Why do we stop listening to new music as we get older?

@clearthinker You nailed it. 
You broke it down perfectly in terms of the machinations of distribution today compared to the past. Your comment on how relatively unrewarding it is seeking out new music today compared to the past was insightful.  
People are less likely to keep doing something when their efforts are so often unrewarded.  
Sometimes, my good faith efforts to seek out diamonds in the rough feels like something of a punishing experience. 
Just because the sea is bigger doesn’t mean finding a good fish is easier.  
The opposite is likely true.  
@dayglow I’m as anti-religion as it gets. I only considered the “religious side” of Bach’s music after I’d already been convinced of his genius. Did some reading after, research, etc…that stuff ended up having no bearing for me on his music at all. Especially when I understood the context of a musician in the early 1700s.
Some of my very favorite artists made no qualms regarding their religious piety.  
The Carter Family, Hank Williams, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, to name a small few. My favorite comedian, Norm Macdonald, is another.  
I have a ton of gospel records from the ‘40s to the ‘70s (from something like ‘Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb’ by the Charming Bells in ‘49 to ‘Like a Ship’ by Pastor T.L. Barrett and His Youth for Christ Choir in ‘71) and it is some of my favorite music.
 

If one can't find anything of interest in the music of J.S. Bach, perhaps he or she does not really love music as much as he or she thinks. JSB wrote enough music to keep one busy for at least a lifetime.

Well...

@bdp24 

I love music, but Bach bores me to tears. As does all classical music from earlier than about 1930. 

I will stick with Elliott Carter, Berg, Ligeti, Penderecki, Charles Wuorinen, Joan Tower, Schoenberg, Magnus Lingberg, Unsuk Chin, and many more.

Elliott Carter lived until the age of 102, and continued to compose brilliant music up until the day he died. 

One possible anaysis might go:

With the net and digital, production and distribution costs of publishing music are almost nil. So millions (and millions) of recordings of new music are now published annually as against certainly no more than 10,000 a year 50 years ago.

Not all music is of high quality or worth publishing at all. Most of it would not be published if publication cost what it used to. We can’t all be great composers and performers.

The fallacious conclusion is that means more music to choose from. But the correct analysis is that you are more than 100 times less likely to find you like a piece of music you try. Therefore it can be said that trying new music is an unrewarding experience, at least in terms of time spent.

@clearthinker

The problem I see with your analysis is, it seems to assume that one is parsing all of those millions and millions of recordings, in order to find the exceedingly small number of new recordings of new music that one may like.

But it is quite easy to drastically decrease the numbers one has to look through by, avoiding mainstream sources, such as Billboard, or Grammy nominated artists, etc.

Or avoiding types or genres of music, that one knows has attributes one does not like.

My batting average in sampling new music, that ends up being something I like, is very high. And I sample and buy a lot!

@simonmoon: For a stimulating workout of your brain, give Bach's Concerto For 4 Harpsichords And Orchestra a listen. Each harpsichord plays a separate melody (the form of the Fugue, employing a lot of counterpoint), all following the chord progressions, modulations, etc. played by the orchestra. But it's not just an intellectual challenge, it's also a thrilling musical ride!

For the enlargement of your soul, listen to any of his Passions.

I was introduced to the music of the master by a great songwriter I was recording with in 1974. He had grown up a fan of The Beatles, but when I loaned him my copy of Smiley Smile (The Beach Boys) he became as obsessed with Brian Wilson as was I. That album led both of us to Van Dyke Parks, another near-genius. If you've heard Van Dyke's debut album Song Cycle and like it, there's no reason you can't become enamored with Bach's insanely great music.

Well for me "new" music sucks, It's all Auto tune.  Mostly computers playing the instruments.  Really last newer band for me was Audioslave.  I mostly stick to 60's 70's 80's 90's

@eryoung2k 

Wait...

An easy way to avoid music that uses autotune and computers playing music, is to avoid those types of music! It's not rocket science. 

There is a vast amount of new music that does not use autotune.

I hate to keep harping on this, but avoid mainstream sources for new music, and there are vast amounts of new music out there that does not use autotune.