90% of the music I listen to at age 61 is music I had never heard at age 50.
Can we make major musical discoveries at age 50, 65, or 80?
Most if not all of us remember our early formative musical experiences vividly. Maybe it was a first live performance, maybe some new band an uncle played on his stereo, or maybe a staticky pirate radio broadcast of a brand new British song for those who grew up across the pond.
I first heard Abbey Road in my single-digit years. Come Together probably rewired my brains right then and there, for better or for worse. My parents liked classical, and I developed a long-lasting fondness for Brahms.
Later in life, more pressing priorities take over. Careers, raising families, spouses who consider music and the gear it plays on a waste of time and money.
And later, we often gravitate back towards music.
I could have been happy listening to glam-rock and prog-rock forever, but I was always curious about new music and regularly got infatuated with new genres and groups and artists. Some of these infatuations fizzled, like with black metal and post-rock. Some, like Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux, ignited a taste for Latino music and Spanish-language hip-hop that lasts to this day. Then, random encounters with the music of Floyd Lee and Junior Kimbrough reignited a long-dormant love for the blues, for good this time.
And (very) few other artists like F ck Buttons, though discovered well into middle age, had the same transformational effect on me that Eno, Roxy Music, Kevin Ayers and David Bowie had when I was 12 years old. Sadly F ck Buttons is no more, having disbanded after just three towering, monumental albums. To this day I listen to them almost daily, and I will only consider audio equipment that satisfactorily passes the F ck Buttons audition test.
Then just recently, an Audiogon member recommended German band Bohren und der Club of Gore as a gateway to Jazz for folks who don't like Jazz. Since I don't like a lot of Jazz, I figured I'd take a quick listen and not only I loved it, it immediately attached itself to empty receptors in my brains somewhere between ambient / drone / industrial and downtempo Jazz / Classical. The band immediately went into heavy rotation here in my humble abode. It is perfect focus music, too.
Which brings me to this thread. Have you experienced musical revelations later in life that equaled or bettered those from your childhood and teenage years? What were they, and when and how did they manifest?
Thanks and Happy Listening!
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@limomangus - too right - personally, I've been wearing hearing aids since I was in my 50's (I'm 73 now), but they have really improved. I can hear plenty out of a seriously good 2-channel or headphone system). They're as great a benefit for hearing as eyeglasses are for seeing, though they don't give you back what you lost. They EQ to make up for it.... |
Of course. But I think it depends on your personality type. Most people get stuck on the music they listened to between the ages of 15-20. I've never gotten stuck at any age, so I still find revelations, but most is somewhat obscure. An example would be the best guitar album I'd heard in 30 years. Nick Johnston's Remarkably Human. |
A subset of that category would be those songs that are etched in our memories for having been associated with memorable events decades ago, yet we never knew the song's name or who the artist was... It just happened to be playing within earshot of a moment that became unforgettable to us, only to be lost in time. We may remember a couple bars or a few words, fragments too small to be meaningful. ... until google that is! It doesn't take much data to identify and track down a song now. I've recently identified two songs like that... only to realize that I couldn't really play them, lest they lose their connection to the past in the harsh light of the present. At least now I can put a name on them! 🙂 |
My new discoveries are from the past. Jazz and Classical. For some reason, the 4 inch speakers in my Pontiac Tempest convertible didn’t do them justice. 🤔 If I had a time machine, I’d be visiting the recording of ’The Great Summit’ with Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington. - - - - Lately, I’ve started a new type of discovery. In the streamer search bar, I’ll type in the name of a favorite song. The results reveal a huge catalog of covers by a wide range of artists in a wide array of interpretations. A lot of fun. Try ’Over the Rainbow’. |
@tyray , I always thought the Brothers Johnson did that originally. Interesting to read about him, thanks. |
Was Shuggie Otis, Prince before Prince? |
