Can younger people appreciate music better than people of an advanced age?

Youngest Son: Grampa, what did you listen to at my age?
Grampa - I was raised on Glen Miller, now that band really knew how to swing.
Youngest Son - So what do you listen to now?
Granpa - Music died with Glen Miller boy. I listen to Glen Miller, maybe Bennie Goodman.
Youngest Son - Hey dad? what do you listen to now?
Dad - I listened to Led Zeppelin . Boy that band really knew how to rock.
Youngest Son - So what do you listen to now?
Dad - well Led Zeppelin, of course.
Yougnest Son - Hey Grampa wanna know what I listen to?
Grampa - No boy, I don't.
Youngest Son - hey dad do you wanna know what I listen to ?
Dad - Ah, It all sounds the same, and I don't have time to listen to new stuff anyway.

Give me figures. Follow the money.
Is any more or less music, or the variety of music, being purchased by youth today than older folks (even as iTunes)?
Is any more or less live music, being seen today by youth, compared to older folks?
To answer the question, follow the money(sadly).
The wording of the bold part seems a bit confusing to me. Are you asking if there's a difference in whether more or less music is being purchased and seen live by either age group?
 
The wording of the bold part seems a bit confusing to me. Are you asking if there's a difference in whether more or less music is being purchased and seen live by either age group?

To be blunt, more live shows are still being seen by 'older folks' by the OP's definition.
More music, and moreso more diverse music, being purchased by older folks. I mean how many Maroon 5 or Gaga fans are into 'world music' of any kind? Or jazz?

I agree with assessments above (say like Bo's) that older folks have seen it all before, because they have lived longer. I agree with 8mile too, there is a lot of new great music coming out. Like movies, some of it is re-tread, some not. Simply put though, the 'older folks' have less time for it, they are living lives and making livings. As a teen I was at the record shop every damn Saturday, often more, but as a worker/parent etc. who has time for that.....and what is a record shop anyway, lol?
 
Young people, and musicians, can appreciate music far better than anyone else, age notwithstanding, for reasons too obvious to need to go into.

Unless you yourself become a full-time professional musician, you'll find that, over time, you won't appreciate music to the extent that you do today. You won't be able to, I'm afraid real life will see to that. Anyway that's always been my observation.
 
Dumb topic, but this is something I sometimes think about and wonder why. I've noticed the older crowd (40+) almost always passes off any new(er) music as crap. I'm not talking about the stuff you hear on top 40 pop radio stations, because I do think most pop music sounds the same and has no creativity or originality. There is the odd gem that actually is a pretty good song, but it's rare.

I'm talking more about bands that are original, and produce quality stuff.

It seems they dismiss anything with a moderate amount of guitar distortion and even a semi aggressive/upbeat theme, odd time signature as a load of modern garbage with no musicality.

On the flip side, I've noticed a lot of young people can appreciate the old and the new. My musical taste has a huge range that spans from the 40s - present day. Most all of my friends are the same way. It just seems younger people have more of a capacity to look objectively at a song and decide whether it's good or not.

In any given day I could be listening to Zeppelin, Mudvayne, Talib Kweli, NWA, Billy Idol, Jimmy Buffet, Wu Tang, Toby Kieth, Skrillex, Bassnectar, Heart, Macklemore, Hendrix, CCR, Linkin Park, Luke Bryan, Sinatra, Andrews Sisters Porcupine Tree, etc... I like it all. Big band, all forms of rock, some country, electronic, classic songs...it's all good.

I guess there's no real point to this thread, but it really irks me and I wanted to put it out there for discussion.

I would like to apologize in advance for what I'm about to say

You can't say that the majority of modern pop sounds the same, but then turn around and say that you enjoy listening to Skrillex.

That's like saying that all country songs sound the same, and following that up by saying that the Ramones is your favorite band.

Essentially, you're the spoon, calling the kettle black on behalf of the pot.
 
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When I was 16, my favorite song on Moving Pictures was Tom Sawyer, now it is Vital Signs.

When I was 16, my favorite Zeppelin album was No. 4, now it is No. 3.

When I was 16, I didn't like Poison, and today, I still don't like Poison. Hahahaha! Booo-ya!
 
I would like to apologize in advance for what I'm about to say

You can't say that the majority of modern pop sounds the same, but then turn around and say that you enjoy listening to Skrillex.

That's like saying that all country songs sound the same, and following that up by saying that the Ramones is your favorite band.

