# How does age affect people’s preference in music?



## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Hello People,

I have noticed how a person’s age can affect his/her music preference. In general, young people like modern music and there are more elder people listening to Classical. However, something interesting that I have recently discovered is that many aged Classical audiences also love modern music such as pop, rock, rap and jazz, but those young people who listen to Classical Music are normally dedicated to Classical only. As some of you might know, I organized a teenager audience group and invited a few members from TC. I have talked with all of these people and I found that most of us hate Modern Music with a passion, and even some do not, they rarely listen to those music. However, surprisingly, I found many relatively aged people on TC also fans of jazz, pop and rock. This is definitely the opposite with what I would expect, because I think young people who listen to Classical today will also listen to pop music to some degree. Can anyone come up with an explanation?

Kevin


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I can't talk for all the boomers, but pop/rock was my first love. I only started listening to classical when I was almost 30. They say that the music you love in your late teens, you will love all your life, and that certainly holds for me. I still love to listen to both genres (and occasionally jazz, which I started to explore when I was over 40).


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I grew up at a time (1950-1970) when there was a lot of different types of music being played in the UK. 

At school, on TV & radio (legacy of Lord Reith) and in violin lessons I got classical music.

With my teenage friends, it was the pop explosion of The Beatles & Rolling Stones etc but there was also traditional jazz & 'folk' / protest music numbers which regularly made the charts. 

TV in those days often showed ballet. 

School assemblies taught us classic hymns, and the older generation was catered for by musical request programmes, so Bing Crosby & Jo Stafford & Frank Sinatra got an airing. 

In my family we also heard a lot of Scottish dance music, English, Irish, Welsh & Scottish folk songs, and some popular opera. I was also taught the full repertoire of nursery rhymes. 

Some oriental music got an airing because of the Beatles craze for Indian culture and the general hippy idealistic zeitgeist. I heard more - though nothing very deep - when I studied Indian Civilisation & Chinese Civilisation at university as my two subsidiary subjects. 

I like all those genres and I think it also made me broad-minded enough to want to try out other styles. 

But I couldn't say whether the OP is right and there's really a difference between the generations, because not having had children, I haven't had much experience.

It may be down to individual households and schools - who knows? (Not me!)


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

KevinW said:


> Hello People,
> 
> I have noticed how a person's age can affect his/her music preference. In general, young people like modern music and there are more elder people listening to Classical. However, something interesting that I have recently discovered is that many aged Classical audiences also love modern music such as pop, rock, rap and jazz, but those young people who listen to Classical Music are normally dedicated to Classical only. As some of you might know, I organized a teenager audience group and invited a few members from TC. I have talked with all of these people and I found that most of us hate Modern Music with a passion, and even some do not, they rarely listen to those music. However, surprisingly, I found many relatively aged people on TC also fans of jazz, pop and rock. This is definitely the opposite with what I would expect, because I think young people who listen to Classical today will also listen to pop music to some degree. Can anyone come up with an explanation?
> 
> Kevin


Not sure if it has somehting to do with the general social environment changes, generally I can tell you more and more young people do not feel happy. Years ago when people talked a lot more freely on the internet and I knew most people share a kind of strange feeling that somehow they feel much less happier than in the 90s. I got younger friends who took some fancies to my baroque collection as well but I did not introduce them into the detail since our life styles are widely different. We grew up with and still love Michael Jackson, and many artists from the last century togather, they were like me also hated recent pop and rock. I feel sorry for younger people, I think they will face a harder future than older generations did.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

It's all up to the individual. But there might be some overall patterns with larger populations. My bro used to love death metal like Slayer, Sepultura. But when he had kids he mellowed and likes Foreigner and doesn't listen to aggressive music. I started like metal after him and still do.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I never liked or listened to pop. I guess I was a weirdo, but it's always been classical. It was only later that some country/western took root; mostly from hanging out at rodeos and going to dances that often followed. What has changed is my attitude towards certain classical works. As a youngster I had no interest or understanding of Brahms, Mozart, Schubert and others. As i got older, my appreciation for there work has steadily increased. 

You want to know how ostracized a kid can feel? I was in 8th grade and our weekly (and mostly worthless) Music Appreciation class came up. The teacher said he was going to play something and bet no one could tell him what it was. He dropped the needle and within 2 seconds of the cello solo, up went my hand and I told him "William Tell Overture". Are you sure? Let's listen some more. Well, duh, of course I was right and he was upset than I spoiled his "surprise". The other kids thought I was a total nerd. Later when he invited everyone to bring their favorite record to play the next week, what did I bring? Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony. He played about a minute of the second movement and uttered something like "well, we've heard enough of that!". I was crushed, didn't even get to the good tune! Like anyone else cared. Makes for a lonely growing up.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I still enjoy the music I first was wild about. Today I turned 70 and was talking to my sister about our mutual love of The Beach Boys and George Gershwin, both of whom I discovered as a young teenager in the early-60s. Now more than 50 years later I am still listening to them and enjoying the music no less. 

Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, these composers both have been important to my musical life also since the '60s and '70s.

Of course I've discovered more music since and continue to find new composers, bands, songwriters, but I don't think my biological age has much to do with it.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Happy Birthday SanAntone!!!


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> Happy Birthday SanAntone!!!


Uh, I think you can send him private message to say happy birthday to him.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

mbhaub said:


> The other kids thought I was a total nerd. Later when he invited everyone to bring their favorite record to play the next week, what did I bring? Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony. He played about a minute of the second movement and uttered something like "well, we've heard enough of that!". I was crushed, didn't even get to the good tune! Like anyone else cared. Makes for a lonely growing up.


I never understood why some schools hired such squares for music class teachers? I had some terrible ones too. They never exposed the kids to any great music.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Many things meld together that create aesthetic preference change in us. 

Tribe identity, the larger cultural environment, exposures and of course hormones all contribute to our changing tastes. 

Heck, I recall driving a sports car for years and then changing to a full sized family sedan when my two eldest were toddlers. 

As much as I loved and identifies with the sports car, I fell just as rich driving the family car and assuming the role of family head. 

It's no different with music. Frankly, I can't understand how someone can listen to the Rolling Stones at 40,50 or 60 singing about having sex with 13 year old girls. (Stray Cat Blues) Subject matter alone makes us move on. I enjoy Indie music but don't listen to it as the lyrics are inevitably about 30 year olds with forlorn hearts. Christ, by 38 years old you should be over the constant heartache stage of life. 

Then, some of us, by birth, like change. The same sounds are not exciting to us. 

Lot's goes into why we change our musical pursuits.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Now I'm only speaking in stereotypes, so please don't get offended. But, I feel the older generation may be wiser in being open to more types of music while the younger kids may feel a need to show their superiority against their peers with classical. That being said, I'm in my late 30s and love mostly classical.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> Happy Birthday SanAntone!!!


Thank you.



KevinW said:


> Uh, I think you can send him private message to say happy birthday to him.


I have that feature turned off on my profile ... but don't want to derail this thread.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

SanAntone said:


> I have that feature turned off on my profile ... but don't want to derail this thread.


First, happy birthday, from someone off the rails.

Second, I think there are people who have what some call the artistic temperament, and those types will always be open to new artistic experiences. Personally, I've been around more than a few years, but I'm always up for something new. When I was in high school/college, I listened to jazz, classical, some pop, and R&B all at the same time. And even now, I still do, though it's more heavily weighted to classical because it relates more to how I feel at this season of my life.

I do know a lot of people who have a different temperament, where music is just something to fill the background, and they don't stray much farther from what was popular when they were in high school/college.

So I think part of how a person responds to art is determined by how their brain is wired, regardless of age.


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> I still enjoy the music I first was wild about. Today I turned 70.


Happy birthday!!


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

My parents were really into classical, esp my Mom...but my Dad loved it too...there was always music on the player - I can remember my brother and I playing with our toy cars or army men, or whatever, to the accompaniment of a Tchaikovsky symphony, or Sheherazade or a Strauss tone poem...I started really getting into classical somewhere around middle school - Stravinsky, Gershwin, Copland, Sibelius, Beethoven, etc...we had a good general music teacher at school!!
My school had a great music department - band, chorus, and orchestra...it was really excellent - we played a lot of the real stuff in orchestra - the B&H editions of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, etc....not the watered down school "arrangements". My high school had a fairly large group of classical music lovers. I learned so much from hanging out, and performing with this group.

Of course, the 60s saw a huge explosion of great rock music and this was very prevalent...the group of conservatory students I hung out with were really into Beatles, Doors, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Beach Boys, etc, etc. Someone always grabbed up the newest release by any of these groups....These groups are still favorites of mine...add in Mama and the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel and a few others. Rock/Pop music kind of lost me thru the 70s-90s...my kids played it, by I didn't find much attraction.