Thank you for the kind words @tyray I am the opposite of a folk guy. I dated and lived with a diehard folk music fan and folk musician. I went into that relationship firmly believing that the best use of a Joni Mitchell record was to protect the floor under the cat box. Over our few years together I grudgingly developed a sort of appreciation for folk music as a genre, probably due more to the cultural context than the music itself to be honest. It was during that time that I discovered Nick Drake. I loved his music at first listen. I have been going back to his too-few records ever since, whenever the mood strikes. Also, thank you for the shoutout for Chief Adjuah |
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@tyray And I thought I was late to the party when I dicovered him right at the time of the Volkswagen commercial. He's one that constantly gets discovered – and rightfully so. „Black Eyed Dog“ – what a song! |
Another young jazz lion...Robert Glasper - So Beautiful (Live At Capitol Studios) (Official Video) |
This is an artist I just discovered about 3 weeks ago. An absolutely stunner of a musician, writer and singer. Shame, we lost him so early... Nick Drake - River Man (Video) @devinplombier nice thread sir, and your comments are always appreciated. |
@whart ...+1K, you go, Sir. *tips hat* (Seldom worn, but exists and sees daylight when apropos....) It's great to learn that one of our ilk is doing 'something' perhaps not concrete, but moves who was responsible for that we enjoy Still....👌 Our culture will thank you....eventually.... ;) At 73 I've my own devious pursuits......“something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, a sixpence in your shoe.".... ....without the ceremonial stuff.... |
@dayglow +1 When I think of 'new music' or 'major musical discoveries' to me they can be new artists or from any time period or from even musicians I have previously known about and purchased their music and someone introduces me to an album/cd/youtube video of theirs I didn't know about, it's 'new' to me. So here's a new young jazz lion I've had the pleasure of discovering via the youtube algorithm! |
Absolutely. I'm 70 and started digging into post-bop obscurities a decade ago at the prompting of someone I knew from record collecting. I was intrigued by a record-- Milt Ward & Virgo Spectrum. Nobody seemed to know who he was, or what his story was- it was a one off. I found a fellow at Berklee who headed the woodwinds department that knew Milt and he gave me the scoop. I do have an original pressing that looked unplayed at the time I bought it. It was subsequently reissued as a needle drop. I can't take credit for that but it was interesting to unravel the story behind the musician and the sessions. Over the years I've reached out to some of the artists from this period- some were responsive, others were not. The history of the more obscure stuff is in my view important to unearth. That goes beyond just listening for pleasure. I spent a fair amount of time doing such research out of personal interest, and to write and publish (I make no money from doing this, it actually costs me money to maintain a website). I'm now in the process of trying to formalize my study of music history by going back to school. |
Finding new discoveries is one of the greatest joys of my music hobby. I've always been on the hunt for the next thing, and at 50, I remain surprised that I never run out of surprises. The ones that I am listening to now are the first two Sniff ’n’ the Tears albums. I have a CD burner for "playing records" on my commute, and I am currently in the midst of falling in love with those albums. Two months ago, I would not have recognized the band’s name. It’s early-80’s power pop with excellent songcraft and pretty good production; "Driver’s Seat" was the one song the band is most known for. |
All, A good example of "major musical discovery", for me, would be a band discovered at age 50 that is still in heavy, almost-daily rotation at age 60 (despite having ever produced 3 albums). Bands that rose to the same level of significance as the best I’ve listened to over the years, including when I was young and malleable. I started this thread out of curiosity for others’ musical journeys and I was glad to find out that a significant number of folks have had, and are having, such experiences too. Thank you all for relating your personal experiences - some were truly enlightening - and especially for sharing all those artists I’ve never heard of and into whose works I will now take a delve Happy listening!
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Yes. It’s only natural that as we age and go through many different experiences and stages of development, we’ll be drawn to discover music that better matches how we’re feeling in the present and that the music we favored at age 16 or 25 may no longer fully satisfy. In other words, as we grow and change, it’s not surprising that what we enjoy listening to should change as well. The same goes for any art form. This doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll abandon what we once found most captivating, (although this may occur to some degree, inevitably, depending upon what we were initially exposed to), just that we develop a much larger pool of music to dip into.