Essentially, you're the spoon, calling the kettle black on behalf of the pot.
No need to apologize. I welcome all opinions even if they can be construed as a mild insult or harsh.

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at though. I enjoy listening to Skrillex from time to time more than I would if I wasn't a drummer, because it is fun to play to, and it's fun to try and mimic some of the layered beats and rhythms.

Obviously songs from the same genre will sound 'the same' but I think pop music does more so than other genres, besides maybe death metal (I'm not into it at all but I do respect the genre for it's skill).

I'm not sure how the two are related, and how it makes me hypocritical, but maybe I missed the point you are making.

Maybe you mean, how can I say pop all sounds the same if I don't like it nor actively listen to it all the time?


Also, to others who have implied it, I'm not saying that people should focus all their energy on music to the extent of neglecting more important priorities in their lives.
 
Young people, and musicians, can appreciate music far better than anyone else, age notwithstanding, for reasons too obvious to need to go into.

Captain Obvious here - I'm guessing you mean that when you're young everything is fresh and new and an exciting journey of discovery. I think that feeling imbues young musicians with a certain exciting and excited quality that us oldies can't replicate.

But then again, age brings greater control and breadth of experience, so we do pick up something on the roundabouts that we lost on the swings.

Before music became free they say that most sales were to young people (often with their parents' money). Music is so much more important socially when you're young. As a rule (and rules can be broken) you don't see many non-muso older people obsessing about music the way young people do.

Often young people use music taste to define who they are within social groups (dare I say "cliques" :). When our tastes change as we age, it's often that we discard the music we embraced more for social than sonic reasons.

As for the older generation being closed minded to new music, that HAS to happen. New generations of youth seek to define and express themselves via music, and they want music that relates to them NOW, not what was relevant to teens 30 years ago. So it's important to them to depart from the old ways, which of course means the music feels almost purpose built to irritate those of their parents' generation.

Rest assured, afd100, no matter how hard you try you will find the music of your children's generation:

1) a steal of something you heard 10-40 years ago

2) lack the musical attributes that you valued at their age

3) having sonic qualities that you will consider harsh and insensitive.

That story's been played out for a lot longer than I've been alive. Your kids' generation will then tell you that your generation is closed minded ...
 
No need to apologize. I welcome all opinions even if they can be construed as a mild insult or harsh.

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at though. I enjoy listening to Skrillex from time to time more than I would if I wasn't a drummer, because it is fun to play to, and it's fun to try and mimic some of the layered beats and rhythms.

Obviously songs from the same genre will sound 'the same' but I think pop music does more so than other genres, besides maybe death metal (I'm not into it at all but I do respect the genre for it's skill).

I'm not sure how the two are related, and how it makes me hypocritical, but maybe I missed the point you are making.

Maybe you mean, how can I say pop all sounds the same if I don't like it nor actively listen to it all the time?


Also, to others who have implied it, I'm not saying that people should focus all their energy on music to the extent of neglecting more important priorities in their lives.

What I'm getting at is that, to me, Skrillex songs all sound the same (more so than most music, with the exception of metalcore/death metal, so we can agree on that), and pretty much all Dubstep sounds the same to me, and lacks real talent and creativity. I just didn't really word it well, as I was in an awful mood. I do think it could be a blast to play to, though.

I related that to the Ramones, because they pretty much made a career of playing the same chord progression in different keys, and calling each one a different song.

It just doesn't seem right to me to say that songs of one genre all sound the same when you listen to the type of music that, to me, is within the top 5 of the 'all songs sound the same' list.

This, of course, is all just based off of personal preference and opinion
 
Captain Obvious here - I'm guessing you mean that when you're young everything is fresh and new and an exciting journey of discovery. I think that feeling imbues young musicians with a certain exciting and excited quality that us oldies can't replicate.

Hell, I don't know, Polly. I guess.

When I was playing professionally, we were always paying attention to what was on the top 40 because it was very likely that this was material that it would behoove us to familiarize ourselves with.

Not like that anymore? Probably not.

To be honest with you, I don't know why I bother to post here anymore. I'm from a whole other generation of working musicians, my time is over.

But I do like this place.
 
What I'm getting at is that, to me, Skrillex songs all sound the same (more so than most music, with the exception of metalcore/death metal, so we can agree on that), and pretty much all Dubstep sounds the same to me, and lacks real talent and creativity. I just didn't really word it well, as I was in an awful mood. I do think it could be a blast to play to, though.
I think dubstep is a different kind of talent, because in order to produce 'quality' music, one has to be pretty apt at using different computer programs.