Jazz was always really big as well - Miles, Coltrane...a little later I really latched on to the Big Band stuff, which I dearly love - Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Kenton, Goodman, Glenn Miller, etc...

I can't say that my tastes have changed substantially - except now that I'm retired I have time to really explore some music in much greater depth - Shostakovich, Penderecki, Wm. Schuman, Prokofiev, R. Strauss operas, etc. Being able to just sit back, relax and listen intently to great music is one of the best rewards of retirement I've found so far...


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

mbhaub said:


> I never liked or listened to pop. I guess I was a weirdo, but it's always been classical. It was only later that some country/western took root; mostly from hanging out at rodeos and going to dances that often followed. What has changed is my attitude towards certain classical works. As a youngster I had no interest or understanding of Brahms, Mozart, Schubert and others. As i got older, my appreciation for there work has steadily increased.
> 
> You want to know how ostracized a kid can feel? I was in 8th grade and our weekly (and mostly worthless) Music Appreciation class came up. The teacher said he was going to play something and bet no one could tell him what it was. He dropped the needle and within 2 seconds of the cello solo, up went my hand and I told him "William Tell Overture". Are you sure? Let's listen some more. Well, duh, of course I was right and he was upset than I spoiled his "surprise". The other kids thought I was a total nerd. Later when he invited everyone to bring their favorite record to play the next week, what did I bring? Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony. He played about a minute of the second movement and uttered something like "well, we've heard enough of that!". I was crushed, didn't even get to the good tune! Like anyone else cared. Makes for a lonely growing up.


Same here, all classical music all the time starting at the age of four if not earlier. I thought everyone loved Bartok and Stravinsky. In my 8th grade music appreciation class, something quite similar happened to me. To the shock and amazement of the teacher, I and I alone knew the term "aria". She announced to the class that I would receive an automatic 100, which put me even further into unpopular nerd territory than I was already, if that was possible.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Manxfeeder said:


> First, happy birthday, from someone off the rails.
> 
> Second, I think there are people who have what some call the artistic temperament, and those types will always be open to new artistic experiences. Personally, I've been around more than a few years, but I'm always up for something new. When I was in high school/college, I listened to jazz, classical, some pop, and R&B all at the same time. And even now, I still do, though it's more heavily weighted to classical because it relates more to how I feel at this season of my life.
> 
> ...


Discovering new music (or old music new to me) has been a constant in my life, and I would hope everyone has a similar passion.

I simply love music and cannot, nor do I want to, live without it. I constantly need to hear new things I've never heard before.

I can remember buying the latest Schwann catalog and going through it looking for connections to music which I liked and then ordering the LPs from a local record store. When records began crediting the musicians, producers and engineers, I would look for those same names appearing elsewhere and buy that LP. Of course I read vociferously about composers, music history, and styles, and still do.

This was long before the Internet or computer searching. It was much more "hands-on" and manual, and time consuming. But it was what I loved and I couldn't think of a better way to spend my time. Now all I need to do is put in a name on Spotify and a recording will most likely appear.

Same love; same process; just different method of discovery.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Interestingly, my tastes in music have generally followed classical music's timelines, with a couple exceptions. Bach was my first love starting at the age of two, when I would stop anything I was doing to listen to Bach. At three and four the same for the Beatles (they were still barely together), and I must have watched Help! a hundred times over. Besides that though, I started liking Renaissance polyphony, then the early baroque, then the baroque, then Mozart, & etc. Just recently I listened to Berg's violin concerto and I'll be damned if I didn't like it. Give me another twenty years and I'll be hanging out with Art Rock singing the praises of late 20th century composers.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Halfway to 140, San Antone! :lol:


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

I am finding that my tolerance for sh!tty pop music is decreasing with age.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Red Terror said:


> I am finding that my tolerance for sh!tty pop music is decreasing with age.


The same for sh!tty sex. I'm sure the two are related.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

vtpoet said:


> The same for sh!tty sex. I'm sure the two are related.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

For context, I am in my early 60's.

As a mid to late teenager, I liked most of the hard rock from the 70's: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, etc.

In my late teens and early 20's, I discovered progressive music. The very high level of musicianship, complexity, long form pieces, sophisticated arrangements, deep and broad range of emotional content, the avoidance of typical verse>chorus>bridge song format, quickly became enthralling to me. 

This includes the well known bands of the genres of the time: YES, King Crimson, Genesis, Gentle Giant, but also many more lesser known bands from Italy, France, Germany, that were making music as good as those better known bands. And even more progressive bands, like: Magma, Univers Zero, Thinking Plague, Henry Cow, Art Zoyd, etc (often known as avant-prog).

Around the same time, I discovered jazz fusion. Bands like: Return to Forever, Mahavhishnu Orchestra, Band X, Icerberg, etc. These are bands that have jaw dropping musicianship, play very intense and fiery, and tend to be a bit more complex than traditional jazz. This lead to my love for a wider range of jazz (post bop, chamber jazz, avant-garde).

And finally, I got into classical in my late 40's. Almost all 20th century, and even more specifically, classical from the mid to late 20th century, and current era. I have made many attempts to get into classical music from earlier eras, but so far, it is a no go.

The things all the music I listen to have in common, are those attributes I mentioned above: very high level of musicianship, complexity, deep and broad range of emotional content, etc. 

My tastes in music, as I get older, are, if anything, becoming more progressive, more avant-garde.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I am 71, grew up with two pianists, was a singer and played cornet in grade school, and sang in church choir as a boy and a teen. I still do the latter and have sung many times in local and regional choral groups since college.

I would say a person's musical tastes are defined somewhat early in life based on exposure. The first music I can ever recall enjoying was the score to the 1958 film _South Pacific_, my parents happy reminiscence of postwar America. I enjoyed its many songs including "There Is Nothing Like A Dame" and "Some Enchanted Evening."

My next exposure was singing in church during grade school and in school musicals and Christmas plays. I have always loved traditional American church hymns and have been a member of my current church's choir since 1988.

I liked rock and folk music as a teen as well as church music. In high school I sang Handel and was exposed for the first time to more complex classical music from _Messiah_. In college I sang _Messiah_ and listened to rock music before switching to classical music more or less full time at about age 21.

I like singers as far afield as Burl Ives, Eminem, Nat King Cole and the new soprano sensation Lisa Davidsen. I still own recordings of Cream, the Four Seasons (had more No. 1 hits in 1963 than any other group in America) and the first classical recordings I ever bought -- Bach's 4 Orchestral Suites and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker suite. I love film music and have many scores in my recorded collection.

This is my way of saying you become what you are exposed to and the more the better. If you are exposed to music you are going to find some you like. I never much cared for the stories from country music but have found rap songs (that tell very similar stories to country music) I liked through I never bought any recordings.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

fluteman said:


> To the shock and amazement of the teacher, I and I alone knew the term "aria". She announced to the class that I would receive an automatic 100, which put me even further into unpopular nerd territory than I was already, if that was possible.


LOL!! I can just imagine!! I was lucky, in our school music was a big deal, actually equal to sports in importance and prominence [that is virtually unheard of in public schools!!]. We had a sizable group of classical music lovers, and membership in the band and orchestra were quite prestigious...we went to exchange concerts, festivals, the World's Fair in NY...plus, the band played every Friday AM [assembly day]..we got out of homeroom to go down early and set up, and we were also excused to come in late to first period class!! that bonus was much envied by the non-music kids!! :lol:


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

In fourth grade, we were all invited to bring a favorite piece of music (LP) to school. This was in deep red state territory. At the height of 70s Rock&Roll forever, I, alone, brought Glenn Gould's Columbia recording of Bach's 2nd Piano Concerto.

My fate.

Was sealed.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

I'm not sure there's a specific answer here. There's obviously young people who are interested in popular culture targeted toward them, but you also have ones who like pushing boundaries of accepted good taste and end up interested in more adventurous (read "ugly") music that tends to be disliked by older, more conservative audiences. To an extent I sometimes see this in classical spheres where venues which have a younger audience have more reception toward avant-garde composition - and then there's those who simply like listening to new/experimental stuff and go all over the place.


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

starthrower said:


> I never understood why some schools hired such squares for music class teachers? I had some terrible ones too. They never exposed the kids to any great music.


I had a grade 11 teacher who championed the music of the Renaissance. He didn't just teach us to play the recorder, he actually got us to form a complete SATB recorder consort. I remember when I was in grade 9, watching the grade 11 consort rehearsing and thinking "I want to play that bass!" … and play it I did two years later. We performed at a concert hall in our city that year - music of Holborne, Byrd etc.

