Musical Tastes & The Ageing Process

Paul

• Mary Poppins LP - age 6
  
• AM radio - age 8-15
  
• Punk (Ramones, Plastics, etc.) - age 16-18
  
• New Wave (e.g., Police) - age 19-21
  
• no music at all - age 22-35 (I was into my girlfriend/wife, grad school, and young children)
  
• Exotica, lounge, bachelor pad, samba, etc. - age 36+ (current)
  
• Jazz (Coltrane, Evans, etc.), Torch (London, Krall, ...), and Opera - current
  

Differing from Stephen, I find that I'm enjoying music like never before. It has never been this intense. I am primarily attributing this to a simultaneous discovery of vinyl, LP12s, and Naim.

BTW - my great aunt dated the original Dave Brubeck back in the 50s (yes, she was from Concord, CA). Boy, did she ever blow it ...

Erik

Doris Day (age 2)
Les Paul (age 5)
Lonnie Donegan (7)
The Beatles (10-15)
Led Zep etc (15)
Hawkwind & Pink Fairies (16-18)
Grateful Dead, VU & Neil Young(18-24)
Pistols,New York Dolls, Flamin' Groovies, The Only Ones etc (24-26)
Almost anything since - inc opera, world, blues (especially Eric Bibb), Beethoven, Baroque, Sinatra + revisiting and extending my collection of stuff from all the previous genres - except, so far, Doris Day - que sera, sera! - nearly forgot, this past month I've been playing Rage Against the Machine, Louis Prima, and Rammstein.

Bruce

Pete.

Couple comments; I think a broadening of one's tastes to be quite understandable, especially into genre's and artists one previously might have thought uninteresting. Owning Naim equipment or any fine hi-fi indicates that music plays an important role in one's life and that, hopefully, one is listening to what one hears. I now consider myself a bit of a prospector, listening keenly to music everywhere I hear it, making notes of interesting artists and tunes I've not heard before. One of the habits I've acquired that has helped accelerate the growth of my list is that when I'm in a record store, if they are playing something I like, I immediately go and ask what it is. And write it down. Same if I'm in a restaurant and even recently I did this in a movie theatre.

Another change I've found is that, when I was younger, I was more willing to give music I found abrasive a chance. For example, free-form jazz (like Walter Zuber Armstrong or who's that guy who plays so "outside" and has made so many records? I can't remember his name) but nowadays, I don't have the time or patience. As my collection has grown, so has the quality. And I find myself ready to take stuff off if it isn't doing it for me.

One other thing I've noticed--I'd say about 50% of the listening experience is the mood a listener is in before the music starts. This includes the moods and attitudes of the people around us. And a friend who has a contagious enthusiasm for something they are sharing with us can cause us to become open to something we wouldn't previously considered. This is a source of enrichment.

Markus

PS, Hope you still are listening to Public Enemy. I think they're one of the truly stupendous groups of the last century

A friend who is a music professor at a US university (wind instruments, music theory) tells me he can't listen to classical music at all for enjoyment anymore except when he's at work (he's an excellent classical musician, btw). Like me his interests have moved in a pop (and also jazz, for him) direction.

In one sense the classical tradition is vastly more developed than the popular music tradition is; there is no real composition theory or music theory for popular music, for instance, while music theory is a well-developed science within the classical music tradition (music theory today is a science and not an art, as anyone who has had the misfortune to study it knows). But this increased development also gets subtly linked with conceptions of popular music being "popular" in the sense of being base, common, or immature, in contrast to the "mature" music of the classical tradition. I think this latter linkage, insofar as its held to reflect something intrinsic to pop music, is nonsense.

Age 8 - Kinks, Stones ( first single You really got me, age 8 )

Age 11- Kinks, Stones, Who, Cream, Small Faces

Age 14- Kinks, Stones, Who, Yes, ELP

Age 18- "" "" plus Bowie, Velvets, Grateful Dead, etc. etc.

This continued for the next 27 years.

I am now 45 & still regularly play albums I bought in my early teens. In fact just listened to John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic, bought when I was 13!

