"old albums" or "what time periods are best represented in your collection"?

Rock: probably the 80's (unfortunately)
Salsa: 70's and 90's (because I started buying what was available at the chains in the 90's, and most of my back catalog purchases have focused on "classic" 70's salsa)
Arabic music: probably the 60's (unfortunately--since the 40's and 50's are better, in my view)
Jazz: 60's
R&B/Soul: 70's
Other: not sure

I have kind of the opposite experience: I am usually disappointed with current albums. I don't know if I care enough to try to convince you to listen to older material. If I preferred newer material, then that's what I would want to listen to as well.

In my case though (since I'm 37), many of the older albums came out when I was a kid, so they don't seem as old as things that were released before I was born. Lately I've been wanting to buy CDs by Neil Young, Black Sabbath, the Kinks, David Bowie, the Carpenters, etc. all stuff I have been exposed to already.

So why is most of my stuff from that period, in truth it isn't a conscious pursuit of the decade more that the modern takes of older styles just lack something crucial, i think we live in a relatively sanitised time - "back in the days" there was a lot of social and political up heaval and i believe this created a diversity in music that had power and emotion, i think it is this i react to.

As for what constitutes most of my collection; stuff from 1995 onwards, largely, growing each year until now. I imagine I've got way more 00s albums than 80s albums, and more 90s than anything else (just cos that was the period of me being between 10-20), but in another three years or so the 00s will have taken over.

Had an amusing thought the other day; after a point about midway through 2001, indie and mainstream guitar-based pop/rock music seems to almost completely dry up in my collection.

"why exactly should i bother with some hoary old rock "classic" when there are plenty of current bands who will provide me with a poppier, more enjoyable, more contemporary take on the oldsters? "

I can understand that attitude to a point, but i really don't share it. i still get excited about new music, but usually it's only a handful of active bands or a couple particular 'scenes' at a time, often bands I get to see live on a regular basis. plus i'm generally at least interested, if not necessarily excited (though i sometimes am) about what's going on in modern pop and hip hop.

but i would find it difficult to buy as many new albums as i buy old ones (and believe me, I've tried). there's just so so so much out there that was before my time, or that I missed the first time. I don't really feel an obligation to be up on the 'canon' and own the classics, unless I already have an interest in the artist. so while I might get bored if I was just waiting around for the next new thing to catch my ear, there's always something from the past that I've been meaning to check out and am happy to make time for, be it some SST chestnut or an Elvis Costello album I don't have yet.

also, I've noticed while looking at my CD collection that the ones that I truly have no interest in listening to again (though I simply don't have the heart to sell) are generally things I bought when they were new, partly because they were 'new'. not sure what that means exactly, besides maybe that I don't like the risk of buying new releases by artists I don't already love, because it's not as safe as buying something old that there is already an understanding of its value. and i really really don't trust reviews by pretty much anyone about anything, so I find it difficult to take anyone else's word on what to check out.

Out of curiousity, to what "new" bands are you referring?

though the 30s, 40s, and 50s are also up there what with my olden blues and early rockaroll stuff.

But the 70s have the widest array of stuff that appeals to me and that I'm still hunting down and exploring: glam, funk, rock, jazz, punk, country, krautrock, dub, power pop... so much stuff was bubbling in the 70s, a lot of the music sticks with me. I still buy a lot of new stuff too, but when I'm just browsing and being a "completist", more often than not I end up looking for stuff recorded between 1968-1982.

My stuff:
1/3 Rock 1950s-Current (includes R&B & Soul)
1/3 Jazz 1920s-1970s (includes Blues)
1/3 Country 1920s-1970s (includes Folk and indigenous)

When pushed though, I think the 70s takes up the biggest space in my collection (more so if you count my vinyl).

Out of the last two dozen or so CDs I bought, only one came out this year and that was by a bloke in his sixties (Wayne Shorter - 'Alegria'). At the moment I'm getting more country and jazz than anything, mostly from the 50s, 60s and 70s. As for rock, I probably buy at least twice as much stuff from the 60s or 70s as anything more recent.

Having said that, because I started buying records in 1980, I've obviously got a ton of stuff from the 80s and a fair bit from the 90s. I reckon my collection breaks down like this:

20s - very little - the odd Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Rodgers, Bessie Smith LP or tape
30s - again, not much, some blues, country, jazz
40s - bit more jazz, blues, country, some early Sinatra
50s - I reckon well over 100 albums, as well as the 3 genres mentioned above there's obviously rock 'n' roll and soul coming in.
60s - in the hundreds, loads of rock too
70s - probably more than the 60s - I think I've got more here than any other decade, particularly rock and soul
80s - the decade I really started getting into music, tons of alternative rock
90s - less than the 80s, by now I was buying more back catalogue
00s - still buy new stuff, but mostly by old fuckers.

To some extent it might be a genre thing. There's plenty of interesting things going on now in rock, pop, dance, whatever. But if you want to listen to country you're better off investigating Merle Haggard or the Louvin Brothers than what comes out of Nashville nowadays. And I'm hearing a lot of jazz albums from the 60s that still sound musically adventurous to these ears.

ha ha, see i sorta feel the opposite, why should i bother to keep up w. new stuff when there's all this old stuff that's [value judgmement suspended] that i can get cheaper?