In appreciation of his efforts in fostering this love of ancient music in us, and knowing it was his birthday, I (with my parents' help) bought him an LP of Beethoven's Pastoral symphony (the Monteux Decca recording). Upon unwrapping it in front of the rest of the class, he sighed and, visibly crestfallen, said "Couldn't you have bought be some nice Jazz?". I've never felt so crushed, nor embarrassed, in my life.

As for my own love of classical music - my parents were never cognoscenti. They liked the greatest classical hits, or Rossini overtures kind of thing, but didn't truly understand it, I don't think. This was one of two deciding factors in me never pursuing playing the violin as a professional career. I was simply never exposed to the repertore. My love of classical music came from playing in the combined schools' orchestra (I went to one of two specialist music schools in my state), and later my state's youth orchestra. Sitting in the midst of the violin section playing Shosti's 5th, or Liszt's Les Preludes, is a very different experience from simply listening to it on the radio. This fired a passion in me that, while lost for many years, I returned to in later life and retain to this day. A music education is also a big contributing factor to my enjoyment of music. Something my parents never had.

At about the same time as this love of classical music was forming, I was also getting exposed to Prog Rock bands like Yes, Jethro Tull and ELP, alongside electronica (YMO) and post-punk (Gary Numan). It was incidentally my violin teacher who introduced me to prog. And it's true what they say about carrying the music you are into in your late teens through the rest of your life!

But I still also love the music of the Renaissance - despite that collossal grade 11 *******.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

SanAntone said:


> Thank you.
> I have that feature turned off on my profile ... but don't want to derail this thread.


Happy birthday from me too, San Antone. :tiphat:


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Simon Moon said:


> For context, I am in my early 60's.
> 
> As a mid to late teenager, I liked most of the hard rock from the 70's: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, etc.
> 
> ...


Simon is so avant-garde he wakes up looking like this every morning...


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

At least he's vaccinated!


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Heck148 said:


> LOL!! I can just imagine!! I was lucky, in our school music was a big deal, actually equal to sports in importance and prominence [that is virtually unheard of in public schools!!]. We had a sizable group of classical music lovers, and membership in the band and orchestra were quite prestigious...we went to exchange concerts, festivals, the World's Fair in NY...plus, the band played every Friday AM [assembly day]..we got out of homeroom to go down early and set up, and we were also excused to come in late to first period class!! that bonus was much envied by the non-music kids!! :lol:


Yes, but lucky for me, this was only public school. Growing up in NYC, I was able to attend a community music school, of which there are still several in the city. In my case, it was the Greenwich House Music School, where I enrolled at the age of seven for private piano lessons and music theory classes. The nice thing about it was, it was designed for kids at all levels, not just ultra-competitive future pros as at Juilliard Prep, for example. But being NYC, there were some strong teachers, such as a young Joan Tower, who went on to become well-known as a composer, and who coached me in chamber music at one point.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Red Terror said:


> I am finding that my tolerance for sh!tty pop music is decreasing with age.


Agree. Also let's use the word Scheiβe. This word is more musical.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

vtpoet said:


> The same for sh!tty sex. I'm sure the two are related.


Exactly. I do not know your age, but if you had ever been to a modern high school, you will see people dressing so inappropriately. I am always asking the girls why can't they just cover a little bit more parts of their body--they seem to be having problem with that. Later when I saw them listening to K-Pop on Spotify, I found that some of them are dressing exactly in the same way with the people in the album photos. Also, I listened to some of their songs--I never understand why those singers love to make their voice sound sexi and "luring". I hate that. Therefore, don't be surprised, those scheiβe pop music are directly responsible for why discussions on sex is so popular among young people, which should be actually prohibited.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

KevinW said:


> Exactly. I do not know your age, but if you had ever been to a modern high school, you will see people dressing so inappropriately. I am always asking the girls why can't they just cover a little bit more parts of their body--they seem to be having problem with that. Later when I saw them listening to K-Pop on Spotify, I found that some of them are dressing exactly in the same way with the people in the album photos. Also, I listened to some of their songs--I never understand why those singers love to make their voice sound sexi and "luring". I hate that. Therefore, don't be surprised, those scheiβe pop music are directly responsible for why discussions on sex is so popular among young people, which should be actually prohibited.


I'm pretty sure there are operas by Mozart that discuss sex too.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

KevinW said:


> Exactly. I do not know your age, but if you had ever been to a modern high school, you will see people dressing so inappropriately. I am always asking the girls why can't they just cover a little bit more parts of their body--they seem to be having problem with that. Later when I saw them listening to K-Pop on Spotify, I found that some of them are dressing exactly in the same way with the people in the album photos. Also, I listened to some of their songs--I never understand why those singers love to make their voice sound sexi and "luring". I hate that. Therefore, don't be surprised, those scheiβe pop music are directly responsible for why discussions on sex is so popular among young people, which should be actually prohibited.


No change there then. Sex was all I could think about when I was a teenager, and much of the pop music at the time was all about sex too. I think it was for the previous generation...

Come to think of it, without sex, there would be no next generation. It's actually quite an important part of life. Literally.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Forster said:


> Sex was all I could think about when I was a teenager, and much of the pop music at the time was all about sex too.


What… Are you serious… :lol: Sex was the only thing in your mind when you were a teenager? :devil: Well teenagers are always energetic, and I understand that. However, I don't think teenage should be about sex only. More is about love. These two things are quite different. As a teenager I agree that it is very normal to love someone with opposite sex and I even encourage modern teenagers to do that, given the situation that tons of teenagers now love the wrong people or don't love at all. However, sex (please don't misunderstand-I not only mean doing the thing) is only a specific way of expressing love instead of being equivalent to love. It is, for humanity, the necessary but the most "inappropriate" way to love. Compared to love, sex is something driven by your innate characteristics as a human and does not quite involve your brain, but love is much more complex, and it is originated from your brain. This is also why so many composers composed compositions about love, like Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, his arias in Magic Flute, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and etc, but you rarely see compositions on sex. Sex is fun, but it is far simpler than love so not much things could be composed for such a topic. When you listen to pop music, you will find a lot of them are about sex, which is almost absolutely pointless. Those music attract teenagers to try out sex instead of trying out love in proper ways. And see why those teenagers break up so often? They were taught by pop music to enjoy the immediate pleasure of sex, or at least the happiness of being attracted to it, rather than love. As a teenager myself I had never experienced love with any person yet, but I am looking forward to it. But I will surely behave in proper ways but not talking about pointless sex all the time.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

vtpoet said:


> In fourth grade, we were all invited to bring a favorite piece of music (LP) to school. This was in deep red state territory. At the height of 70s Rock&Roll forever, I, alone, brought Glenn Gould's Columbia recording of Bach's 2nd Piano Concerto.
> 
> My fate.
> 
> Was sealed.


Just curious, how is this related to red and blue states?


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

KevinW said:


> What… Are you serious… :lol: Sex was the only thing in your mind when you were a teenager? :devil:


Well, there was some room left for underage drinking and Linda Goodman's _Sun Signs_. I was fond of Dennis Wheatley novels and learning all about witchcraft too.

And school, of course, a boys' single sex grammar - so when we weren't conjugating verbs, we were talking about conjugating.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

KevinW said:


> I have noticed how a person's age can affect his/her music preference.


I'm not sure what you can tell about the relationship between age and musical preference from the assemblage of personal accounts posted thus far (interesting though each individual story may be).

Or are you forming any conclusions that I'm overlooking?


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

KevinW said:


> Just curious, how is this related to red and blue states?


Fair question. When I entered grade school in the states, I had come over from Germany. I loved classical music, was an introvert, loved nature and was more or less a pacifist. Even though I've spent most of my life in the US, I remain, culturally, very German.

I was quickly bulled, got into fights, etc...

My love of classical music marked me out as an "other" and by the way did you know "we" (meaning "we-American-grade-school-students" apparently) won World War 2? This was in the 70s! I learned that music was closely tied to patriotism and that being a real American meant listening to ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash, country music and, by the way, Rock & Roll forever. In the town that I grew up in, Kountry Kar Kare was the name of an auto-garage and I'll let you guess who were *not* clientele. I learned that the kind of music one listened to was a political statement and that one was either an American or leave it if you don't love it. It's no mistake what happened to the Dixie Chicks.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Over the years, there have been studies looking at this issue, and I've come across articles which usually boil results down to two types of music lovers - one whose taste is more limited in scope and another who is more omnivorous. The former tends to stick with what he or she knows, the latter tends to seek out new experiences.

