# POLL: In what decade of your life were you when you first listened to the music that you love the most?



## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 15, 2021)

I'm curious to see if the data matches the theory... There's a connection between the music that you prefer and the age you were when you first listened to it. I will reveal the theory later, after accumulating some data here first so please answer the question in the poll. Thanks!


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## tf-drone (Sep 15, 2021)

JMJ's 'Oxygene' started my love of ambient music when I was 14. Pop and Heavy Metal started a bit earlier but did not last.


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## ptram (Sep 16, 2021)

I had hated the piano lessons I received at 8 years, and only loved the kid rock used as jingles for anime. I even tried to compose some of them, as soon as I could write notes on a stave. I just hated what was supposed kids would have loved at the piano lessons.

Then, years later, my father brought home a simple hi-fi system, with tapes from Brahms and Tchaikovsky. I was hooked for weeks to Brahms' First and Tchaikovsky's Sixth. It was like traveling into imaginary landscapes never seen before. Who sold those tapes to my father forged my tastes forever.

Paolo


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## DoubleTap (Sep 16, 2021)

My instant reaction was that I was sure it was my 20s but when I went through all the main tracks on my Desert Island long list - Hendrix, Prince Far I, the Moody Boys, Stone Roses, Diblo Dibala, Dr Phibes and the House of Wax Equations - they were all from my teens, and I think I love them collectively slightly more overall than Aphex Twin, Laurent Garnier, Renegade Snares, Shy FX, Ella Fitzgerald, P-Funk and Kraftwerk. It's a pretty close run thing though.


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## Rob (Sep 16, 2021)

I'd expect to see the majority in the 10-20 range... we are so emotionally ripe at that age and feelings are so live and strong, that every experience including music done in that period of time sticks with us in a unique way.


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## Loïc D (Sep 16, 2021)

I’m torn between :
0-10 (JMJ, Vangelis, Prokofieff, Beethoven, Morriconne,..)
and
20-30 (Radiohead, Massive Attack, AIR, Pulp, Tool,…)


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## I like music (Sep 16, 2021)

I had a vague anectodal theory that it was all about the music you listened to heavily in your teenage years. Then I read a post here that there had been research done around this which pinpointed a more precise age.

Seems to check out thus far...


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## KarlHeinz (Sep 16, 2021)

Hard to decide : Blues between 10-20, Irish Folk between 20-30. Decided for the blues in the end cause it started my love for making music


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## Bluemount Score (Sep 16, 2021)

Rob said:


> I'd expect to see the majority in the 10-20 range... we are so emotionally ripe at that age and feelings are so live and strong, that every experience including music done in that period of time sticks with us in a unique way.


Definitely! Got my vote too. But well, I am in fact just 23 years old


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## YahmezTV (Sep 16, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> I'm curious to see if the data matches the theory... There's a connection between the music that you prefer and the age you were when you first listened to it. I will reveal the theory later, after accumulating some data here first so please answer the question in the poll. Thanks!


This might seem kinda strange (or not depending on the theory)… My mom used to take me to see the Toronto Symphony Orchestra when I was a toddler…I loved it…especially piano and choir music. 

Then I went to choir and orchestra school in the fourth grade and spent the next 10 years thinking I was too cool for orchestral music; especially choral and (god forbid) classical piano music.

I was listening to a lot of prog metal and it got me into Stravinsky. Before I knew it I was rediscovering a lot of late romantic music that I had loved as a kid. Rachmaninoff, Scriabin; stuff I never thought I’d enjoy listening to…but I still steered clear of choir music (yuck).

It was many years later I heard Rachmaninoff’s Vespers. Again I went on a musical binge…this time with choral music (huh?). Allegri’s miserere, Purcell, Grechaninov.

Looking back, the thing that makes me smile is this: when I was first rediscovering romantic music, I always expected to hate it…but there was always one note; one chord; one bar; the climax….something small in an hour of music that made my ears perk up and beg for more.

The hunt for long-lost musical novelty.


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## TomislavEP (Sep 16, 2021)

I've discovered music by Vangelis, Morricone, Kitaro, Oldfield, and Jarre in my teens; though I've heard it even before that, I often didn't know who is behind those beautiful melodies. The mentioned artists are still my greatest influences in addition to Brian Eno, Harold Budd, and Patrick O'Hearn, whose work I've started following much later.

My beginnings as a young child are closely related to my parents' records collection, in particular to the music by ABBA. The piano-playing style of Benny Andersson influenced my own to quite some degree.

I also like the work of Satie and Debussy, but was always more inspired by more recent composers.


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## el-bo (Sep 16, 2021)

Impossible to answer. Music I love has come to me at many different points in my almost-50 years


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## DoubleTap (Sep 16, 2021)

Rob said:


> I'd expect to see the majority in the 10-20 range... we are so emotionally ripe at that age and feelings are so live and strong, that every experience including music done in that period of time sticks with us in a unique way.



There is I suppose a slightly banal additional explanation, which is that there is only one occasion when you can experience something for the first time, and that's obviously more likely to be when you're younger. Like, I had ice cream for the first time when I was small child, so I don't remember it, whereas my first pani puri was a taste explosion and I can picture the Mumbai stall I got it at.

Which raises some interesting thoughts about how tastes change as you get older, and whether a new thing has to be even better to find space in your head.


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## gamma-ut (Sep 16, 2021)

I like music said:


> I had a vague anectodal theory that it was all about the music you listened to heavily in your teenage years. Then I read a post here that there had been research done around this which pinpointed a more precise age.
> 
> Seems to check out thus far...


This is the one I'm expecting.


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## gamma-ut (Sep 16, 2021)

DoubleTap said:


> There is I suppose a slightly banal additional explanation, which is that there is only one occasion when you can experience something for the first time, and that's obviously more likely to be when you're younger. Like, I had ice cream for the first time when I was small child, so I don't remember it, whereas my first pani puri was a taste explosion and I can picture the Mumbai stall I got it at.
> 
> Which raises some interesting thoughts about how tastes change as you get older, and whether a new thing has to be even better to find space in your head.


Music largely depends on repeated exposure and enculturation. I'm not sure if there's a situation where you can say music had a huge influence on you if you only heard it once: maybe something iconoclastic like Pleiades, but those would be edge cases IMO.

And I'm certainly way more receptive now to stuff I disliked in my youth. To some extent, you're always hearing something new in the performance that makes sense later on because of other things you've become accustomed to. OTOH, you probably get biased to certain things experienced in the teenage years as they get locked into the neurons, as it were. Thanks for attending my TED Talk.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Sep 16, 2021)

There is no one music that I prefer or love the most. I love electronic music, but not more than jazz, or classical, film music or rock. My mind was most curious about discovering new music/genres in my 20s and 30s.


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## KarlHeinz (Sep 16, 2021)

gamma-ut said:


> Music largely depends on repeated exposure and enculturation. I'm not sure if there's a situation where you can say music had a huge influence on you if you only heard it once: maybe something iconoclastic like Pleiades, but those would be edge cases IMO.
> 
> And I'm certainly way more receptive now to stuff I disliked in my youth. To some extent, you're always hearing something new in the performance that makes sense later on because of other things you've become accustomed to. OTOH, you probably get biased to certain things experienced in the teenage years as they get locked into the neurons, as it were. Thanks for attending my TED Talk.


From my personal experience I would disagree a little .

For me my love for the blues as first music that really blows me away I could definitely reduce to ONE single event. It was a huge festival where my uncle had taken me with him with stages and halls full with all kind of music events. I was kind of lost (my uncle had other task to do there then to look after me), went from here to there, ending up in a large hall with (modern) jazz. Absolutely bored, wanted to change location again and then Champion Jack Dupree entered the stage.....that was it.....Blues, Blues, Blues


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## doctoremmet (Sep 16, 2021)

DoubleTap said:


> Aphex Twin, Laurent Garnier, Renegade Snares, Shy FX, Ella Fitzgerald, P-Funk and Kraftwerk.


Will you marry me? 🥰


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## DoubleTap (Sep 16, 2021)

gamma-ut said:


> Music largely depends on repeated exposure and enculturation. I'm not sure if there's a situation where you can say music had a huge influence on you if you only heard it once: maybe something iconoclastic like Pleiades, but those would be edge cases IMO.
> 
> And I'm certainly way more receptive now to stuff I disliked in my youth. To some extent, you're always hearing something new in the performance that makes sense later on because of other things you've become accustomed to. OTOH, you probably get biased to certain things experienced in the teenage years as they get locked into the neurons, as it were. Thanks for attending my TED Talk.


Yeah, there's certainly an element of enculturation - there are definitely things I like because I knew I was meant to like it because I'd read about it, or friends liked it, or whatever. 

But there are also things like this that I fell in love with because I was in a record shop (http://www.sternsmusic.com/about.php (Sterns) in fact ) when it was playing, having never heard it before.



There are several other things I can think of too that seemed as though they arrived from outer space when I first heard them on the radio, so I don't think they're edge cases.

Like you, I'm also definitely more receptive now though.


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## DoubleTap (Sep 16, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Will you marry me? 🥰


I'll ask my wife if that's okay.


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## Henu (Sep 16, 2021)

It all started with Iron Maiden when I was ten. Soon I was listening to Metallica until I craved for more.

At the age of just having been turned 13, my friend dug up a copy of a copy of a cassette which had "Sepultura" stamped on it and I had never heard anything like that before. 
After Sepultura, nothing was noisy and brutal enough. By the age of fifteen I was already sporting a long hair and recording death and black metal from radio programs when not hanging at a record store specialized in the genre while listening to anything I could find. I spent all my money to records. My dressing style changed into black and camo. My mother hoped it would only be a phase but I never recovered from this addiction to metal music.


The gate theory is real.


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## gamma-ut (Sep 16, 2021)

DoubleTap said:


> Yeah, there's certainly an element of enculturation - there are definitely things I like because I knew I was meant to like it because I'd read about it, or friends liked it, or whatever.


I wasn't trying to use enculturation in that context: more along the lines that listening to blues/jazz/gamelan etc more makes you appreciate more blues/jazz/gamelan. It's something that David Huron and others write about a fair amount.

Though, obviously, group exposure is one way you get to hear those music styles.


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## gamma-ut (Sep 16, 2021)

DoubleTap said:


> But there are also things like this that I fell in love with because I was in a record shop (http://www.sternsmusic.com/about.php (Sterns) in fact ) when it was playing, having never heard it before.


But did you only play it once? Or did you decide it was a favourite after repeated plays? Sure, there are plenty of songs that were instant winners. But I can also think of examples where the first play was great and it just grated after that.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 16, 2021)

DoubleTap said:


> I'll ask my wife if that's okay.


Musical twins may be a more acceptable proposal for all wifes involved, come to think of it. I can settle for that.

Maybe we could throw an announcement party and invite Laurent and his red-faced-saxplayer (if he’s busy, I would be honoured for @Saxer to step in) to play this anthem of a chune:


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## youngpokie (Sep 16, 2021)

ptram said:


> I had hated the piano lessons I received at 8 years, and only loved the kid rock ...
> 
> Then, years later... I was hooked for weeks to Brahms' First and Tchaikovsky's Sixth


This is amazing - my experience is exactly the reverse. 

I started piano lessons at 6 and really loved them, along with obsessive listening to Haydn and Bach. But some years later, it was all glam rock and such. That coincided rather suspiciously with the drama of my piano teacher telling me not to even dream about a career as a concert pianist. 

Funnily enough, although I came back to classical music relatively quickly I very rarely listen to stuff I was so crazy about back then. In fact, it's the classical music I discovered in my late 30s and even 40s that it's on my playlist all the time...


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## youngpokie (Sep 16, 2021)

DoubleTap said:


> There is I suppose a slightly banal additional explanation, which is that there is only one occasion when you can experience something for the first time


I took my nephew to see Phantom of Opera once, it was his first time ever in a theatre. He nearly screamed when the chandelier flew across the hall. I kept watching his facial expressions throughout the performance and that's then I understood the real meaning of "jaw dropping"


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 16, 2021)

Wow, Nice response so far! Very interesting discussion! Thanks!