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@devinplombier No need to be embarrassed with music preferences of past/present or future. Who cares what "kids" or anyone else thinks! |
I feel the same way - for the most part. Some music is inextricably linked to some events or experiences or to a certain point in time in my life. Then I have to make a decision whether I want to listen to that music today, or preserve those memories. I don't think you can do both. The more you listen to it, the faster those ties to the past fade, like prehistoric cave paintings exposed to electric light.So there are songs like that, that I almost never play.
Exactly. And, that's made even worse by the fact that a good chunk of the "soundtrack of our youth" has become downright... embarrassing, whether because it now runs afoul of evolving social mores, or simply because it's become dated. I would no longer listen to music that would embarrass me if my kids caught me listening to it. So, not only is the soundtrack of our youth a limited pool in the first place, it also dries up as time progresses... One exception is when we revisit / rediscover artists we hated back in the day... But all the same, thank goodness for new artists |
Absolutely. I went to college in the 70's and loved Rock. Then in the 80's I discovered fusion jazz and explored it finding jazz... then in the 80's classical, then the 90's world, and in 2000's electronic... exploring deeply and finding the core of great stuff. Early 2000's I also rediscovered rock... and found out the core that I had loved as a youngster held up against other genre Since then as streaming has become available... I more richly dove into all those genre... I am discovering amazing bands I never would have found when I had to purchase albums to move forward. It's an incredible time... and I am loving the discovery process.
Esbjorn Sevensson Trio tonight! |
That is insightful. I find I do the same, although I don’t quite know what the things are that I’m looking for. It’s not lyrics. In fact words kind of distract me from the music, and from whatever I might be doing while listening. I think I’ve come to terms with that and I favor instrumental music, or music featuring lyrics in languages I don’t understand. In that way I’m going back to my beginnings: in my teen years I listened exclusively to British glam rock and prog rock though I spoke no English, and I totally liked it. The voices were instruments. I think I react well to richly layered walls of sound and slamming, looping bass that drive my amps’ heatsinks to hot-dog grilling temperatures :) But I also enjoy sparse, minimalist works; ambient, the aforementioned Bohren und der Club of Gore, or Anna Thorvaldsdottir whom I just discovered thanks to this thread. But I also love the blues, which is none of the above. I do prefer downtempo and minor keys. All I know is I know it when I hear it
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The only way I can discover many of the artists mentioned in these posts is if they were used by reviewers of audio equipment. My tastes are for music that is harmonically rich. I discovered Dixieland jazz at 12; West Coast Jazz at 14; and Lennie Tristano and Sal Mosca at 16. Until I was 35, all my records were of jazz and good popular singers: Sinatra, Jack Jones, Ella, Nina Simone. Then a new audio system led me to big orchestral sounds, so that today I'm listening to Mahler and Bruckner constantly. If anyone here has wondered about these composers, I'd recommend Bruckner's 7th first. Be careful. You might acquire my obsession. |
For me, my attachment to the music of my youth is in large part due to the amount of emotion I have invested it with. This overlaps with, but is not exactly the same as nostalgia. Nostalgia allows me to enjoy certain songs that I rejected when they were released (e.g., certain Foreigner, Styx, Toto and the like). I hear them and it does take me back and somehow I can appreciate the music in a way I couldn’t then. But if I listen to something like Days of Future Past, Headhunters, 2112, Ingenue or Peaches en Regalia, I connect not only with the music, but with my countless past selves that listened to the piece and what they felt when they heard it. Over time, I’ve built a patina of emotional intensity for those pieces. (So if one of you is the guy at 2024 CAF sitting in a small listening room on Saturday facing the long wall who requested Starship Trooper by Yes, that’s why I had tears listening; plus, the system sounded really good.) This doesn’t preclude me finding new music that I love, but it takes me a while to build the same depth of attachment. |