My musical taste has pretty much remained the same - mainly classical and jazz but also some R&B, pop and rock. This is, of course, not all cut and dried. E.g., most of the time, I'd rather listen to non-classical with vocals than anything classical. Opera in particular is largely anathema to me.

Now and then, I listen to popular radio stations, and I can still enjoy a good deal of what's been happening. Its easy with a lot of the retro stuff - like Bruno Mars or the late Amy Winehouse - and some bands I knew from before are still going, like Gorillaz (formerly Blur).


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

I am 23 and have been listening to classical music extensively since I was 18.

I almost never listen to music older than the 18th century, though Monteverdi is a top 15 composer for me.

Most of my Baroque listening is JS Bach.

I listen to Haydn and Mozart fairly frequently, and I occasionally listen to CPE Bach.

Most of the time, I listen to Romantic orchestral music-- Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Brahms, Dvorak, and so on.
. I also listen to the chamber music of Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms.

The only modernists I _regularly_ listen to are Shostakovich and Bartok. However, I love some pieces by Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ravel, Schnittke, Part, and Xenakis, among others.

So while I listen to more than entry-level pieces like Beethoven's Fifth, Beethoven's Ninth, The Four Seasons, and the New World Symphony that I listened to before I turned eighteen, my tastes are quite conventional for TC.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

ORigel said:


> I am 23 and have been listening to classical music extensively since I was 18.
> 
> I almost never listen to music older than the 18th century, though Monteverdi is a top 15 composer for me.
> 
> ...


Do you listen to modern music such as Jazz, Pop and Rap?


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

KevinW said:


> Do you listen to modern music such as Jazz, Pop and Rap?


No. I have some trouble understanding sung words, and I have long preferred orchestral music. Plus, in my perception, the quality of the pop music I heard on the radio plummeted after the early 2010s, so that ended chances of me gravitating towards other* genres.

*Of course, "classical music" is an umbrella term covering many genres.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

ORigel said:


> No. I have some trouble understanding sung words, and I have long preferred orchestral music. Plus, in my perception, the quality of the pop music I heard on the radio plummeted after the early 2010s, so that ended chances of me gravitating towards other* genres.
> 
> *Of course, "classical music" is an umbrella term covering many genres.


That proves my point again. People who love Classical Music of younger generations are dedicated to Classical and hardly listen to other genres.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Now I'm only speaking in stereotypes, so please don't get offended. But, I feel the older generation may be wiser in being open to more types of music while the younger kids may feel a need to show their superiority against their peers with classical. That being said, I'm in my late 30s and love mostly classical.


This is also my speculation. Young Classical lovers today tend to listen Classical to show their superiority over modern music. However, in my personal opinion (I don't want to start a fight here), I believe Classical Music is superior than modern music in many ways, so it isn't a problem for young Classical audiences to show their superiority in terms of music choices compared to their peers who mostly listen to modern stuff.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I think there's a danger in thinking that your experience applies to everyone, or to every situation. 

I didn't know anyone who was into classical music as much as I was when I was growing up. In other places - especially in private schools with their music programs - there where probably people of my age who where into classical music, people for whom it may have carried some sort of cultural cachet. 

In my part of town, classical music was at best viewed as a curiosity, at worst something for upper class toffs. In a very practical sense, being street smart had more relevance than any sort of highbrow culture.


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## 4chamberedklavier (12 mo ago)

I'm also in my 20s and I've recently started listening to classical. Previously I'd just listen to anything that I liked, not really bound to any genre. Though I did spend a lot of time listening to the Beatles.

I think Classical is appealing for me for two reasons:
1) The focus seems to be more on the music itself & less on the musicians behind it. I guess you can say that the artist's image matters to me. For example, I find metal very off putting because of its association with the macabre. It's all a bit too edgy for my tastes (Although I do respect the musical skills of metal artists)
2) I like how classical is instrumental-focused. I don't like having lyrics in a piece of music because in my opinion it limits the possible ways you can interpret it. Also, if the lyrics are ugly then it'll be distracting.

I was actually turned off from Classical for a while because as someone who likes a lot of repetition & catchy music, classical pieces seemed too, uh, random & meandering. Warmed up to it when I realized you just have to listen closely & don't judge a piece by its first listen.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

In terms of preferred genres age typically doesn't have much of an affect. What we see in studies that as people age they become less open to experiencing new music (and new things, in general). People's interest in music tends to peak in their early teens and the favorites they find during that time remain with them throughout their life. Further, most people don't develop a real passion for music so they tend to only hear and be exposed to whatever is most popular, so people's favorites also tend to be something that was extremely popular around the time they were early teenagers. 

Now, obviously there are exceptions to this. People who develop a passion for music and/or are extremely open individuals tend to develop interests outside or beyond what's mainstream, and this is where you get people liking classical or jazz or even non-mainstream genres like metal and electronica. Personally, I grew up as a kid with the rock and pop music my parents liked. I started developing my own tastes in my early teens and because I developed a passion for music I wanted to explore everything, so my tastes in classical, jazz, metal, avant-garde stuff all happened around that same time. I've continued to explore ever since, finding favorites across a diverse range of genres--even pop music. But I'm pretty atypical in this regard, though I suspect many people here are similar because it's already atypical to care enough about music to be posting on a classical music forum!


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

In my personal situation I drifted to Classical music over a decade when in my twenties, looking back this drift accelerated as my disillusionment with rock/prog' grew. The other thing that I think has some relevance is - as age increases most people care less about being part of the 'group' and are more comfortable with their own preferences.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I started listening to Classical when I was a teenager in the mid seventies. I have always been a contrarian and this was a rock heyday, but I started listening because my parents had a few albums and I could study without being distracted by speech or lyrics.
Gradually the music drew me in


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## HerbertNorman (Jan 9, 2020)

I was into the grunge/rock of the early nineties and I still enjoy that kind of music (I mean rock , grunge , alternative,...) , but I think in my case it had to do with upbringing, being raised by people who love classical (and jazz). 
I went to concerts when I was quite young , etc... My real love for the genre only started in my twenties though , as I looked for something beyond the genres I was mostly listening to...

My point: I think a lot is influenced by the environment you are raised in and being introduced to different kinds of music . It certainly had an impact on me...


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Malx said:


> In my personal situation I drifted to Classical music over a decade when in my twenties, looking back this drift accelerated as my disillusionment with rock/prog' grew. The other thing that I think has some relevance is -* as age increases most people care less about being part of the 'group' and are more comfortable with their own preferences*.


Both our tribal allegiance and place within a tribe can change but our draw to be part of a tribe remains.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Eva Yojimbo said:


> In terms of preferred genres age typically doesn't have much of an affect. What we see in studies that as people age they become less open to experiencing new music (and new things, in general). People's interest in music tends to peak in their early teens and the favorites they find during that time remain with them throughout their life. Further, most people don't develop a real passion for music so they tend to only hear and be exposed to whatever is most popular, so people's favorites also tend to be something that was extremely popular around the time they were early teenagers.


All very true.



Eva Yojimbo said:


> Now, obviously there are exceptions to this. People who develop a passion for music and/or are* extremely open individuals tend to develop interests outside or beyond what's mainstream*, and this is where you get people liking classical or jazz or even non-mainstream genres like metal and electronica.


Can you define "open individuals"?

Open as in uninhibited people? Extroverts?


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

In my case, it's been mainly from classical (teenage years) to a gradually much more broadened horizon, including jazz, folk music from around the globe, progressive rock & experimental etc. 

But classical still constitutes say 90% of my listening, and there has always been some genres I didn't like (disco, hip-hop & rap, noise, country, most pop/schlager, metal, Chinese opera  etc.).

I wouldn't say that my preferred classical music has gradually become more subdued or less conflict-ridden while I was getting older. And the number of composers from basically all classical eras known to me has been continually growing, including contemporary ones.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

KevinW said:


> I don't think teenage should be about sex only. More is about love.


I have never understood this common attempt to separate the two.

Isn't love about connecting body and soul through intercourse?


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

My only change over time occurred pretty early on. I got into classical very early (started piano lessons aged 5, was collecting LPs by age 8/9) and my favourite then was Beethoven. Ten years on from that, while I still liked Beethoven he'd been overtaken on my preferred list by a few others, mainly Mozart who's still top of that list today over half a century on and, I expect, will now stay there.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Yes, Beethoven and maybe Mozart are usually among the earliest preferences in classical music, for many people, also me ...


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

joen_cph said:


> Yes, Beethoven and maybe Mozart are usually among the earliest preferences in classical music, for many people, also me ...


