The headline certain gave me a strong sense of pause.
This week, The A.V. Club posted an article entitled "New Study Shows That People Stop Listening To New Music At 33," and at first, my knee-jerk reaction was one of defiant refusal for how could a statement like that possibly be universally true.
I mean--I am considerably past the age of 33 (even though my mind and spirit continuously attempts to tell me otherwise--my body, however...). Even so, I have continuously sought out new music to this very day and frankly, I anxiously welcome something new from some artist that I had previously not heard of before. I am always seeking and waiting for those new sounds to blow my mind and the thrill that comes from the discovery is a feeling that has never grown old. Honestly! If this were not true, then how else could one explain all of the crowing I have been doing for the likes of Post Social and Modern Mod, for example? Even as of this writing, I am listening to the track "Siberian Breaks" from MGMT's second album "Congratulations" (released April 13, 2010). Certainly a song this recent would fly against the perception that those beyond a certain age would refuse to listen to it, wouldn't it?
But then again...
It's very odd, but maybe the article does contain some valid points and perceptions--some of which I may not be that comfortable admitting because I don't wish to ever sound like the stereotypical older character who cantankerously exclaims that things were just better in "their day." Now I have made those kinds of statements before to people half-facetiously because I do not want to entirely discredit the new music that is being made but even so...
I look back to the 1980's, not my favorite decade of music (although I am continuously amazed with hw innovative it actually was--especially from England and other European locales) but it was the time where I aged between the years of 11-20, the time period that encapsulated Middle School, High School and my first two years of college. If one were to make comparisons between the top of the charts during the early to mid 1980's and right now, what might you find? Well, aside from Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Prince, you would have also found the likes of Culture Club, Talking Heads, Van Halen, Cyndi Lauper, Huey Lewis and the News, Run-DMC, David Bowie, and of course, Duran Duran.
At this point, I am not attempting to incite a debate about personal tastes. I am mentioning these particular artists because every single one of them crafted their own individual identities with their own individualized sound. Are the Top 40 charts of 2015 as idiosyncratic to you? To me and my ears, I don't think so...not even by a long shot. I don't think this really has to do with age but more of how the music industry has changed over time and how homogenized it has become with a small collective of writers and producers seemingly having their hands in every pot, therefore making all of the songs sound exactly the same regardless of who the artist in question happens to be.
Yet, for that matter, I do not follow the top of the charts at all anymore and I have found myself to not even be remotely interested in the least. I would like to think that my feelings are rooted more in the music that is actually being released not fitting within my personal tastes and having much less to do with my age. But does my age having something to do with how little I do think of so much of what is popular these days anyway?
I have also noticed that as I have aged, my musical tastes have moved increasingly backwards. I do not know how it ever happened but once we reach the Spring time months, I have found myself reaching into the past for a certain sound. The sound of Badfinger. The sound of Big Star. The sound of Dwight Twilley. The sounds of power pop songs of the 1970's. Summers have tended to lead me to longer, and at times, more psychedelic songs. The music of Traffic and early music by The Steve Miller Band, where you can really hear picks hitting guitar strings and sticks smacking snare drums and the keyboards are a warm as the season itself provide me with such solace. Yes, that music possesses such imagination and endless creativity but am I reaching back as a means of personal tastes within songwriting and production values or is it all out of nostalgia?
What of the content within current popular music as opposed to the past? As I will tell absolutely anyone, it truly takes a lot to actually offend me within the arts. I'm no prude. And yet, why is it that so much of what I am hearing that is indeed flowing through the airwaves, and most certainly the images that are accompanying those songs, feel like nothing more than pornography? Remember, I really came of age during Prince's stratospheric period, when I, at times, felt I had to sneak to listen to due to his often graphic sexual content and four letter words. Yet, his particular purple poetry has remained poetry, filled with imagery and imagination (i.e. CREATIVITY), and what's occurring now just feel like an abusive onslaught of four letter words and nastiness just for the sake of saying the (i.e. NO CREATIVITY). Is this my age talking?
But then again, when I listen to the student station WSUM-FM, the college DJ's have constantly excited me with what they are listening to and therefore, have inspired me to head straight to either I-Tunes or B-Side Records to make purchases and add to my ever expanding collection. Certainly, my acknowledgement and appreciation of this new music belies my age, doesn't it?
Trust me, dear readers and listeners, I am always buying new music! I do feel a need to remain current. Yet...I am often buying new music from long established artists, and in doing so, does that keep me in the past? Is it all rooted to my age? How about my WSPC playlists? I would hate for my mythical radio station to essentially function as an "oldies" station but how much of what I "play" is actually new? Even the music that still sounds far ahead of its time was still made in the past. Am I as forwards thinking as I have felt myself to be?
Even this new 2014-2015 music from Post Social, Modern Mod, Kendrick Lamar, and Tame Impala have all made music that could ONLY have been made right NOW...but even so, all of those artists have included elements that connect them to all that has come before, which does contain some emotional triggers into my responses to all of their music.
Maybe the quandary is bigger than I imagined it to be. But does it all matter anyway if we are all just still listening, being inspired and enriched? If we're still dancing, does age matter at all? If the music still sounds as fresh and blissful as the first time we ever were introduced to it, does the age of the music as well as ourselves matter at all?
Before I head back to the music, this whole experience has reminded me of a little snippet from Writer/Director Lawrence Kasdan's "The Big Chill" (1983), when Jeff Goldblum's character (I think) confronts Kevin Kline's character on the greatness of the music scene since the late 1960's, the period when all of the film's primary characters attended college. Goldblum attests that there has bee much great music to arrive within the previous ten years yet, Kline remains steadfast in his dismissive nature and ultimate devotion to the music that has defined him, and therefore, their generation. It was a moment when I, at age 14, wanted to dive into the movie and defend Goldblum's opinion because there was so much great, innovative music swirling all around but why could Kline just not hear it.
I do not wish to think that I have become that musically rigid Kevin Kline character but what if I have?
How about you? Does your age reflect your tastes? I'd love to know. Phone lines are open...
But whatever you're listening to, remember to always.....PLAY LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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