I related that to the Ramones, because they pretty much made a career of playing the same chord progression in different keys, and calling each one a different song.
Makes sense now, I hardly ever listen to the Ramones if ever.


It just doesn't seem right to me to say that songs of one genre all sound the same when you listen to the type of music that, to me, is within the top 5 of the 'all songs sound the same' list.
Fair enough, but keep in mind that just because I've listed a particular band/artist, doesn't mean I own or have heard their entire discography, it just means they at least have a couple songs I think are pretty good, even if they are very similar. I just listed the first several artists that came to mind.

This, of course, is all just based off of personal preference and opinion
True, this whole topic is mostly opinion.
 
To be honest with you, I don't know why I bother to post here anymore. I'm from a whole other generation of working musicians, my time is over.

But I do like this place.

Jay if you leave us then you'll never own your own airport. I have been meaning to start a thread for the older guys that gigged for a living. I'm trying to crack this tough rock called Jazz with particular interest in the big band and swing stuff. Who else do we have here besides you and Zikos?

Oh crap... I can't Saturn another thread. um... uh...

Radiohead sucks!!

Whew! ...smooth Red, smooth
 
To be honest with you, I don't know why I bother to post here anymore. I'm from a whole other generation of working musicians, my time is over.

But I do like this place.

Not like you're the oldest person here, or the only one who's feeling over the hill.

Keep posting!!!!!

Besides, who else is going to talk about owning an airport?
 
Some really good replies to this thread, I have to say. Of course youngsters believe what they have discovered / created is new. Newness has a special kind of property - I suspect somehow imbued in all of us as a result of biology.

What an older person can do is organically (ie. not in Music classes or some such) discover the truth that the thing they discovered as new back in the days when girls didn't care how much you earned, actually bares the footprint of a much older work. This is a great thing in the sense that it can lead you on a fantastic journey of discovery (& it needn't be confined to music BTW: good music can lead the listener to film, literature of all kind, even architecture), but it can also be somewhat humbling.

It wasn't too difficult for me to realise that my boyhood drum hero Rat Scabies had got much of his stuff from Keith Moon, hence The Who gave rise to The Damned.

What all this experience & knowledge has done is increased my admiration for artists that seemed to make a quantum leap. Killing Joke changed my life when I was about 13, but trying to locate the "source" has been a fantastic journey for nearly 30 years now.

Back to the opening thread for a moment... afd100 wrote "It seems they dismiss anything with a moderate amount of guitar distortion and even a semi aggressive/upbeat theme, odd time signature as a load of modern garbage with no musicality. " I can't help but wonder why you think distorted guitar or odd times is new or modern. The Who's demo tapes were sent back from NYC because they had distortion on there & the record company thought it was faulty.... but that was 40+ years ago! Odd time signatures were thoroughly explored in the 1970s, so there's nothing new there either.

What I will allege is there is real danger in the grand social experiment on youth by virtue of computer games / phones / twitter & all that. No-one knows what impact it will have on development of the mind & society. It seems possible that a generation of people with even shorter attention spans can only take us in the wrong direction. I work with kids all the time - believe me, it's a concern.
 
I am much below 40 and I do feel that younger people are more accepting maybe not appreciative. I find my age group listens to a lot more different styles etc... or at least my friends do than older people. They also often don't buy the album and listen through it a billion times though. I feel if I really appreciate an artist I generally need to listen and get into to there music but that is my perspective. Older people seem to often do this step much better but not be open to new music. I have played in 2 really heavy bands in the past an went to the shows all the time when I was not and the amount of just blatant ignorance and or hatred from older people was annoying. Now playing in a cover band that plays mostly classic rock /some oldies older people love it generally but they once again show they are not accepting by saying this is when music was good, and I am glad you young guys don't play that new crap. This is not a 100 percent because I have seen the opposite in both cases but this is my general observation.
 
Jay if you leave us then you'll never own your own airport. I have been meaning to start a thread for the older guys that gigged for a living. I'm trying to crack this tough rock called Jazz with particular interest in the big band and swing stuff.

Whoa, now, hold on. That was well before my time. I only turned 60 a couple of weeks ago.

My mother, now she liked new stuff, new for the time, that is, the Beatles and such. My dad, the only music I ever saw him like was a Kris Kristofferson album.
 
Going down that route........music has never been the same since the era of cavemen and natives playing tribal drums

Are you equating "natives" playing tribal drums with cavemen?
 
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