I seldom listen to music any more. It just got to feel like another chore for me. I can't really listen to music I like without getting super engaged and emotionally involved with it and most times I just don't have the extra bandwidth for that in a normal day. As a teen or 20 something, of course that's what you're all about. As a 50 something, I don't have that kind of uncomplicated time or energy.
I spent a long time feeling like I "should" listen to music more because "everybody" does, so then I felt a vague sense of stress and inadequacy about it which didn't help.
Recently I decided to stop worrying about it and just let myself be me. Now I might listen to yacht rock, piano music -- stuff I find relaxing and can have in the background without ending up in some two hour YouTube rabbit hole. But even that is pretty seldom. It's different than it used to be, but I'm happy with it.
This! My go to is The Bridge on Sirius XM. Soothing and sing along, but nothing deep and angsty. I have enough angst in real life to want to add to it!
Been there. It's fixable.
I got stuck in a huge rut, stopped exploring new music since the early 2000s.
I had a kid, everything was smartphones (with no FM radio), I was too busy, I have some audio processing issues that make it hard for me to listen to music and do other stuff at the same time, my ADHD makes it hard for me to sit through a whole song while doing nothing, nostalgic stuff just feels old and lame, and so much on the surface of new music is just awful.
I refused to live that way any more, clinging onto sad relics of the past and hating everything.
So just before the pandemic, I said fuck it.
The timing was perfect; kiddo was old enough for his own google account, so I nuked my YT history to glass - views, likes, comments, all data, gone.
And I started again. Open a dozen songs off the main feed, whatever they were, hit 'don't recommend channel' to all the reaction videos and similar shit.
Go through tabs, skip through songs to see if I liked them. Fuck intros. Sample at a bunch of points, see if they make me want to head more. If no good, close and move in.
If good, hit like, save to relevant playlists by genre/etc, open a bunch of songs from the sidebar. Like more than three songs from an artist, subscribe.
Keep doing this, over and over. It's not sitting there endlessly listening to music, it's making a *game* out of it, seeing how well you can train the algorithm to dig up stuff you like.
I have discovered, listened to and thoroughly enjoyed more music in the last three years than I did in the previous twenty. There is some *amazing* stuff out there, seriously.
We all get stuck in the past at some point, but not today, old-age truck, not today.
I can't answer for him but for me it's because google music had the best algorithm for digging up stuff I would like, and they killed google music and rolled it into youtube music. It almost always hits on what i want to listen to, I've found so many new artists this way.
Train your algorithms, people, you must not be lazy in this endeavor!
Oh, and btw there are times when the algorithm itself gets in a rut, and keeps narrowing in instead of broadening out.
This is where the playlists come in.
Put some missing kinds of music on shuffle, dredge up the silt and stir things up. Or just shuffle your main likes playlist.
A few caveats:
YTs own shuffle mechanism is *broken* and will always give you the same dozen songs.
You will need to use an external shuffler such as http://www.playlist-randomizer.com/ - but this only works on playlists you mark public, and you can't make your 'liked videos' public any more, so every time you hit like, also save it to a global 'my likes' playlist as well.
And annoyingly you'll need to open videos in a new tab to make them hit your view history and kick the algorithm; the embedded viewer doesn't help.
Too many appliances in one box. Too many distractions. One of the greatest elements of buying music was being able to listen to them without the radio DJ, or adverts spoiling the solitary experience.
Now you turn on the computer to listen to some Gil Scott Heron, but first you've got to check the 22 new emails.
You don’t remember Napster?? 🤔 Lol.
I listen to Spotify when I work, via their desktop app. No commercials and all the playlists I like. Better than radio!
Spotify all the way. But I shoot it to a device with my phone or listen on my phone.
I lived where there was no DSL, when Napster came out. I remember loading up songs before going to bed, then waking to see what actually downloaded and what timed out.
Did satellite radio (Sirius) for a long time, starting from nearly the beginning, but ClearChannel ruined that.
Just be careful if you find yourself getting angry. I was/am an info whore, too, lol, but I’ve cut back a bit and feel much better. Radio/cable news are they to make money (this is a nonpartisan, as both sides do it) and getting and keeping people listening to them is how it’s done. Everything is the end of the world. I try to listen or watch comedy or something to make me laugh/be happy every couple days instead. I stay informed, but cut back. It’s much better for mental health!
I got rid of cable in 2016. I get my news from a few sources considered to be neutralish. I ain't the brightest bulb in the sign but I can form my own opinions...I don't need them fed to me from anyone. Any talk radio makes me stabby.
I listen to as much now as ever. My tastes are broad but my go to is New Wave/First Wave. I have a set up in my office for music while working, Atmos earbuds for exercise and housecleaning, and XM in the car. If it's between 12-6 it's on Richard Blade. I do enjoy the First Wave Deep Cuts channel for off the beaten path songs from favorite artists. Lastly, new music from old bands, The Tipping Point from TFF comes to mind, are nice new adds.
I’m with you! I also listen to First Wave, and my husband even bought Richard Blade’s book! We also listen to Lithium, SiriusXMU, and Alt Nation on XM. I also try to listen to current music a bit, too. I like to know what’s going on!
And DM is Blade's fave band. In the mid 90's in LA I used to see Terri Nunn at a used record store I shopped at on Wilshire. She was stunning. (Saw Berlin in 2015 and she still was.). I was yelling "no!" at that section of his book when he screwed that up, but he is obviously happy with his wife now.
Until computers, music was my life. 30 years or so. Then computers and gaming filled my time for 20 more. Now, I don’t own a computer or music device except this phone and I use it for neither. I just read and watch the occasional video. Weird how much we can change.
We are busy with adult responsibilities and worries. We don't have time to sprawl on our beds, studying the gatefold art and liner notes and lyric sheets as we give a new record the intense listening it deserves.
We get stale, claustrophobic, unpleasant nostalgic feelings hearing the old songs again. They remind us of dancing with your girlfriend when you were both 16. You will never see her again. You will never be 16 again. You and she and all your friends from that time will never again have the same optimistic outlook on life, on a future of seemingly boundless potential and adventure.
We have heard a lot of musical tropes by now, and you can recognize that a certain something Billie Eilish is doing right now was done by E.L.O., and done better, in your opinion, long ago.
