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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!

 

devinplombier
devinplombier OP
314 posts
 

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.

@chmaiwald

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 smiley

 

ghdprentice
7,292 posts
 

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!

devinplombier OP
314 posts
 

It seems that nostalgia becomes a big part of this, and people want to listen to the music that was the "soundtrack of their youth".

For me, I have almost no feelings of nostalgia associated with music, so when I listen to music, I listen based entirely on the attributes I love in music.

@simonmoon 

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.

 

It is the people who do not expand their appreciation of music that befuddle me.

@puptent 

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 smiley

dayglow
1,961 posts
 

@devinplombier      No need to be embarrassed with music preferences of past/present or future. Who cares what "kids" or anyone else thinks! 

stuartk
3,024 posts
 

@devinplombier

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

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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