That's what an article on The Telegraph says
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10631776/Why-do-men-cling-to-the-music-they-grew-up-with.html

Many of my friends – all in their forties – still listen to the pop music they grew up with. A particularly powerful form of nostalgia comes into play.

”Pop music reminds you of the best time in your life,” says Jon Tregenna, 51, publican, Buzzcocks fan and occasional lead-singer with a non-professional rock band.

“It's like your first kiss. It's from before you became fat, asthmatic, compromised by work and other responsibilities, when you pogo-ed to The Damned and kissed a random girl in the mosh-pit. Is there anything better? Why would you want to forget it?"

Executive summary: You listen to pop music in your salad days because it's about the NOW. As you grow up your taste in movies, books and many other things changes but you get stuck in a musical rut. And men are more obviously stuck in a rut and like lists and competing over trivia.

A tiny few try to keep up. Bob Greig, born in 1965, got into techno and house music in his early forties.

“I still listen to Oakenfold mega-mixes in the car,” he says. My young daughters hate my "beepy" music.

“The beats make me feel alive more than anything else. It's drug-like. My body reacts: my heart speeds up, thoughts speed up, my mood improves, body movements can become jerky. I am prone to replaying a particular song over and over.

I'm kinda between the two - I'll walk out of a pub when anyone starts up a back in the good ol' days discussion usually triggered by the pub classics (C'mon Eileen, Radar Love, Hotel California, et al.). Absolutely nothing wrong with the tunes, but there is soooo much good stuff out there - why listen endlessly to the same set of tunes in perpetuity?

The again, I walk when I hear Dubstep or balkanology as well - imho, it's barely organized noise - 800 monkeys would come up with tunes I preferred :?.

I do have a weakness for remixes of familiar stuff - busy listening to a groove remix/mashup of 70/80's funk/pop tunes - when Thriller kicked in with a banging bassline I couldn't help but grin and bob my head.

Seems to be a general sickness!

Most of the "men" I know over 40 have not progressed beyond the 80's music. Age group 30-40 still think that Nirvana are the greatest thing since cottage cheese. My Dad when he was alive didn't go past the first half of the 60's!

I had an example of it this morning in my lift club - Tina Turner - Simply The Best comes on the radio and the comments were "They don't make music like that anymore..."

Thank Goodness they don't ?

But as the article states most people are attached to music because of nostalgic reasons. I sometimes fall into that trap and realize that the memory might be great but the piece of music is really crap.

I haven't read the article yet, but did they consider the possibility that most of what people would consider "good" music is unlikely to be played on a mainstream radio station, so unless the (I'll be diplomatic) "older listeners" are streaming online music and searching for it - something hard to do if you work a 9-5 and pay bills, unlike most teens or students - they're not likely to get exposed to good current music?

All that's aside from the fact that we're creatures of habit, and tend to like the familiar. That good old paddling pool syndrome. You know? ,"Yes, I know it's lukewarm because it's a 50/50 water and pee concoction, but I've always swum here and its comforting, unlike that colder and wilder-looking ocean".

Squonk wrote: I had an example of it this morning in my lift club - Tina Turner - Simply The Best comes on the radio and the comments were "They don't make music like that anymore..."

Thank Goodness they don't ?

:roflmao:

It's a curse of being a Blue Bulls supporter - you'll hear it 400 times/match. It's almost enough to make me revert to the Stormers... :?

Banditman wrote: I haven't read the article yet, but did they consider the possibility that most of what people would consider "good" music is unlikely to be played on a mainstream radio station, so unless the (I'll be diplomatic) "older listeners" are streaming online music and searching for it - something hard to do if you work a 9-5 and pay bills, unlike most teens or students - they're not likely to get exposed to good current music?

I think the mainstream radio (and, for music, TV) are geared to two markets. One is the young folks with lots of disposable income. This is where Radio 5 and Highveld (and etc) are pitched. Then there's the older folks who have got the kids out of the house and now want to make up for the wild youth they missed and buy a Harley and a Les Paul. That's where Mix FM and Solid Gold Sunday are pitched. In between there's not much, so I think that unless you're inquisitive about music and seek out new things (or try to make sense out of current pop) you live on memory for a while and then you get the kids out of the house and your memories get reinforced.

I like to think I'm always open to new music and that I've continued to expand my listening repertoire, but sometimes I have doubts. I am a bit allergic to much of what is now called "classic rock" but I didn't like a lot of it in real time anyway.

We aren't well served by public radio here in SA. We once were (and not so long ago). SAFM used to have Richard Haslop's almost bewilderingly varied late night show, and the eclectic Bruce Millar during the day, but these days it's pretty bland.

In the UK they have fabulous late night shows from the likes of Bob Harris and Tom Robinson - you have to seek them out, but they're there if you want to go looking for something that will broaden your horizons. In the USA they have the excellent NPR which has great musical shows that seem to deliberately go for the stuff that all the big commercial networks couldn't be arsed about.

ragges wrote: Women get stuck as well................ ? ?
I sometimes just cant get my head around some of the newer stuff, maybe its just that we get stuck
in a comfort zone of what is familiar and what we are used to..... :-[

This is all true. What I don't see much of is women arguing about whether Clapton was better than Green - which is something the Telegraph article touched on. Blokes seem much more likely to know, to care about and to argue about who played keyboards on which Yes album.

Lotta factors involved IMO. It's not surprising most people get "stuck" - as you get older, the media aims at the younger crowd, so you seek out the radio shows that are geared to you and miss out on the good new stuff mixed in with the dreck that is popular music. And any era of popular music is mostly disposable, trite rubbish - nostalgia helps filter out the stuff we don't want to remember so when we look back as we get older we think we grew up in a "golden age for music".

Our time also becomes more valuable as we get older and we're just not willing to sift through all the content to find the good stuff as we did when we were young.

There are good local radio shows too. There are always real music lovers involved somewhere in every radio station (often the late night variety of DJ) and these people love finding good new music ans love sharing it with others.