The question could also be asked this way:

*If you had to chose the music that you still love the most*, from what decade of your life would it come predominantly?

** i.e. the style, genre, albums, LPs, CDs, etc. that you still enjoy the most, that you remember most fondly, that still have the most emotional impact on you, that bring back the best memories, the most vivid images, etc.

Note: you can change your vote in the poll at any time before it closes.


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## EpicMusicGuy (Sep 16, 2021)

I was about 20 years old I think.
I had heard it before. But I remember the first time I really started listening to epic orchestral music was when I had watched the TV show Merlin. Then I was waiting for the next season, and started to watch some fanmade trailer videos on youtube.
One had "Two Steps From Hell - Heart of Courage"
And since then I began listening to it a lot 
Mostly when playing video games. It fits really well as background music in fantasy games (MMORPG's) When roaming around the landscapes.
And also what made me want to make it myself 
Not only epic music though. Mostly fantasy type orchestral music.


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## b_elliott (Sep 16, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> I'm curious to see if the data matches the theory... There's a connection between the music that you prefer and the age you were when you first listened to it. I will reveal the theory later, after accumulating some data here first so please answer the question in the poll. Thanks!


Now the inverse of this is what interests me. 

Whenever _Disco Duck_ came out, I plugged my ears every hour it played on the radio. I have made it through my entire life without ever listening to that song.

About the same time period there was _A Fifth of Beethoven_ (disco)-- that was impossible to avoid. At the time I was in a rehearsal band at college that pulled the chart out once--only once. Sorry Ludwig.


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## PedroPH (Sep 16, 2021)

I know a theory that exists, and I think it's wrong. At any rate, it's wrong in my case.

Also, I don't know what to answer. Some of my favorite music I heard for the first time when I was a child. Some, when I was in my 20s. Etc.


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## DoubleTap (Sep 16, 2021)

gamma-ut said:


> But did you only play it once? Or did you decide it was a favourite after repeated plays? Sure, there are plenty of songs that were instant winners. But I can also think of examples where the first play was great and it just grated after that.



Yes - I literally heard it in the shop, background noise to some extent, and by about three minutes I was at the counter, asking what it was and could I pay for it, now please. And it's been a favourite ever since.

A similar experience with this track, which is among my absolute favourites:



I was listening to John Peel's show, when he was doing an 11pm to 2am slot on Radio 1, back in the days when they stopped broadcasting at 2am. He played this song as the final track in the show. I was listening on headphones while I was doing something else - after it finished I just sat there trying to hang on to the music, listening to the silence of dead air until the engineers switched off the broadcast and it turned into static. The next day I went into London to try and find it. I didn't know what it was called and this was pre-internet, so there was a lot of crate digging - they used to have a couple of record players set up in shops so you could listen to something before you bought it. Eventually I came across it in a dance music shop off Soho Square.

I had a similar experience with Lena Horne's version of Napoleon, but it was about five years til I found out what the song was called.

You're absolutely right about some things grating after a while, but quite a few things have endured, for me at least. I didn't think that was unusual, but maybe it is.


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## DoubleTap (Sep 16, 2021)

gamma-ut said:


> I wasn't trying to use enculturation in that context: more along the lines that listening to blues/jazz/gamelan etc more makes you appreciate more blues/jazz/gamelan. It's something that David Huron and others write about a fair amount.
> 
> Though, obviously, group exposure is one way you get to hear those music styles.


Oh I see - yes that's a possibility. I suppose it's possible that the reason those particular songs jumped out is because of previously hearing other things that were similar. Would I have liked drum n bass if I hadn't already listened to lots of dub? But what does that mean in the context of individual pieces of music that have an impact?


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## Gerbil (Sep 16, 2021)

Very difficult to answer. I'll say this past few years (40-50). 

I paid little attention to the music of Medtner, Faure, Martinu, Dukas, Monteverdi and many more obscure composers (thanks internet!) as a teenager, but now I love it beyond words. Back in my teens it was all Shostakovich and Mahler. My love for their music is not quite as high on the worship scale as it once was. Faure and Scriabin on the other hand fly far above the clouds with the gods.

As far as other music goes, there's no special era. I just hoover it up as I go.


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## RogiervG (Sep 16, 2021)

I cannot answer this properly. Some music that i loved, i just kind of like now.
Something i hated back then, i love now.. Something i loved several years ago, i hate now.
etc etc
It changes over time..

if you talk about getting to know instruments and such and which one still remains of interrest/use to me, it was between 0-10 years old: synthesizers (Jarre/Vangelis/etc/etc in the seventies and early 80ies)


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## Barrel Maker (Sep 16, 2021)

Teen years. Beethoven. Life's been better ever since.


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## Michel Simons (Sep 16, 2021)

el-bo said:


> Impossible to answer. Music I love has come to me at many different points in my almost-50 years


The same for me, although not so much from the first two decades (especially the first one). Nowadays I hardly listen to the music I was into back then.


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## kgdrum (Sep 16, 2021)

el-bo said:


> Impossible to answer. Music I love has come to me at many different points in my almost-50 years


100% this 👍 I’m in my 60’s and my taste in music is constantly evolving.
My ears and taste in music has definitely widened over the years. While I love music I was exposed to as a child or teenager other types of music I love equally or possibly even more now weren’t developed at that point in time or I wasn’t familiar with.
I even like some types of music I didn’t appreciate at younger ages so while these types of theories might apply to the general population I think in the case of a musician these theories might not always apply.

I propose @el-bo comment be another choice in the poll.

☑️ Impossible to answer


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 16, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> I propose @el-bo comment be another choice in the poll.
> 
> ☑️ Impossible to answer


The choice is there: not answering is an option. 

That's why I said "predominantly".  If none apply then it's ok to skip the question. If I put it there many will choose it skewing the stats. The point is that usually there's one major decade that is more influential. I'm curious about which one. 

