Music Appreciation as you get older
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Forum Name: General Music Discussions
Forum Description: Discuss and create polls about all types of music
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=46497
Printed Date: August 09 2025 at 04:45
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Topic: Music Appreciation as you get older
Posted By: happythe
Subject: Music Appreciation as you get older
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 10:12
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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? ------------- Stop me from dreaming? Okay :-( |
Replies:
Posted By: happythe
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 10:16
Don't know why appreciation has a capital A  just ignore that.
------------- Stop me from dreaming? Okay :-( |
Posted By: Raff
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 10:31
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. |
Posted By: aapatsos
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 10:48
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Great topic... I believe that as I grow up, I can BETTER appreciate music and also MORE stuff. Now I can here from prog rock and ethnic to extreme black/death metal without any problem. Maybe I am growing musically mature, maybe not...
Agreed in a very high extent with Raff on this. |
Ghost Rider wrote:Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 15:34
| 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. |
Posted By: laplace
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 16:23
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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. ------------- FREEDOM OF SPEECH GO TO HELL |
Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 16:35
Don't really agree with that but well.. |
Posted By: Avantgardehead
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 18:02
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I've definitely changed as time went on. I started out wanting the heaviest and fastest stuff possible, to a more symphonic/melodic direction, then to artsy and weird, and now to pretty and emotional. The biggest change would be the appreciation of songwriting compared to long songs or technicality. I get more from a 3-minute song with beautiful melodies and concise songwriting than I ever can with a 10-minute piece filled with technical solos and other "complicated" parts. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Avantgardian |
Posted By: jammun
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 21:42
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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. Sorry, I've just mentioned Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and Metallica on a prog site. To keep it on track, I find nothing interesting about Dream Theater. Give me 15 years and I'll probably get it.
So for me, my tastes are always changing but I'm always searching.
|
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 21:47
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I'd say it's more of an evolution, rather than age specific-- I loved Birds of Fire when I was in high school but also Killers, and still love both. Now I tend to listen to other stuff but only cause I've already heard much of a given artist, am still a fan but have moved on.. that's the beauty of progressive music |
Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 22:01
This is definitely the case with me as well.
Not so much age, but a progress, a journey of discovering new music, bands, musicians, compositions, experimentations etc. I still listen and love what I've discovered over 20 years ago (classic prog, metal and some others), and some few others, I don't listen to anymore, but those are few.
With time I learn more and not sure if it's an age thing or not, as I discover and fall in love with more music which some of it is in the vein of things I already know and like and some is new and I get to discover and learn its form. It's a great journey, I tell you!
------------- http://hangingsounds.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow - Hanging Sounds http://www.progarchives.com/ProgRockShopping.asp" rel="nofollow - PA Index of prog music vendors |
Posted By: SpaceMonkey
Date Posted: February 23 2008 at 22:02
| ^^ I fully agree here. |
Posted By: zappaholic
Date Posted: February 24 2008 at 12:06
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I agree with everyone who said it's more due to experience than age.
------------- "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken |
Posted By: burritounit
Date Posted: February 24 2008 at 13:12
Good point. I have appreciated music I thought it wasn't any good before. It always happens to me no idea why.