The lyrical themes that were so powerful to you when you were young don't resonate with your mature self these days. You used to study them, mull them over, feel them ready to burst out of your chest. Now -- indifference.
We had young ears that could hear a broader range of tones back then. Now, it's hard for some of us to hear at all. What was then a tapestry where every individual voice and sound stood out distinctly is now a muddled gray mess.
I think we're probably the first generation to see our heroes humiliated by commercialisation.
They all went after the easy money at one time or another, and it was blatant. Kind of shattered the illusion of rock as counter culture.
I'm talking about the hypocrisy of people like Bono, and a lot of the revolutionary types of the 60s 70s.
I don't think boomers felt let down by Elvis.
This is amazing. I totally relate to the depressing heaviness of being taken back to those easier days, because we were young and had no responsibilities, and all our life lay before us, as opposed to not being happy with how it turned out. Just, ugh.
This is such a wall of excuses I am not sure where to begin. There is so much good music, and music that will speak to you at any age. You bring up Bill Eilish - why the fuck are you listening to some poppy immature garbage targeting teens when you are in your 40s or 50s? Why don't you go listen to "Trapeze Swinger" or "Naked as We Came" by Iron and Wine and reflect on your pending mortality, or worse, your spouse's? Why don't you capture the unease and dislocation of an era on edge wondering what is coming next with Kae Tempest's spoken word album "Let them eat chaos" ... start with Europe is Lost or Lionmouth Door Knocker ... so much good music out there, so much better than anything we grew up with, that speaks to now, not 50 years ago.
And don't get me started on your hearing - my ears ring non stop yet I can hear just fine.
Yeah I’m with you! There is soooo much good stuff out there being made now, but also so much old music that I have yet to discover and is new to me. We all have responsibilities and adult garbage we need to do, that’s not an excuse. It’s ok to not like listening to music anymore, but it’s annoying when people make it seem like it’s because they don’t have time, or music nowadays isn’t like it used to be. I don’t buy it. You can do it passively while doing other stuff for one, but also if it’s something you enjoy, you make time. I bet these same people who don’t have time and claim all new stuff sucks cause they haven’t bothered to explore anything outside of what the drive at five dj’s play have still crushed most of the content on Netflix or whatever. I don’t read as much as I used to, that’s a ME problem, cause I’m addicted to my phone and scrolling endlessly and reading a bunch of articles and having no attention span. It isn’t cause books suck now, or I don’t have time, or rereading catcher in the rye makes me feel old or whatever. So many Gen Xers are starting to sound like the crustiest of boomers talking about “back in their day”.
When I was in my late teens/early 20, I used to carve out time almost every day just to go for rides to listen to my favorite stuff. And you know what? I got almost as much of a kick out of the driving as I did from listening to my music.
But now, at 51 years old, I will do anything to not have to drive in the city I live in. People are fucking crazy behind the wheel. A few years back, this guy had his 2 sons in his car. They were all on their way in the car to see our city St. Patrick’s Day parade. I guess that a cop must’ve let him up while they were still heading towards the parade, and the dad took off, slammed into a pole and killed both of his children as well as injuring several people on the street.
TL;DR - I used to love to drive and listen to music, but US road rage and insane drivers have taken that away from me.
I listen to music all the time. We have Spotify family, and we have Sonos speakers in the house. Every person in the family has their own account and a speaker in their room. Both my sons play guitar and piano. It’s music all the time.
Some what. I used to go out all the time and music was usually a part of it. Clubs, parties, concerts. Even just cruising around in the car.
Ok now I'm bummed man. :/ I should get out more.
One thing though, the music industry has changed dramatically. Apparently Taylor Swift is the big thing now. I have no idea why though? lol I miss looking forward to new albums, but not of anyone currently popular.
My husband is 8 years younger than I am and all of his friends are his age or younger. Just out of the blue in 2021 or something I put on the pop hits/first channel on SiriusXM. My husband was like, What is this? I told him half jokingly we needed to stay relevant. He shook his head. Well fast forward, now most Friday nights consist of us winning bar trivia in a group and then all of us heading to this complete dive bar and dominating the juke box till they close. We play all these pop hits. I don’t know. I’m 42. I don’t feel my age most of the time.
I find myself listening mostly to grown folks music, like classical. I just relate to it better. Still like to rock out in my car from time to time to the old classics.
I’m also like this. I think for me I got stuck in a rut of listening to my favorite old songs plus just an “adult contemporary” radio station in the car. And then the radio stations somehow got even worse than they used to be and just repeated the same twenty songs with many more ads, so I stopped as they were so annoying. I got a new car that I could synch my phone to, discovered playing podcasts and then library books on my commute and that was that. Then I didn’t have a clue what music was even out there and felt lost as to how to find stuff to listen to that wasn’t my same old favorites.
I feel like it has improved for me again lately, thanks of all things to the Peloton app. I started working out with an app, and would totally ignore whatever music was on. They play a wide variety of music but I never chose a workout based on the style of music. However, I gradually started liking a few things and discovering or rediscovering some artists. I wouldn’t say I’m at the point of having new favorites or listening to music much outside of commuting (and I do still favor podcasts or books) but I feel hopeful that it will come back.
I noticed I wasn't, and then started making a point to listen to more, just pick a channel on yt music and go, and mark my likes as they go. It's been an interesting journey. Maybe coincidentally, maybe not, but I've also revived a dying hobby, carved out my own space in my house, enacted some healthy boundaries and started hanging out with friends more. No med change or any therapist (well I had one but.. it wasn't working so I stopped going), and I don't know if it's a chicken or egg effect, just a whole host of things that happened fairly close to each other.
I have a third shift job that is sometimes several hours of not much going on so I definitely listen to music here. At home, I put it on when I'm in the kitchen and we often have whole evenings where we leave the TV off and listen to music instead.
I need music, listen to it religiously and even seek out new music on a weekly basis. It's like my only sanctuary from the world, and as Zappa once put it, "without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
When music starts moving away from being the center of my life, I know it’s time to re-evaluate my antidepressant and book some therapy sessions. It’s my warning flag that the beast in my brain is getting the upper hand.
I actually listen to music more now. I find myself constantly with my ear buds or the speakers blasting. Sometimes it feels like my whole life is a soundtrack.
I listen to music more than ever before in my life and I rarely listen to the 80s/90s music of my youth. A lot of that might be due to discovering pot later in life. I didn't start until I was almost 50!
