By the time we\u2019re 33 (two to three years younger if you have kids who clamour for another play of the Frozen soundtrack from the back seat), we\u2019re pretty much at musical maturity and set in our ways. The music of our teens and very early 20s becomes our security blanket. We go back to it again and again whenever we need a boost.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n The only time this changes \u2014 and again, I\u2019m speaking generally \u2014 is for an 18-month period between the ages of 41 and a half and 43<\/a>, when many enter a mid-life crisis of sorts, throwing themselves back into the world of new music. \u201cI\u2019m still cool. I\u2019m still young. I\u2019m down with the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore on Entertainment But that\u2019s just a phase. While you may discover some really interesting new stuff, it takes effort, perhaps more than you\u2019re willing to expend. By age 44, you\u2019re back to your usual comfort food and probably a little nostalgic for when life wasn\u2019t nearly as complicated.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another thing that happens as you get older when it comes to music, which is totally unavoidable and, in fact, is laudable: You evolved into an experienced and knowledgeable consumer of music.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re young, everything is new and interesting, but as you get older, you start to notice cycles and trends. The sounds you hear today become very familiar.\u00a0Let\u2019s say you stumble on a band like Beauty School Dropout. Nice, but don\u2019t they sound a lot like Blink-182<\/a>? And wasn\u2019t Blink\u2019s sound descended from Green Day<\/a>? And isn\u2019t there a lot of Ramones in the Green Day sound? And what were the Ramones but \u201960s pop songs played loud and fast?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tMark Hoppus of Blink-182.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tKevin Mazur\/Getty Images for iHeartMedia\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Your musical knowledge and experience can make things very annoying because it may seem that history is on repeat. Everything old is new again and current music seems like it\u2019s just recycled and rehashed stuff from the past. You find yourself saying things like, \u201cHey, that new song by [blank] sounds a lot like that song by [blank] from when I was in high school!\u201d And you are not wrong.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n Most people are largely unbothered by this, but if you do find yourself wanting something new and different and are uninterested by the current musical environment, I have a suggestion. Instead of trying to follow current trends and sounds, go back to your favourite decade and dig deeper. If, for you\u2019re example, you\u2019re a \u201990s kid, you know all the big hits of the era. But underneath that layer are thousands of equally great songs that never got the attention they deserve. It\u2019s not new music, but it\u2019s new to you, and it\u2019s from an era you already understand.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the circle of life. Might as well embrace it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re beyond a certain age \u2014 and really, that age can be as low as 25 \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[197835,49,48,75,341,244436],"class_list":["post-661220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-alan-cross","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-music-of-your-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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