i can confirm that. fuck that pop music. i want early electronic back

The fuck? Fontaines DC, Tyler Childers, Janelle Monae, Leon Bridges, I have never stopped finding new music I love. This graph makes no sense. Modern music is so good. Old music is so good. I do not have a preference for any particular time period when it comes to enjoying music.

Sauce: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48812575

This study builds on decades of work that makes less and less sense every minute of the digital age. Each year we're further from a semi-homogenous group listening to Casey Kasem's Top 40 (or whatever). Most people have a fairly clear, shared concept of 60s/70s/80s/90s music, but ask ten people about the 10s/20s and you'll probably get eleven different answers.

In addition to changing mass listening habits, the digital age untethers us from time and wildly diversifies "new" music. You can hop on Youtube/Spotify/etc and listen to the Glenn Miller Orchesta as easily as the newest Drake singles, which with radio/MTV/etc was historically not the case. Those platforms also have allowed a world of music diversity and access that completely changes the paradigm. For example, some of the best "80s Music" in existence was released in the past few years.

And I'm over here mostly listening to music from other countries and loving it.

Sometimes it really is that the music in the U.S. isn't as good as it used to be.

Iḿ from 90s and like mostly 60s/70s. psychedelic & prog rock

I like most types of electronica. Trance, techno, house, bounce, phonk, and even some dubstep. I still find new songs on youtube that I enjoy, even in my 40's. Growing up my dad listened to a lot of psychedelic rock. I don't really listen to rock anymore but I do recognize a lot of rock artists like dick dale, iron butterfly, and many others who created the psychedelic sound that progressed into techno and trance. I still hear a hint of miserlou in a lot of modern electronica it has a very recognizable guitar riff.

Time is a very good filter of what's worthy and what's not. You're living now and you're witnessing good stuff, but you're also witnessing bullshit before it's had the chance of being forgotten. If you look back 40-50-60 years, will you think of The Beatles, ABBA, Freddie Mercury, Jimi Hendrix, or will you think of someone who maybe released a couple of songs or an album and dropped out of existence? Yes, I thought so.

There's been great music forever, there will continue to be great music forever.

The hard part is finding it.

But then why are gen alpha and gen z listening to music I grew up with. It is so weird. I know its tiktok but still weird that they listen to the same music.

There was a period in my life where I didnt have time to listen to new music and I thought I could get by on Metallica, maiden, misfits, and (at the time) my favorite band, Fear factory. I distinctly remember telling people, I'll listen to this til the end of my days, I don't need more.

Then covid happened and I was stuck at home, no longer interrupted by random work or life stuff when I picked what music I put on for hours, and it got stale (No shit). And I started to listen to so much more.

Now my wife and I go to multiple shows a week, hearing all the latest and coolest shit from our local scene (SF); we tell all of our friends: $BAND is coming in 6 months, buy your tickets now, it'll sell out. Or: free show on Saturday, want to come?

We are on friendly terms with members from multiple local bands, we go to album release shows, we get signed merch just by being chatty/friendly, we are helping bands, promoters/venues book with each other by putting them in touch.

Honestly it's pretty incredible. When someone says "there's no good music these days" or "rock/metal is dead" i just ask them... "Well what are you into? I can recommend something". Because they're so wrong...And if thry see what I see, they'd never say that in the first place

No fate but what we make. You can put in the effort to keep your mind and your ears open. Absolutely worth it IMHO.

This may be true for casual listeners but it fails miserably for people who are "into music".

"How people who only ever listen to the music that's played on the radio feel about music"

My music taste is like the inverse of this graph.

Not just music! (Though that is probably the strongest example)

It's telling how many people are nostalgic for a society that only existed before they were born. Recent History education sucks.

I'm 41 and I think some of the best music of my life has released in the past few years, personally 🤷‍♂️

Keep your statistics to yourself, I'm over 40 and love discovering new music.

Absolutely fucking not. I can't stand the music I used to listen to.

So what I'm getting from this is if you want success, market to 15-year-olds

I've discovered a new subgenre or other every few years and I still find music that's just as good in my thirties as when I was a kid. Trick is I don't care when it was made, I only care that it's in the style I want. I also have never listened to what anyone would really consider radio friendly music so it helps filter out the product placements disguised as artists. Stay curious and find music yourself and you will never experience this curve.

I didn't discover music I liked until I was 21. I got raised on church garbage and the oldies channel.

Only most people.

Some of us keep listening to new music throughout our lives

New stuff isn't tied to memories from youth though

Notice the graph peaks in the teens, when most people's fun and social life also peaks. I was an introverted high school nerd and barely remember the music from that time, then in my late 20s got into doing theatre - suddenly had a thriving social life full of parties, dating, friends, fun... now it's decades later and the music of that era is by far my favorite.