I have never understood how people can be into an album & then 10 years later think it was embarrassing dross. If buying the album in the first place was because of fashion, peer pressure or some impulse purchase then I guess I can understand. Just off to spin some Doobie Bros.....

Bob.

As new musical genres comes and go, I am always curious to hear what is new, who is pushing the boundaries. I did all the leading edges of ...

Rock
Punk
New Wave
Reggae
Krautrock
Industrial
New Romantic
Electro
Hip Hop
Disco
House
Techno
Trance
Drum and Bass
Glitch
Post Rock
Ambient
Drone
and Post-Pop

I still buy music in all the above genres, as well as classical, jazz and easy. I think an interest in music leads on many explorations in other areas.

I often find myself watching TOTP or MTV saying Why isn't modern (mainstream) music more diverse and challenging? (Don't get me started on boy bands even). The music business is just that - a business. If a tried cover version sells, do more of it!

Getting older and more diverse in taste..

DS

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When God was at his drawing board, he/she/it designed us so that as we get older our tastes in many areas change.

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The majority of Naim users record collections I have had the opportunity to rifle through thankfully tell a different story. The reason I have stuck around here for so long (I’ve been on this conference for about 4 or 5 years or so) is that the majority of people seem to have a real clue about music that is happening now, not some washed out drek for old people. I have picked up many good albums as a result of this place. The majority of audiophiles seem to have dreadful taste IMHO, but there is an edge to the majority of Naim users collections. Here is a over-long hint as to what lurks within mine:

I started buying records seriously whilst still at school. I didn’t bother with dinner and saved my dinner money so I could buy an album a week from a reasonably local second hand dealer. At about age 11 I was firmly into T.Rex, ‘The Slider’ was the first album I ever bought, and I still have it (along with pretty much everything else T.Rex). I later got into the tripped out stoner rock of Hawkwind, plus early Floyd, Sabbath, and even some dodgy prog rock. Around this time I got my first exposure to Krautrock in the shape of Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’.

Punk hit when I was 13-14, so I obviously became one. I had to hide my copy of ‘Never mind the bollocks’ and ‘God save the queen’ from my mum, as she would have thrown them out if she had found ‘em! I had all the early Pistols singles, plus similar examples of the more mainstream end of punk – Stranglers, Devo, Ramones, Clash, X-ray specs etc.

By the time I was 16 the new-wave stuff was really happening - I was now old enough to regularly get to gigs (though I managed to see T.Rex when I was 13). I saw loads of stuff and was busy amassing a substantial amount of stuff such as Joy Division, Wire, A Certain Ratio, PIL, Fall, Fire Engines, Magazine etc – this period still makes up a large amount of my record collection. One of my slightly older mates was at Manchester poly, so I hung out round there for weeks on end – Factory Club, Band on the Wall, Hacienda etc, plus Eric’s / Brady’s, Warehouse, Zoo etc back in Liverpool. I got into The Stooges, Doors, Velvet Underground etc at this point, along with dub reggae.

In the mid 80s I was playing bass / keyboards in a band and working in a second hand record shop. I was right into the stuff coming out of the States at that time, Minutemen, Firehose, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Pixies etc, plus UK stuff like The Smiths. This is the time period that I discovered more Krautrock in the shape of Can, and I also bought the £1.99 50th Anniversary sampler from Blue Note Records, so I started getting into jazz big time from this point onwards.

In late 80s the dance thing hit. One of my mates bands often supported both The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses, so I kind of got into that scene a bit. Then stuff started getting nice and bleepy, and I left the indie band I was playing with to have an (equally unsuccessful) go myself. I started buying and selling analogue synths to stay out of getting a proper job - it worked for a while. I was also working in a rehearsal / recording studio – the one where Half Man Half Biscuit cut their seminal first album. I was still buying records at an alarming rate… though now in many different genres simultaneously.

By the 90s I was sick of being skint, so I got a “proper” job as a computer geek, and eventually moved down south to be with the majority of geek employers. I got friendly with a couple of club DJs who played at one of the major London clubs, so they helped fuel my ever growing record collection. Additionally I was living within a short cycle ride of Music Video Exchange, Intoxica, and Honest Jon’s record shops. This was no accident. I bought hundreds of records / CDs etc in my 5 year stay down south. I was getting into post rock, drum ‘n’ bass, clicks / cuts etc whilst landing some fabulous original jazz pressings.

