advertisement


Are any of us "ageist" when it comes to liking music?

Devonian

Pursuing my ultimate musical orgasm
Ever since I stumbled across Billie Eilish and her fantastic new album "When we all fall sleep, where do we go?" I've been a fan. I didn't listen to the album and wonder about who or how old she was before making my mind up to like or dislike. Like many of us on here, when I first heard tracks like "Bad Guy", "Bury a Friend" ... or especially her off-the-album single "When I was Older", it demanded my total aural attention. It's not very often that modern "pop music" does that (personally speaking anyway).

So when I read this new review of the album on TwitteringMachines, it got me thinking ... how many of us on here have made a conscious decision not to like, or even maybe not to listen to, the likes of Billie Eilish on the basis of (a) the age of the artist (she's only 18 if you didn't know) and/or (b) how popular he/she/they are with our kids? Come on .. own up!!

https://twitteringmachines.com/album-of-the-week-billie-eillish/

Nick
 
If I’ve ever been ageist it would be pro-young/anti-old. I certainly feel most rock/pop bands debuts are usually their best and very few bands make anything useful beyond about their third album. There are obviously exceptions, but rock/pop is predominantly youth music IMO. Jazz and classical plays by entirely different rules.
 
If I’ve ever been ageist it would be pro-young/anti-old. I certainly feel most rock/pop bands debuts are usually their best and very few bands make anything useful beyond about their third album. There are obviously exceptions, but rock/pop is predominantly youth music IMO. Jazz and classical plays by entirely different rules.
It's interesting ... wonder why age has such a significant influence across the different genres? For pop artists to be at their peak, is it purely about their youthful anger, their relative immaturity or naivety of life, and/or lack of inhibitions, that allow them to ignore boundaries, traditions and sterotypes in order to explore the new and flourish? For Jazz and Classical, perhaps you need to have far more musical maturity and deep-roots understanding of how the genre has developed over the years in order to discover new development paths?
 
Ever since I stumbled across Billie Eilish and her fantastic new album "When we all fall sleep, where do we go?" I've been a fan. I didn't listen to the album and wonder about who or how old she was before making my mind up to like or dislike. Like many of us on here, when I first heard tracks like "Bad Guy", "Bury a Friend" ... or especially her off-the-album single "When I was Older", it demanded my total aural attention. It's not very often that modern "pop music" does that (personally speaking anyway).

So when I read this new review of the album on TwitteringMachines, it got me thinking ... how many of us on here have made a conscious decision not to like, or even maybe not to listen to, the likes of Billie Eilish on the basis of (a) the age of the artist (she's only 18 if you didn't know) and/or (b) how popular he/she/they are with our kids? Come on .. own up!!

https://twitteringmachines.com/album-of-the-week-billie-eillish/

Nick

I really don't like the treated* vocals - the are a turn-off. And I find the vids a bit creepy.

*apply suitable old fogey ageist comment
 
....her viral marketing and PR is doing a very good job for her tho.

But then I though these were great, if not a little odd in their day.

 
I couldn't care less about the age of the artist/s and do like the new Billie Eilish album (also hate the processed vocals though), Christine and the Queens, Lorde and several other (strangely almost all female) current artists...

What does frustrate and annoy though (cue trolls:p) is that every time I point out the reasons why the majority of modern chart pop music is crap I get accused of being too old to "get it".... which I reject completely! I "get" that some "like" it because they fancy the singer, or because they met their current squeeze whilst dancing to it, or they think the artist "looks cool" or whatever. For every Billie Eilish there seems to be 100 artists making production line prefabricated pop pap unfortunately...

A true story... myself and a mate were once smoking in the beer garden of a pub where there was a load of 14 -18 year olds who were there for a wedding reception earlier... they had put loads on the jukebox (outdoor speakers were on) and all total crap such as Justin Bieber and One Direction (they were mainly females). We put some really good stuff on, Led Zep, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd etc and when it finally came on all these yoofs almost as one went "aw whats this old shite... lets go indoors". Now it was obviously infinitely better than the crap they were listening to, (I trust no one wants to claim One Direction to be as good as Led Zep if only we'd been young enough to "get it"?) and they probably didn't even know anything we'd put on, but the mere fact that it had electric guitars and bass, real drums and people singing without Autotune made it sound "old" to them and therefore to be rejected without even a listen! Ageism can work both ways!
 
