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

Cav said:
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.
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Precisely the attitude I reject with every atom of my being! I await with baited breath your critical appraisal of the musicianship, taste, technical proficiency etc of the likes of Led Zep or Steely Dan V that of One Direction or Justin Bieber...
 
There is music I like and music I don’t.
Simple really.
Getting genre-bound or confined, should not be a problem with internet plus places like this.

I am lucky to have 2 daughters in 20s and their appetite fir things new can cascade to mine.

Never been bette time.
 
Arkless Electronics said:
Precisely the attitude I reject with every atom of my being! I await with baited breath your critical appraisal of the musicianship, taste, technical proficiency etc of the likes of Led Zep or Steely Dan V that of One Direction or Justin Bieber...
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Then you miss the point. I judge music by what I like to listen to and what I do not. Simple.

If you have any objective criteria by which musical value can be judged, I (and the whole world of music) would love to see it.
 
Cav said:
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?
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I think you just know that an artist is of a certain age though?
 
Most of the music that was made 30 odd years ago & is still listened to today has passed through the filter of time. Only the good stuff is remembered; there has been utter shite in every single decade, it mostly gets forgotten. When I look back at the 80s, I think, REM, Smiths, Lloyd Cole, Cure etc whereas my better half probably thinks Wham, Depeche Mode, Human League etc. All of this gets played to this day, not all of it to my taste whereas say, Mel & Kim, Sonia etc generally doesn't. Also, I could lead a very full life without ever hearing Led Zep again
 
Arkless Electronics said:
Precisely the attitude I reject with every atom of my being! I await with baited breath your critical appraisal of the musicianship, taste, technical proficiency etc of the likes of Led Zep or Steely Dan V that of One Direction or Justin Bieber...
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You are pitting the best of one era against the worst of another. I am sure there is some modern music that will stand up to greats of yore. Arctic Monkeys, John Grant, The Streets. I cannot recall a single Bieber OD song though.
 
Woodface said:
You are pitting the best of one era against the worst of another. I am sure there is some modern music that will stand up to greats of yore. Arctic Monkeys, John Grant, The Streets. I cannot recall a single Bieber OD song though.
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Fair enough I guess.... But I'd personally say the best of the 60's and 70's particularly, the golden era of rock you could say, is far better than the best of today... (I know some will not agree and as Cav said it's a matter of taste) they had a certain tabula rasa, beyond blues and jazz, which no doubt helped. I can think of only a few since the likes of The Beatles, The Who, Zep, Carole King, Steely Dan, James Taylor, The Stones, The Jam, Kate Bush, Cream, Jethro Tull, Dylan, Bowie, Kraftwork, Frank Zappa etc etc to match their talent, musicianship and song writing abilities. YMMV in a big way!
 
I used to listen to Radio One all day long. Kid Jensen (can remember to this day him playing the Damned New Rose for the first time on National Radio) Dave Lee Travis played a lot of good stuff like the Dan the Doobies the Eagles etc during the day. And then at 10pm John Peel. It was like some form of religion.

When Mark and Lard left Radio One that sort of ended it for me. Don't think I've listened to Radio One for the best part of 15 years now.

It's all a part of getting old I guess.
 
Arkless Electronics said:
Fair enough I guess.... But I'd personally say the best of the 60's and 70's particularly, the golden era of rock you could say, is far better than the best of today... (I know some will not agree and as Cav said it's a matter of taste) they had a certain tabula rasa, beyond blues and jazz, which no doubt helped. I can think of only a few since the likes of The Beatles, The Who, Zep, Carole King, Steely Dan, James Taylor, The Stones, The Jam, Kate Bush, Cream, Jethro Tull, Dylan, Bowie, Kraftwork, Frank Zappa etc etc to match their talent, musicianship and song writing abilities. YMMV in a big way!
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The thing is, we cannot predict what will stand up in 20 years time. I don't disagree with your hypothesis but is Bieber any worse than, say, the Bay City Rollers? I used to really like rap music in my youth but I lost interest in the Tupac/Biggie era; I just thought they were talking over a backing track rather making new beats. People revere them today, I still don't get it but maybe I'm wrong?
 
