How have your musical tastes changed as you've gotten older?

OilCityPickups · September 2023

The first records I remember hearing were my aunt's rock and roll singles ... my uncle was a teddy boy ... and as a toddler Little Richard and Chuck Berry were always somewhere in my life. As a child of 1959 though, my real musical influence decade was the 70s. The singles I bought were pretty much all chart initially ... I loved Slade in my early teens ... and T Rex ... and then dropped by way of 'Pub Rock' into punk. I was voraciously consuming the Stranglers the Clash and the Vibrators ... and already gigging in a punk band ... when by chance I bought Masters of Reality by Sabbath and instantly realised that my 'home turf' was metal. I then swapped to gigging with hard rock and metal bands ... while discovering delta and Chicago blues in my spare time.
To date I've gigged in punk, metal and Rockabilly bands, but as I get older I get heavier in my tastes ... and my home listening includes more nu metal, doom and stoner rock.

How have your musical tastes changed over the years?

Lestratcaster · September 2023

Grew up listening to Oasis (which is why I started playing the guitar in the first place) and the usual indie/Britpop bands with guitar in it. Then it sorta went in punk with bands like Green Day coming in when I started playing powerchords, pop punk band like Blink-182 and Sum 41 etc. As I started playing in bands it got heavier with alot of metalcore bands, drop tuned chuggy stuff. Now I teach the guitar I've had to widen my genres to more styles like funk, soul and blues. I'm definitely more flexible now with tastes as I will listen to pretty much anything (by that I mean everything as I know when people say this they are referring to the stuff in the charts and rnb haha). I even like the classic stuff from the 60's. Roy Orbison, Beatles, etc etc. 80's was a great decade for guitar.

OilCityPickups · September 2023

Lestratcaster said:

Grew up listening to Oasis (which is why I started playing the guitar in the first place) and the usual indie/Britpop bands with guitar in it. Then it sorta went in punk with bands like Green Day coming in when I started playing powerchords, pop punk band like Blink-182 and Sum 41 etc. As I started playing in bands it got heavier with alot of metalcore bands, drop tuned chuggy stuff. Now I teach the guitar I've had to widen my genres to more styles like funk, soul and blues. I'm definitely more flexible now with tastes as I will listen to pretty much anything (by that I mean everything as I know when people say this they are referring to the stuff in the charts and rnb haha). I even like the classic stuff from the 60's. Roy Orbison, Beatles, etc etc. 80's was a great decade for guitar.

I think we also get more 'open' to ideas as we get older. As a teen I thought 'country guitar' was a swearword I thought it was all 'good ole boys and yee ha' ... nowadays I play some odd country licks because they sound great. I listen to Jazz ... especially Django ... because I wish I could do that ... I even own a Gypsy jazz guitar.

Sassafras · September 2023

I've gone right off rock.

theatreanchor · September 2023

Short answer is yes. Massively.

blobb · September 2023

I embraced folk music (stop laughing).

Lestratcaster · September 2023

OilCityPickups said:

Lestratcaster said:

Grew up listening to Oasis (which is why I started playing the guitar in the first place) and the usual indie/Britpop bands with guitar in it. Then it sorta went in punk with bands like Green Day coming in when I started playing powerchords, pop punk band like Blink-182 and Sum 41 etc. As I started playing in bands it got heavier with alot of metalcore bands, drop tuned chuggy stuff. Now I teach the guitar I've had to widen my genres to more styles like funk, soul and blues. I'm definitely more flexible now with tastes as I will listen to pretty much anything (by that I mean everything as I know when people say this they are referring to the stuff in the charts and rnb haha). I even like the classic stuff from the 60's. Roy Orbison, Beatles, etc etc. 80's was a great decade for guitar.

I think we also get more 'open' to ideas as we get older. As a teen I thought 'country guitar' was a swearword I thought it was all 'good ole boys and yee ha' ... nowadays I play some odd country licks because they sound great. I listen to Jazz ... especially Django ... because I wish I could do that ... I even own a Gypsy jazz guitar.

Yes we do. When I was teen it was always rock or indie, not much else. Country would never be on my cd player (showing my age now) growing up. I will certainly give country a go now. Some of that motown stuff is great too.

What's funny is that very few learners I teach now are actually playing rock as the lack of a guitar riff in many of the modern bands shows. But I do notice that the use of chord voicings and stuff can be interchanged between styles. Alot of the r n b ambient clean guitar stuff is 7th jazzy chords. Many pop songs now have inverted chords or triads using very few strings.

stickyfiddle · September 2023

My first memories include my mum playing Help! by the Beatles at home, and various John Denver records on car journeys. I'd call that a decent start.

When I started choosing my own music it was mid-late 90s, so it was all Britpop - I was a massive Oasis fan, and that led to Paul Weller, Led Zeppelin, T Rex and The Beatles, as well as all the usual British bands from the 90s. I recall in 2003 I was obsessed fairly equally with U2 and Radiohead. Then Pink Floyd and all the pretentious British stuff.