I think as one gets older (I’m 38) music needs to be looked for a little more proactively - I don’t go clubbing much at all now, though do still go to a lot of gigs. I’m lucky that in this city some of the people that I grew up playing with are still involved in the peripheries of the music industry, so I get the heads up occasionally as to what’s currently worth a look. I also read a few magazines such as The Wire, Uncut, and occasionally the NME for ideas, and I will often take a punt on something as a result without hearing it first.

Dunno where to next – I still haven’t found a bloody job (anyone want a network manager?), so I have a nasty feeling I may need to move yet again sometime soon… If so it will be somewhere near a second hand record shop, that much I am certain.

Tony.

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I have never understood how people can be into an album & then 10 years later think it was embarrassing dross. If buying the album in the first place was because of fashion, peer pressure or some impulse purchase then I guess I can understand.

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From my experience, I simply get tired/bored of listening to a particular album (or genre in some cases). I find that there is simply too much interesting music that I have yet to discover to remain listening to the same old stuff. I will sometimes put something back on the shelf for 15 or so years. At some point, I may start listening to it again. At present, I am starting to resume listening to a little of my old P-funk stuff. It has easily been 24 years since Bootsy, George, & Co. ruled the/my world...

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Just off to spin some Doobie Bros...

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Right on!

Erik

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Originally posted by Dr. Exotica:

AM radio - age 8-15.... The Archers theme tune?

Exotica,.... ?
lounge,.... Flying Lizzards?
bachelor pad,....?
Torch (London, Krall, ...),.... Tortuous?

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Originally posted by David Slater:

Drum and Bass.... I know this. There are no drums and no bass guitars.
Glitch.... Gary Glitter?
Post Rock.... Rock by mail order?
Ambient.... Piped muzak?
Drone.... Clare Short MP speeches?
and Post-Pop.... As performed by off-duty postmen?

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Originally posted by sceptic:
Here I admit my ignorance, with some guesses

AM radio - age 8-15.... The Archers theme tune?

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Certainly is ignorance. Only reason to listen to Barwick Green on Long Wave is if your FM's bust...

Pete.

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AM radio - age 8-15.... _The Archers theme tune?_

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Exotica,.... _?_

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lounge,.... _Flying Lizzards?_

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bachelor pad,...._?_

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Torch (London, Krall, ...),.... _Tortuous?_

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Erik

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Originally posted by Tony Lonorgan: The majority of audiophiles seem to have dreadful taste IMHO

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It strikes me that the typical "Audiophile" can often be defined as someone who likes hi-fi more than music. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that; whatever floats your particular boat.

But it does set the scene for some rather stunted record collections with rather heavy emphasis on how well the contents were recorded rather than what it actually is...

Pete.

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There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that; whatever floats your particular boat.

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That's what I've thought whenever I read about the music$ to equipment$ ratio HAVING to be at least 3 to 1 or 10 to 1 or whatever. If someone gets their kicks out of listening to tinkly sounds from an audiophile sampler, why not. My personal ratio is quite equipment-heavy at the moment, but that's mainly because I discovered the benefits of decent hifi very late and went on a mad upgrade spree while I could afford it (still single etc.).

I still consider myself to be in it for the music, though, and a side effect of spending ridiculous amounts of money on the hifi has been that I've widened my tastes considerably and that I'm buying about three times as much music now as I did before. Good sound makes it easier to understand what unfamiliar music is about.

Some of your histories are quite amazing - there's something romantic about these musical love stories that begin when you're a wee little boy.

As for changing tastes ... the one good thing age has done for me was to make me stop aspiring to the fretboard antics of the guitar whizz kids that used to be so popular: I started playing when I was 17 and wanted to be Steve Vai for many, many years - all the while ignoring that I had found my own voice on the instrument long ago.

Thomas

Thomas

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or country

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Steve, try 'The Rough Guide to Bluegrass', or the 'O Brother' soundtrack, or anything by Peter Rowan as a first tentative toe in the water.