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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
247 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
1,942 posts
 

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

stuartk
2,971 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.

 

devinplombier OP
247 posts
 

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 smiley

Happy listening!

 

vthokie83
940 posts
 

I'm 62 and discover new music all of the time. When I hear a song I like, Shazam it, then check more out on Qobuz.

Digging a guy named Mishka for the last bunch of months. Singer song writer reggae, really well recorded and a prolific producer of music. From Nevas by way of Hawaii

More to discover