I was born in 1965 and started appreciating music from 1978/9 as an art form.
Today I was thinking about the majority of what i recall as music I would go back to and it is mainly from 1978-1989. Particularly 1979-1984.
Blondie, ELO, AC/DC. The Smiths, XTC, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Squeeze, The Police, Kate Bush…all albums from those artists as an example fully lodged in my brain.
I could probably survive on re-listening to those bands and never need new music.
My loss?
Well, if that is your choice, it is your choice. Born 8 years before I have been swayed by music from a similarly early age. And yes, whilst it is true the songs I am most familiar with, know the words to and the backstories, line ups and life stories are those from my teens thru’ 20s, I have never let it stop. Often late to the game, in recent years I have become enthused by jazz, soul, electronica and whatever the word is for new age classitronica ambient currently is, hoovering it up in swathes to co-exist with my still alive passion for folk, country, prog et al. I love some old, I crave some new.
Yes. Roughly with a few exceptions
For me 1981-1986 add in 1989 and 1995 and we’re just about done
I’d heard a good 90% of the music I really love by the time I was 16.
A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.
Same here – I could probably be very happy only listening to music released between 1972 and 1977….I like plenty of music released since then, but none of it has the same resonance…
Mostly. Buyt I do know people who keep their tastes open long after others (mine) are receding back to 74-79. That said, I listen to a lot of soul and funk from that era now – I reckon we shift genres sometimes.
I still love a few bands from when I was 18 but I love as many from many years later…
I could probably happily get by with 1968-73.
Not for me. I find much of what I liked as a teenager quite dull. The stuff from that era that still enthuses me tends to be metal, hip hop, electronic dance or spiky punk, none of which were close to my favourites at the time.
The only guitar band who I was obsessed with then who still do it for me just as much now, no excuses or qualifications, is R.E.M.
I suppose I first started to take an interest in music when The Beatles and various other Mersey bands, such as Gerry & The Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, started appearing regularly on “Saturday Club” on the BBC Light Programme. That would be about 1963.
I would put 1965-1966 as the time when my love of Pop music peaked. After that I started moving in other directions. Psychedelic Rock, Memphis Soul, Motown and Chicago Blues became factors.
I’ve never got stuck in the “good old days” mindset although modern guitar jangle, hip-hop, what passes for r&b etc. no longer do very much for me. Metal never has. 21st century pop mostly passes me by unheard as I dislike almost all music radio.
Jazz of all ages, ancient to modern, is a current interest, along with electronica (old and new), some modern prog (preferably noisy) and the sort of semi-classical ambient chill and folktronica that people are making currently, plus glitchy mixups of the different styles I appreciate and complete weirdness.
I try and keep my mind at least partially open. I don’t go looking for trends. I figure they’ll find me if there’s anything to them.
Mike_H for President!
You means styles or bands?
I still like guitar oriented music, and that’s most of my collection.
I wouldn’t have believed if you’d told me I’d be getting into Country or Americana or duos from the Orkneys. Or indeed Public Enemy/NWA.
I’m not sure,but they do provide a protective shell.☀️😎
Funny you should say that I have followed REM for years and tried to convince my best friend of their merits,and after learning to play Fall on Me in his band he is now a fan…lots of catching up to do,lucky him!
I sort of agree with you. I find that the music I liked between being 6 and 16 sort of shaped my tastes for life. But while I still listen to a lot of music from that time I do listen to new stuff. But it sort of has its roots in my youth. So for instance Ive spent a lot of time listening to electronic music over the years, some of it dance. When I was a kid I loved the Human League. I also loved soul as a teenager, and am currently on a Frank Ocean binge right now. Which sort of mixes the two. And that’s how I work, playing join the dots with the types of music that shaped me and newer stuff.
“It’s getting better all the time.”
1984 – 9 original albums and a Greatest Hits.
2017 – 9 original albums, 2 CDs-worth of stray cuts/45s, numerous concerts on CD, copious volumes (without even having to go the “complete” route) of the Bootleg Series …
… all that now constitutes the 60s for just one artist, namely Bob Dylan.
The past isn’t receding, it’s expanding.
Same timeset @uncle-wheaty – I would say the 5 years from 1979-84 pretty much defined my core musical tastes. I’d gone from Parallel Lines to Reggae Sunsplash. There were gateway drugs to almost every genre by then (eg New Order to electronic). I didn’t get the sixties: this period was probably the low point in that decades’ reputation, but other than that it’s working out. But yes past and present have completely collided now. And some of my very favourite bands have only just started making music recently, from Gold Panda to Josefin Ohrn.
