When Did I Become Old? (Long Post)

[madbass6]

I took the week off to do some yard work before the summer is over and my wife was joking with me as we ate breakfast, “When was the last time you listened to new music?”

I laughed and said “Well, I listen to a modern jazz radio station (Jazz FM 91 The Grooveyard, which plays more jazz fusion/jazz-funk kind of music. I highly recommend it if that’s your thing) and they play newer stuff. I also listen to Esperanza Spalding, and other newer jazz stuff.”

She laughed, “That’s old people music. When was the last time you listened to new music? When you started being a musician did you ever think you would not be on the cutting edge of music?”

I had to think, and she was right. What got me to buy a bass was learning Pink Floyd’s bassline to “Money” on my acoustic 6 string, but the band I really cut my teeth on were the Arctic Monkeys and at the time (their first and second album) were really different to everything I had heard before and it was real refreshing. At the time, I was playing towards joining a band of that style.

My music taste evolved as I got older to 70’s Prog Rock (Rush, King Crimson, Yes, etc), older Rock/Metal, Classical Music, and Jazz. I pretty much despise all new music (except for new releases of the older styles I like). In my teens, I also loved 90’s hip hop/rap, but feel that hip hop has also tanked since around 2005.

Anyways, after I ate breakfast, I went outside to do my yard work. I turned on this Grooveyard station on my iPhone. A few hours later, my wife came out to see how I was doing, and joked around about listening to this old music again.

A minute later, a real sweet neighbour we have (a married, Christian couple in their 60’s, give or take), came over to talk to use and the wife screamed, “Oh, you’re jazzing it up back here!” And she put her hands in there air and started dancing.

After they left and my wife went in, I couldn’t help but feeling like my Dad. I’m 34 years old, and while that number sounds old to my old teenage self. I don’t feel old at all. I’m immature as hell. I still watch Marvel movies and saw the new trailer for Bumblebee (the new Transformers spin-off movie NOT directed by Michael Bay), and was very happy to see OG Starscream will be in it.

So, when the hell did I turn old? If I had to pin-point it to an age. I’d say it was around the time I turned 30...

I’m curious if generations before me found themselves listening to similar type music they grew up on, or matured and listened to older music around the time they turned 30; or if the good music of the day kept their interest in new music?

My wife is my age and she loves new music, but we don’t listen to music the same. She listens it to it passively as she drives or works out. She likes uptempo stuff that gets her dancing. I don’t dance. I listen to stuff that inspires my musical endeavours.

Thoughts?

You're only as old as you feel!

 

[cmcbass]

I will interject this here as it's one of my favorite bands. Kinda jazzy and lots of prog influence. Takes a little while to get going. Skip to 45 seconds of impatient.

 

[Matthew_84]

Hold the phone here... I thought Arctic Monkeys were current music. If you’re old and you’re 34 and I’m 28... OMG NO NO NO I’M COOL AND HIP AND NO GOD PLEASE NO... I’m old.

Well, they are still current. I personally don't like their music as much from the their third album (Humbug) and onward. Honestly, it seems like each new album has less and less I like on it, but I know a lot of younger cats that prefer the newer stuff. Maybe, they just do a good job of keeping up with the trends. Me? I'm old, so I like the older stuff.

This is one of my favourite tracks from any band:

 

[Matthew_84]

I will interject this here as it's one of my favorite bands. Kinda jazzy and lots of prog influence. Takes a little while to get going. Skip to 45 seconds of impatient.

Ooh, I like this. Honestly, the start was a bit daunting, lol. I was determined to not skip to 45 seconds, telling myself to not be impatient, but it sounded like the song was not going to be anything I like, and then wham, turned out to be right up my alley.

Is the rest of this band's stuff instrumental as well? I may have to check out more of it if it is.

 

[cmcbass]

I believe everything they've done is instrumental

 

[franklindayala]

Old, not obsolete.

 

[jazznrick]

Well, they are still current. I personally don't like their music as much from the their third album (Humbug) and onward. Honestly, it seems like each new album has less and less I like on it, but I know a lot of younger cats that prefer the newer stuff. Maybe, they just do a good job of keeping up with the trends. Me? I'm old, so I like the older stuff.

This is one of my favourite tracks from any band:

Favourite Worst Nightmare might be my favorite album of theirs. Great track. I like all of the albums, and it has been a treat to learn the bass off each album.

