findingthefloor

Episode 157: Music as we age and What do I even like anymore?

music as we age and what do I even like anymore? - Episode 157

“when we love a piece of music, it reminds us of other music we have heard, and it activates memory traces of emotional times in our lives.” Lately I have been struggling to find the music that I like. This episode I explore a little bit the reasons why I may be struggling to find new music that I like. I also share why we as older adults tend to get stuck with certain bands and artists from our youth and young adulthood. It is harder to relate to more popular music,I discover, and according to one artist that is on purpose, to annoy the older generation. I also share how music from our youth brings back stronger emotion because we have stronger emotions and experiences at that time. Finally I decided I just need to begin again looking through all time to find the music that works with me now.

Show Notes: Hi Friends! I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. Below are all the references.

What I learned: I learned that we can get stuck in an era of music due to a few different factors. One of which is that while we in our youth and early 20s we are going through a lot of emtions due to puberty and because of these heightened emotions and are brains are developed so we can process the music that we make strong bonds with the music of this age. It is also thought that certain music can identify us into groups which then make more of an impression in our teens and early 20s when we are finding our groups that we identify in. Music also gives us a dopamine hit as well as helps remind us of other music that we like and we expect to have a dopamine response. It can also be as we stop listening to new music we stop making these connections which then can turn us off to new popular music. However according to Ben Folds, Popular music is supposed to turn off boring adults. He said

"Good pop music, truly of its moment, should throw older adults off its scent. It should clear the room of boring adults and give the kids some space."

Some studies shows that we tend to stop exploring new music around our thirties. But the other argument as to why as we age we don't identify with the more popular music is due to "Let’s face it; one of the reasons why older people don’t like a lot of popular music is that it is not written for them. In fact, it is often written for the explicit purpose of riling up older listeners."

For me, I am hearing a lot of new music from my teenagers. They usually have the playlist and so I think I don't really think about what music I like. Do I go back to the music I listened to as a teen, which I don't identify with as much lately. I am not angsty or worried someone won't like me. I do love harmony still and so I am going to start looking back through my old music to see what I think might be some that I still want to listen to.

Do you like new music or are you stuck in a certain style of music and can really get behind other music? I am a little bit of both.

Thanks for listening guys!!

Below are the articles in which I got all my references.