My music taste is narrowing as I get older
 

When I was a teenager, I liked pretty much everything that was playing on MTV.

When I was about 20, I became more selective and I started to take music more seriously. I stopped listening to random song and started to listen to full albums, and I started to research about several music styles and music from several epochs.

Now I'm 25, and in five years I got sick of most of the music that I listened to. I used to have 70 GB of music, now I have 13 GB, and I believe these 13 GB are the music that I will listen to forever, because I just can't get sick of it.

I'm not narrow-minded, purist or anything like that. Every week I take some time to discover new music in several websites (All Music, Pitchfork, NME, Discogs, Last FM, etc.) and sometimes I make long lists with 50-60 band names, and in the end I only like 2 or 3 at best, if any.

I don't know if music is really getting worse or it's just me. I don't want to have just OK music around me. Why should I listen to average music (or slightly above average) if I can listen to great music? I don't think that I should lower my standards. But it's not that I deliberatedly became "demanding" and started to narrow my listens, it just happened for some reason, and I can't get along with average music.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older and I don't know what's cool (I doubt that), but it's just my opinion about the current state of music. Do you guys feel the same way?

This just in...

The sky is blue.

Mine's still broadening and I'm three years older than you.

I've often thought of becoming a golf club.

I'm 30 years older than you and still searching out new stuff. You are in a sorry state if you are already shutting down at 25.

Check this out: (total shot in the dark seeing as I don't know your tastes.)

It's absolutely the reverse with me. When in my teens/twenties I got into certain genres (prog, metal, rock) and more or less stuck with those. At one point I had a CD shelf of about 200 discs, probably from about maybe less than 100 bands/artistes, which I listened to in rotation and nothing else. When one of my favourite artistes (Springsteen, Waits, Bob Seger, Dan Fogelberg, Marillion, Genesis, Supertramp etc etc etc) brought out a new album I'd buy it, but other than that I did not explore or look for new music.

Since joining MB I've been forcibly marched down dark alleyways of which I will not speak, and have developed a newfound enthusiasm for some really different music. Many here will tell you I'm still an old stick-in-the-mud (with the emphasis on "old") but I've opened myself to such music as death metal, black metal, gothic country, indie, folk, electronica (very little but still) and other genres and subgenres I never would have expected to try. Thanks to the guys here I've found a lot of really great music (and experienced some right crap) and it has helped to broaden my very limited horizons and musical knowledge.

You kind of sound to me like the guy in the nineteenth century who resigned form the Patents Board because he said, and I quote, "Everything that will ever be invented has been invented." That's probably on his tombstone. Don't be that guy: open your mind and your ears, and look for help here. There are a lot of really great authorities on everything from jazz fusion to Norwegian noseflute music: you'll definitely find something you liked that you possibly did not even know existed before, if you trust these guys, and that is a cast-iron promise.

I understand where you are coming from, there was a period in my life where i hated all the new music that was coming out and just sticked with the old bands i knew, i'd say this period was around 2006 to 2010, that's actually why i joined MB to get out of that rut.

The knowledge and enthusiasm ppl here have towards music slowly started to make more receptive to listen to new bands and genres i used to dislike. I advice you to not give up the search and to pay attention to what ppl post here, you never know who's gonna post that band that will make you go:

"Holy sh*t, where did these guys come from!?"

I wouldn't say my taste is narrowing as I age, but it certainly changes. I am still actively seeking out new bands, but I have noticed I've slowed down a substantial amount and learned to enjoy the bands I love and the new ones I find that I enjoy. Whereas in recent years I was always seemingly in a race to check out as many new bands as humanly possible and never dedicate much time to the ones I already loved.

But, I also don't download music anymore and don't know if others still do, but that kinda changed my listening habits a bit too.

I think the fact that there music out there you don't like but gave it a try would make you a better music critic, than someone say who avoids giving new a try.

I say find finding two or three bands out of fifty is about right. If you feel like you hitting a dead end with those magazines then ditch them. If you feel those two or three bands are worth the trouble then keep reading them. You'll after a while finding two or three bands here and there starts to adds up. I only keep a running list of bands I am interested that I recently discovered. And after that list growing from adding a band here and there, I begin to realize I don't have time to listen to every on that list.

I don't worry if my taste in music is narrow or not, it's all relative imo. My taste is probably broader than some and narrower than others.

I don't expect to like everything I hear. Sometimes it seems like I'll never find a new favorite band or even a band I like, but then it seems so easy once I find them. But I don't find a bunch of bands every single day that are earth-shattering amazing. If I find only a handful of bands I really like, then I find a handful.

My advice don't worry what's cool and what isn't. Jazz, and early Rock and Roll was seen as cool by people who liked it. But it was ripped on by its critics, and even hated. There are a lot of opinions about music, and you have to take that stuff with a grain of salt. If someone doesn't like the Jazz I don't - not my problem. I'm not listening to music to seek in order to gain approval from other people.

This is probably one of the most intelligent and deepest things you've ever said. I may just sig it. :clap: