How music listening changes over time

[metalcore]

“The project started with a common conception that musical taste does not evolve after young adulthood. Most academic research to date supported this claim, but - based on other areas of psychological research and our own experiences - we were not convinced this was the case,” said Arielle Bonneville-Roussy from Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, who led the study.

The study found that, unsurprisingly, the first great musical age is adolescence - defined by a short, sharp burst of ‘intense’ and the start of a steady climb of ‘contemporary’. ‘Intense’ music - such as punk and metal - peaks in adolescence and declines in early adulthood, while ‘contemporary’ music - such as pop and rap - begins a rise that plateaus until early middle age.

...

“Whereas the first musical age is about asserting independence, the next appears to be more about gaining acceptance from others.”

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-musical-ages-of-modern-man-how-our-taste-in-music-changes-over-a-lifetime

[Undermind]

This study sounds like someone took generational trends and extrapolated it out too far.

[crow]

I would probably listen to far more music than I do, if I hadn't realized that the rhythms inherent to music tend to turn me into a witless, bopping, automaton.
There used to be a finger-snapping-in-time-to-the-music craze when I was young. Even then I considered it idiotic.
Still, there is music worth listening to, but as with anything, it helps to not turn it into an addiction.

[Barbaar]

I would probably listen to far more music than I do, if I hadn't realized that the rhythms inherent to music tend to turn me into a witless, bopping, automaton.
There used to be a finger-snapping-in-time-to-the-music craze when I was young. Even then I considered it idiotic.
Still, there is music worth listening to, but as with anything, it helps to not turn it into an addiction.

You seem to describe a rather primal reaction to rather primitive music. I never found myself foot-tapping to Haydn. Nor does that music engender any loss of consciousness in me.

I gathered you don't listen to metal much. What music is worth listening for you?

[crow]

I am a rather primal man, and in some ways, primitive, too.
You overestimate me: I do not listen to metal, at all

Also, I suffer from what amounts to a condition, in which, hearing only a couple of bars of something, it invades my head, going round and round for days, even weeks. Therefore I tend not to seek it out.

If I profess a fondness for any particular type of music, then it is massed pipes and drums. Even I am amused by this.
It is a bit like waking up one day and discovering you have turned into a conservative. Slightly scary.

[dead last]

You don't like having music stuck in your head, crow?  I love the idea of a sonic pattern being so reactive that it leaves a totally neurological imprint. It's one of those weird things like remembering how something tastes, or smells, or reacts when touched. I think it's fantastic and I wouldn't be able to write any music if it didn't leave such a strong imprint in my brain, so I could "hear" it as many times as I want and make adjustments as I become more familiar with the flow of sound. It's a gift, really!

Anyway, I evidently have this whole "musical growth" thing backward. I could talk to people about pop music until I got to be an older teenager, then I found grindcore and everything went to pot. Now I talk to people about music but it is more like trying to get them to understand why such and such type of music has value, death metal is not just random noise, etc. Rather than plainly comparing our preferences and recommending music to each other.

[trystero]

Listen to metal crow, you have already attained Buddha-hood, maybe there is more? I mean there must be something to it right. Why does it attract the people on these boards? What does it mean? It is not too late to study it still. Start from the beginning and make your way to the present.

Well, it doesnt hurt to ask.

Edit: Pipes and drums you say? Not quite, but try this please crow, if nothing else you should at least enjoy the video, which is quite nice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-wZTxJoDCQ

[crow]

Here's an example of things that get stuck in my pea brain...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUmRCcp7TkI
I don't know where it came from, since I haven't heard that song in probably 30 years.

Pretty, yes, but even so it takes up CPU cycles when I should be sleeping.
I went, over the years, to a great deal of trouble to get my mind to STFU.
Having attained that, I become a bit irked at any intrusion into the magnificent silence.

[crow]

...try this please crow, if nothing else you should at least enjoy the video, which is quite nice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-wZTxJoDCQ

Indeed the visuals are nice, and even parts of the - ah - music, but see, I would prefer the sound of wind and thunder to the man-made, somewhat demonic sounds. I guess peace is high on my list of priorities. And perhaps a preference like that only comes with great age.

I had a job, once, in a remote paper mill, and metal too often reminds me of a sick paper machine. It hurts!

[Eleison]

I would probably listen to far more music than I do, if I hadn't realized that the rhythms inherent to music tend to turn me into a witless, bopping, automaton.

That's an interesting take on the issue.  You're right in saying that, to some extent, pulse is inherent to music, although the nature of the pulse and the emphasis placed on it can vary widely.  In modern popular styles the music is stripped bare of virtually all melodic and harmonic content so the rhythmic pulse is most of what remains, especially when you add a drum kit to emphasize it further. 

I think you will find that any musical genres which do not include percussion as a primary instrument will have a far less obtrusive pulse, this is especially the case with much choral music.

The rest of us however will continue to enjoy our primal driving rhythms as we welcome the coming apocalypse.

[crow]

Ah, well, why didn't somebody just say that earlier?
You're like a bunch of druids, then, jumping up and down around Stonehenge, waiting for the Romans to show up and crucify them
See, I don't feverishly await the upcoming apocalypse, to the din of drums and eerie screeching.
If it arrives, someday, I'll deal with it like I deal with anything else.
If it proves personally fatal, then I've had an extraordinarily good and unexpectedly lengthy innings.

[Eleison]

Well I'm not sure I would put it like that, but I do think that to enjoy music which is extremely rhythmic one has to resonate with what one might call a 'climate of cataclysm'. 

This applies more to death metal though rather than stuff like the Summoning that someone linked in this thread.  Most of that is more reminiscent of folk music in its approach, in which case the rhythms are part of a more naturalistic outlook closely linked to the inherent rhythms of nature and particularly the human body (ie. heartbeat and breathing etc.).

[Bukkake]

The study found that, unsurprisingly, the first great musical age is adolescence - defined by a short, sharp burst of ‘intense’ and the start of a steady climb of ‘contemporary’. ‘Intense’ music - such as punk and metal - peaks in adolescence and declines in early adulthood, while ‘contemporary’ music - such as pop and rap - begins a rise that plateaus until early middle age.

I made this text pink so the pink frothy AIDS is more apparent.

[crow]

That's a very pretty colour, if you don't happen to be a man.
Bit hard to read, though.