Then I discovered Springsteen which led to classic American music since the 50s, Motown, Classic rock, folk etc.

These days I listen to more pop, soul and funk because playing more of that stuff with my band is fantastic fun, and in my more personal downtime I'll often opt for something more alt/country/folk along the lines of Jason Isbell, The National or Bon Iver. American folk in particular is an absolutely gold mine. I still struggle with English folk with its beard and jumpers with warm beer and utterly boring songs.

ICBM · September 2023

No, not really - I still like most or all of the music I did as a kid... although I've added a lot of new stuff as well, and rediscovered some of the things I didn't really like at the time but now do. There's probably quite a lot that I got very into at the time and now don't actively listen to, but every now and then I find something I've forgotten about and remind myself I still like it - there are a few I find I can no longer be bothered with, but it's relatively rare.

I think the biggest step-change was discovering a few years ago that I actually like Steve Vai, despite having hated widdly guitar music for about thirty years... I still don't like most other technical guitar music though, there's something different about Vai. Also finding that I like Steely Dan, but that's probably less of a stretch.

BahHumbug · September 2023

I was into heavy rock, prog and Dire Straits as a teenager, then indie in my late teens. My tastes then covered all of that up until my mid 40s. I’m in my mid 50s now and have lost interest in all genres of rock music, but still enjoy one or two favourite bands. I was always open to classical and jazz as well, and I’ve recently found much more of an interest in instrumental music, mainly modern stuff like Penguin Cafe, Max Richter, etc plus some of the 70s synth stuff like Kraftwerk and Jean-Michel Jarre.
I still play music in a few different genres, including rock, pop, bluegrass, but what I play and what I enjoy listening to are quite different.

Sassafras · September 2023

In the last 20 years or so, I've enjoyed listening to women singers a lot more than the gravelly voiced blokes I used to listen to.

Funkfingers · September 2023

My younger self set arbitrary boundaries between what music was good, cool, hard and what was crap, uncool and a bit limp-wristed.

Later in life, artistes I liked and/or respected might drop names of their influences in magazine interviews. Who is this Robert Johnson? How can Stravinsky influence Rock music? Should I give a damn about any trumpet playin' band? It ain't what I call Rock and Roll.

As I have delved into the more esoteric music styles, fragments of them turn up in my compositions and playing. At the same time, I have never lost touch with the crudity and directness of, for example, The Ramones or early Magazine.

John McGeoch never fails to hold my interest.

SPECTRUM001 · September 2023

I don’t think my taste has particularly changed, although I occasionally add contemporary new music (eg Wet Leg, Dry Cleaning, Baxter Dury).

So still a lot of Bacharach, Simon & Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, Beatles, Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Bowie, 10cc, Supertramp, Hendrix, Stranglers, Pistols, Adverts, PiL, Devo, The Cure, New Order, Smiths, Cocteaus, Augustus Pablo, Prince Far-I, Sonic Youth, Ween, Warm Jets, The Drink, Interpol…

I just don’t seem to tire of music I’ve been keen on all my life.

Although a couple of curiosities - I rarely listen to Joy Division or the Velvets anymore (I never thought that would happen) and I recently discovered Rory Gallagher (through tFB !!) - having a major bond with his studio output.

Stevepage · September 2023

Grew up trying to be the ultimate metal head and listened to nothing but metal. Once I got into college and forced myself to listen to all types of music I found a love for classical, jazz and blues. I’d listen to SRV, Albert Collins, Charlie Hunter, Mozart and modern composers like Danny Elfman, John Williams, Howard Shore etc.

i realised being ignorant and shutting off new things because it wasn’t ‘metal’ was incredibly immature and held me back from maturing on a personal level.

Jimbro66 · September 2023

I've always had very wide musical tastes. The only thing really that has changed is I no longer find much chart music of any interest. Maybe if I was in a covers band I might need to take an interest in the charts but thankfully I'm not.

Danny1969 · September 2023

My tastes have changed a lot in as much as it's got a lot broader as I've got older. I enjoy indie, rap, country and pure pop as well as still liking a lot of older rock stuff.
I've got a lot of friends who only listen to old music. They never seek out new stuff and I don't understand that. I love it when I stumble on an artist or band I've not heard before. Sometimes it's stuff I've heard from a film or TV, sometimes it's from YT or the radio and sometimes it's live at an open mic night.

There are what I consider the gold standard faves. The beatles, Pink Floyd, Kings of Leon which I am always happy to listen to as well but I need new stuff as well.

ICBM · September 2023

Jimbro66 said:

I've always had very wide musical tastes. The only thing really that has changed is I no longer find much chart music of any interest. Maybe if I was in a covers band I might need to take an interest in the charts but thankfully I'm not.