 

[Dabndug]

I was thinking that Gorillaz and Fleet Foxes were "new" music I like, but they've been around for ages now. Finding something "authentic" - acts that write their own material - is a challenge unless you're lucky enough to live in a place with an active and diverse live music culture. Evan then, as we get older, hanging out at dives at 3:00am to catch the latest act isn't the fun it once was.

 

[Old Garage-Bander]

I took the week off to do some yard work before the summer is over and my wife was joking with me as we ate breakfast, “When was the last time you listened to new music?”

I laughed and said “Well, I listen to a modern jazz radio station (Jazz FM 91 The Grooveyard, which plays more jazz fusion/jazz-funk kind of music. I highly recommend it if that’s your thing) and they play newer stuff. I also listen to Esperanza Spalding, and other newer jazz stuff.”

She laughed, “That’s old people music. When was the last time you listened to new music? When you started being a musician did you ever think you would not be on the cutting edge of music?”

I had to think, and she was right. What got me to buy a bass was learning Pink Floyd’s bassline to “Money” on my acoustic 6 string, but the band I really cut my teeth on were the Arctic Monkeys and at the time (their first and second album) were really different to everything I had heard before and it was real refreshing. At the time, I was playing towards joining a band of that style.

My music taste evolved as I got older to 70’s Prog Rock (Rush, King Crimson, Yes, etc), older Rock/Metal, Classical Music, and Jazz. I pretty much despise all new music (except for new releases of the older styles I like). In my teens, I also loved 90’s hip hop/rap, but feel that hip hop has also tanked since around 2005.

Anyways, after I ate breakfast, I went outside to do my yard work. I turned on this Grooveyard station on my iPhone. A few hours later, my wife came out to see how I was doing, and joked around about listening to this old music again.

A minute later, a real sweet neighbour we have (a married, Christian couple in their 60’s, give or take), came over to talk to use and the wife screamed, “Oh, you’re jazzing it up back here!” And she put her hands in there air and started dancing.

After they left and my wife went in, I couldn’t help but feeling like my Dad. I’m 34 years old, and while that number sounds old to my old teenage self. I don’t feel old at all. I’m immature as hell. I still watch Marvel movies and saw the new trailer for Bumblebee (the new Transformers spin-off movie NOT directed by Michael Bay), and was very happy to see OG Starscream will be in it.

So, when the hell did I turn old? If I had to pin-point it to an age. I’d say it was around the time I turned 30...

I’m curious if generations before me found themselves listening to similar type music they grew up on, or matured and listened to older music around the time they turned 30; or if the good music of the day kept their interest in new music?

My wife is my age and she loves new music, but we don’t listen to music the same. She listens it to it passively as she drives or works out. She likes uptempo stuff that gets her dancing. I don’t dance. I listen to stuff that inspires my musical endeavours.

Thoughts?

TL:FA

 

[GretschWretch]

For the longest time I gravitated to the music I grew up with, which was late fifties - early seventies; but as I've gotten older I've migrated toward Carolina Chocolate Drops-type music (old-timey string band, jug band) and minstrel tunes. Jurassic roots music.

I suppose when I enter my dotage I shall be grooving to Gregorian chant.

 

[aldaa]

So, when the hell did I turn old? If I had to pin-point it to an age. I’d say it was around the time I turned 30...

I’m curious if generations before me found themselves listening to similar type music they grew up on, or matured and listened to older music around the time they turned 30; or if the good music of the day kept their interest in new music?

My wife is my age and she loves new music, but we don’t listen to music the same. She listens it to it passively as she drives or works out. She likes uptempo stuff that gets her dancing. I don’t dance. I listen to stuff that inspires my musical endeavours.

Thoughts?

It doesn't make you old, it just means you like what you like. There is a point in time where everything started sounding the same. I, myself, listen to just about everything I can get my hands on, but the recording quality nowadays seems so generic and homogeneous, that everything sounds the same to me.

There's a new-ish band that is getting popular right now in the whole stoner rock/psychedelic-y genre and they sound like 10 different bands I heard 10 years ago. This is a common thing happening. The amount of original music is dwindling, to where (for me) it's like finding a needle in a haystack when I come across something good.

A lot of genres are going stale, and the recording quality of stuff nowadays, with people owning their own home studios, is making everything sound the same, unless they have their OWN sound. For instance, Queens of the Stone Age, no matter who records them, will always sound like Josh Homme on guitar. That guy has his own style and it is unmistakable.

I'm 29 btw.

 

[Muddslide]

As for when do you become old? I have 30+ years on you and it’s when you stop doing the things you love, and settling for convenience over passion.