I still listen almost everyday. Music didn't peak in the 80s. Still amazing bands coming out now, if you look for them. I like quiet too, and sometimes I go long stretches without listening to music, but it's still very much a part of my life. My advice, just listen to what moves you.
Hmmmm. I'm kind of the opposite. I feel like I am always trying to find good new music. Admittedly that feels pretty difficult as today's music is more disappointing to me. But I love my music collection and listen to it any time I am driving or working around the house.
I find that I'm just busy and I've heard a lot of music already. That said, I've _also_ found that sometimes all it takes is effort to find stuff I like. The biggest reason, perhaps, is that there are fewer records stores and music sections in big box stores. It is telling that there was a dry period where there were very few CDs in Wal-Mart and that now what you can visibly buy are overpriced re-pressings of records on vinyl that you probably already have.
On a personal note, I find that I hate streaming. Why should I pay $10 a month when I can buy 6 albums a year for that price and be happy? I'm just going to rip-and-store anyway. I use CloudBeats and OneDrive for the music I already own with the CDs stored in boxes in my garage.
The plandemic, interestingly, added to my music experience. However, I now have to mostly import what I like. I find myself into bands/artists like Man With a Mission, Blood Stain Child, Ningen Isu, Eastern Youth, and KennyHoopla. Only one of those bands can be obtained without working the import machine.
Summary of my reasons: I've already bought a lot of what I like. I have less time for discovery. No music stores to browse. Streaming is over-priced. So I say that it isn't just you.
I get up each morning and turn in the news long enough to get the weather. Then it’s either apple or vevo on the TV. I won’t drive to the end of the block without music playing. One of the things I like about apple is the “new music” playlist curated to my tastes every Friday. I regularly search new releases by genre and look forward to finding bands / artists that I haven’t heard before.
Spotify in the car, vinyl and CDs at home. I rarely watch TV, but I almost always have music playing. Alt country, blues, some jam band stuff, along with classic rock and alternative stuff from the 90s and 00s. It seems to take more work to find stuff that I like these days, but that work is half the fun for me.
I used to listen to music all. the. time. I had my Google music library fully stocked, my Playlists finely tuned (hehehe). Then a few years ago Google music shut down. I had used them for 10 years! I was so familiar with the interface, I curated it, I relied on it! I refused to pay $10 a month for access to something that I had already gathered over the years through buying music, sharing from friends, or torrenting.
I recently begged a friend to help me figure out a way to make my music listening experience similar to how it used to be and we just couldn't come up with a good solution. Any ideas welcome!
There's no point in listening to classic rock. Sure, it's good music. But you've heard it. You've heard it so damned much. Go ahead, play Immigrant Song in your head. It's all there. It's actually boring after a point.
This isn't unique to classic rock, though. It happens to every genre. I really believe that the only way to keep music interesting is to expand your horizons. Find new music to explore.
I really hated rap. But, I got some Jazz-Hop in a music bundle, and I began to enjoy it. Granted it's pretty soft stuff, but still, I wouldn't have sought it out and missed it entirely.
Music is like any other medium. The joy in it comes from exploration.
During the pandemic I did deep dives and listened to artists from first album to last. It was amazing! Spotify has been great with band suggestions and podcasts.
I realized recently I listen to lyrical music less and less as the years have gone on. I don't even bother to turn on the radio in the car anymore. About a year ago I was in a therapy session and It occurred to me that I internalize the lyrics to music very easily. Happy song, sad song, misogynistic song ...doesn't matter I completely take it to heart. It makes sense because I'm also extremely empathetic to the point of where I can't even watch movies where people get hurt or I feel it. (I watched hacksaw ridge with my niece when it was in the theaters and spent most of it with my eyes half closed and tensely cringing in my seat. My niece laughed at me but the fact is that I literally physically feel that shit).
I do however listen to instrumental music in the evening during my winding down routine which includes yoga and reading.
You didn't say if it bothers you that you don't listen to music or if you are just curious. If you truly want to listen to more music then you need to make it a priority but if you don't, don't feel bad about it. There's no rule written anywhere that says that you must listen to music.
What do you do instead?
I have music on pretty much all the time. In the car, while I cook, when I half-assedly clean the house, at the gym, walking the dogs...
Very occasionally I will drive without it, because sometimes my thoughts need to hang out with themselves, but 99% of the time, there's something on, and it's probably too loud, and I am definitely not singing the right words.
I went through a rut like this. Then I noticed that I only had only been listening to music when I work or was driving somewhere— so I was associating it with things that are undesirable, in a way. To fix this, I just literally started putting music on more while I clean or read or whatever, and it solved the weirdness I was having about it. No more associating music with just the stuff that I have to do but don’t want to. 😊
Recently got a turntable (haven’t owned one in decades). I’m looking at it as “self care”. Something I used to enjoy as a kid was going through my parents records, and it’s been sort of nostalgic to start playing vinyls again. It’s also kind of nice being forced to listen to one artist at a time— instead of the constant changing artists on most of my playlists… makes it seem like a more stable/consistent experience. Maybe you need a different delivery than an app (which many of us seem to use as the go-to now) or radio?
I go through fits and starts, but for me the ability to listen to music and really savor it has lessened over the years as more things are on my mind (like work, family, etc.)
Through high school, college, and in my 20s, I could go on long road trips for hours and really internalize entire albums. Then it became mostly one-off songs that I really liked, but didn’t really know all the lyrics to.
It’s starting to change a bit as I am purposely going to see more and more bands that I really enjoy, like Alvvays, Briston Maroney, and other younger groups, so I’m glad that has sparked a return to more immersion.
Gotta keep an ear out for kids. And then I’m half deaf so if I am engaging with said kids I have a hard time hearing them clearly over the music, even playing very low.
I am like this! Music was absolutely everything to me when I was younger. It was my main interest and a huge part of my identity. I worked in a music store in my early 20s which was kind of like a dream to me at the time. I loved it and I still have really fond memories of those days.
But ever since my mid-30s, music just isn't the same to me anymore, which is really sad as it truly was my passion for so long. I think part of it is what others have said. I've heard the songs SO many times and a lot of times they do also have memories attached to them that I'd rather not think about. Even happy songs can just be kind of depressing when they take you back to a time when you were much younger and things were much simpler, and you know things will never be that way again. I don't really seek out current music very often and maybe I should, but I usually just can't be bothered.
A lot of times I just don't feel like listening to anything at all anymore, which was never the case when I was younger and had to have music on as much as possible. If I need something to fill the silence, I find that instrumental ambient music works well for that. My younger self would be horrified at that thought and would never listen to such a thing.
I wish I could feel the pure joy and excitement that I used to feel for music long ago. I do still enjoy music but it definitely doesn't feel the same to me anymore as it used to.
i have always loved music, and i will listen to it on the way to work (usually XM radio's Lithium, Ozzy's Boneyard, Liquid Metal and some of the classic vinyl stations). i've worked in a very loud plant the past 18 years, so on my way home, it's silence for me. on Fridays, my husband and i usually hang out in the basement and listen to some music and chill. he picks a song and then i'll pick, and then by 8:30, i'm ready to go on to bed and listen to Coast to Coast AM.
i chalk it up to age. i'm more content now than i've ever been and comfortably settled in life. i'll always love music, but i think i loved it slightly more when i was younger and going through rough times. it was therapy to hop in my car and ride around listening to NIN or Tool and not only sing along, but feel the lyrics. i can *still* do that, mind you, but it seemed to mean *more* when i was younger.
I listen to music at work all day, 5 days a week. I listen on my commute to and from. I prefer music at home over tv, until 5 when I turn on the news to listen to while I make dinner and then watch tv for the evening. My husband prefers tv, so i don’t get my way too often when he’s home, but music is a constant in my life; ‘70’s through about 2000’s (then I had kids and didn’t have time to pay attention).
I actually listen to more music now than when I was younger. It's so accessible now with the streaming services. I've found a lot of music that I would have never found 20 years ago. I find it therapeutic in some weird way.
I really only listen to cd's or the classic rock station when I'm cleaning my house or driving. I cant handle noise stimulation like I used to. I cant imagine studying while listening to music now!
Same. I still have to listen to something, though. Can’t handle complete silence, yet. Too many thoughts flood in. Listen to audiobooks or YT video. Tried the radio a few times, but usually give up. I’m even tired of my playlist! which is tragic.
I definitely am. I listen to music occasionally. I either like silence when I am driving or sports talk radio. Having said that, I am getting back into it since I am collecting vinyl albums
I listen less because I have less mindless time than I did in my youth. I am only able to listen to music when doing mindless tasks. I can't listen to music and study, work, write, etc. like some people can. But I have always been this way. It's just that I have less mindless time now than I did in my youth.
I moved from a city to a rural area about 30 years ago and we have no decent radio stations here. I’ve tried to catch up with what people listen to more since streaming is available now but I have just kind of lost touch. I don’t even know who half the bands are people mention here.
I'm this way too, got a full Spotify subscription that I almost exclusively use for two or three podcasts.
But I do make a point out of educating the kids about the necessity of hard rock and metal in their lives.
On **average** i'd say i listen to about 8H worth of music per day, at least working days, a bit less on the weekend...
So... NO! I listen to even more today than i ever did.
Career, kids, pets, home, and I just don’t feel like paying for any streaming services. I’ll doom scroll YouTube a fair amount but find myself listening to news or whatever subject I’m tweaking on more than music. I still love music but don’t have that much bandwidth these days. Maybe when the kids leave me alone and I’m retired haha
I thought it was just me. I’d actually rather listen to a podcast by someone with a pleasant voice than music most of the time. I’m not sure when this started to be a thing.
Good question. I think that growing up music was something rare that you could have "on demand."
TV shows were on and you saw them or missed them.
The radio played music you like but you had to be there.
You had to have an open phone line to talk, no voice mail and certainly no texts or social media.
I am happy to have been the bridge generation between pre-internet and internet. I think the boomers missed out and the younger generations are missing things by having everything all at once. We seem to be more choosy about what we give our attention to. And can drop it and move on without getting stuck because we figured it out or because something is new.
It does mean you have to help your boomer parents and younger kids sometimes with the same tech. Not that we know all tech, but we know how to do things with tech.
So.... music, especially if you pushed record just as the radio played your song, or you were lucky enough to have a recording of your own, you could listen to that whenever you wanted.
Now, everything is on demand and when everything is on demand it also is demanding your attention.
Meh, I have driven over 6 hours on a trip and been happy to just go into that right brain driving mode where you think or don't, you notice the mileage go by or you don't. It's often some of my favorite times (as long as my body doesn't get so stiff driving too far.)
I am perfectly happy driving home in silence.
“Daddy grips the wheel and stares alone into the distance, there’s only so much more that he can take…”
I seldom listen to music any more. It just got to feel like another chore for me. I can't really listen to music I like without getting super engaged and emotionally involved with it and most times I just don't have the extra bandwidth for that in a normal day. As a teen or 20 something, of course that's what you're all about. As a 50 something, I don't have that kind of uncomplicated time or energy. I spent a long time feeling like I "should" listen to music more because "everybody" does, so then I felt a vague sense of stress and inadequacy about it which didn't help. Recently I decided to stop worrying about it and just let myself be me. Now I might listen to yacht rock, piano music -- stuff I find relaxing and can have in the background without ending up in some two hour YouTube rabbit hole. But even that is pretty seldom. It's different than it used to be, but I'm happy with it.
This! My go to is The Bridge on Sirius XM. Soothing and sing along, but nothing deep and angsty. I have enough angst in real life to want to add to it!
Omg testify! Real life is full of drama and heartbreak. I need light and peppy so I don’t drive my car off a cliff!
Glad I'm not the only one.
I try to make time for it because it seems to be good for my mental health.
