33 is the end?

[Garth Cartwright]

http://www.avclub.com/article/new-study ... -33-218752

Study via Spotify shows that US Spotify listeners stop checking new music on average at the age of 33 and go back towards what comforted them when they were younger. Now, I'm guessing no one who contributes to this forum these days is under 50 but I'm thinking most - maybe all - of you still, to some degree, check out new music. I find Spotify a real help in this - i read about Major Lazer in Friday's Evading Standard and had a listen. Not really my thing but interesting to hear a mix of house music and JA dancehall. That said, I don't listen to a helluva lot of new music and the last LP I bought (yesterday) was Furry Lewis on Yazoo and the last CDs were cheapo compilations of King, Chief and Cobra Records (Fopp has lots of these new at £3 - very good value tho' obviously public domain so no royalties to surviving artists or estates).

Anyway, how do you lot hear about new music? And how often do you listen to it? Or do you just listen to old stuff?

[Adam Blake]

I only listen to new music if I'm forced to more or less at gunpoint. But I've always been like this.

[NormanD]

Anyway, how do you lot hear about new music?

Here and there - facebook posts, internet searches, a couple of radio shows, links via already-liked performers, mag reviews (mainly fRoots ). And largely from here.

I'll go check out Fopp next time my over-50ness allows.

[AndyM]

Thinking about when my interest in new music really dwindled away to almost nothing, it was pretty much around the time my Dad died (six years ago). That's a bit Freudian, innit ??

Perversely, I still avidly read about new stuff, I just don't bother to seek it out, even if the review makes it sound really interesting.

I think I'm getting weird in my old age.

[john poole]

I suspect my interest in new music may have began to wane to some extent around the age of 33 and a third, although it certainly didn't disappear entirely at that time. These days I still listen to new music from time to time, but very seldom new artists. But then being an old man now I'm not supposed to like them.

[will vine]

I search out stuff whether it's new or old but no longer in an energetic way or a way that any longer demands too much from my wallet. I stumble across what people post here which often kicks off a little Youtube exploration which could lead me to download a track or two. I buy fewer cds now but my daughter, her husband, and my neice all make cd mixes as my Christmas gifts - saves them thinking of anything else - and that's usually all new to me. These keep me going for months and take me down different roads. In truth this is mostly what I'd call indie pop and the bits of it that most find favour with me are those tracks that are reminiscent of sixties pop bands. I resist lecturing them about how it's all been done before.

What I find weird and depressing is the unimaginative FM music radio (and also TV) in this country which keeps people locked into a very limited menu.

[Jamie Renton]

I listen to a lot of new music, get sent some stuff (either in CD or download form) & buy things, mainly downloads, mainly from Juno. I justify this latter expenditure by saying it's for my DJ sets, but truth to tell that's just an excuse.

[uiwangmike]

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4458&p=41768&hilit=Steve+Race#p41768

[Rob Hall]

I listen to Radio 6 Music at weekends, I try to keep up with new stuff by bands I already know by following them online, and I sometimes pick up on stuff by reading reviews. I take lots of punts on CDs from new people, which is expensive and I probably shouldn't do it, because I find myself kissing an awful lot of frogs in search of a handsome prince. I remain resolutely anti-Spotify.

Oh yeah, I also try to keep up with what they're playing on FIP.

[Kari Salonen]

Would that be "new artists/stuff in the general rock/pop section"? Because I seem to notice we all have our own special interests where we check new stuff constantly (you know, African, South Asian, Turkish/Greek etc). I know I'm like this - I lost interest in new rock stuff years ago, around the time Franz Ferdinand made me dig out my old Buzzcocks records.

But I'm constantly seeking out new "special interest" music. Also: what if the music in itself is old, but I had no idea it existed when I was pre-33? You could argue it is new to me and a new area to explore, way out of my previous comforts zone...

[will vine]

I try to keep up with new stuff by bands I already know

I seem to have quite a few first and (difficult) second albums by the emergent stars of my teenage years and then I was either bored or on to something else - Jack Bruce, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac, The Nice, Jefferson Airplane.....blah di blah di blah.......A young friend asked me recently if I had any Neil Young records. I proudly admitted to Everyone Knows This is Nowhere and After The Goldrush.

Is that it? she said.
Yeah, Why?
Well he's made about forty.

Has he? Bloody Hell! Do people really keep up with these careers? I mean, I always like what I hear of old Neil but there's no room for that much of anyone in my head or on my shelves.

[Adam Blake]

Has he? Bloody Hell! Do people really keep up with these careers? I mean, I always like what I hear of old Neil but there's no room for that much of anyone in my head or on my shelves.

It's an interesting question, Will. After all, what is a musician supposed to do? Just stop?

I always think of Elvis Costello in this respect. I really liked his first four albums but then he just got too damn prolific for me.

[Rob Hall]

Richard Thompson too. I can sympathise with a musician's need to earn a living, but there comes a point when I give up on buying whatever they put out.

The people I had in mind when I mentioned keeping up with their output were bands like Los Lobos and Fat Freddy's Drop - two off the top of my head who have not yet overstayed their welcome in my ears.

[kk]

well, I am well over 33 (but still a bit under 50:)) and I am still as addicted to new music as I was when I was 33, although, I find myself gravitating first towards artists that I know already (although that number is increasing all the time, too, of course)

and I am glad I keep checking out things, otherwise I might have missed this new Malian-infused track by French dance/electronic music artist St Germain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf-W9YkWISU

[alister prince]

A quandary is that I still listen to and buy new music, but there's all the new stuff by older artists, compilations, reissues etc. it ain't cheap (and I'm good at spotting a bargain). I get info from sights like No Depression as well as 6Music. I'm also on the mailing list for quite a few venues and I youtube the acts I've not heard/of. The problem is I then want to see them and get the CD. I'm off to see She Keeps Bees in a couple of weeks for example. I'm an old fashioned sort of guy and still like the artifact of the disc. I don't MP3 stuff. Another layer is that I get older stuff by people I've just come across. It's been a long time since I was 33, but I'm stupid enough to keep on searching.
Aly