For example I have a colleague, also in his 60s, who spent 15-20 years listening predominantly to pop/rock, then, with some overlap, another 20 years of mostly classical music, then, with overlap again, about 20 years of jazz BUT there's ONE period/decade of his life that is clearly predominantly musically speaking to him.


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## mybadmemory (Sep 16, 2021)

I was 14.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 16, 2021)

mybadmemory said:


> I was 14.


You clearly don't have a bad memory!


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## shponglefan (Sep 16, 2021)

Like others it was my teenage years. That's when I discovered my love of electronic music, mainly by way of computer tracker music. I still have some of those original files and listen to them to this day.


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## Trash Panda (Sep 16, 2021)

Mainly my teenage years too. Part of me feels like it’s just because the music hits so much harder emotionally when your hormones are raging out of control, but another part looks at the bands from the 90s and wonders if it has more to do with just how great those artists were.

After pop punk and emo took over the rock scene following the fall of nu metal, I found myself going back to the classic rock of the 70s for awhile until finding some good new acts again in the early 2010’s.


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## CT (Sep 16, 2021)

Interesting question. I think it's spread pretty widely over the 0-20 range, but I gave the vote to the first half because most of the roots were established by then, even if they didn't fully flower until the second half.


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## BradHoyt (Sep 16, 2021)

If I could submit a specific range, I would say 18-25.


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## Dirtgrain (Sep 16, 2021)

10-20, I was into all sorts of music, and I built my record collection a lot over that time. Some still favorite albums I got when I was in junior high school: _Stratosfear_ and _Tangram_, by Tangerine Dream; _Natty Dread_ and _African Herbsman_, by Bob Marley and the Wailers; _The Specials_ by The Specials; an E. Power Biggs album of Bach pipe organ music; _Freeways_, by Bachman Turner Overdrive; an album by Michael Bierylo that was New Age guitar; _Walk Among Us_ by the Misfits. There wasn't any jazz or blues. But when I took up guitar and harmonica at 18, I became a bluesman, and I took jazz and other music classes at Washtenaw Community College. My record buying shifted gears (sadly my whole blues collection got ruined in a flood in June). I still like all of that music, but I'm lately into electronic music, so I picked 10-20. That might change.

Even so, "Concorde" by the Modern Jazz Quartet is my favorite recorded song:


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 16, 2021)

Dirtgrain said:


> Even so, "Concorde" by the Modern Jazz Quartet is my favorite recorded song:


O.T.: Isn't Milt great on this pristine RVG recording (even XRCD!) that sounds so "polite" French jazz to my ears!  Lovely! Absolutely lovely!


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## el-bo (Sep 17, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> 100% this 👍 I’m in my 60’s and my taste in music is constantly evolving.
> My ears and taste in music has definitely widened over the years. While I love music I was exposed to as a child or teenager other types of music I love equally or possibly even more now weren’t developed at that point in time or I wasn’t familiar with.
> I even like some types of music I didn’t appreciate at younger ages so while these types of theories might apply to the general population I think in the case of a musician these theories might not always apply.
> 
> ...


In my 20's and 30's I turned against pretty much all of the music I liked in my teens. It took until my 40's before I could return to that music and appreciate it for the reasons I used to like it, without worrying that it might've been incompatible with an appreciation of finer music. Now I listen to anything i enjoy, without question.


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## el-bo (Sep 17, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> The choice is there: not answering is an option.
> 
> That's why I said "predominantly".  If none apply then it's ok to skip the question. If I put it there many will choose it skewing the stats. The point is that usually there's one major decade that is more influential. I'm curious about which one.


If your aim is to prove a hypothesis then by all means avoid any data that would fall outside of the given parameters. If you're interested in getting to the truth, then perhaps seek to falsify your hypothesis.

Presumably, you're betting on one particular decade being common for the majority of members. Not only should you be embracing all decades (as you have), but I'd suggest it also important to know how many fall out of any of those categories. And no, using "predominantly" as a qualifier doesn't account for my (I suspect others' also) situation.

As for many choosing the 'Doesn't apply' option. If it doesn't apply, it doesn't apply. I doubt people will have any motivation to choose anything other than that which represents their experience.

Do as you wish, of course.


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## RogiervG (Sep 17, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> That's why I said "predominantly".  If none apply then it's ok to skip the question. If I put it there many will choose it skewing the stats. The point is that usually there's one major decade that is more influential. I'm curious about which one.
> 
> For example I have a colleague, also in his 60s, who spent 15-20 years listening predominantly to pop/rock, then, with some overlap, another 20 years of mostly classical music, then, with overlap again, about 20 years of jazz BUT there's ONE period/decade of his life that is clearly predominantly musically speaking to him.


Well... in your example there is no "predominantly" period. (20 years classical, 20 years jazz, is equal amounts and more than the 15-20 pop/rock) the overlap is unknown in the example.. so can't be counted. 

In my case, i don't have a known predominantly period either. It's all blurry in exact years. I think i shift main focus each 10 or 15 years, so i couldn't say what the dominant period is.
IN my previous reply i answered with a change of view: my choice on the instrument that had influence on me and when it came to be. (it says nothing about musica style/genre though) and did not enter the poll, since my answer is not fitting the question)


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 17, 2021)

el-bo said:


> If your aim is to prove a hypothesis then by all means avoid any data that would fall outside of the given parameters.


Exactly  _My_ question is basically

"if there's a decade that stands out musically in your life which one is it?"

If there's none (very possible) then I'm not interested. _My_ poll  
But you might create a different poll and ask a different question.

For example one possible (also interesting) alternative question could to be the same but taking into account how the responder qualifies his/her musical proficiency: casual listener, hobbyist, semi-pro, pro or other. Just more complicated (2 variables) to create as a poll here.

I've very grateful for all the people who have kindly responded so far.
It has a been very interesting discussion!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 17, 2021)

RogiervG said:


> Well... in your example there is no "predominantly" period. (20 years classical, 20 years jazz, is equal amounts and more than the 15-20 pop/rock) the overlap is unknown in the example.. so can't be counted.