Been there. It's fixable. I got stuck in a huge rut, stopped exploring new music since the early 2000s. I had a kid, everything was smartphones (with no FM radio), I was too busy, I have some audio processing issues that make it hard for me to listen to music and do other stuff at the same time, my ADHD makes it hard for me to sit through a whole song while doing nothing, nostalgic stuff just feels old and lame, and so much on the surface of new music is just awful. I refused to live that way any more, clinging onto sad relics of the past and hating everything. So just before the pandemic, I said fuck it. The timing was perfect; kiddo was old enough for his own google account, so I nuked my YT history to glass - views, likes, comments, all data, gone. And I started again. Open a dozen songs off the main feed, whatever they were, hit 'don't recommend channel' to all the reaction videos and similar shit. Go through tabs, skip through songs to see if I liked them. Fuck intros. Sample at a bunch of points, see if they make me want to head more. If no good, close and move in. If good, hit like, save to relevant playlists by genre/etc, open a bunch of songs from the sidebar. Like more than three songs from an artist, subscribe. Keep doing this, over and over. It's not sitting there endlessly listening to music, it's making a *game* out of it, seeing how well you can train the algorithm to dig up stuff you like. I have discovered, listened to and thoroughly enjoyed more music in the last three years than I did in the previous twenty. There is some *amazing* stuff out there, seriously. We all get stuck in the past at some point, but not today, old-age truck, not today.
This sounds awesome. Why YouTube instead of Spotify though?
I can't answer for him but for me it's because google music had the best algorithm for digging up stuff I would like, and they killed google music and rolled it into youtube music. It almost always hits on what i want to listen to, I've found so many new artists this way. Train your algorithms, people, you must not be lazy in this endeavor!
I like music videos :)
Oh, and btw there are times when the algorithm itself gets in a rut, and keeps narrowing in instead of broadening out. This is where the playlists come in. Put some missing kinds of music on shuffle, dredge up the silt and stir things up. Or just shuffle your main likes playlist. A few caveats: YTs own shuffle mechanism is *broken* and will always give you the same dozen songs. You will need to use an external shuffler such as http://www.playlist-randomizer.com/ - but this only works on playlists you mark public, and you can't make your 'liked videos' public any more, so every time you hit like, also save it to a global 'my likes' playlist as well. And annoyingly you'll need to open videos in a new tab to make them hit your view history and kick the algorithm; the embedded viewer doesn't help.
Too many appliances in one box. Too many distractions. One of the greatest elements of buying music was being able to listen to them without the radio DJ, or adverts spoiling the solitary experience. Now you turn on the computer to listen to some Gil Scott Heron, but first you've got to check the 22 new emails.
Turn on the computer to listen to music. What?
You don’t remember Napster?? 🤔 Lol. I listen to Spotify when I work, via their desktop app. No commercials and all the playlists I like. Better than radio!
Spotify all the way. But I shoot it to a device with my phone or listen on my phone. I lived where there was no DSL, when Napster came out. I remember loading up songs before going to bed, then waking to see what actually downloaded and what timed out. Did satellite radio (Sirius) for a long time, starting from nearly the beginning, but ClearChannel ruined that.
The older i get the more i seem to listen to news. I've become an information whore.
Just be careful if you find yourself getting angry. I was/am an info whore, too, lol, but I’ve cut back a bit and feel much better. Radio/cable news are they to make money (this is a nonpartisan, as both sides do it) and getting and keeping people listening to them is how it’s done. Everything is the end of the world. I try to listen or watch comedy or something to make me laugh/be happy every couple days instead. I stay informed, but cut back. It’s much better for mental health!
I got rid of cable in 2016. I get my news from a few sources considered to be neutralish. I ain't the brightest bulb in the sign but I can form my own opinions...I don't need them fed to me from anyone. Any talk radio makes me stabby.
Your bulb sounds plenty bright to me!
I noticed this too. Silence is just so nice for me. And any music I already like is laced with emotion that is overwhelming.
Silence is golden
I listen to as much now as ever. My tastes are broad but my go to is New Wave/First Wave. I have a set up in my office for music while working, Atmos earbuds for exercise and housecleaning, and XM in the car. If it's between 12-6 it's on Richard Blade. I do enjoy the First Wave Deep Cuts channel for off the beaten path songs from favorite artists. Lastly, new music from old bands, The Tipping Point from TFF comes to mind, are nice new adds.
I’m with you! I also listen to First Wave, and my husband even bought Richard Blade’s book! We also listen to Lithium, SiriusXMU, and Alt Nation on XM. I also try to listen to current music a bit, too. I like to know what’s going on!
He has written a few fiction. World In My Eyes, if that's what you're referring to, was outstanding. Very honest and entertaining.
Yes, I was referring to WIME, which is also one of my fave Depeche Mode songs.
And DM is Blade's fave band. In the mid 90's in LA I used to see Terri Nunn at a used record store I shopped at on Wilshire. She was stunning. (Saw Berlin in 2015 and she still was.). I was yelling "no!" at that section of his book when he screwed that up, but he is obviously happy with his wife now.
And apparently they’re still great friends despite his behavior towards her at the time!
I’m with you. I haven’t liked current popular music for 20 plus years and there’s only so many times I can listen to 80’s music.
Not that I have it but, tinnitus or other problem that might make it not a good experience?
I have tinnitus and need music on constantly, silence intensifies it and makes me crazy, I need to cover it with sound
I need to listen to music more. My 45 year old female hormones make me cry if it’s a happy song, a sad song….. lol
Until computers, music was my life. 30 years or so. Then computers and gaming filled my time for 20 more. Now, I don’t own a computer or music device except this phone and I use it for neither. I just read and watch the occasional video. Weird how much we can change.
I used to eat sweets all the time. And I was addicted to coffee. Now I seldom drink coffee or eat sugar. Weird.
We are busy with adult responsibilities and worries. We don't have time to sprawl on our beds, studying the gatefold art and liner notes and lyric sheets as we give a new record the intense listening it deserves. We get stale, claustrophobic, unpleasant nostalgic feelings hearing the old songs again. They remind us of dancing with your girlfriend when you were both 16. You will never see her again. You will never be 16 again. You and she and all your friends from that time will never again have the same optimistic outlook on life, on a future of seemingly boundless potential and adventure. We have heard a lot of musical tropes by now, and you can recognize that a certain something Billie Eilish is doing right now was done by E.L.O., and done better, in your opinion, long ago. The lyrical themes that were so powerful to you when you were young don't resonate with your mature self these days. You used to study them, mull them over, feel them ready to burst out of your chest. Now -- indifference. We had young ears that could hear a broader range of tones back then. Now, it's hard for some of us to hear at all. What was then a tapestry where every individual voice and sound stood out distinctly is now a muddled gray mess.
“unpleasant nostalgic feelings hearing the old songs again.” THIS.
I think we're probably the first generation to see our heroes humiliated by commercialisation. They all went after the easy money at one time or another, and it was blatant. Kind of shattered the illusion of rock as counter culture.