What I find interesting that even when I find something that sounds new or is in a different style I didn't listen to before I am still kind of looking for the same things. Last year I went into a bit of a jazz phase, trying to listen to different sub-styles from different times. There's a whole world to explore if you only ever listened to „Take Five“ and there were albums I discovered that I found deeply pleasing, touching and positively challenging. But with all the new approaches to playing music I was confronted with I tended to like those most that shared some qualities with other music I listen to otherwise. One example: I never liked rock's masculine, alpha-male side, so anything that gave me the feeling the musician wanted to present (in musical form) how massive his genitalia are I was out. More inward-looking – yes, please, more. I also always liked music where there's not too much going on on a surface level: Motoric Krautrock, Ambient, Dub Techno, these kind of things. So I also noticed that this plays into my approach to listening to Jazz: Too many notes kind of put me off. So for example I came to enjoy some nordic jazz such as Bremer/McCoy or the latest Jeff Parker ETA IVtet-Album – nice! What I want to say is that even with open ears there are some things I can't escape. There are shifts in these underlying qualities. I don't listen to agressive music with the same pleasure as twenty years ago for example. But these shifts are less connected to finding new genres or styles. |
I’m 67 and discover new music on an almost weekly basis. In fact, many of my favorites now were unknown to me just a couple of years ago. Streaming and Roon have made this possible. When I was young and getting into music money was hard to come by. If I put together a few pennies to buy an eight track or album, it was going to be one that I knew I would like, which meant a band that was very familiar to me. I definitely wasn’t going to take a chance on wasting my $3.99 on someone I didn’t know. You could sometimes get onto someone new through the radio, but for the most part, they just played the hits. for years, I only listened to my old favorites. In the last few years as streaming has gotten better and particularly with the introduction of roon discovering new music is not only easy, but one of the more satisfying aspects of the hobby
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When you're young, you're like a piece of undyed cotton. When you're older you're like a richly layered tapestry. Things might feel more intense when we're younger, but they can feel more multi-dimensional when we're older. It's like a single note ringing out into silence compared to that same note played within a complex chord with lots of overtones.
Which is what counts, IMHO! |
I think loving the music that formed us is natural, and probably healthy. But I am so excited to find new artists, and new genres. People around me, family and friends, are passing on - seemingly every month or so I lose another. I want to live while I'm living, so I try hard to learn about new music every week. I hope I continue to learn about new music until it is my time to pass on. It is one of the things that makes my life meaningful. |
@stuartk I can't find any version of it on CD or vinyl. And you are right, if it was produced in 1973, it's a prelude to Veedon Fleece and in between these:
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You’re welcome! sadly, it looks as though the US version of the DVD is no longer available (on Amazon, at least). But perhaps you brought a DVD player from Hungary with you? That Caledonia Soul Music track you posted reminds me somewhat of the longer tunes on "Veedon Fleece", which also dates from 1974.
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@oberoniaomnia Yes; I know what yummy and adolescent mean, separately. What wasn’t clear to me was what, specially, you intended to connote by using them in tandem regarding music. It's still not clear, but never mind. |
At 63, I am constantly seeking out new artists and genres while listening to a wide variety of music: Jazz, Folk, Rock, R&B, Blues, Electronic, Reggae, World, New Age, and Classical. AllMusic.com has been a very useful tool for doing the research. Some of my favorite discoveries over the last 5+ years include Spiritual Jazz and Neo-Psychedelia sub-genres and artists Aimee Mann, Rhiannon Ghiddens, Allison Russell, Cat Power, Neko Case, Kamasi Washington, The Natural Information Society, Muriel Grossman, Agnes Obel, Loreena McKennitt, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Meshell Ndegeocello to name more than a few. I still enjoy listening to my old favorites but limiting myself to that would get stale real fast. |
I stream YouTube music and am constantly amazed at how well the algorithm can predict enjoyable new music. My current pastime for the algorithm is to simply choose ONE song I want hear at that moment, select it, and then see what comes next. Hours can go by w/o being annoyed by the AI choices and I've been exposed to music I would probably never investigate. |
