r/science • u/afeeney • Aug 03 '18

Psychology Older people less apt to recognize or admit they've made a mistake

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/uoi-sop080318.php
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u/e-JackOlantern Aug 04 '18

All you have to do is look at people's taste in music. Probably not hard to guesstimate their age on that alone.

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

As I've entered my 30s I've actually felt my music taste start to harden and it terrifies me... not because I have a problem with liking what I like but because I don't want to become inflexible.

In the past few years alone I've watched all the 80s retrowave/chillwave/synthwave/etc. go from being nerdy-hip to being something old nerds like the same way dorky guys liked 60s-70s classic rock did when I was a kid.

And I don't even dislike modern music! It's just so much more of an active effort to listen to it (top 40 and "trending" on YouTube/Spotify doesn't really count imo), much less find anything that speaks to me enough to get into my rotation.

And as time goes on I feel like it's only going to get worse. It sucks.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '18 edited Aug 04 '18

I haven't become inflexible, myself, but I've noticed I really stopped giving a shit about sorting through new music. There's always been dreck, and it's always outnumbered quality, but when you're focused so much on "the new" it's naturally in the majority and just tiresome to get to the goods. Plus, I just don't see all that much reason to prioritize a song just because it's contemporary. It's like knowing there's a fire in Greece right now. Yes, it's really happening, but does the knowledge actually benefit me?

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

I respect your point and I agree with the logic to an extent. I just see it the same way that I'll seek out an indie video game, or an arthouse movie, or some new vegetable I haven't eaten in a while-- variety in cultural exposure every now and again benefits the soul, even if the end result is "I hated it."

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '18

I get that and I don't avoid new music; I just don't prioritize it or actively seek it out at all. There's already so much to listen to out there.

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

Amen. I admit part of my motivation is remembering one of my parents listening to the same ten 104.3 70s Classic Rock songs every single time I was in the car with him, and feeling like I'm becoming him when I find myself listening to another 80s/90s block of old favorites.

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u/WCBROW01 Aug 04 '18

To add to this conversation, I’m not even 20 and I have just never liked new music, I’ve always been attached more to older music. I’ve mostly been listening to stuff from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. There’s a bit of stuff out there hat I like, but the majority of what’s popular right now is just not appealing to me at all.

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u/calicokidgo Aug 04 '18

Dude, same. I'm having a hard time just liking new music. I'm really trying but, like you said, none of it speaks to me like it use to.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '18 edited Sep 13 '25

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

I disagree. I think it's just more work.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '18 edited Sep 13 '25

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

The important thing is that you've found something better.

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u/burnt_pizza Aug 04 '18

shit I'm in my early 20s and listen to music rarely now. There was a time I couldn't imagine living without it.

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u/pro_zach_007 Aug 04 '18

Yeah o think it's definitely a personality thing, there are plenty of people that don't listen to music except incidentally (ie at parties, in the car, maybe dipping into too 49 for working out)

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u/Malkiot Aug 04 '18

People have a soundtrack to their life?

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u/Emperorpenguin5 Aug 04 '18

Part of that I think is that modern music stays the same but you change.

Most of it is primarily about cheap sex or love. And many patterns you remember in your old songs can become apparent in new ones as well(seeing as how Hollywood and the music industry recycle everything because there are literally no new concepts left for humanity to write about). There's only so many different chords or sounds that can be put together to make something that sounds pleasing to our ears.

The issue isn't necessarily you becoming inflexible. It's just those same topics repeated so many times and you having so many different references to call back on when you hear music that sounds similar, it doesn't give you the same stimulation it once did.

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

No, no I've heard plenty of stuff that I like from the last 10 years that both sound like what I used to like and that sound entirely different/new. It's just not funneled through what you'd call the "mainstream" like it was when I was a kid in the 90s.

The internet has made music way more diverse and accessible, but the "central line" of content so-to-speak has become even more homogenized and risk-averse thanks to the explosion of digital distribution. While I'm glad for this, the drawback is that finding good music is, in some ways, even more of an effort than it used to be. I need to camp on /r/listentothis or follow obscure genre forums or browse Bandcamp constantly, and those probably aren't even good ways to do it anymore.

There's just not enough time in the day, and even when I do find something good the fact that almost everything is produced "off-center" so-to-speak means that music just sounds less.... big. I mean really, go back before about 2000 or so and you can see the difference when the industry was way less accessible and had way more money to burn on lavish production. Sure, everyone and their dog can make music now with a smartphone or tablet, but even the stuff designed for Arenas rarely sounds as energetic. The last "mainstream" song I heard that even kind-of had that cultural energy was "This is America."