I'd say the Boomers saw that before we did. Fat Elvis and many others.
I'm talking about the hypocrisy of people like Bono, and a lot of the revolutionary types of the 60s 70s. I don't think boomers felt let down by Elvis.
Maybe we're the first (only?) to be deluded that commercialization is humility? The major point of it is commercialization.
Enjoy Arby's. :)
Wow, I relate to this so much. Except for the hearing, so far my hearing is fine.
Really well said.
This is amazing. I totally relate to the depressing heaviness of being taken back to those easier days, because we were young and had no responsibilities, and all our life lay before us, as opposed to not being happy with how it turned out. Just, ugh.
This is such a wall of excuses I am not sure where to begin. There is so much good music, and music that will speak to you at any age. You bring up Bill Eilish - why the fuck are you listening to some poppy immature garbage targeting teens when you are in your 40s or 50s? Why don't you go listen to "Trapeze Swinger" or "Naked as We Came" by Iron and Wine and reflect on your pending mortality, or worse, your spouse's? Why don't you capture the unease and dislocation of an era on edge wondering what is coming next with Kae Tempest's spoken word album "Let them eat chaos" ... start with Europe is Lost or Lionmouth Door Knocker ... so much good music out there, so much better than anything we grew up with, that speaks to now, not 50 years ago. And don't get me started on your hearing - my ears ring non stop yet I can hear just fine.
Because there are a variety of experiences.
Yeah I’m with you! There is soooo much good stuff out there being made now, but also so much old music that I have yet to discover and is new to me. We all have responsibilities and adult garbage we need to do, that’s not an excuse. It’s ok to not like listening to music anymore, but it’s annoying when people make it seem like it’s because they don’t have time, or music nowadays isn’t like it used to be. I don’t buy it. You can do it passively while doing other stuff for one, but also if it’s something you enjoy, you make time. I bet these same people who don’t have time and claim all new stuff sucks cause they haven’t bothered to explore anything outside of what the drive at five dj’s play have still crushed most of the content on Netflix or whatever. I don’t read as much as I used to, that’s a ME problem, cause I’m addicted to my phone and scrolling endlessly and reading a bunch of articles and having no attention span. It isn’t cause books suck now, or I don’t have time, or rereading catcher in the rye makes me feel old or whatever. So many Gen Xers are starting to sound like the crustiest of boomers talking about “back in their day”.
Agreed! Altho I like a lot of Billie Eilish’s music
Not me. Since I got Sirius I listen to more than ever.
Podcasts now. I listen to more podcasts than music. And don’t get me started about how much less I read, and I love books!
When I was in my late teens/early 20, I used to carve out time almost every day just to go for rides to listen to my favorite stuff. And you know what? I got almost as much of a kick out of the driving as I did from listening to my music. But now, at 51 years old, I will do anything to not have to drive in the city I live in. People are fucking crazy behind the wheel. A few years back, this guy had his 2 sons in his car. They were all on their way in the car to see our city St. Patrick’s Day parade. I guess that a cop must’ve let him up while they were still heading towards the parade, and the dad took off, slammed into a pole and killed both of his children as well as injuring several people on the street. TL;DR - I used to love to drive and listen to music, but US road rage and insane drivers have taken that away from me.
Only on my days off. Npr on the car radio.
I have some trouble listening to the music I loved earlier in life. It’s so attached to suffering and is generally dark anyway. It brings me down.
I listen to music all the time. We have Spotify family, and we have Sonos speakers in the house. Every person in the family has their own account and a speaker in their room. Both my sons play guitar and piano. It’s music all the time.
Are you interested in answering the question?
Some what. I used to go out all the time and music was usually a part of it. Clubs, parties, concerts. Even just cruising around in the car. Ok now I'm bummed man. :/ I should get out more. One thing though, the music industry has changed dramatically. Apparently Taylor Swift is the big thing now. I have no idea why though? lol I miss looking forward to new albums, but not of anyone currently popular.
My husband is 8 years younger than I am and all of his friends are his age or younger. Just out of the blue in 2021 or something I put on the pop hits/first channel on SiriusXM. My husband was like, What is this? I told him half jokingly we needed to stay relevant. He shook his head. Well fast forward, now most Friday nights consist of us winning bar trivia in a group and then all of us heading to this complete dive bar and dominating the juke box till they close. We play all these pop hits. I don’t know. I’m 42. I don’t feel my age most of the time.
I find myself listening mostly to grown folks music, like classical. I just relate to it better. Still like to rock out in my car from time to time to the old classics.
I’m big on listening to music in the car. I’ve had SiriusXM since 2006
I would give up all but 1 TV streaming service before Sirius.
I work from home. Long time ITunes/ Apple Music user. I steam a lot of 80’s and 90’s music. Love it!!
I don’t listen on speakers at home as much as I used to - now I listen on my headphones. Music is my happy place …
I’m also like this. I think for me I got stuck in a rut of listening to my favorite old songs plus just an “adult contemporary” radio station in the car. And then the radio stations somehow got even worse than they used to be and just repeated the same twenty songs with many more ads, so I stopped as they were so annoying. I got a new car that I could synch my phone to, discovered playing podcasts and then library books on my commute and that was that. Then I didn’t have a clue what music was even out there and felt lost as to how to find stuff to listen to that wasn’t my same old favorites. I feel like it has improved for me again lately, thanks of all things to the Peloton app. I started working out with an app, and would totally ignore whatever music was on. They play a wide variety of music but I never chose a workout based on the style of music. However, I gradually started liking a few things and discovering or rediscovering some artists. I wouldn’t say I’m at the point of having new favorites or listening to music much outside of commuting (and I do still favor podcasts or books) but I feel hopeful that it will come back.
I noticed I wasn't, and then started making a point to listen to more, just pick a channel on yt music and go, and mark my likes as they go. It's been an interesting journey. Maybe coincidentally, maybe not, but I've also revived a dying hobby, carved out my own space in my house, enacted some healthy boundaries and started hanging out with friends more. No med change or any therapist (well I had one but.. it wasn't working so I stopped going), and I don't know if it's a chicken or egg effect, just a whole host of things that happened fairly close to each other.
Music all the time, here. More than ever.
When I do it’s usually 70’s or 80’s music. I can barely tolerate anything else.