Yep. Do you think it is likely for this two composers to be someone's best composers forever, though?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Beethoven was definitely my favourite composer for the first two years or so - then Bach took over and he never lost the #1 spot. Beethoven kept sliding down as I explored more and more composers in depth. Looks stable around #25 now.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

KevinW said:


> Yep. Do you think it is likely for this two composers to be someone's best composers forever, though?


Definitely, it's quite often the case. Objectively, there's an unending amount of different/other music to explore, however.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Art Rock said:


> Beethoven was definitely my favourite composer for the first two years or so - then Bach took over and he never lost the #1 spot. Beethoven kept sliding down as I explored more and more composers in depth. Looks stable around #25 now.


Oh, I am wondering how could that happen... I think Beethoven is definitely a good composer to start with and probably won't drop, due to his contribution to Classical Music... Mozart is possibly my #1 forever (although I am only 16 :lol because I can understand his music by listening to it for only once, and I am fairly sure that I won't be able to understand anyone else' music by listening to it for only one time.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Art Rock said:


> Beethoven was definitely my favourite composer for the first two years or so - then Bach took over and he never lost the #1 spot. Beethoven kept sliding down as I explored more and more composers in depth. Looks stable around #25 now.


I think it is not unusual that as one's years pass on, composers such as Mozart and Beethoven are not listened to as frequently. In my case, in the earlier years I couldn't get enough of them, listening to them for hours every day. Even when bagging groceries as a teenager working at a grocery store, I would be humming the Beethoven and Brahms Violin Concertos.

Then in the middle years, I had had enough and started listening to other composers and latterly, particularly the lesser known composers. Only now do I listen occasionally to some Mozart and Beethoven and am reminded how great they are.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

KevinW said:


> Oh, I am wondering how could that happen... I think Beethoven is definitely a good composer to start with and probably won't drop, due to his contribution to Classical Music... Mozart is possibly my #1 forever (although I am only 16 :lol because I can understand his music by listening to it for only once, and I am fairly sure that I won't be able to understand anyone else' music by listening to it for only one time.


Over time, that accessiblity can become a bane (but possibly not to future you). I love works like the Beethoven Late Quartets and Mahler symphonies in part because they take many listens to digest. They yield their secrets slowly, so they sound better each time you losten to them, and then later on they resist becoming "overfamiliar."


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I don't know about you guys, I just find that I have tired of certain genres over the years. I've been through.... 

Classic rock/metal
Punk
Prog
Blues
Southern rock
80s Indie
80s reggae
Ambient/electronic 
Industrial
Glam/hair metal
Nu metal
90s brit Rock (Manics, Suede, etc) 
Trance
Screamo
Post hardcore
Melodeath
Folk
Post-rock
Post-metal

However through it all I've always listened to classic music and never tired of it but even within CM my focus has shifted hugely to chamber music since I joined TC. I don't think it's age. I'm quite happy to dip back into most of the genres I've liked over the years but I don't do it as much as I did. My problem is I'm always looking for something new/original to listen to. I'm not a conservative listener by any means and love discovering new music. I hope I still do until I shuffle off this mortal coil. The only genres I've never much cared for are soul, jazz (which I can't stand), disco and rap but even then there's some exceptions. Basically, if I like it.. I like it, regardless of genre.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

When I was 13, I wasn't listening to much music. I didn't yet have the attention span to listen to classical music (so I just listened to a few works), and I did not like pop songs on the radio enough to listen to less popular pop songs (or even turn on the radio myself).

Then I became interested in classical music when I was 18, and by then I had a longer attention span.

So I now have a taste for Baroque to Modern classical music, and a slight fondness for a few pop songs from 2010-ish.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Eva Yojimbo said:


> In terms of preferred genres age typically doesn't have much of an affect. What we see in studies that as people age they become less open to experiencing new music (and new things, in general). People's interest in music tends to peak in their early teens and the favorites they find during that time remain with them throughout their life. Further, most people don't develop a real passion for music so they tend to only hear and be exposed to whatever is most popular, so people's favorites also tend to be something that was extremely popular around the time they were early teenagers.
> 
> Now, obviously there are exceptions to this. People who develop a passion for music and/or are extremely open individuals tend to develop interests outside or beyond what's mainstream, and this is where you get people liking classical or jazz or even non-mainstream genres like metal and electronica. Personally, I grew up as a kid with the rock and pop music my parents liked. I started developing my own tastes in my early teens and because I developed a passion for music I wanted to explore everything, so my tastes in classical, jazz, metal, avant-garde stuff all happened around that same time. I've continued to explore ever since, finding favorites across a diverse range of genres--even pop music. But I'm pretty atypical in this regard, though I suspect many people here are similar because it's already atypical to care enough about music to be posting on a classical music forum!


I've read a few articles about that. Generally, young teens start out with listening to the most popular music, then many of them explore less popular music and return to pop songs that used to be popular but have fallen out of fashion.

The music a person listens to in their tweens and early teens has the most influence upon their eventual taste. However, a person's peak in searching out new music often occurs in their twenties according to one study. After that, most people listen to a lot less new music. Women who do not have young children tend to listen to more currently-popular music than men or new mothers.

My peak in listening to new music may have happened a few years ago, about age 20. However, I now am getting complete works CD sets of Brahms and Handel, in addition to the Bach edition I got last week, so I may have a higher peak this year (notice, however, that this one is for composers I'm already familiar with, rather than ones I am not familiar with).

Another study found that people's music listening habits can shift over time, and that:

--"Intense" music genres are generally listened to for a brief period by teens. 
--The most popular music is consumed mostly by teens and young adults
--Older people tend to listen more to folk, jazz, country, and classical.
--Adults in their 20s and 30s listen to upbeat positive genres of music. [The article does not give actual data for the last study so I am fairly sure the summary is a gross oversimplification. I don't quite believe their psychoanalyses of people who listen to each category, either.]


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Merl said:


> I don't know about you guys, I just find that I have tired of certain genres over the years.


For me, it's not so much that I tire of other genres, it's more I discover new ones.

I enjoy constant change in all facets of my life, not just music.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

ORigel said:


> I've read a few articles about that. Generally, young teens start out with listening to the most popular music, then many of them explore less popular music and return to pop songs that used to be popular but have fallen out of fashion.
> 
> The music a person listens to in their tweens and early teens has the most influence upon their eventual taste. However, a person's peak in searching out new music often occurs in their twenties according to one study. After that, most people listen to a lot less new music. Women who do not have young children tend to listen to more currently-popular music than men or new mothers.
> 
> ...


"One theory put forward by researchers, based on the study, is that we come to music to experiment with identity and define ourselves, and then use it as a social vehicle to establish our group and find a mate, and later as a more solitary expression of our intellect, status and greater emotional understanding."

This is wholly reasonable with data to support.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I listened to very little music as a child. Besides Peter and the Wolf, Nutcracker etc. my parents had a bunch of classical records, I remember that I particularly liked some opera choruses (such as the sailors from Flying Dutchman or the hunters in Freischütz or the Toreador song). I hardly knew any pop/rock music, only a few of the obvious hits that were played on TV or during sports (We are the champions). 
So basically, when I really got into classical music at 14 or 15 it was the first music I was strongly moved by and cared about. My first favorites were warhorses such as the Grieg suites, Tchaikovsky's Capriccio italien and 1812 as well as the latters b flat minor concerto and 5th symphony, Dvorak's New world. A bit later came Haydn and Mozart, but when I got to Beethoven's symphonies he became my absolute favorite who dominated everything for a few years, and he is still my favorite composer over 30 years later. In the late 1980s and early 1990s it took me a considerable time to get through even the core of classical music. Although I was lucky in having a few friends who were a bit ahead of me both in musical knowledge and record/cd collecting and I could sometimes borrow stuff from them, one was mostly dependent on radio and what one could buy with the meagre funds of a high school student.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

eljr said:


> "One theory put forward by researchers, based on the study, is that we come to music to experiment with identity and define ourselves, and then use it as a social vehicle to establish our group and find a mate, and later as a more solitary expression of our intellect, status and greater emotional understanding."
> 
> This is wholly reasonable with data to support.