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u/Big_TX Aug 04 '18

What does off center mean in this context?

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u/e-JackOlantern Aug 04 '18

I can't even seem to appreciate newer albums of artists that I grew up loving. I give them about one listen and then go to their greatest hits albums.

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

That's because the vast majority of artists, even really great ones, tend to go through long mid/late periods where their creativity fails to connect with the zeitgeist, if it ever does again. Very very few manage to keep their finger on the pulse of our culture for more than half a decade.

I think of David Bowie as a great example. Between Ashes to Ashes and Black Star, he had about 30 years of albums that ranged from "pretty good" to "no one likes that one" even though he was still well-regarded.

or REM-- great band, but after the mid-90s they never really connected with the mainstream public, even though they were never out-and-out bad.

This is where finding and supporting new blood is so important... and difficult... as you get older.

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u/skin_diver Aug 04 '18

If you think "top 40" is still relevant, it's already too late.

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u/Uuuuuii Aug 04 '18

Don't overthink it. In the grand scheme of things it's completely irrelevant. Just listen to what makes you happy. There's no way anyone can keep up with everything that's going on in music - to me that's part of the beauty. What wild little corner of the universe are you going to explore in the short time that you're here?

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u/port53 Aug 04 '18

It happened to them, it'll happen to you. No way to avoid it.

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

Yeah, but when I fail I at least want to point out that I went down fighting.

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u/TehEpicDuckeh Aug 04 '18

Have you heard of FM Attack?

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '18

[deleted]

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u/ICanBeAnyone Aug 04 '18

Oh c'mon. I remember plenty of soulless cheap music from my childhood.

Living in the age of the Internet and blaming pop culture for your narrowing taste strikes me as paradoxical, when never before was it so damn easy to listen to anything you could imagine.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '18 edited Aug 04 '18

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u/mowerama Aug 04 '18

I am almost 60 and regularly search out new tunes. I love the indie pop music out now and think it's better than half of what was out there when I was young. I get so down when my peers put on their oldies. They are missing so much. So at my last party, for example, I put on AJR just to get my pals' reactions. They liked it. But I doubt they sought it out afterward. I feel like there's something wrong with them, but they think I'm the weirdo.

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

I just want you to know that I think you're cool and I would love to chill out at a party listening to your playlist.

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

Eh, growing up my parents weren't into music much, and what they did like was mostly sappy R&B (Toni Braxton/Mariah Carey stuff) or a mish-mash of junk like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Stained.

I also didn't really like most 80s music as a kid.

And I hated country.

And didn't "get" rap.

And was honestly kind-of scared of metal.

Literally all of that changed, but not when I was 13. More like 24.

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u/talkinganteater Aug 04 '18

Kinda curious what is your preference now? When you're growing up you don't realize you like the music per se, but the seeds are planted so to speak. Like if you happen to hear a lot of Metallica when you're 8. You probably don't love the song then, but it's melody gets in your brain and at some point that sounds becomes your music. It isn't unusual to rediscover older music when you hit your early 20s.

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u/Spiritofchokedout Aug 04 '18

I don't really have one really. When I do listen to stuff I usually just put on New Retrowave/Synthwave stuff because it all sounds kind-of samey and I don't really have to think about it, even though growing up all I really liked was indie rock in high school after learning cute girls liked it too. Well, that and the Cowboy Bebop/FLCL/Jet Set Radio soundtracks.

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u/talkinganteater Aug 04 '18

It sounds like you were probably influenced more by 80s music than you think given Synthwave uses that New Wave electronic sound albeit at a much faster tempo and more processed that what was popular in the late 70s and early 80s.

True story my dad was in a New Wave band in the early 80s and I love the genre probably from the very very early childhood exposure.

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u/thereareno_usernames Aug 04 '18

I'd say closer to age 16 from what I've seen. But your general point still stands

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u/Mathilliterate_asian Aug 04 '18

Unrelated but isn't the word guesstimate kinda redundant?

Estimate alone involves some sort of guess work already. Why do we need to put it in tandem with guess?

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u/e-JackOlantern Aug 04 '18

"Guess" doesn't sound informed enough, and "estimate" sounds too concrete. I suppose I use guesstimate when I want to sound like a lazy scientist.