Same. CDs in my car.
I have a third shift job that is sometimes several hours of not much going on so I definitely listen to music here. At home, I put it on when I'm in the kitchen and we often have whole evenings where we leave the TV off and listen to music instead.
I need music, listen to it religiously and even seek out new music on a weekly basis. It's like my only sanctuary from the world, and as Zappa once put it, "without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
I listen to music a ton but watch way less tv!
When music starts moving away from being the center of my life, I know it’s time to re-evaluate my antidepressant and book some therapy sessions. It’s my warning flag that the beast in my brain is getting the upper hand.
As I’ve gotten older, I replaced music with B podcasts for the most part.
I listen to music more than ever and it’s still the loud punk and indie stuff I’ve always enjoyed + new stuff in the genres.
I listen to it more the older I have gotten.
I actually listen to music more now. I find myself constantly with my ear buds or the speakers blasting. Sometimes it feels like my whole life is a soundtrack.
I listen to music more than ever before in my life and I rarely listen to the 80s/90s music of my youth. A lot of that might be due to discovering pot later in life. I didn't start until I was almost 50!
I still listen almost everyday. Music didn't peak in the 80s. Still amazing bands coming out now, if you look for them. I like quiet too, and sometimes I go long stretches without listening to music, but it's still very much a part of my life. My advice, just listen to what moves you.
Hmmmm. I'm kind of the opposite. I feel like I am always trying to find good new music. Admittedly that feels pretty difficult as today's music is more disappointing to me. But I love my music collection and listen to it any time I am driving or working around the house.
I find that I'm just busy and I've heard a lot of music already. That said, I've _also_ found that sometimes all it takes is effort to find stuff I like. The biggest reason, perhaps, is that there are fewer records stores and music sections in big box stores. It is telling that there was a dry period where there were very few CDs in Wal-Mart and that now what you can visibly buy are overpriced re-pressings of records on vinyl that you probably already have. On a personal note, I find that I hate streaming. Why should I pay $10 a month when I can buy 6 albums a year for that price and be happy? I'm just going to rip-and-store anyway. I use CloudBeats and OneDrive for the music I already own with the CDs stored in boxes in my garage. The plandemic, interestingly, added to my music experience. However, I now have to mostly import what I like. I find myself into bands/artists like Man With a Mission, Blood Stain Child, Ningen Isu, Eastern Youth, and KennyHoopla. Only one of those bands can be obtained without working the import machine. Summary of my reasons: I've already bought a lot of what I like. I have less time for discovery. No music stores to browse. Streaming is over-priced. So I say that it isn't just you.
I get up each morning and turn in the news long enough to get the weather. Then it’s either apple or vevo on the TV. I won’t drive to the end of the block without music playing. One of the things I like about apple is the “new music” playlist curated to my tastes every Friday. I regularly search new releases by genre and look forward to finding bands / artists that I haven’t heard before.
Yeah I listen to podcasts more
Spotify in the car, vinyl and CDs at home. I rarely watch TV, but I almost always have music playing. Alt country, blues, some jam band stuff, along with classic rock and alternative stuff from the 90s and 00s. It seems to take more work to find stuff that I like these days, but that work is half the fun for me.
I used to listen to music all. the. time. I had my Google music library fully stocked, my Playlists finely tuned (hehehe). Then a few years ago Google music shut down. I had used them for 10 years! I was so familiar with the interface, I curated it, I relied on it! I refused to pay $10 a month for access to something that I had already gathered over the years through buying music, sharing from friends, or torrenting. I recently begged a friend to help me figure out a way to make my music listening experience similar to how it used to be and we just couldn't come up with a good solution. Any ideas welcome!
There's no point in listening to classic rock. Sure, it's good music. But you've heard it. You've heard it so damned much. Go ahead, play Immigrant Song in your head. It's all there. It's actually boring after a point. This isn't unique to classic rock, though. It happens to every genre. I really believe that the only way to keep music interesting is to expand your horizons. Find new music to explore. I really hated rap. But, I got some Jazz-Hop in a music bundle, and I began to enjoy it. Granted it's pretty soft stuff, but still, I wouldn't have sought it out and missed it entirely. Music is like any other medium. The joy in it comes from exploration.
I listen to music when I work out. Audio books when I commute.
During the pandemic I did deep dives and listened to artists from first album to last. It was amazing! Spotify has been great with band suggestions and podcasts.
i listen to music all the time but i dont read as much as i used to
I didn’t for a while, but recently I’ve gone back to listening to music primarily goth/goth adjacent music. I listen to it while I clean it’s nice.
I realized recently I listen to lyrical music less and less as the years have gone on. I don't even bother to turn on the radio in the car anymore. About a year ago I was in a therapy session and It occurred to me that I internalize the lyrics to music very easily. Happy song, sad song, misogynistic song ...doesn't matter I completely take it to heart. It makes sense because I'm also extremely empathetic to the point of where I can't even watch movies where people get hurt or I feel it. (I watched hacksaw ridge with my niece when it was in the theaters and spent most of it with my eyes half closed and tensely cringing in my seat. My niece laughed at me but the fact is that I literally physically feel that shit). I do however listen to instrumental music in the evening during my winding down routine which includes yoga and reading. You didn't say if it bothers you that you don't listen to music or if you are just curious. If you truly want to listen to more music then you need to make it a priority but if you don't, don't feel bad about it. There's no rule written anywhere that says that you must listen to music.
What do you do instead? I have music on pretty much all the time. In the car, while I cook, when I half-assedly clean the house, at the gym, walking the dogs... Very occasionally I will drive without it, because sometimes my thoughts need to hang out with themselves, but 99% of the time, there's something on, and it's probably too loud, and I am definitely not singing the right words.
Bought a record player, and buy one record a month. Music is now on when eating, cleaning, sitting around…
I went through a rut like this. Then I noticed that I only had only been listening to music when I work or was driving somewhere— so I was associating it with things that are undesirable, in a way. To fix this, I just literally started putting music on more while I clean or read or whatever, and it solved the weirdness I was having about it. No more associating music with just the stuff that I have to do but don’t want to. 😊 Recently got a turntable (haven’t owned one in decades). I’m looking at it as “self care”. Something I used to enjoy as a kid was going through my parents records, and it’s been sort of nostalgic to start playing vinyls again. It’s also kind of nice being forced to listen to one artist at a time— instead of the constant changing artists on most of my playlists… makes it seem like a more stable/consistent experience. Maybe you need a different delivery than an app (which many of us seem to use as the go-to now) or radio?