Actually my point was that, _regardless_ of the existence of these various overlapping periods of different musical interests in his life, _he still has a dominant decade_ he's most attached to.


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## Karl Feuerstake (Sep 17, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> Wow, Nice response so far! Very interesting discussion! Thanks!
> 
> The question could also be asked this way:
> 
> ...


Ah, so the first time I read the question I answered 10-20 years for what I thought was "when I first fell in love with music / felt the most passion for listening to it".

If it was music that I still love the most, I tend to keep moving forward; my listening habits exhaust music after a few months, maybe a year. So I'd have to answer 20-30 for that one. I still love the music that I listened to at an earlier age, but I just can't keep it on loop anymore


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 17, 2021)

After 100 votes so far (wow!) we have these results:






More than 90% of respondants identified the first 3 decades of their life as the most significant musically. Not a huge surprise so far but still interesting, not only for the numbers, but mostly for the discussion. I will keep the poll open at least through the weekend, maybe we'll get more votes? 

Edit: for the record and in the interest of future generations  : the thread has currently 745 views and 52 replies including this one.


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## Pier (Sep 17, 2021)

I'm 42 and the music I love most now, I've started listening in the past 5-10 years. Either new stuff that has been released recently or classics that I've started to appreciate. Just like with movies, or books, synths, even food, my taste has changed a lot in the past 20 years.

I was super passionate about music in my 10s and 20s, but these days I rarely listen any of that stuff anymore. Most of it I don't like. I find it annoying, or boring, or stuff that only made sense back then.


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## youngpokie (Sep 17, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> More than 90% of respondants identified the first 3 decades of their life as the most significant musically.


Sad...


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## zwhita (Sep 17, 2021)

There's a pronounced distinction between music I listen to with any inordinate regularity and music I have deep affection for.

The heavy rotation variety is mostly electronic and that exposure was ignited either with music at the dance clubs when I was in my late teens or chiptunes on 8 bit computers a few years prior.

The music that deeply affects me now however, I did not really discover until my 30's.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 17, 2021)

youngpokie said:


> Sad...


Why?


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## Voider (Sep 17, 2021)

Q: What decade of your life were you in when you first listened to the music that you love the most?
A: In the best one. 😢





​


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## Pier (Sep 17, 2021)

youngpokie said:


> Sad...


Eh, it is what it is. Everyone goes through different processes in life.

What really bothers me is when someone claims something like "music peaked in that particular era, all music after that era is crap". Guys in their 60s/70s (like my father) claiming everything after Hendrix, Zeppelin, Lennon, Pink Floyd, etc, is worthless. I mean, Jesus, get over it. It's not music that peaked it's your capacity to absorb and understand new music.


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## José Herring (Sep 17, 2021)

Grew up on rock and disco. At age 12 I took a music appreciation course at music camp at an instate university. Even though I was playing in Junior High band I really hadn't heard what people called "classical" music beyond the little Boston Pops records my mom had. 

The camp music history teacher one day put on an old record on one of those old school mono turn tables with the built in speaker. What came out of that little device stunned me. It was Bach's little fugue in gminor and it put me on a quest to someday do music that was as good as the music that they were doing 300 years ago. 

I went home, tossed all my rock and disco in a bunch of record boxes I had, and never looked at them again.


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## Pier (Sep 17, 2021)

José Herring said:


> Grew up on rock and disco. At age 12 I took a music appreciation course at music camp at an instate university. Even though I was playing in Junior High band I really hadn't heard what people called "classical" music beyond the little Boston Pops records my mom had.
> 
> The camp music history teacher one day put on an old record on one of those old school mono turn tables with the built in speaker. What came out of that little device stunned me. It was Bach's little fugue in gminor and it put me on a quest to someday do music that was as good as the music that they were doing 300 years ago.
> 
> I went home, tossed all my rock and disco in a bunch of record boxes I had, and never looked at them again.


Wow what a story.


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## Dirtgrain (Sep 17, 2021)

Sad? I'm happy. I am into electronic music a lot these days. I first got into electronic music when I was in junior high school. I think some people interpret that type of response to mean that I listen to the same records/songs over and over my whole life. Nope. Sometimes it's the opposite. In high school, my friends and I listened to Led Zeppelin way too much. I avoid listening to it these days (was also corresponding with a bad time in my life).


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## gzapper (Sep 17, 2021)

The neuroscience I've read suggests that 15-25 is the time when your memory is a superpower. That during that decade you have a better ability to retain information in general, and this is also true with music. Whatever you listen to during that decade is what will stick with you most. From my point of view there are albums that I listened to that I don't anymore that are still there. Miles Davis recordings that I remember the solos to, weather report albums and a list of tunes that if I hear them on the radio are there buried in my memory. Even more than albums/cassettes/minidiscs/m4a's that I've spent more time trying to figure out since.

A friend of mine was also talking about this time starting after the time when he heard music as 'one big sound' or one big sound with vocals. Before he could hear and differentiate different instruments.


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## MartinH. (Sep 18, 2021)

Voider said:


> Q: What decade of your life were you in when you first listened to the music that you love the most?
> A: In the best one. 😢
> 
> 
> ...


Time brings change and your best decade may still be ahead of you. I know things are looking pretty bleak right now, but hang in there! Maybe try therapy if you haven't yet, it's worth a shot and has worked well for many people. A classmate of mine killed himself shortly after I had graduated from school, and there's so much cool stuff he never got to experience...


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## MartinH. (Sep 18, 2021)

youngpokie said:


> Sad...



Imagine what would need to happen for someone to find their favorite kind of music in their 40's. They would either need to start really liking something they didn't like this much in the ~40 years before that, or they would need to have missed out on an entire genre of music for all this time. How likely does that seem, especially considering how people here have above average interest in music? 

I don't think it's sad at all.


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## doctoremmet (Sep 18, 2021)

MartinH. said:


> Imagine what would need to happen for someone to find their favorite kind of music in their 40's. They would either need to start really liking something they didn't like this much in the ~40 years before that, or they would need to have missed out on an entire genre of music for all this time. How likely does that seem, especially considering how people here have above average interest in music?
> 
> I don't think it's sad at all.