I don't know how well the actual data supports this idea, because the article doesn't give much data. Even if the summary in the article is accurate, this may be a Just So story, and possibly not the only good explanation out there ("*one* theory put forward by researchers, based on the study..."). It's plausible, but that doesn't neccessarily mean it's behind most of the taste shifts.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

I started with classical music in the 1980s as a teenager and though rock music, pop, punk, metal, and the very early beginnings of rap music were what my peers were all about (the so-called Gen X or MTV generation); I was content to go my own way with classical music. Growing up in a working class family and community, there was no one around me that was interested at all in classical music. Even so, I was drawn to it through watching old cartoons such as _Bugs Bunny_ and _Tom & Jerry_ on TV; as well as the original PBS TV show _Cosmos_ with Carl Sagan where the music of Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Rimsky, Shostakovich, Hovhaness and the New Age group, Vangelis; were used in the sound track. As the original _Star Wars_ trilogy was part of my coming-of-age, I was as taken with John Williams' classically-inspired score as was by the _Star Wars_ message and mythology. I think, though, that apart from environmental factors, people are born with certain temperaments. I was creative, high strung, introverted, intense, and thoughtful; and I still am. It's as true now as it was then, that I'd much rather play chess, visit an art museum, go for a walk, or spend hours listening to classical records; than I would like to go wild at a wall-to-wall party.

I went through a profound jazz phase while in college that rivaled my interest in classical but that waned by my early 30s. Now in my 50s, I've come to like some old Country music because every song seems to tell a story (usually a sad story) about love and glory. But classical music always was and always will be my favorite.

In the early days I was big into loud and wonderful sounds and I'd blast Richard Strauss' _Also Sprach Zarathustra_ or Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_ the way that other boys would blast heavy metal music. In a way, _Zarathustra_ and _Rite_ was my heavy metal music! And if that was my heavy metal, my expression of rebelliousness, then Shostakovich was my grunge.

But most of all, Beethoven was my favorite, as Beethoven's heroic musical vision seemed to tap into my feelings of youthful idealism. By age 40 or so when people seem to become more religious or at least preoccupied with the great existential questions of life, Bach became my new favorite as I saw in Bach the most perfect expression of faith, an assurance of salvation but also a validation of human suffering. Now in my mid 50s, I've come around to Mozart, as I've now become very mindful of craftsmanship and the beauty and balance that Mozart brings forth in an art form that appears to be seamless and effortless despite it's complexity.

While I think that people tend to grow and develop in their musical tastes, I also think that peer pressure plays much less of a role than it used to play regarding the young. When I was a kid only a handful of big record companies and radio and TV stations controlled what music people were able to hear. A bunch of middle-aged businessmen were deciding what's hot and what's not with the kids. But now because the internet has made so many genres widely available to young people today, and because they are so much less divided by class and ethnic enclaves or sub-culture, and because they've been taught to be more tolerant towards others, they seem to be less inhibited when it comes to liking something that their peers may not like. Moreover, listening to music is no longer a communal activity. People are all plugged into their own private playlists as opposed to going over to someone's house to spin some records together, so who's to disagree with an audience of one?


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## new but obsessed (Dec 19, 2021)

Coach G said:


> While I think that people tend to grow and develop in their musical tastes, I also think that peer pressure plays much less of a role than it used to play regarding the young. When I was a kid only a handful of big record companies and radio and TV stations controlled what music people were able to hear. A bunch of middle-aged businessmen were deciding what's hot and what's not with the kids. But now because the internet has made so many genres widely available to young people today, and because they are so much less divided by class and ethnic enclaves or sub-culture, and because they've been taught to be more tolerant towards others, they seem to be less inhibited when it comes to liking something that their peers may not like. Moreover, listening to music is no longer a communal activity. People are all plugged into their own private playlists as opposed to going over to someone's house to spin some records together, so who's to disagree with an audience of one?


There's so much to agree with in this paragraph, and in much of what's been stated on this thread.

Yes, I think for a set of people who like music enough to seek it out actively, it's never been a better time. I was a teen in the iPod era, and back then it was relatively hard to find music. Wikipedia wasn't as all encompassing yet. Much of the music my friends and I came to love got passed on person-to-person, via ripped CDs, piracy, and reverse-downloading off of our iPods (a mystery I'm sure to all Gen Z's out there! Pooling our iPods and downloading all the music inside then going off to our own rooms to listen to the new music). Of course, this was way easier than prior decades, but nowhere near as easy as it is today, where I can go down endless rabbit holes or wiki-holes to find interesting music, where the internet archives are full of reviews and learned opinions on music, and most music is free to explore.

Still, as with other art, many people seem to be content to follow the marketing. And I think that's not delimited by age or generation. Why, for example, do my near-retirement age parents and their friends talk incessantly about bingeing TV on Netflix when they NEVER watched TV in the 90s and early 2000s? I don't think it's because TV got "better" -- there were certainly great shows to watch back then. I think it's the effective marketing and the universal accessibility. And they are similarly plugged into modern pop music for that same reason -- Spotify is cheaper than water, and people are just easier to reach than ever, and so they're no longer frozen in time musically into what they listened to in their teen years. (When I was a kid, my mom only had CDs from her childhood/teen years -- now she's more up to date with contemporary pop music than I am, and without trying at all!)

So, I think if you want to put in the effort, or are "obsessed" like I am, it's easier to find all sorts of varied music. And if you're just open to the marketing, you're more gettable than ever, too.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

ORigel said:


> Over time, that accessiblity can become a bane (but possibly not to future you).


That's right. I am exploring Sir Colin Davis Complete RCA Legacies, and surprisingly found the few Mozart recordings which brought me into the world of Classical (I did not know those Mozart recordings was conducted by Sir Colin Davis at that time). Then, I found those recordings still be the ones that are most to my taste, even though I have listened to and liked many Baroque, Romantic and a few 20th century compositions...


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## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

KevinW said:


> How does age affect people's preference in music?


I have found that the older I become, the more composers I find whose work I like.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

KevinW said:


> That's right. I am exploring Sir Colin Davis Complete RCA Legacies, and surprisingly found the few Mozart recordings which brought me into the world of Classical (I did not know those Mozart recordings was conducted by Sir Colin Davis at that time). Then, I found those recordings still be the ones that are most to my taste, even though I have listened to and liked many Baroque, Romantic and a few 20th century compositions...


A loss of interest in overfamiliar works is a process that often takes _years_, and I gather you haven't been listening even to your "first love" Mozart for long. In my case, it has happened to an extent with Tchaikovsky 6, Schubert 9, Schubert String Quartet 15, the Grosse Fuge, and a few others. I still love those works, but I don't listen to them often these days. Probably because there were times where I listened to little but those works for weeks or months-- I went through a phase where I listened to the Grosse Fuge almost every waking moment.

So overexposure is not a big problem for me. (I have lost interest in Vivaldi and Corelli...but I blame the sameness of their music not overexposure.)

But for some listeners, overexposure is a real creeping problem. If it starts to become one for you, listen to less familiar works and/or composers for a while or at least avoid playing the same work in a loop like I do.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

ORigel said:


> I've read a few articles about that. Generally, young teens start out with listening to the most popular music, then many of them explore less popular music and return to pop songs that used to be popular but have fallen out of fashion.
> 
> The music a person listens to in their tweens and early teens has the most influence upon their eventual taste. However, a person's peak in searching out new music often occurs in their twenties according to one study. After that, most people listen to a lot less new music. Women who do not have young children tend to listen to more currently-popular music than men or new mothers.
> 
> ...


I think we probably have the same study in mind, though you might be referencing some others as well. The most remarkable thing about the study I remember looking at was how people favorite music tracked with whatever music was popular in their early teens. When I think back on my teens while I definitely have some favorites I discovered from that time, my favorites weren't popular at that time, in large part because I was getting into rock, metal, prog, classical, and jazz that was all popular well before then.

I wonder about the study you reference that mentions listening habits. It's not really been my experience that people grow out of "intense" music, at least not metal. When I've attended metal concerts of older bands (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, etc.) the audience has tended to be older, certainly not dominated by teens. I generally haven't seen that people who love metal in their teens grow out of it at all. I'd be curious to see what data that study looked at that said differently, because it's very much in conflict with my own experience. For the other habits I can see them being truer. Popular music has always been mostly consumed by teens and young adults in large part because that's the age group that has always spent the most money on music.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Eva Yojimbo said:


> I think we probably have the same study in mind, though you might be referencing some others as well. The most remarkable thing about the study I remember looking at was how people favorite music tracked with whatever music was popular in their early teens. When I think back on my teens while I definitely have some favorites I discovered from that time, my favorites weren't popular at that time, in large part because I was getting into rock, metal, prog, classical, and jazz that was all popular well before then.
> 
> I wonder about the study you reference that mentions listening habits. It's not really been my experience that people grow out of "intense" music, at least not metal. When I've attended metal concerts of older bands (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, etc.) the audience has tended to be older, certainly not dominated by teens. I generally haven't seen that people who love metal in their teens grow out of it at all. I'd be curious to see what data that study looked at that said differently, because it's very much in conflict with my own experience. For the other habits I can see them being truer. Popular music has always been mostly consumed by teens and young adults in large part because that's the age group that has always spent the most money on music.