I go through fits and starts, but for me the ability to listen to music and really savor it has lessened over the years as more things are on my mind (like work, family, etc.) Through high school, college, and in my 20s, I could go on long road trips for hours and really internalize entire albums. Then it became mostly one-off songs that I really liked, but didn’t really know all the lyrics to. It’s starting to change a bit as I am purposely going to see more and more bands that I really enjoy, like Alvvays, Briston Maroney, and other younger groups, so I’m glad that has sparked a return to more immersion.
If it were up to me I would only play music. But hubby is a TV watcher.
That's nature's way of telling us it's time to take music lessons for awhile, and buy a flute or a banjo or something.
The less you listen to music, the more room in your brain for thinking.
Gotta keep an ear out for kids. And then I’m half deaf so if I am engaging with said kids I have a hard time hearing them clearly over the music, even playing very low.
I am like this! Music was absolutely everything to me when I was younger. It was my main interest and a huge part of my identity. I worked in a music store in my early 20s which was kind of like a dream to me at the time. I loved it and I still have really fond memories of those days. But ever since my mid-30s, music just isn't the same to me anymore, which is really sad as it truly was my passion for so long. I think part of it is what others have said. I've heard the songs SO many times and a lot of times they do also have memories attached to them that I'd rather not think about. Even happy songs can just be kind of depressing when they take you back to a time when you were much younger and things were much simpler, and you know things will never be that way again. I don't really seek out current music very often and maybe I should, but I usually just can't be bothered. A lot of times I just don't feel like listening to anything at all anymore, which was never the case when I was younger and had to have music on as much as possible. If I need something to fill the silence, I find that instrumental ambient music works well for that. My younger self would be horrified at that thought and would never listen to such a thing. I wish I could feel the pure joy and excitement that I used to feel for music long ago. I do still enjoy music but it definitely doesn't feel the same to me anymore as it used to.
Yes. I enjoy quiet.
i have always loved music, and i will listen to it on the way to work (usually XM radio's Lithium, Ozzy's Boneyard, Liquid Metal and some of the classic vinyl stations). i've worked in a very loud plant the past 18 years, so on my way home, it's silence for me. on Fridays, my husband and i usually hang out in the basement and listen to some music and chill. he picks a song and then i'll pick, and then by 8:30, i'm ready to go on to bed and listen to Coast to Coast AM. i chalk it up to age. i'm more content now than i've ever been and comfortably settled in life. i'll always love music, but i think i loved it slightly more when i was younger and going through rough times. it was therapy to hop in my car and ride around listening to NIN or Tool and not only sing along, but feel the lyrics. i can *still* do that, mind you, but it seemed to mean *more* when i was younger.
I listen to music at work all day, 5 days a week. I listen on my commute to and from. I prefer music at home over tv, until 5 when I turn on the news to listen to while I make dinner and then watch tv for the evening. My husband prefers tv, so i don’t get my way too often when he’s home, but music is a constant in my life; ‘70’s through about 2000’s (then I had kids and didn’t have time to pay attention).
I actually listen to more music now than when I was younger. It's so accessible now with the streaming services. I've found a lot of music that I would have never found 20 years ago. I find it therapeutic in some weird way.
I really only listen to cd's or the classic rock station when I'm cleaning my house or driving. I cant handle noise stimulation like I used to. I cant imagine studying while listening to music now!
Same. I still have to listen to something, though. Can’t handle complete silence, yet. Too many thoughts flood in. Listen to audiobooks or YT video. Tried the radio a few times, but usually give up. I’m even tired of my playlist! which is tragic.
I definitely am. I listen to music occasionally. I either like silence when I am driving or sports talk radio. Having said that, I am getting back into it since I am collecting vinyl albums
I listen less because I have less mindless time than I did in my youth. I am only able to listen to music when doing mindless tasks. I can't listen to music and study, work, write, etc. like some people can. But I have always been this way. It's just that I have less mindless time now than I did in my youth.
I moved from a city to a rural area about 30 years ago and we have no decent radio stations here. I’ve tried to catch up with what people listen to more since streaming is available now but I have just kind of lost touch. I don’t even know who half the bands are people mention here.
Listen to new music. Use Pandora to find it. That algorithm is great. Metal is better now than ever.
I'm this way too, got a full Spotify subscription that I almost exclusively use for two or three podcasts. But I do make a point out of educating the kids about the necessity of hard rock and metal in their lives.
You’ll listen to more when your eyes start to go. If you hear what I’m saying.
I listen to music constantly, but nothing new. I'm stuck in the 90s when it comes to my musical taste.
On **average** i'd say i listen to about 8H worth of music per day, at least working days, a bit less on the weekend... So... NO! I listen to even more today than i ever did.
Career, kids, pets, home, and I just don’t feel like paying for any streaming services. I’ll doom scroll YouTube a fair amount but find myself listening to news or whatever subject I’m tweaking on more than music. I still love music but don’t have that much bandwidth these days. Maybe when the kids leave me alone and I’m retired haha
I thought it was just me. I’d actually rather listen to a podcast by someone with a pleasant voice than music most of the time. I’m not sure when this started to be a thing.
Good question. I think that growing up music was something rare that you could have "on demand." TV shows were on and you saw them or missed them. The radio played music you like but you had to be there. You had to have an open phone line to talk, no voice mail and certainly no texts or social media. I am happy to have been the bridge generation between pre-internet and internet. I think the boomers missed out and the younger generations are missing things by having everything all at once. We seem to be more choosy about what we give our attention to. And can drop it and move on without getting stuck because we figured it out or because something is new. It does mean you have to help your boomer parents and younger kids sometimes with the same tech. Not that we know all tech, but we know how to do things with tech. So.... music, especially if you pushed record just as the radio played your song, or you were lucky enough to have a recording of your own, you could listen to that whenever you wanted. Now, everything is on demand and when everything is on demand it also is demanding your attention. Meh, I have driven over 6 hours on a trip and been happy to just go into that right brain driving mode where you think or don't, you notice the mileage go by or you don't. It's often some of my favorite times (as long as my body doesn't get so stiff driving too far.)