Likewise. I think the “sad” comment comes across a little bit elitist to be honest? A bit dismissive…


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## Jimmy Hellfire (Sep 18, 2021)

It can only be 10-20. Most people are dead inside by the time they get to 30.


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## mallux (Sep 18, 2021)

Surely the result is going to be massively skewed towards 10-20 anyway because everyone on this forum (assuming we're all at least 10 years old) will have experienced that period, but only a subset will have experienced their 30's, 40's, 50's, etc.

Ask me again when I'm 99


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## Voider (Sep 18, 2021)

MartinH. said:


> Time brings change and your best decade may still be ahead of you. I know things are looking pretty bleak right now, but hang in there! Maybe try therapy if you haven't yet, it's worth a shot and has worked well for many people. A classmate of mine killed himself shortly after I had graduated from school, and there's so much cool stuff he never got to experience...


Oh don't worry, I wasn't serious, it was supposed to tell in a funny way that I liked the time of my life a lot, where I've came across the music I love the most.


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## nolotrippen (Sep 18, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> I'm curious to see if the data matches the theory... There's a connection between the music that you prefer and the age you were when you first listened to it. I will reveal the theory later, after accumulating some data here first so please answer the question in the poll. Thanks!


Mine's classical, a Disney LP of great composers


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## kgdrum (Sep 18, 2021)

@MartinH.
While I can’t speak for @youngpokie I think what was trying to be conveyed as “Sad” was:
The thought of people never being able to move past music they liked at a particular time in their life & having the openness & ability to widen the pool and enjoy music that they didn’t appreciate at a younger age,hadn’t been exposed to or even music genres that didn’t exist back in their formative years.
I grew up listening to the Beatles,Hendrix Rock etc…… when I was a kid.
In my late teens and twenties I got heavily into jazz,funk (fusion)R&B Reggae etc…..with a mix of modern classical music(Bartok,Stravinsky,Berg,Varese etc…..)
Late twenties I really got into electronic music ,eDrums synths etc………..
Late thirties I went head over heels for Industrial Music,the Seattle music scene. NIN,Soundgarden,Pearl Jam,Nirvana etc…..
From my forties to early 50’s I worked in high end HiFi and I started to appreciate more traditional classical music and more traditional jazz. My appreciation for classical widened I now love Beethoven,Bach,Mozart etc….mixed in with all of the modern classical composers that I’ve always loved.
Put on the Emerson Quartet playing Bartok’s String Quartets or Beethoven Quartets and I’m blissfully transfixed,would I have appreciated it at 17? Probably NOT.
The last 15 years I’ve been pretty obsessed with World Music:Reggae Dub(King Tubby,Scientist etc…..)Indian and Pakistani,African, Salsa,Afro-Cuban,Latin Jazz etc………
The last year or two I’ve gotten heavily into Gospel music and yes I’m someone who can appreciate ,love and listen to Gospel music and i’m not a Christian.
I can listen to NIN,Yolanda Adams,David Murray,Chucho Valdes,Miles,Smashing PumpkinsFela ,Zakir Hussain,Fania Allstars,Alban Berg,Monk and early Ska all in the same listening session and guess what I love it all!
I ❤️ all of it,I appreciate artistry and talent from all genres,my mood takes me to the music I want to listen to or create at that particular moment.
I like not being limited to a small slice & perspective of music I grew up on as a musician or as a listener because I’ve discovered so much great music since that time that I didn’t know existed,didn’t appreciate or hadn’t been created yet.
As the Great Duke Ellington said “there are only two types of music good and bad.”
I keep listening,I keep getting exposed to new musical art forms and hopefully keep evolving. If my appreciation of music was limited to what I liked and was exposed to between the ages of 5 and 25 I think I’d be incredibly boring musically.
I love different genres ,I listen to and play a wide variety of music most of which I’m sure I wouldn’t of appreciated when I was 20 years old.
So if someone only listens to and appreciates music passionately that they listened to between the age of 10 and 25 years old it also saddens me.


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## JT (Sep 18, 2021)

For me at 14, hearing the soundtrack to "You Only Live Twice" was something I never experienced before. It completely enchanted me. First soundtrack album I ever bought.


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## kgdrum (Sep 18, 2021)

@Tatiana Gordeeva
What I find somewhat perplexing with thread premise especially with you as the OP…………….
If I understand your musical background and education I assume you were primarily focused on classical music and that was your passion growing up.
You’ve said over the last 10 years(approximately) you got into midi,electronics and computer assisted or generated music. So imo you appreciation and passion for genres of music have certainly widened exponentially since you were let’s say the formative age of 20 years old.
Do you think you would understand,appreciated the music you’re doing now if it was presented to you when you were 20 years old?
Hopefully our appreciation & taste in music widens as we are exposed to different music genres over the years and I dare say it appears you have certainly evolved as a musician and listener.
Cheers!


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## bill5 (Sep 18, 2021)

Rob said:


> I'd expect to see the majority in the 10-20 range...


I'd expect to see just about everyone in the 0-10. Remember the question is when you first heard it, not when you decided you loved it. Of course the tricky part is remembering it esp as you get older.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 18, 2021)

kgdrum said:


> @Tatiana Gordeeva
> What I find somewhat perplexing with this thread premise especially with you as the OP…………….


Ok, I'll try not to be insulted with what's coming next... Just kidding! 


kgdrum said:


> If I understand your musical background and education I assume you were primarily focused on classical music and that was your passion growing up.
> You’ve said over the last 10 years(approximately) you got into midi,electronics and computer assisted or generated music. So imo you appreciation and passion for genres of music have certainly widened exponentially since you were let’s say the formative age of 20 years old.


True and for the record I did not vote myself as I did not want to skew stats but I did for my colleague instead, who's also older than me and has been exposed to more diverse genres than me, like most of you.


kgdrum said:


> Do you think you would understand,appreciated the music you’re doing now if it was presented to you when you were 20 years old?