I've always liked mainstream pop music - I still get every NOW That's What I Call Music! album... I started buying them when my kids were young and listening to new music, and it was a good way of getting everything they liked, then I started collecting older ones out of nostalgia, and now I've got literally the whole lot. (Currently up to 115.)

The problem I have with a lot of the recent chart music is not that it's no good - a lot of it is actually pretty decent - it's that I can no longer easily remember who a lot of it is by, even when I like the songs. I suspect that it is because quite a bit of it sounds very similar, but I'm sure my parents' generation said that about the music I liked as a teenager too...

swiller · September 2023

if anything its expanded the appreciation of what i liked decades ago. So no.

Sporky · September 2023

I started off indie, went shoegaze, now mostly electronica, post hardcore, and modern metal.

I've said it before, probably a lot of times;all music has a shelf life for me. Each track seems to have a certain number if plays in it before it's uninteresting, so I keep looking for new.

CoffeeAndTV · September 2023

Thankfully, I am much less of a jazz snob than I used to be. In the past ten years I’ve broadened my tastes and can listen to the Wu-Tang Clan and really enjoy it.

I think an interesting part of getting older is hearing the music I liked as a kid but with older ears and appreciate it on a whole new level.

rlw · September 2023

I don't think my musical tastes have changed at all but there's an awful lot more stuff I don't like than stuff that I do.

Winny_Pooh · September 2023

I'm 42

Grew up with classic rock 70's/80's pop and grunge.

Teens: as above plus Debussy, guitar shredders, NIN and Jamiroquai

20's Malian Music, YYYs Hives White Stripes etc plus Tori Amos and a slew of women singer songwriters. Nick Cave, Tom Waits etc

30's: neo folk, Joanna Newsom, Cubans, QOTSA

Now: more open to electronic stuff like Fever Ray and much more Jazz than before.

I also presently play my gypsy jazz guitar more than my electrics

munckee · September 2023

There was lots of stuff I thought was old man music as a kid, dire straits, Clapton, Springsteen which I listen to a lot now. I still like most of what I already have but keep adding. Missus munckee is into country and I’ve got into a fair bit of that.

I was 16 in 1990 so my formative years were grunge and indie and that will always be home for me.

viz · September 2023

The music I listened to in my teens was pretty current, but during my twenties, I probably listened to slightly older stuff, probably stuff that was 10 years old or so.

After we got married, in my 30s, my main taste was music created 20-years or so before. During my mid 40’s I enjoyed the music of the eighties. Nowadays I’m mainly listening to 40-year old stuff.

beed84 · September 2023

When I discovered rock music in my teens, I thought anything without a guitar solo was garbage. These days I find myself listening to more and more pop music, mostly because I enjoy the melodies and find it easier to listen to overall. Pink, Jessie Ware, Kelly Clarkson, Dua Lipa and Camila Cabello are my current favourites.

Kilgore · September 2023

At 16, I was really into Van Halen. At 56, I'm really into Lightnin' Hopkins. So yes my tastes have changed.

I still like most of the music I was into when younger, I just don't listen to it very often.

TTBZ · September 2023

Until recently (34) I was pretty much just listening to the same stuff as I have been for years - grunge, stoner, metal etc. Started getting a bit bored of everything sounding the same, so weirdly for me I've been listening to a lot of britpop/UK 90s alternative rock which I previously couldn't stand. Loads of good stuff that I've ignored in the past. I've got over the fact that it's not full of the big riffs I traditionally listen to and just enjoying good songs. Was even listening to Paul Weller yesterday. I must be getting old.

HarrySeven · September 2023

My formative years were very much Punk/New Wave/Indie/Goth/Blahblahblah - late ‘70’s/early-mid ‘80’s, etc.

Have my tastes changed? No, not really…always been eclectic, but equally always had strong opinions on what I like/don’t like.

One constant is that I’ve always been more interested in the *sound* of things, rather than how technically accomplished a player is, so speed/technical skill, etc (and certainly hackneyed old Blues wank) has never been a benchmark.

icu81b4 · September 2023

In my teenage years I was more into American blues rock (Allman brothers) and Ry Cooder, but have added Prog rock in the last few years, (It Bites and *Frost)

my pop band has always been The Eagles.

EricTheWeary · September 2023

I’ve definitely had phases although some more long lived than others and they’ve overlapped.

When I met MrsTheWeary she had just moved back to the U.K. from Arkansas so I even had a 90s New Country phase. I get bored with stuff and look for music that’s new to me although that’s as likely to be something from 1953 than 2023. But then rediscovering something I haven’t heard for ages can be great. So this week it’s mostly been a selection of Argentinian ska and Rory Gallagher.

Bellycaster · September 2023

Yes, but I still like the delve into the stuff I played to death when I was 17. I used to dismiss a lot of music in the past and have since realised how good it really was.

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How have your musical tastes changed as you've gotten older?

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