I’m very bad at putting CDs back on the shelves, mainly due to the fact I have many, many more CDs than shelf-space. As such there is always a pile of 40 or more stacked up in front of each of the two systems. I’ve just gone through them and unsurprisingly most are jazz, a lot of which fairly recent (ECM, Kamasi Washington, Comet Is Coming etc). There is some classical, but the rock, pop, electronica etc is *all* from the past ten years or so. No ‘70s rock at all. The oldest thing near either system are a few Talk Talk albums as I pulled them out after Mark Hollis died. The rest is stuff like Anderson.Paak, recent Sufjan Stevens, recent Radiohead, Kendrick Lamar, Beach House and a fair amount of electronica etc. The last time I played a ‘70s pop/rock record would almost certainly have been Kraftwerk, Can, Steely Dan or something of that ilk, but I can’t actually remember when it was.

I have a lot of stuff old and new on my iPhone that gets listened to with headphones on public transport, so I’m not saying I’ve entirely gone off classic rock/pop entirely, but I certainly don’t play it much. I guess I know it so I don’t need to!
 
Arkless Electronics said:
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...
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Nice! Someone else who likes these artists. (Check out Caravan Palace and Parov Stelar btw)

Interesting topic. Music is a huge church these days, especially with the advent of the internet and subsequent accessibility to new stuff. I was reminded of this yesterday when ripping a Pet Shop Boys Cd, that still had its card in side where you fill out and post if you want them to post you further details of gigs etc. It didn't have a space where you put your email. How times change.

I think its perfectly ok to not like/like music from any era. Whats more important is to have given yourself chance to listen to stuff before dismissing it. I'm not a Bieber fan, just like my mum wasn't an Ultravox fan in the 80's. Yet, strangely enough, she likes it now.

My main area of go-to is electronica based stuff. Thats not to say I don't like other stuff.

There is still that much 'new' music out there to satisfy any like or genre, that IMO it makes the 'you are wrong/right' argument a bit pointless...
 
I'm definitely ageist. Dylan, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, all my wife's favourites, I can't stand them!
 
I like this tune and the video is worth a look. I have a few Skrillex and Diplo records.

Skrillex and Diplo featuring justin bieber. It is very catchy. Age is a number, taste is abstract.


try and get past the first 1:20 seconds, as up to that point it is dire.

I am interested in folks who actually find it listenable, rather than the majority who will quote this tune as what is wrong with the world...

(note: I found the tune tolerable and worth a listen, certainly not worth shelling out money for, we all have our limits)
 
Arkless Electronics said:
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!
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I think it's always been like this though. My partner's 12 yo asked me about music about 18 months ago... I played some of my favourite tracks for her... but she dismissed them all as 'too old' and went back to her Taylor Swift and One Direction playlist. Then about 6 months ago she sat down next to me and asked if I had any Queen... she had heard Bohemian Rhapsody and decided it was amazing and unlike anything she'd ever listened to. We had a happy few hours listening to Queen and now she has Queen all over her Spotify playlist... since then she has been working her way through my CD and record collection with a bit of guidance from me (she's not ready for Joy Division or Peter Gabriel just yet).... and now her friends are coming round and listening. The converse is I do listen to the music she likes and there is some good stuff in it .... sure some of it is manufactured pop musak, but like any time or genre there is always something good in everything... obviously it depends on your tastes, but I have always found soemthing to like in any genre... as such she has introduced me to Lucy Rose and Kygo... two artists that might well have passed me by otherwise.
 
tiggers said:
I think it's always been like this though. My partner's 12 yo asked me about music about 18 months ago... I played some of my favourite tracks for her... but she dismissed them all as 'too old' and went back to her Taylor Swift and One Direction playlist. Then about 6 months ago she sat down next to me and asked if I had any Queen... she had heard Bohemian Rhapsody and decided it was amazing and unlike anything she'd ever listened to. We had a happy few hours listening to Queen and now she has Queen all over her Spotify playlist... since then she has been working her way through my CD and record collection with a bit of guidance from me (she's not ready for Joy Division or Peter Gabriel just yet).... and now her friends are coming round and listening. The converse is I do listen to the music she likes and there is some good stuff in it .... sure some of it is manufactured pop musak, but like any time or genre there is always something good in everything... obviously it depends on your tastes, but I have always found soemthing to like in any genre... as such she has introduced me to Lucy Rose and Kygo... two artists that might well have passed me by otherwise.
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Very true that. I think 'the kids' need to think they've discovered it for themselves even when the opposite it true. The recent Queen film & contrasting the Hugh Jackman 'greatest show on earth' has lead to some rather bizarre playlist choices between my two.
 
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