I wish the article included a graph. Maybe the article is talking about the subset of listeners whose tastes change radically (meaning, I suppose, if a listener grows out of metal, they grow out of it during their teen years?). Regardless, I believe that the articles on it are misrepresenting the findings of the study. It's too simplified.


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## HerbertNorman (Jan 9, 2020)

ORigel said:


> A loss of interest in overfamiliar works is a process that often takes _years_, and I gather you haven't been listening even to your "first love" Mozart for long. In my case, it has happened to an extent with Tchaikovsky 6, Schubert 9, Schubert String Quartet 15, the Grosse Fuge, and a few others. I still love those works, but I don't listen to them often these days. Probably because there were times where I listened to little but those works for weeks or months-- I went through a phase where I listened to the Grosse Fuge almost every waking moment.
> 
> So overexposure is not a big problem for me. (I have lost interest in Vivaldi and Corelli...but I blame the sameness of their music not overexposure.)
> 
> But for some listeners, overexposure is a real creeping problem. If it starts to become one for you, listen to less familiar works and/or composers for a while or at least avoid playing the same work in a loop like I do.


This sounds familiar to me... yet it's rather logical imo I can name a few works that I know off by heart and don't listen to very often any more , but I can name a few that I will still listen to when there is a new release by an up and coming artist for example. Take Schubert's Winterreise, which I love , was recorded quite recently by Joyce DiDonato and Yannic Nézet-Séguin. I know the piece very very well, but I want to listen to new recordings of it.

Exploring new work has become more important to me too, yet overexposure is not something I have had problems with (yet)...
I agree with the last part though as I have done this recently , a big part of my collection hasn't been used for a while as I have started to listen to composers I didn't know very well. I think the TC community can help a lot here , we all have the same interest (not taste  )


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I read a similar study in the early 2000s that was not directly about age (rather some socioeconomic parameters and music preferences). But one of their results was that many classical listeners are actually "musical omnivores" who listen to and appreciate a broad spectrum of music (and this correlates with higher socioeconomic status, i.e. upper/middle class people have not mainly "elite tastes" but overall broader/inclusive tastes). Of course there are also some omnivores who exclude classical and some listeners who listen almost exclusively to classical.

I am not sure about studies but from anecdotal evidence I think most classical listeners started in their teens (like in other genres people develop and often mostly fix preferences as teenagers) but there is also a group that came late to classical music, as late as early 40s or so. This latter group often describes themselves as having become bored of (mainstream) popular music and therefore branched out.


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## EvaBaron (Jan 3, 2022)

I’m 17 and I listen to classical music. For the time being I’m only listening to classical music and not any other genre not because I want to show my superiority but because when you’re young and you start to discover classical music there is so much to discover, personally I know 8 beethoven symphonies, 1 by dvôrak, 1 by Schubert, 2 by Mozart and 3 by haydn and some other pieces everyone knows like moonlight sonata. I still have so many composers to explore that I quite simply don’t have the time to listen to other genres, and first I want to explore classical. I do like pop and rap for instance


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## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

EvaBaron said:


> I'm 17 and I listen to classical music. ... I still have so many composers to explore that I quite simply don't have the time to listen to other genres, and first I want to explore classical. I do like pop and rap for instance


When I was about your age, classical music was having some kind of powerful influence on me, an effect which many decades later I have come to recognize as "transformative". I don't know if everyone does, or can, experience this, but it's kind of "magical" (rather like the curiously "magical" behavior of quantum particles) - mysterious but wonderful. It transformed the core of my being, my life, where I was going, how I conducted my life. As I said, I don't know if everyone can experience this, but do realize that great music has this vast power available to you.

The other point I'll make is the connection between classical and popular music. All good music has developed organically out of our experience as humans. What we now call "classical" has, probably always, had a link with popular songs and tunes of the masses. As we know, the motifs, melodies, themes of many great classical works have been drawn directly from popular sources. Beginning particularly in the 20th century, modern classical composers drew motifs, harmonies, rhythms from ragtime and jazz. I believe contemporary composition must continue this process, drawing from current popular genres (pop, rock, hip-hop, etc.) and musical techniques. Understanding these connections is crucial.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*How does age affect people's preference in music?*

I have no idea about "people" in general, but speaking solely for myself my curiosity about finding interesting music has gone unchanged since I was about 11 years old (I'm 70 now). I still seek out music from every source I can find, every genre I discover, and listen to music by artists I've never heard of before.

What's changed is that with the Internet and streaming platforms the process has gotten much more convenient and so much music is at my fingertips I am like babe in a musical wonderland. The musical landscape has never been better, and everyday I find something I think is fantastic that is absolutely new.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

SanAntone said:


> *How does age affect people's preference in music?*
> 
> I have no idea about "people" in general, but speaking solely for myself my curiosity about finding interesting music has gone unchanged since I was about 11 years old. I still seek out music from every source I can find, every genre I discover, and listen to music by artists I've never heard of before.
> 
> What's changed is that with the Internet and streaming platforms the process has gotten much more convenient and so much music is at my fingertips I am like babe in a musical wonderland. * The musical landscape has never been better, and everyday I find something I think is fantastic that is absolutely new*.


See my post previous, I am the same. I always needed new sounds.

Your last line, the bolded, is just how I feel too.

There is simply not enough time in the day to enjoy all the new sounds produced.


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## agustis (Feb 3, 2021)

I'm in my late twenties and I cannot stand pop or rock music. Although primarily a classical fan I do like other genres like folk, Appalachian, and to a lesser extent...country (not modern pop country).

I think a lot of it has to do with what your values are, IE are you religious or not. I think the older you get the more picky you are and (generally) the finer tastes you have. Nostalgia aside I think this makes people gravitate to classical music in older age. I also love and value history, which is why I like folk music so much too.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

agustis said:


> I'm in my late twenties and I cannot stand pop or rock music. Although primarily a classical fan I do like other genres like folk, Appalachian, and to a lesser extent...country (not modern pop country).
> 
> I think a lot of it has to do with what your values are, IE are you religious or not. I think the older you get the more picky you are and (generally) the finer tastes you have. Nostalgia aside I think this makes people gravitate to classical music in older age. I also love and value history, which is why I like folk music so much too.


welcome to the site!


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

EvaBaron said:


> I'm 17 and I listen to classical music. For the time being I'm only listening to classical music and not any other genre not because I want to show my superiority but because when you're young and you start to discover classical music there is so much to discover, personally I know 8 beethoven symphonies, 1 by dvôrak, 1 by Schubert, 2 by Mozart and 3 by haydn and some other pieces everyone knows like moonlight sonata. I still have so many composers to explore that I quite simply don't have the time to listen to other genres, and first I want to explore classical. I do like pop and rap for instance


Dvorak has three great symphonies: nos. 7, 8, & 9 "From the New World."

Other accessible symphonies are Shostakovich 5, Sibelius 2, Borodin 2, and any of the Tchaikovsky symphonies.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

agustis said:


> I'm in my late twenties and I cannot stand pop or rock music. Although primarily a classical fan I do like other genres like folk, Appalachian, and to a lesser extent...country (not modern pop country).
> 
> I think a lot of it has to do with what your values are, IE are you religious or not. I think the older you get the more picky you are and (generally) the finer tastes you have. Nostalgia aside I think this makes people gravitate to classical music in older age. I also love and value history, which is why I like folk music so much too.


I am an atheist who regularly listens to sacred choral works. You don't have to be religious to enjoy Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> *How does age affect people's preference in music?*
> 
> I have no idea about "people" in general, but speaking solely for myself my curiosity about finding interesting music has gone unchanged since I was about 11 years old (I'm 70 now). I still seek out music from every source I can find, every genre I discover, and listen to music by artists I've never heard of before.
> 
> What's changed is that with the Internet and streaming platforms the process has gotten much more convenient and so much music is at my fingertips I am like babe in a musical wonderland. The musical landscape has never been better, and everyday I find something I think is fantastic that is absolutely new.


However, on Amazon, CDs are drying up fast.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

ORigel said:


> However, on Amazon, CDs are drying up fast.


?

What does this mean? How is this relevant?

................


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

eljr said:


> ?
> 
> What does this mean? How is this relevant?
> 
> ................


