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Tobin S.

(10,418 posts)
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 01:05 AM Jun 2016

Why do you think most people mainly like the music they grew up with?

My wife says it's a nostalgia thing. It brings back good memories for her. By the same token, she says, some of those songs bring back memories that she'd like to forget as well. But for the most part, she enjoys listening to music made before 1990. She is 45.

I like some of the stuff I listened to when I was growing up and I am totally down with the early innovators of rock-n-roll. I'll listen to that stuff if there's nothing else on. But when I have a choice of a wide range of music, I will listen to new stuff. I'm talking about music made by people who are half my age. I'm 43. I really dig what some of the younger people are doing in the metal scene now days and I also like new alternative rock.

However, I think I am in a small minority when it comes to music. It seems like most people prefer the stuff they grew up with. My wife's parents grew up in the 50s and the 60s. They have satellite radio and access to at least 80 music channels, but they only listen to the 50s and the 60s music channels. I think that is far more common when it comes to peoples' taste in music.

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Why do you think most people mainly like the music they grew up with? (Original Post) Tobin S. Jun 2016 OP
Conditioning. kentauros Jun 2016 #1
One of my wife's cousins has two one hour radio shows on the local college station. Tobin S. Jun 2016 #2
Is that five hours *every* day? kentauros Jun 2016 #3
Yep, every day. Tobin S. Jun 2016 #4
I had to work my way up to being on a mic, too. kentauros Jun 2016 #5
Weltschmerz... malthaussen Jun 2016 #6
I agree with your wife. RebelOne Jun 2016 #7
I even like music my parents listened to. Laffy Kat Jun 2016 #8
Modern commercial radio stations are garbage. GOLGO 13 Jun 2016 #9
Being exposed to what you dont know can be hard. astral Jun 2016 #10
Listening to non English music is a good way to learn the language. Initech Jun 2016 #12
My dad does the same thing. Initech Jun 2016 #11
Interesting. I hate the music I grew up with (80s). Avalux Jun 2016 #13
My family Jamaal510 Jun 2016 #14
the last time they smoked pot. ghostsinthemachine Jun 2016 #15
Al Bundy syndrome Kali Jun 2016 #16

kentauros

(29,414 posts)
1. Conditioning.
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 01:25 AM
Jun 2016

While I did grow up with some of the commercial rock of the 1970s, I managed to discover public radio while I was still in high school (and band.) That changed my music tastes drastically, as it opened me up to so much more than would ever get played on corporate stations.

I know people my age who don't listen to even a tenth of what I like, and have very narrowly defined tastes, perfectly matching corporate radio (even satellite and subscription services.) They simply do not go along the channels listening to everything there is. Now, I do skip the channels that are truly nothing more than commercial radio on satellite, but you can tell easily from the descriptions. But, there are no avant garde or experimental music channels, no channels for polka, no ragtime, there may be one for opera, but am not sure of that, no channels for old school industrial, and so on. In other words, no channels even close to what's on public stations late-night, weekends, and on college/university stations.

I will admit I was conditioned to liking oddball stuff, and some of it is truly brilliant (such as Negativland.) Yet, even as I love movies from all eras, I just cannot stand the popular music of the 1930s, that happy bubbly muted-trumpet sound used so prevalently in those movies. I just have to ignore it and concentrate on the story and acting

Tobin S.

(10,418 posts)
2. One of my wife's cousins has two one hour radio shows on the local college station.
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 01:34 AM
Jun 2016

He plays a wide variety of music from classical to metal to fusion. He's even played a few of my suggestions. The main thing about his shows is that you will hear nothing that you can find on the local commercial stations. I think that's a great alternative.

The bad thing about that station is that they fill about five hours a day with bluegrass programming. There's nothing wrong with bluegrass, but five hours a day? I'm not sure what the deal is with that.

kentauros

(29,414 posts)
3. Is that five hours *every* day?
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 01:48 AM
Jun 2016

Maybe they bill themselves as a folk station. That usually only applies to daytime programming. Once the hours get past 10pm, formats often open up to the freeform stuff.

Having a radio show is great fun! I had one for a few years on the local Pacifica station (KPFT) and even played a half-hour of radio theater. My show was excruciatingly early (or late) from 3-6 ayem, Saturday night / Sunday morning. It was the perfect time to go crazy, literally

See if you can sit in on a show with your cousin and get a feel for it. If your work doesn't allow for it, I have seen DJs record shows and hand them over to a producer to play at the appointed hour. You can't take requests, but if there's a producer there, then they can always make a record of the requests for airplay the next week. Maybe something to consider if you enjoy it

Tobin S.

(10,418 posts)
4. Yep, every day.
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 01:57 AM
Jun 2016

I have been invited to be on a eclectic talk and music show on that station, but I suffer from mic fright. Maybe I'll try my hand at it at some point.

kentauros

(29,414 posts)
5. I had to work my way up to being on a mic, too.
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 02:04 AM
Jun 2016

It started simply by calling in and being on the air over the phone. Then it just sounds like you're talking to the people in the studio.

After that, you hang out at the show and just watch, unless the host wants you to say something. Once you do that a few times, it gets so much easier.

