At what age do adults stop listening to new music?

I spent my youth listening to old music lamenting that music used to be good and current music was shite.

I still do it but I used to do it too. The difference is now I listen to the music I didn't listen to.

Probably starts around 35 and become irreversible around 45. During that time period, I have maybe found four new bands/artists to listen to. I used to be a total audiophile too. I knew every cool band/recording from jazz to classical to world to pop. But now, getting into a new band is like learning a language based on the Cyrillic alphabet. For some reason the need to hear something new fades. Maybe you have heard so much music that you just get filled up and everything seems derivative. But that would not explain people like my sister who still listen to my mom's Neil Diamond albums from the 1970s and have only branched out to Disney musicals from there.

Great Question.

Sometime after college. When you enter the workforce or when you first have kids. Somewhere in there, you stop getting any gratification out of the new crap being released.

I think that we establish at a young age what is pleasing to our ears, and when there is a generational change in the type of music that classifies as "popular", we just stop being interested.

I'm 45 and listen to new music. My 17 year old daughter's friends find it crazy that I listen to the same stuff they do.

Once I got to the age where non my age peers were, it started to seem less interesting due to not having any one to talk about it with. Or when I first heard Linkin Park maybe

Soundcloud has kept me young. I just keep finding cool stuff through the people i listen to. The wonderful world of remix and massaged montage never gets old.

35 and still listen to new music. It's a lot easier in this day and age.

I listen to Free Bird every day 52 yrs

In my 50's and constantly introducing the women I date, who are mostly in their 20's and early 30's, to new music. The variety and quality available today is mind-blowing compared to the pre-internet age.

When the kids get out of the house and get their own cars.

I'm 83 and most of my 18 year old girlfriends listen to ... pfffft! Even I can't pull off that troll job.

I think I stopped taking in new music around the age 20 when disco died. After that, what would be the point?

I would put the music shut down age at a max of 35, but most people shut down in their late 20's. It's a function of how much mental energy you have, how much you are learning, and how many new experiences you have. They say that music is "the sound track" of your life. Well if your life has settled down and changing very little, then the sound track stops recording new material... no matter what all these aging hipsters say.

Precious Roy wrote:

Probably starts around 35 and become irreversible around 45. During that time period, I have maybe found four new bands/artists to listen to. I used to be a total audiophile too. I knew every cool band/recording from jazz to classical to world to pop. But now, getting into a new band is like learning a language based on the Cyrillic alphabet. For some reason the need to hear something new fades. Maybe you have heard so much music that you just get filled up and everything seems derivative. But that would not explain people like my sister who still listen to my mom's Neil Diamond albums from the 1970s and have only branched out to Disney musicals from there.

I'd say that's about right, maybe even a bit earlier, say 30 or so. But when my kids started playing their music where I could hear it I found several new bands that I really liked and followed to some extent. Then they were both gone and there was no exposure to new music and I've fallen behind again.

I like the comparison to a language using the Cyrillic alphabet. One thing I've noticed is that I have a much harder time understanding lyrics from new bands than I did 30 plus years ago. That could be age wasting my hearing or it could be that I just don't have the interest that I used to and don't pay as close attention as I once did. It is an interesting question.

heavyd84 wrote:

Both of my parents listened to a variety of popular bands when they were young, but they don't listen to new music anymore, just the 80's radio station. When/How did this transition happen?

You have to decide for yourself when you want to give it up. I'm 56 and still go to occasional clubs/festival. And I'm not the only old fart there -- in fact some folks my age are up on the stage. But I prefer the smaller venues.

heavyd84 wrote:Both of my parents listened to a variety of popular bands when they were young, but they don't listen to new music anymore, just the 80's radio station. When/How did this transition happen?

Both your parents are casual music fans. There's nothing wrong with that.

What's interesting though, is I find kids using whatever music source basically using it just like an FM radio. They like their kinds of music and do not stray from that despite a whole world of music out there.

A much smaller group of music fans is still looking for new music regardless of their age. Spotify makes things much easier in this regard. Oddly enough, I find it pretty hard to find experimental classical music.

It is really hard to generalize.

I think for most people their musical tastes stop developing or evolving once they reach their mid-20s.

I still listen to new music. I probably listen to more old music than new music, but I make an effort to seek out younger bands and new music and go to see them. Sometimes those bands style/genre is pretty similar to things I have listened to for a long time but not always.

On a similar note I have a couple of nephews in college, and they don't have high powered stereo systems. They said very few people have loud stereo systems. Is everything done with head phones now?

Late 50s hear and I listen to alt rock, so always getting relatively new sounds. Old stuff is okay, but not my first choice.

DiscoGary wrote:

On a similar note I have a couple of nephews in college, and they don't have high powered stereo systems. They said very few people have loud stereo systems. Is everything done with head phones now?

I don't have direct evidence of this, but I suspect many less people have a "stereo system" the way we would have.

Speakers have gotten so much smaller. In addition, it seems that the vast majority of music is streamed nowadays, so you don't need any kind of deck to play CDs. It just seems that having a couple of small speakers and a phone satisfied most of the need.

Look back at old Billboard top 100 songs, year by year. You'll find a year where you know almost every song.

At my age, I know about 5 out the current 100.