We don't stop playing because we get old; we get old because we stop playing.

 

[Altitude]

I get your point, and it is valid, but as a 50 year old who was a punk rock kid (although I always did, and continue to, listen to all kinds of music from all eras and all points on the globe) I'd like to say that while I acknowledge a lot of punk was not very cerebral and much of it was generic, there were several punk bands who had great musicians and whose music was anything but dumb:

The Fall
Wire
Pere Ubu
The Birthday Party
The Minutemen
Mission of Burma
Bad Brains

...just a few who come to mind...

I put “dumb” in quotes on purpose. Music is art, there’s no dumb. But like you said, you took my meaning.

I’m 47; I was there too.

 

[Muddslide]

There's a new-ish band that is getting popular right now in the whole stoner rock/psychedelic-y genre and they sound like 10 different bands I heard 10 years ago. This is a common thing happening.

It's been happening. Now, I don't think originality is the be-all and end-all of music or any other artistic medium. Otherwise, I'd find nothing new to listen to.

There will always be room for a good song or interesting sounds.

But a lot of younger people never got to hear The Buzzcocks for example, so they didn't realize just how much Green Day aped their sound. (Green Day themselves not being a "new" band anymore, of course.)

But for many years--decades even--I've had younger people (including my daughters, who are now (barely) adults themselves) try to turn me onto "new" music that to me while it can sometimes be good, catchy, well-executed, etc., just largely sounds like a rehash of stuff I was listening to 30 years and more ago:

"Yeah, this is cool but it sounds just like The Cramps."

"Pretty good, but it's nothing Sabbath didn't already do in the early 70s."

"I like this, but it sounds like it came straight from 1983."

...and so on.

 

[Muddslide]

Ooh, I like this. Honestly, the start was a bit daunting, lol. I was determined to not skip to 45 seconds, telling myself to not be impatient, but it sounded like the song was not going to be anything I like, and then wham, turned out to be right up my alley.

Is the rest of this band's stuff instrumental as well? I may have to check out more of it if it is.

You might dig this. Also an all instrumental band:

 

[Muddslide]

I was thinking that Gorillaz and Fleet Foxes were "new" music I like, but they've been around for ages now. Finding something "authentic" - acts that write their own material - is a challenge unless you're lucky enough to live in a place with an active and diverse live music culture. Evan then, as we get older, hanging out at dives at 3:00am to catch the latest act isn't the fun it once was.

Totally relate.

 

[dpaul]

The newest thing I’ve listened to is Lake Street Dive’s ‘Free Yourself Up’ album, and like all their music, it’s pretty great. I’m not sure how ‘new’ that’s considered. It helps to work with younger people though, since I don’t really do social media I’m not always up on what’s out there nowadays.

 

[Muddslide]

I put “dumb” in quotes on purpose. Music is art, there’s no dumb. But like you said, you took my meaning.

I’m 47; I was there too.

I wasn't trying to be contrary. I think what you said was pretty right on. Apologies if it sounded like I was calling you out.

 

[aldaa]

It's been happening. Now, I don't think originality is the be-all and end-all of music or any other artistic medium. Otherwise, I'd find nothing new to listen to.

There will always be room for a good song or interesting sounds.

But a lot of younger people never got to hear The Buzzcocks for example, so they didn't realize just how much Green Day aped their sound. (Green Day themselves not being a "new" band anymore, of course.)

But for many years--decades even--I've had younger people (including my daughters, who are now (barely) adults themselves) try to turn me onto "new" music that to me while it can sometimes be good, catchy, well-executed, etc., just largely sounds like a rehash of stuff I was listening to 30 years and more ago:

"Yeah, this is cool but it sounds just like The Cramps."

"Pretty good, but it's nothing Sabbath didn't already do in the early 70s."

"I like this, but it sounds like it came straight from 1983."

...and so on.

Oh, I'm with you on originality. It's not what makes me go after something. Plenty of the same bands I love have the same sound... I'll occasionally seek out bands that sound exactly like a certain band, but for me, very few bands can really pull that off. Crap, being too original is even a bad thing. Like, people being original for the sake of being original, and it turns out horrendously.

Also, with my original post in regards to recording quality, there's a huge thing with old classic metal (particularly thrash metal) bands try coming out with new albums and they end up sounding nothing like themselves, but it ends up sounding like every other current metal band, and you can hardly tell it's the classic band unless the singer has a notable voice.

 

[alaskaleftybass]