However, like anything, if you stop doing it for a while, that anxiousness comes back. I just have to remember that I'm really only talking to the person on the other end of the phone, or the person in front of me if I'm in the studio. Sure, that big mic in in your face, but other than being aware of where the front of your mouth is aimed, just think of it as a conversation with the host

malthaussen

(17,065 posts)
6. Weltschmerz...
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 12:14 PM
Jun 2016

... not so much nostalgia, as a longing for what never was. However, that is too facile. I think we have to factor in familiarity and exposure. Growing up, we have more time to listen to music than we do as adults, so whatever we were listening to then, has the comfort of familiarity.

Personally, when it comes to pop music, I like what I heard on Top 40 growing up and in my younger adult days, but after 1980 I became more knowledgeable about jazz and classical music, so my tastes have expanded. The latter joys were acquired by study, the former because I was soaked in it everywhere. Even in the realm of rock, though, I have picked up a lot of appreciation for stuff that wasn't particularly on the Top-40 radar ("He never got it off on all that Revolution stuff, what a drag.&quot . Unless one consciously studies to expand his horizons, though, I'd think he stays with what he first knew.

After Top 40 died, I believe MTV filled the gap for awhile, but I frankly don't know what the major musical influence is now. Where do all these blockbuster videos get shown?

-- Mal

Laffy Kat

(16,354 posts)
8. I even like music my parents listened to.
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 10:53 PM
Jun 2016

And I exposed my kids to that and they like it too. Perhaps listening to music during a certain age sort of imprints you.

GOLGO 13

(1,681 posts)
9. Modern commercial radio stations are garbage.
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 09:58 AM
Jun 2016

Finding "new" good music to listen too take more effort than it should, but here we are.

 

astral

(2,531 posts)
10. Being exposed to what you dont know can be hard.
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 09:57 AM
Jun 2016

The choices we can find online are amazing. I got sooo tired of all the music I knew but didnt know how to type in a search for : Just Find Something I Like That I Never Heard Before....
Ways I have discovered new stuff:
--Slacker and Pandora who create stations based on a song or an artist you do like; look at related artists or 'people who like that also like this.'
--Internet radio stations like the now defunct Live 365. I find good stations but not always will they list What's Playing! we have lost alt of what we didn't know we had recently with the change in the royalty laws. Not saying people shouldnt pay more for choice in music, it just didn't happen so that music went bye bye.
--when hearing something new and good I try to make a note of the song or artist so I can work on some new playlists / stations later.
--I have found I love exploring stations in languages I don't know. I have heard some amazing folk-pop fusion type stuff in Greek (yeah, try writing THAT down for future reference!), and a '70s' genre in a German station, which also had some great songs in English I hadn't heard before.
--FM radio where I live is too limited and boring and I don't even go there for music anymore.
--i pay for a few stations that give commercial free, or limited commercial to subscribers.
--I have been pleasantly surprised to find I really like some of the younger generation artists' work.
--I love when interesting vocalists redo old songs, and wish more of them would.

edit to add: click on the fantabulous links to good songs that get posted here on DU! only limited by how much youtube data I want to blow in any given month...

Initech

(99,910 posts)
12. Listening to non English music is a good way to learn the language.
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 12:30 PM
Jun 2016

Of course here on the West Coast we don't get a lot of Eastern European and Mediterranean stuff here. Ours is more Asian and Indian influence. K-Pop, J-Pop, J-Rock and K-Rock all have some really great stuff, and surprisingly I've heard some pretty good Bollywood rock songs.

I still do that old fashioned thing of buying CDs and albums off iTunes because I believe in supporting music I like, so I don't do streaming services.

Initech

(99,910 posts)
11. My dad does the same thing.
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 12:26 PM
Jun 2016

He never ventures beyond the 70's station. I have a wide variety of stuff from pretty much every decade but the majority of my music collection is from the last few years. And every time I try to play new stuff my dad's like "eh, this is good" but then he'll go back to the 60's station where they play Secret Agent Man, Baby Love, and I Will Survive for the 100,000,000th time. Thank god for MP3 players and headphones.

Avalux

(35,015 posts)
13. Interesting. I hate the music I grew up with (80s).
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 12:58 PM
Jun 2016

Except for a few bands - mostly stuff that didn't get airplay. I have a few bands from the 90s that I love too.

Mostly though, I really like to discover new music. There isn't anything better than finding something new that appeals to me and gets better after repeated listenings. Especially the ENTIRE album. I mostly listen to music these days instead of watching TV. My daughters have helped keep me up to date too.

Jamaal510

(10,893 posts)
14. My family
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 01:52 PM
Jun 2016

and the people I went to school with all liked rap and R&B, and that's what I grew up solely listening to. It wasn't until I left high school in 2008 when I realized how bad the mainstream rap is (at least in my opinion). So, I started listening to other genres like metal and jazz. I still listen to rap and R&B, but I mostly listen to old school and underground songs. Many old school rap and R&B songs I have on my iPod are in fact ones that I grew up hearing either on the radio or hearing my big brothers playing on their stereos.

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