------------- "I've walked on water, run through fire, can't seem to feel it anymore. It was me, waiting for me..." |
Posted By: everyone
Date Posted: February 25 2008 at 00:14
| 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. |
Posted By: darkshade
Date Posted: February 25 2008 at 13:57
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lets see. i'll list my in chronological order my musical tastes over the years. age 12-14 classic rock, hard rock, grunge, some metal, pop punk 14-16 classic rock, classical, thrash metal, black metal, power metal, NWOBHM, death metal 16-17 classic metal, thrash metal, progressive metal, some prog, some jam bands 17-18 prog rock (all kinds), classical (again), avant-guard, psychedelic, freaky stuff, trip-hop, some jazz-fusion 18-19 prog rock, jam bands, jazz-fusion, Frank Zappa, jazz, funk 19-20 (present) jazz, free jazz, bebop, modal, jazz-fusion, funk, prog rock, jam bands, ethnic, world music, electronica, classical (yet again) so i guess by looking at the changes in my musical tastes, i'll have to agree with whoever said it first, that it's more of an evolution more than appreciation. but it is both. i dont, however, listen to much of what i listened to before i was 17 anymore. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/MysticBoogy" rel="nofollow - My Last.fm 
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Posted By: The Quiet One
Date Posted: February 25 2008 at 14:04
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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) |
Posted By: Chicapah
Date Posted: February 25 2008 at 14:14
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Perhaps it was due to the fact that I was a working musician from the age of 16 but to the circle of friends I circulated in back in my youth music was EVERYTHING. Literally and figuratively. So my thinking is that I could never appreciate it more, no matter how ancient I get. It still is a focus of my life so I can say with confidence maybe as much but never more. ------------- "Literature is well enough, as a time-passer, and for the improvement and general elevation and purification of mankind, but it has no practical value" - Mark Twain |
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: February 25 2008 at 14:43
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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. -------------  BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: reality
Date Posted: February 26 2008 at 20:48
| I think as I grow older I am less impressed with the novelty of Prog, and I seem to be seeking out more emotionally satisfying music. I grew up on "serious music" so Prog was a diversion into popular music, that thankfully coalesced with my adolescence . I discovered metal and left with a heart for Iron Maiden and Metallica, that I doubt will disappear completely. Along with a few 70's Prog bands that keep getting frequent spins, mainly because of their authenticity. Now though I think I am returning to my roots (Which I never really left), searching for authentic and emotionally satisfying rather than flash. With saying that, Prog is only about 4% of my current collection, it seems it was cool when I was a teenager but as I get older I want something more. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: February 26 2008 at 21:21
interesting, and well said
or something less  |
Posted By: reality
Date Posted: February 26 2008 at 21:33
May I quote? Interesting and well said yourself. |
Posted By: Proletariat
Date Posted: February 26 2008 at 22:02
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I grew up with Jazz R&B (the classic kind) Soul and the Blues and they still remain at the heart of my listening although I have delved into the more artistic of each.
When I was 10-12 I started getting into Rock Punk and Metal and the most commercial forms of each however over the years my tastes in each have grown tward the more intelligent versions of the music.
at 13 I discovered "Indie" music and fell in love with the crackling and hissing of pop-folk songs recorded onto tape recorders, however the luster soon wore off and I had to delve deeper into the genre and tward the ever more obscure and experimental.
at 14 I discovered the sixties Psyche movement and worked hard finding copies of the 13th Floor Elivators, The Moving Sidewalks and thier kin however I kept feeling disenchanted with the popyer stuff and searched for the more spacy trips in the genre
at 15 I realized that there was a name for the music I had found through all these different genres and that those bands were all lumped as "Prog" so I worked hard to find those Prog classics I had never heard.
now at 16 I am starting to move beyond prog, getting more and more interested in Free Jazz, Industrial, Noise, and the easyer genres Hip-Hop/Rap (the good stuff) Funk, and Electronica/Techno ------------- who hiccuped endlessly trying to giggle but wound up with a sob |
Posted By: SpaceMonkey
Date Posted: March 01 2008 at 07:16
| I've advanced so much in my musical tastes that I get much fulfillment from listening to my hair grow. Very poetic listenings. |
Posted By: superprog
Date Posted: March 02 2008 at 10:51
| the older i get the more nonsense i consume as opposed to being younger n more opinionated. more things sound good or are excusable ahahaha |
Posted By: alanerc
Date Posted: March 03 2008 at 17:19
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Yes, I agree with you You get more experience and reflection more and start to appreciate other types of music as you get older |
Posted By: aurelz
Date Posted: March 03 2008 at 19:54
| Yes, everyone has pretty much summed it up. |