Of course not.


kgdrum said:


> Hopefully our appreciation & taste in music widens as we are exposed to different music genres over the years and I dare say it appears you have certainly evolved as a musician and listener.Cheers!


Thank you, I feel they did influence me a lot indeed! 

But the thread question is _not_ about what genre do you prefer _now_. It is about *what genre are you most emotionally attached to and in what decade of your life were you first exposed to it. *Very different!

Like my colleague who loves jazz mostly now, and still listen many other genres, but it is not what he feels most emotionally attached to or nostalgic about. 

Added: I agree with you that (thankfully) our tastes evolve with experience which comes from exposition given time BUT it doesn't mean that your _current_ taste is what you are most emotionally attached to. I can love seafood now but I most fondly remember my first ice cream cone!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 18, 2021)

mallux said:


> Surely the result is going to be massively skewed towards 10-20 anyway because everyone on this forum (assuming we're all at least 10 years old) will have experienced that period, but only a subset will have experienced their 30's, 40's, 50's, etc.
> 
> Ask me again when I'm 99


Haha! Absolutely valid point but I think that you underestimate the average age of members on this forum. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's not even known. We would have to have another poll for it  or ask @creativeforge for more info?


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## jules (Sep 18, 2021)

José Herring said:


> Grew up on rock and disco. At age 12 I took a music appreciation course at music camp at an instate university. Even though I was playing in Junior High band I really hadn't heard what people called "classical" music beyond the little Boston Pops records my mom had.
> 
> The camp music history teacher one day put on an old record on one of those old school mono turn tables with the built in speaker. What came out of that little device stunned me. It was Bach's little fugue in gminor and it put me on a quest to someday do music that was as good as the music that they were doing 300 years ago.
> 
> I went home, tossed all my rock and disco in a bunch of record boxes I had, and never looked at them again.


You missed tektonik and trap for something 300 years old ?? Tragedy. (Disco wink...)


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## kgdrum (Sep 18, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> Ok, I'll try not to be insulted with what's coming next... Just kidding!
> 
> True and for the record I did not vote myself as I did not want to skew stats but I did for my colleague instead, who's also older than me and has been exposed to more diverse genres than me, like most of you.
> 
> ...


Maybe that’s part of my undiagnosed musical mental illness.
I’m equally emotionally attached to all music I 🎶❤️🎶


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## Double Helix (Sep 18, 2021)

In my salad days--say, around Little League age, and being the least-talented member of my musical family--I was exposed to a LOT of Classical and just as much Big Band; there was constant music because, at this time, no even owned a television set yet. I started piano lessons when I was eight (until sixteen)
Then, I was in junior high school when The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. That's when the worm turned for me: the whole British Invasion, California-influenced rock/heavy vocal harmony, but also The Swingle Singers, somewhat later Silver Apples/Switched-On Bach/Isao Tomita.
I enjoy the PMG and (for example) Dave Grusin, Michel Camilo, Steely Dan, &c &c &c &c. (I will never be a "jazz player" but I do not need your permission to enjoy it)

I answered *10-20 *because that's when my individual musical sensibilities began to coalesce--they are still developing, even in my eighth decade. For example, I have Chill on my SiriusXM playlist, in addition to 60s on 6, Spa, Symphony, The Beatles Channel, Underground Garage, Soul Town, and others . . wish I had more presets 8-)


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## Mike Fox (Sep 18, 2021)

Nothing really hit me as hard as the Beetlejuice score. My parents bought it on vinyl when it was first released (i was about 5). 

Elfman has always stuck with me.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 20, 2021)

*LAST CALL*: since the thread seems to have run out of steam I propose to close the poll soon (maybe at midnight NYC time) unless someone has a good reason to keep it alive.

So if you have not cast a vote yet or want to change it, now is the time! 

*Thank you all for participating in both! It was a very interesting discussion!*

I will soon reveal here what was the basis of my interrogation. Until then...


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 20, 2021)

*THE POLL IS NOW CLOSED*






142 votes have been cast. State of the thread:

*





Thank you again everyone! *


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 20, 2021)

*RESULTS:*

Note: I don't agree nor disagree with the material below. Our poll is what it is. The explanations below do not apply to everyone obviously but we can see from our own informal, statistically weak poll that

*We usually remember and associate most fondly
with the music first heard during our teen years (10-20 y.o.).*​
For some members it's a bit earlier and some a bit later but for a little more than 90% of us it's before the tender age of 30.

*Why? *The results are explained below. Briefly, the usual suspects are *hormones, memory bump, peers.* I tried to extract key points but you should read each article before forming an opinion.

*Why We’re Obsessed With Music From Our Youth*

One particularly notable phenomenon is the “reminiscence bump”: the fact that people tend to disproportionately recall memories from when they were 10 to 30 years old. Biological and hormonal changes may also boost the effectiveness of our memories during this period.

We discovered that, across our participant sample as a whole, music that was in the charts during one’s adolescence was not only rated as more familiar, but was also associated with more autobiographical memories. This music-related reminiscence bump peaked around age 14: songs popular when participants were this age evoked the most memories overall.

In addition, older adults (around age 40+) also liked songs from their adolescence more than other songs. However, younger adults (aged 18-40) did not show this same trend, and in some cases gave even lower liking ratings to music from their adolescence than music released before they were born.

Source: https://neurosciencenews.com/music-youth-17765/

*Our musical tastes peak as teens, says study*

Men are aged 14 when their favorite song is released, for women, it’s age 13.

For men, the most important period for forming musical taste is between the ages of 13 to 16. Men were, on average, aged 14 when their favorite song was released. For women, the most important period is between 11 and 14, with 13 being the most likely age for when their favorite song came out. It also found that childhood influences were stronger for women than men and the key years for shaping taste were tied to the end of puberty.






Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/12/17003076/spotify-data-shows-songs-teens-adult-taste-music

*Neural Nostalgia - Why do we love the music we heard as teenagers?*

Brain imaging studies show that our favorite songs stimulate the brain’s pleasure circuit, which releases an influx of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and other neurochemicals that make us feel good. The more we like a song, the more we get treated to neurochemical bliss, flooding our brains with some of the same neurotransmitters that cocaine chases after.