There are also bands from that time that I dropped and picked up again – Rush – and some that I dropped and it’s now clear will never really get with again – ELO.
I feel like the character in Ray Davies’ Victoria who was born “lucky me in the land that I love”, in that I started buying singles in 1979 and regard 79-84 as a golden period for singles, then just as my guitar pop love was reaching saturation in ’87, The Smiths broke up right as hip hop was becoming so exciting. Then, as the golden era of old skool was losing it shine in about ’93 the magnum opuses of electronic pop were beginning to drop. Perhaps what would have been most surprising to my younger self was an appreciation of folkyish, countryish Americana-esque sounds which began about the time Deserter’s Songs came out. So, the changes in the music changed me.
One thing that has stayed the same is the great feeling of flipping through albums in a record shop when possible (and the anticipation of same). It’s so much easier and a f**kload cheaper to trawl the sites, but never as much fun..
I was born in 62, I mainly like music from that year until about 97 as far as new artists are concerned
I think there are 3 different sets of five years which defined my music tastes.
I became aware of music in the form of TOTP in 1994 (around the time Wet Wet Wet were number one forever) but didn’t buy my first album until 1999. So for those five years my only exposure was to whatever was in the charts. Between 1999- 2004 (the start of uni) my music tastes were along the lines of contemporary indie (e.g Oasis, Supergrass, The Coral, Travis, Radiohead) and a smattering of older acts such as yer Beatles.
Fastfoward to 2008 – 2013 and I’m working for a well known music-retailer, using my 30% discount to explore the back-catalogues of Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, the Stones, Bob Marley, PJ Harvey, Blur, Girls Aloud, HMHB, Rihanna, Now That’s What I Call Music 1- 95, Classic FM’s 3 for £15 collection, Dave Bruebeck, Leonard Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel, Bowie etc etc.
It’s only been in the last four years that I’ve stopped buying much music, and I think that’s only because I’m no longer exposed to it as much.
But the best part of listening to music isn’t the “oh, I love this song so much – wait, here comes the awsome guitar!” moments, it’s the “oh, what’s this – that’s so much better than I imagined it would sound!” moments of hearing and falling in love with new music.
Sure, hearing an old favourite can make me happy, but the merits of the music is buried underneath blankets of nostalgia and memories – warm and soft but not very exciting.
Unpacking a new album, by a new artist that you’ve taken a chance on based on a title, cool cover art or word of mouth, is an event. It’s my birthday, many times every month – and I never know what gift is inside the box. I’d rather be disappointed every now and then than to never be surprised again, ever…
My point is that you can, and I intend to, exist on new “old” music from now until 2050.
About 10 times more 60s Dylan has been released in the last decade than was released in the 60s itself, and next Friday, in one day, there will be more music made by The Beatles in 1967 than was released in the year itself!
There are no “blankets of nostalgia and memories,” just genuinely “new” records by Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Who knows, one day The Rolling Stones might even get round to it.
I was talking about “blankets of nostalgia and memories” in connection to hearing an “old favourite” again, so no argument from me there; “new” and “new to me” is the same thing when it comes to hearing something for the first time.
Personally I enjoy modern music too much to restrict my musical diet to old stuff I haven’t heard before – I do that too, but I love to buy completely new stuff because then I don’t have a clue what it’s going to sound like (I almost always buy without even a quick sample), with the old stuff it’s difficult to be completely unaware of the general sound of it.
All Dylan and Beatles, huh? Well, if that’s your passion, go for it. I’m sure they have a few surprises up their bootlegged, remastered sleeves as well.
Did 5 years shape my musical taste?
Yes definitely.
Do I listen mostly to music from that era?
Most certainly not although I do return with great pleasure to old favorites.
A lot of my listening during my teenage years were the radio shows of the Venerable Peel and I am still an acolyte of the Peelite tendency (I even got to meet the great man and interview him for our school magazine!).
This was in the heyday of the Floyd, Soft Machine, Hendrix, Tyrannosaurus Rex, The Nice, Yes etc.
What those shows taught me was curiosity and open-mindedness.
Peel could in one show play Principal Edwards Magic Theatre (truly awful) Miles Davis, Tangerine Dream, The Supremes, Desmond Dekker, Can, Dr John, Louis Armstrong, Mozart, Poco, Osibisa,
One of the highlights of my years is the Early Music Festival every June. I never would have guessed I would become an Earlyhead.