Meaning that over time, we could lose high fidelity recordings of many works. The golden era of classical music listening could be at the beginning of its end (the end of the end could happen if sites like Youtube go under-- a lot of music on MySpace was lost a few years ago, IIRC. I don't know if I'll be able to listen to Karajan's '63 Beethoven cycle in 50 years)


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

ORigel said:


> Meaning that over time, we could lose high fidelity recordings of many works. The golden era of classical music listening could be at the beginning of its end (the end of the end could happen if sites like Youtube go under-- a lot of music on MySpace was lost a few years ago, IIRC. I don't know if I'll be able to listen to Karajan's '63 Beethoven cycle in 50 years)


i dont follow you at all, forget it

peace


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

eljr said:


> i dont follow you at all, forget it
> 
> peace


I hope that I can get excellent recordings of Klemperer's St. Matthew Passion on the Internet long after Youtube is defunct and CDs stop being sold.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

The CD is dead...apparently.


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## Alinde (Feb 8, 2020)

I must have been very fortunate in my friends when I was young. We were what Johnson* called his student friends (though he had poetry in mind, not music) - 'a nest of singing birds'. We loved classical music and introduced one another to new works. 

Perhaps because of growing deafness I seldom get the same intense charge from music now and most of my CD collection is gathering dust. 

I still sing in quite a good choir and I get together with a few friends every couple of weeks for piano playing sessions. 

*Samuel, not Boris.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Up to the age of 8 or 9 it was mostly Russian classical for me due to my mother's influence. Then my older brother got into rock bands and eventually became a local "almost famous" guitarist. So by 12 it was Cream, Hendrix, Zeppelin, etc. The next year I got my first guitar and my brother helped me as I started learning blues and rock. He told me a good place to start would be learning the Clapton (Mayall and the Blues Breakers) version of Hideaway off the record. That took a while. 

Around age 15, while beginning to abuse hallucinogens with my buddies, I transitioned to prog rock, Weather Report, etc., and began writing little proggish ditties for my friends and me to play. Classical music of all eras got considerable play time at our weekend acid parties and once again classical began to take hold. From the end of high school until today it's been classical all the way, although I still listen to prog rock, jazz, and world music as well. My favorite band at 15 was King Crimson and I still like them, which I guess confirms the old adage about tastes in "popular" music forming early and persisting.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Forster said:


> The CD is dead...apparently.


CDs will continue to be around, just like vinyl never really went away. Even as streaming becomes the primary method of accessing music, used CDs will continue to be available and sites like eBay will become the primary place to find them. I've bought a few OOP box sets in very good condition; in December I bought the Beach Boys _Smile Sessions_ 5CD, 2LP box still in the shrink wrap.

But I am a huge fan of streaming, so I don't spend any time worrying about CDs, I hardly buy them anymore and haven't for a number of years. I only buy a CD if the music is not available to stream and it is something I really, really, want to hear. The last time I did this was last week when I bought the Bob Dylan 3CD set _1970_.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

In my high school my roommate is mocking me for listening to CD in the 21th century...


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## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> CDs will continue to be around, just like vinyl never really went away. Even as streaming becomes the primary method of accessing music, used CDs will continue to be available and sites like eBay will become the primary place to find them.


Hope you're right about CDs. There was quite a discussion about the merits of CDs on this forum about 12-13 mos ago. The case for streaming and storing FLACs was convincing, but it mainly focused on using your smartphone to play them. FLACs and FLAC players are an attractive option since they're solid state and more portable than CD players and CDs. But there are drawbacks too; e.g., converting all, or even a fair chunk, of my CD collection to FLACs would be daunting.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Forster said:


> The CD is dead...


Yep. All things must pass.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

eljr said:


> Yep. All things must pass.


So...was George singing about the death of the CD??


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Nawdry said:


> Hope you're right about CDs. There was quite a discussion about the merits of CDs on this forum about 12-13 mos ago. The case for streaming and storing FLACs was convincing, but it mainly focused on using your smartphone to play them. FLACs and FLAC players are an attractive option since they're solid state and more portable than CD players and CDs. But there are drawbacks too; e.g., converting all, or even a fair chunk, of my CD collection to FLACs would be daunting.


It has been my experience that the discernible difference in audio quality between FLAC and high quality mp3 files is nil. I have all my music in mp3 files in order to save disk space. My library is nearly 200K tracks. Even if I could hear the difference, my playback system probably could not reproduce the music at that level of granularity.

Of course YMMV.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

eljr said:


> I have never understood this common attempt to separate the two.
> 
> Isn't love about connecting body and soul through intercourse?


Maybe intercourse is necessary, but love is still the majority. I don't see couples spending more time doing physical stuff than loving each other, which they do all the time. Also, I don't understand, why don't people feel shame when they talk about $ex today? Seems like $ex has been a major topic in discussions of people (esp teenagers) now, but don't they think it is not appropriate to do so?!


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Young people need to listen to more Ravel, clearly.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

eljr said:


> I have never understood this common attempt to separate the two.
> 
> Isn't love about connecting body and soul through intercourse?


Love and sex may be interconnected, but not only can they be separated, they sometimes _must_ for love is more than just the relationship between consenting adults; it's also between parents and children, and siblings!

But back to consenting adults...love takes many forms and intercourse may not be an essential component. It is pretty common though!


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

$ex v.s. love. Check these two videos out. Which one do you like? The answer is quite apparent.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

KevinW said:


> $ex v.s. love. Check these two videos out. Which one do you like? *The answer is quite apparent. *


On a classical music forum? I dare say it would be. Now why don't you go ask this question on a Billie Eilish fan page. That's also a very curious track you selected given that it's basically a group of friends dancing with music in the background... I can't fathom what point you think you were making with that.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

KevinW said:


> $ex v.s. love. Check these two videos out. Which one do you like? The answer is quite apparent.


What am I missing? How is it apparent?

Which do you prefer?


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

i hardly listened to any non-classical music until i was 16, and then i began branching out. it was definitely pretty snobbish and amateur but i dismissed any rock, pop, hip hop or the like. i'm 18 now and i'd say i roughly listen to 60% non-classical and 40% classical, especially jazz, pop, and hip hop, so uh oh how the times have changed.


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## Rowy (Jun 13, 2017)

KevinW said:


> Hello People,
> 
> I have noticed how a person’s age can affect his/her music preference. In general, young people like modern music and there are more elder people listening to Classical. However, something interesting that I have recently discovered is that many aged Classical audiences also love modern music such as pop, rock, rap and jazz, but those young people who listen to Classical Music are normally dedicated to Classical only. As some of you might know, I organized a teenager audience group and invited a few members from TC. I have talked with all of these people and I found that most of us hate Modern Music with a passion, and even some do not, they rarely listen to those music. However, surprisingly, I found many relatively aged people on TC also fans of jazz, pop and rock. This is definitely the opposite with what I would expect, because I think young people who listen to Classical today will also listen to pop music to some degree. Can anyone come up with an explanation?
> 
> Kevin


As a teenager I started to like classical music, especially Baroque music. When I studied music my professor was surprised that I didn't like Chopin. He told me I was probably too young. I'm a pensioner now and I still don't like Chopin, but I adore J.S. Bach. Never cared much for popular music.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I think there is both considerable evidence that some people turn to classical music after "getting bored" or feeling too mature for the popular music of their teenage years or 20s, or just by exploring different music, but also that many or most classical listeners started exploring classical music as children or teenagers.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I loved classical music throughout my childhood. My family were all music lovers and my brother became a professional musician. I was never musically talented (or even capable) but I devoured music with a greater appetite than the rest of the family put together. Then, in my early 20s my social life involved spending all of my time in company with friends so that I only listened to rock music - the more "garage" the better - until I was about 25 when I slowly started to get into CM again. Since then my repertoire has grown and grown and I have slowly colonised areas of CM that I had ignored earlier - solo piano music, the contemporary, the pre-Baroque, lieder and so on - and have probably become more adventurous as I have aged.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I regard myself as fortunate in being raised in a household where a number of musics were played on the radio or on 78s and, later, LPs. Classical, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway show tunes, I also developed strong enthusiasms for certain genres such as _cante flamenco,_ folk, music of other cultures--ragas, Russian choral singing, later Gharnati and Malhun and other music from Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, and Latin American mambo, cha cha cha, etc., and of course Rock and Pop I have never lost interest in any genre so my tastes do not evolve, instead they expand.. 

I have no idea how typical my experience is or has been. But I am convinced that early childhood exposure to any sort of music that the parents deem desirable for their children to learn will, through imprinting, form an strong bond that will prove lasting. Hearing many sorts of music while young leaves one open to listening to all sorts of new music as novelty poses no threat..


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