Music lights these sparks of neural activity in everybody. But in young people, the spark turns into a fireworks show. Between the ages of 12 and 22, our brains undergo rapid neurological development—and the music we love during that decade seems to get wired into our lobes for good. When we make neural connections to a song, we also create a strong memory trace that becomes laden with heightened emotion, thanks partly to a surfeit of pubertal growth hormones. These hormones tell our brains that everything is incredibly important—especially the songs that form the soundtrack to our teenage dreams (and embarrassments).

The years highlighted by the reminiscence bump coincide with “the emergence of a stable and enduring self.” The period between 12 and 22, in other words, is the time when you become you. It makes sense, then, that the memories that contribute to this process become uncommonly important throughout the rest of your life. They didn’t just contribute to the development of your self-image; they became part of your self-image—an integral part of your sense of self.

Source: https://slate.com/technology/2014/0...ong-preference-and-the-reminiscence-bump.html


*STUDY EXPLAINS WHY YOU DON’T LIKE NEW MUSIC PAST YOUR TEEN YEARS*

What the writer found was extremely interesting but not quite shocking. Per the data, the average woman's musical tastes are formed between the ages of 11 and 14, while an average man's music tastes are virtually cemented between the ages of 13 and 16. Further, an additional bump in people's early 20s are about “half as influential” in identifying musical tastes as those teen-years foundations. Boiled down, it looks like we lock down our musical preferences in two separate, concise chunks of our lives in our teens and 20s.

Source: https://www.altpress.com/news/why_people_dont_like_new_music_study/

*The psychological reasons why you don't forget the songs you listened to as a teenager*

Earlier this year, a survey by Deezer found that people tend to stop listening to new songs and artists by age 30. One reason for this is because between the ages of 12 and 22, our brains go through a lot of changes. We're incredibly hormonal and sensitive, so if we hear a song we really love, it's more likely to stay with us forever. When we hear songs we like later in life, it might not elicit the same strong response because we aren't such sponges anymore.

Source: https://www.insider.com/psychological-reasons-you-love-songs-from-teenage-years-2018-10

Also: *Why the music we love as teens stays with us for life*









BBC Radio 3 - Music and Memory - Why the music we love as teens stays with us for life


Neuropsychology explains why memories of music from our teenage years are the strongest.




www.bbc.co.uk




Thank you again for your input. The discussion is still open.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Oct 4, 2021)

It is interesting how *this parallels the hormonal changes of puberty*, i.e. that, on average, girls begin puberty at ages 10–11 and complete puberty at ages 15–17; boys generally begin puberty at ages 11–12 and complete puberty at ages 16–17.
*This means an average age of 13 for girls and 14 for boys.*

It's also a period when people are especially social, in general, and the desire to be part of a group is strongest, to bond with peers, share experiences and tastes.

"In comparison our musical tastes peak as teens, says this study. *Men are aged 14 when their favorite song is released, for women, it’s age 13*."

"For men, the most important period for forming musical taste is between the ages of 13 to 16. Men were, on average, aged 14 when their favorite song was released. For women, the most important period is between 11 and 14, with 13 being the most likely age for when their favorite song came out. It also found that childhood influences were stronger for women than men and the key years for shaping taste were tied to the end of puberty."





Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/12/17003076/spotify-data-shows-songs-teens-adult-taste-music


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## Rossy (Oct 4, 2021)

ELO Out of the Blue, double album on blue vinyl ( my brother brought it home on a Friday after getting paid, we listened to it in his bedroom for hours) just grabbed me at around 11 years old, started me learning to play the drums and never looked back.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Oct 4, 2021)

Rossy said:


> ELO Out of the Blue, double album on blue vinyl ( my brother brought it home on a Friday after getting paid, we listened to it in his bedroom for hours) just grabbed me at around 11 years old, started me learning to play the drums and never looked back.


Cool! How old was your brother then?


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Oct 4, 2021)

And as @Rob was the first to note at the beginning of this thread:


> I'd expect to see the majority in the 10-20 range... we are so emotionally ripe at that age and feelings are so live and strong, that every experience including music done in that period of time sticks with us in a unique way.


Again, a case of hormones winning over neurons! 
But the neurons stick long (normally) while the hormones fade away...


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## Kent (Oct 4, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> It is interesting how *this parallels the hormonal changes of puberty*, i.e. that, on average, girls begin puberty at ages 10–11 and complete puberty at ages 15–17; boys generally begin puberty at ages 11–12 and complete puberty at ages 16–17.
> *This means an average age of 13 for girls and 14 for boys.*
> 
> It's also a period when people are especially social, in general, and the desire to be part of a group is strongest, to bond with peers, share experiences and tastes.
> ...


Funny in that my puberty (if we say, as a male, then 11 to 17, then 2001 to 2007) nearly wholly overlaps with what I view as the nadir of enjoyable 'current' music on the radio (roughly the decade of 2002-2012).

I'd be interested if you've encountered any research that could provide insight into that experience!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Oct 4, 2021)

kmaster said:


> Funny in that my puberty (if we say, as a male, then 11 to 17, then 2001 to 2007) nearly wholly overlaps with what I view as the nadir of enjoyable 'current' music on the radio (roughly the decade of 2002-2012).
> 
> I'd be interested if you've encountered any research that could provide insight into that experience!


I think that this post covers pretty much what I could find on this _related_ subject:




__





POLL: In what decade of your life were you when you first listened to the music that you love the most?


LAST CALL: since the thread seems to have run out of steam I propose to close the poll soon (maybe at midnight NYC time) unless someone has a good reason to keep it alive. So if you have not cast a vote yet or want to change it, now is the time! :) Thank you all for participating in both! It...




vi-control.net




Would you say that the period was the _least_ enjoyable for you musically? Any hint why? Wasn't there any good part in it?


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## Rossy (Oct 4, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> Cool! How old was your brother then?


about 18


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