My son used to call my music choices 'classical', he has been at home revising for A-levels & I have noticed his music choices have moved more towards my taste. The only way I am 'ageist' is with music which is political; I'm afraid young people lecturing on how unfair things are tends to grate. I think Kate Tempest is really talented but the social commentary leaves me cold. BTW, I am not exactly a DM reader but just a pragmatist.
 
A true story... myself and a mate were once smoking in the beer garden of a pub where there was a load of 14 -18 year olds who were there for a wedding reception earlier... they had put loads on the jukebox (outdoor speakers were on) and all total crap such as Justin Bieber and One Direction (they were mainly females). We put some really good stuff on, Led Zep, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd etc and when it finally came on all these yoofs almost as one went "aw whats this old shite... lets go indoors".

I can understand your point if it really was vacuous chart pop, but there is a heck of a lot of rap, R&B, techno etc I’d take well before Led Zep (though I do like Steely Dan and a fair bit of Floyd!)!
 
Surely no one investigates the age of the artist they are about to listen to, nor having heard and liked it, then researches how old said artist is and then dislikes it?
 
I've never been one to research an artist or do any sort of in depth analysis, I've quite often bought music without knowing anything about the artist/band, the same way as I've never been bothered about reading album covers or studying the artwork. In fact quite a lot of my favourite music I wouldn't even know what they looked like never mind how old they were.

If I like the sound of it then that's all that counts, the rest is meaningless.
 
A true story... myself and a mate were once smoking in the beer garden of a pub where there was a load of 14 -18 year olds who were there for a wedding reception earlier... they had put loads on the jukebox (outdoor speakers were on) and all total crap such as Justin Bieber and One Direction (they were mainly females). We put some really good stuff on, Led Zep, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd etc and when it finally came on all these yoofs almost as one went "aw whats this old shite... lets go indoors". Now it was obviously infinitely better than the crap they were listening to, (I trust no one wants to claim One Direction to be as good as Led Zep if only we'd been young enough to "get it"?) and they probably didn't even know anything we'd put on, but the mere fact that it had electric guitars and bass, real drums and people singing without Autotune made it sound "old" to them and therefore to be rejected without even a listen! Ageism can work both ways!
This is not pertinent to the OP but I would say it is entirely to do with the age of the listeners.

You, an old man, thinks modern music is crap (what you mean is you don't like it); young people don't like what you like. That makes neither of you wrong.

What people tend to like in respect of "popular" music depends to a great extent on what you heard broadcast in your youth.
 
I really don't like the treated* vocals - the are a turn-off. And I find the vids a bit creepy.

*apply suitable old fogey ageist comment

guest ... Not liking an artist or a genre isn't necessarily being ageist!

We all think we know what we like or dislike ... but the most wonderful thing about our "hobby" is being open to new influences and surprises, and perhaps having our "mature" preconceptions changed or adjusted. I'm far more tolerant (and interested to-boot!) in modern music than I ever was in my 30's and 40's. The internet has made this all possible ... this wonderful forum included!

Coming back to Big Tabs above, the premise of the thread was purely to garner other peoples perceptions about how age (young and old for sure!) can sometimes get in the way of discovering new music, and being influenced into listening to genres or artists that may otherwise have been firewall'ed from their playlists according to their "usual" tastes.
 
As Tom Lehrer said, "Pop music, or should that be music for children ..."

There are two sorts of music: Art music and rubbish. I have hated pop music since I could remember about aged five.

ATB from George

PS: Would anyone consider Banksi's daubs as great and Leonardo's efforts as old fashioned?
 
As Tom Lehrer said, "Pop music, or should that be music for children ..."

There are two sorts of music: Art music and rubbish. I have hated pop music since I could remember about aged five.

ATB from George

PS: Would anyone consider Banksi's daubs as great and Leonardo's efforts as old fashioned?
I prefer Banksy's music to his art.
 
No, I haven't listened to any Billie Eilish. That's not being ageist, it's me knowing I won't like dark angsty emo-ish music aimed at teenagers, that's all.

The links below show artists similar to Billie Eilish, and as a second example, XXXTentacion, who I chose as he was mentioned by Billie in an article I skimmed through last week. I don't know hardly any of these names, though a couple I googled are similarly young.

https://www.music-map.com/billie+eilish.html

https://www.music-map.com/xxxtentacion.html

What I'm trying to say is I don't know all this music because I'm too old. I'm ok with that.

(That site works pretty well for anyone you can think of, btw.)
 


advertisement


Back
Top