Music Appreciation as you get older

Do you think you appreciate music more as you get older?
It might make sense to say that you appreciate it on a more personal level as you gain life experience and can relate more to the lyrics.
Yet it seems to be teenagers who listen to music most. (Perhaps a prog forum isn't the best place to prove this point, but in general, I mean..)
Or is it just that as you get older you are less satisfied with Greenday's tired riffs and turn to the Mahavishnu Orchestra for something more interesting? (ie. you appreciate music the same amount, but your needs/interests change)

Any thoughts?




Edited by happythe - February 23 2008 at 10:12

I don't know about appreciating it MORE, but I do agree about appreciating it in a different, more mature way. Of course, this is only valid for people who are really into music, and don't only use it as background for their daily activities. My late mother was a big music lover (though not into prog, unfortunately), and her appreciation and understanding of various musical forms, which had always been there, grew and became more refined with age.

As for myself, I know my tastes have matured too, though not in a really dramatic way. I've always been curious and willing to expand my musical horizons, and since I joined PA this curiosity has steadily grown. However, I have never been the kind of person to turn on the radio and listen to just about anything while working or cooking - I've always been rather demanding and particular as regards music, so I suppose I can say there haven't been any really big changes in my appreciation as I grew older.

Just like Ghost Rider and aapatsos said. I think when you get older you much more possibilite to listen more varied stuff and apreciate classical musical, jazz and others. Although some people can already apreaciate jazz and classical but not like when you get older. And to make no discussion perhaps when you're younger you can hear more type of genres but much 'simple' ones to apreciate, easier to apreciate like pop, new wave, grunge, alt, others. Although I like some bands of those genres.

laplace wrote: I don't think age brings a better understanding of much, but you do have the experience with which to compare. I think it's more a case of constantly re-assessing music as your temperament changes.

Don't really agree with that but well..

Hmm, I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, so that should give you an inkling as to my age.  Do I appreciate music more or less, now that I'm approaching greybeard status?  I still appreciate the great stuff.  It's getting harder to find it however.  So much of what is done now is just a rehash of the past.  Maybe I'm spoiled, having grown up listening to the best, or maybe I'm just an old fart.  I try not to be some Frank Sinatra, waiting for that Beatles thing to blow over so we can get back to real music.  But I didn't get into Metallica, for instance, until I was probably 45 years old, way beyond the target demographic.  I hated them when I first heard them, but another 15 years did wonders for my appreciation of that band.

Atavachron wrote: I'd say it's more of an evolution, rather than age specific

I agree with everyone who said it's more due to experience than age.

To me being exposed to a lot of music, no matter your age, helps you enjoy any type of music.  I was exposed to classical, jazz and country music when I was young.  I'd turn on a radio on my bed and listen to rock, funk, and anything that I could hear that was anything but the norm.  Having an open mind helps.  Being older makes you more open minded to new types of music.

chronological order:

0-9 : prog rock, jazz, fusion, classical, few pop.(minded by my parents)

9-11: pop, rap, pop rock, all mainstream music

12-13(now)prog rock, classic rock, few pop, few jazz fusion, few grunge, few alt. music, blues rock, few new wave and very very few metal(I really dislike it)

I must say we hardly listen to CDs anymore; most of the time it is the radio we are listening to. Which means that we mostly listen to classical, jazz and some ethnic music and very few other things. There are a few exceptions to this, especially Monday to Friday between 3 and 5 pm; due to the nature of the program that is running on our standard channel at that time it can virtually be any kind of music; all you know is that it will relate to some kind of "theme", but what thene that is varies from day to day. One day it can be any music that in a way has to do with noses: Songs about the nose, an aria from the opera "The Nose" (yes, there is an opera of that name by Dmitri Shostakovitch, based on the Gogol play of the same name), music from some obscure African tribe that uses nose flutes or whatever other music that has to do with the nose.