Study: People stop listening to new music at 33

I don't get "Dubstep", which is a genre that became popular in my 20s. And every new genre after that also failed to interest me. I'd rather hear a new Iron Maiden album in 2012, than a new band with a new style in 2012.  Must be the generation gap.

37 here and still searching out new stuff all the time... well, still searching out stuff that is new to me. half the time it'll turn out to be older music I never heard before. I still like to discover new artists as well though. the cliche of 'music was better back then' is slowly becoming more apparent to me though. I really do think music post 2000 seems very shakey in terms of overall quality compared to 60s through to the 90s. Although every era has its share of complete crap obviously.

Edited by thebeastmustdie - May 01 2015 at 13:24

I'm sure that this is statistically true but that PA would have a much greater percentages of exceptions.  I've heard the hypothesis before that musical taste tends to ossify by one's early 30s.  The study cited has good points on the surface (other interests and a 'maturing' of tastes beyond what is merely popular). 

"I was 'with it' once! And then they changed what 'it' was! And now what I'm 'with' isn't 'it',
and what's 'it' seems weird and scary to me.  IT'LL HAPPEN TO YOU!"
                                                                                                          -- Abe 'Grampa' Simpson

I gotta say here. "Screw the statistics, this statement is a load of rubbish". I DO NOT believe this case at all.

For those who enjoy the 70's Symph Prog of Crimson, Yes, ELP and Genesis, the likes of the so called 'new Prog' of Big Big Train, Transatlantic, Porcupine Tree, Wobbler, Black Bonzo, Corvus Stone et al  is hardly a wide stretch to make.
Perhaps a wider stretch would for those same folks to start enjoying VDGG, Gentle Giant and say Magma as the latter trio are something of an acquired taste that often proves to be a portal to yet more new discoveries a million miles away from Symphonic Prog.
An even wider stretch would be for the first group to start exploring music without looking necessarily for any Prog quotient or angle e.g. Post Punk, Jazz, Classical, Electronica, Ambient, Folk (the list goes on)
Some of the responses to date remind me of those people who state 'I enjoy socialising' but can't remember the last time they attempted to befriend someone they didn't know already. I've long suspected that our enduring friendships and relationships are forged in the first 35 years of our existence (like our tastes?)

You forge your taste at quite a young age so although you may listen to new stuff its more difficult for it to take hold. I take the point about Gentle Giant and VDGG raised above . I never listened to those bands until about 10 -15 years ago (I'm 52) and even now its a bit of struggle. However I know that many here hold these bands in high esteem so I want to appreciate them as well. As regards new music I tend to think there is nothing new under the sun. The heavy weight seventies prog bands were perhaps not that original they just mixed up what was known already and came up with a new musical cocktail. So its begs the question - what is 'new'? I suspect that 'new' means different things to different people!

richardh wrote: You forge your taste at quite a young age so although you may listen to new stuff its more difficult for it to take hold. I take the point about Gentle Giant and VDGG raised above . I never listened to those bands until about 10 -15 years ago (I'm 52) and even now its a bit of struggle. However I know that many here hold these bands in high esteem so I want to appreciate them as well. As regards new music I tend to think there is nothing new under the sun. The heavy weight seventies prog bands were perhaps not that original they just mixed up what was known already and came up with a new musical cocktail. So its begs the question - what is 'new'? I suspect that 'new' means different things to different people!

Toaster Mantis wrote: It would be interesting if they distinguished between "new" as in "current" or as in "unfamiliar".

Fair comment but I think the above is key here

If I understand the article correctly (probably not), all the data was sourced from internet streaming activity so isn't it skewed towards an internet savvy (and possibly more impressionable/fashionable youthful demographic anyway?) How many of those whose listening activity was collected were > 33 years old? For such a conclusion to be credible about when listening habits change over time they would have to collect data from say, age 16 to age 36 i.e. at least 20 years (and there was only a fraction of the music available then for streaming that there is now) If it was an even distribution across a broad age spectrum then the results would certainly be interesting but aren't there potentially millions of people > 33 who don't listen to streamed audio but still seek out unfamiliar music and are NOT included in the data?


Edited by ExittheLemming - May 03 2015 at 08:20

Whatever...

I turned 33 in 1988 after 10 years of being intensely prog crazy.  Artists I have discovered and enjoyed since then in order, more or less - Tori Amos, Angelo Badalamenti, Toni Childs, NIN, Pere Ubu, Sarah McLachlan, Dave Stewart/Barbara Gaskin (though discovered Dave originally with Bruford), Yothu Yindi, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Alanis Moriessette, The Irresponsibles, Robert Wyatt, Nirvana, Stereolab, Pierre Bensusan, Afro Celt Sound System, The High Llamas, Electromagnets.

Got on sort a new burst of discoveries around the time I turned 40 - Steve Roach, Dark Matter, Gunn, The Trey Band, Paul Dunmall,  Les Claypool Frog Brigade, Primus, Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles, Locomotive, Buckethead, Grey Star Morning, David Sylvian, Monade, Europa String Choir, Gitbox, The Muffins, Djam Karet, Praxis, Peter Blegvad, Radiohead, Divination, Explosions In The Sky, Pure Reason Revolution, Eluvium. Mr. Bungle, Maserati, The Pineapple Thief, Parallel Mind, Talisma, No Sound, Gongzilla, The Observatory, Phideaux, The Reasoning, Clara Ponty, Crimson Jazz Trio, Umphrey's McGee, Discipline, Paul Cusick, Knifeworld, Black Mountain, Big Big Train, Bubu, Flood, The Gorishankar, Happy Rhodes, Univers Zero, Mono, John Zorn, The Samuel Jackson Five, Stereokimono, Nadav Remez, The Tea Club, The Thieve's Kitchen, The Staves, Cardiacs.

Starting just last year - Perfect Beings, Dream The Electric Sleep, Anubis, Swans, Pymlico, Electric Orange, Fractile Mirror.

But then I am not most people.