Is that so?
On my way home from Overland Park this past weekend, I listened to Be Bop Deluxe, who fall within the 33-year limit. However, on the way up I listened to Floating Cloud and Onmyouza, both of whom are recent bands active in the 21st century. I recently compiled an iTunes playlist of favorite non-classical tunes. It includes plenty of pieces from my youth by Fairport Convention, Frank Zappa, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Spirit, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Cream and so on. But there are also such artists as the Hot Club of Cowtown, Jun Togawa, ((Hers is the only version of “Pachelbel’s Canon” I can tolerate.)) No Strings Attached, Gjallarhorn, Yuki Kajiura, Rare Air, Mayumi Kojima, Susumu Hirasawa and others whom I never heard until well after my 33rd year.
In fact, I’ve found more music in the past 15 years than in all my years in the previous century, thanks to the internet. I may be atypical, but I don’t think I’m unique. I seriously doubt that I’m the only person my age who actively searches for new music to listen to.
(Via Dustbury.)
I’m a bit of an aficionado of pop music, myself. Which means I spend a lot of time listening to Top 40 radio. Thankfully, my children only listen to Indie music so they still think I’m out of touch.
I was 35 when I discovered there was (a lot) more to Dean Martin than “That’s Amore”. Even older for starting to pay attention to: Oscar Peterson, Johnny Cash, Charlie Parker, Bump of Chicken, Iida Kaori, Younha, Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, Gen Takayama, Yuki Maeda, Perpetuum Jazzile, etc, and that’s not even counting the entire J-pop and K-pop genres. If it weren’t for the gratuitous rap breaks infesting most genres, I’d listen to even more modern music.
I think that what the odd quote is really showing is that most people never really looked for new music, and their social group becomes less diverse as they get older, reducing their exposure to new things. Not “mature” so much as “in a comfortable rut”, unless a Youtube video happens to make it past their mental filters. Like my friend Rory, who doesn’t recognize any popular song past about 1992, unless someone shared a viral video with him on Facebook. Even then, he’s more likely to latch onto things from the 70s like Dschinghis Khan’s Moskau or Boney M’s Rasputin.
-j