You know you're getting old when...

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I've already responded to too many threads with topics along these lines, but I seem to like to talk about it. I'm 37 and most of the music I really like is from the early 80's or earlier (though I do like quite a bit of salsa since then, probably because I am involved with actually dancing to it). I don't think it's inevitable that it turns out this way for everyone (you will definitely find people older than me who are very happy with the current state of music), and I also don't think it's really such a big deal. (Come to think of it, of things discussed on ILM, what is a big deal?) To some extent I have "compensated" (though I'm not sure that was the motivation behind it) by getting into new-to-me areas, particularly old Arabic popular music and Latin music.

Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 9 February 2003 14:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

That's it: I'm more concerned with my emotional connection to the music than with the novelty factor. My emotional responses don't depend as much on the music's novelty as they may do for some other people.

Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 9 February 2003 16:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

...you are older than your favourite musician.

I think Howe Gelb is still older than me but in case the Mountain Goats became my favourite band I'd guess I'd be old. Not 100% sure though.

alex in mainhattan (alex63), Sunday, 9 February 2003 16:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

(i) You know you're old when you have your favourite album in three formats - the original vinyl, the CD re-issue and the special collector's edition CD with two extra tracks.

But siriusly - as one of the most elderly people here I can tell you young uns that feeling too old for pop/rock/whatever is just a temporary (and reoccuring) thing and if you have any real interest in music you'll find something new. I stopped listening in 1982, 1989 and last year because I thought I'd heard everything worth hearing and nothing new was worth bothering with. But something always dragged me back, although each time it was after I'd got rid of stuff I wish to God I'd kept. Being twice as old as the people who make the music that most excites me feels a bit weird at times but they can't arrest you for it.

Lord Marmite (Lord Marmite), Sunday, 9 February 2003 16:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

"So the question is this: what albums/songs make you realise you've reached a point of no return, as it were, and are your nirvana (no pun intended) of listening pleasure?"-- Trayce (trace@), February 9th, 2003.
---------->>>>

Nirvana make me feel old.

You know you are old when you have an 11 year old that listens to the entire Foo Fighters catalogue day and freakin night and you get so sick of it you tell her, "hey, when I was a kid I was Dave Grohl's supervisor at Tower Records in DC." Sure, he only worked there for three days and I don't think I ever laid eyes on him. I didn't even believe my coworkers when they told me this and I had to verify it by looking at my employee phone list...but anyhow...so you tell your kid, "Yeah, he forgot to show up for work one day. He used to be in Scream. Seems he up and moved to Seattle and joined this other band, Nirvana, and forgot to call in and tell me he wasn't coming back to work - EVER." So, not only does she really think she is hot stuff now that she is two degrees removed from Dave Grohl, but she runs out and buys the freaking Nirvana catalogue...and you can't take listening to it anymore, so you go out on your own, looking for some Scream to turn her on to, just to bring some sanity back into the home.

Yup.

Old.

BurmaKitty (BurmaKitty), Sunday, 9 February 2003 17:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

Being around the same age and having a lot of the same musical tastes as you, Tracye, I do understand. Don't be depressed by it, though -- like Rockist Scientist says, it could just mean there are other areas of music to explore, or possibly just other areas of emotional satisfaction via art or whatever. Let your mind wander as it does. I'm with Kate, though -- texture! Texture! Can't be celebrated enough!

I will say, though, you really should check out that late Talk Talk stuff, no doubt of that. :-) And the Kitchens of Distinction are wondrous beyond description...

Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 9 February 2003 20:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

Word up, homeboy Ned Raggett. He speaks the truth.

If you look, you will always find art/music that will deliver, but it's rare that it'll drop into your lap. It's true that you might not find the exact same thing that will yank your chain ('cause it probably won't.) Something new, however, it just as likely to sneak in a back door and get past your guard, but it's unlikely that it'll be the same sounds that got you when you were 13 or 23 (or 35, like me). It's called growing up, and it's far from a bad thing (though i might argue that point in another ten or twenty years.)

It certainly might take longer for things to grow on you or for you to find them, but take heart in the fact that nobody has heard everything and that there's still stuff to discover, whether it be records that came out nearly thirty years ago or today.

So, to answer your question, none. Nothing i've heard convinces me that there's nothing else worth doing.

-Matt, being helpfully unhelpful.

Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Sunday, 9 February 2003 21:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

At the ripe old age of 35, I've long since gotten used to the fact that "my era" has passed. There was some shifting of the tectonic plates of youth culture a few years back it seems, and I found myself stranded on the "wrong" (read: no longer youthful or hip) continent. At first that seemed somewhat disquieting, but I made my peace with it -- why? Well, primarily because the stuff that "the kids" get all riled up about nowadays by and large doesn't speak to me in the same manner as the music that I got excited about did (and -- for the most part -- still does). While I happened to come of age in roughly the same time frame as Hip Hop (having been in high school in the early 80's) and in largely the same spawning ground (New York City), I never felt *that* much affinity for it (or at least not as much affinity as I felt for hardcore/punk and certain strains of regressive heavy metal). With few inventive exceptions, I don't relate/identify with today's Hip Hop (arguably the dominant music of today's youth culture) at ALL. There are select cuts here and there (Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes spring immediately to mind), but by and large, when it comes to Hip Hop, I'm more likely to reach for vintage Public Enemy, Das Efx or Digital Underground. The bands I tend to champion here on ILM tend to either be ancient/broken up/largely inactive/etc. (notably Killing Joke, Gang of Four, the Stranglers, Cop Shoot Cop, the Stooges) or bands that are still active but not wildly hip anymore (Firewater, Skeleton Key). I'm pretty fine with that. There are new bands I've gotten excited about of the past few years -- the Strokes, White Stripes, Hives, Interpol, the Rapture, etc. etc. and more recently the Division of Laura Lee and the Hot Hot Heat, but would could also somewhat cynically suggest that the only reason I appreciate these bands is because they sound like the OLD bands that I like. More recently, the wife and I have been moving, and I've been forced to weed the ol' CD garden, and I found myself jettisoning LOADS of discs I acquired in the ealry 90's (see this thread: Used Brit-indie discs in NYC: Suggestions please. ). Lots of these discs make me feel hecka old as well (it seems hard to fathom how bands like Revolver and Moose could ever possibly have been considered 'hip')!

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 9 February 2003 21:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

I feel almost this sense of security that I know there are huge swaths of recorded music (plenty of it pretty old) which I haven't gotten to yet, a fair percentage of which I am likely to enjoy.

Sometimes you can get the same "sound" you are used to, but from an unexpected direction. I often feel very much at home with things that were obviously recorded in the 70's, but not necessarily things I grew up with (e.g., Lebanese music, Fela Kuti, salsa). I realize not everyone wants to go the culture-hopping route, but there's probably something on the periphery of what you listen to that you could move toward.

Rockist Scientist, Sunday, 9 February 2003 21:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

as one of the most elderly people here I can tell you young uns that feeling too old for pop/rock/whatever is just a temporary (and reoccuring) thing

this feels true. just a month ago i was there (again). ILM helps though.

gaz (gaz), Sunday, 9 February 2003 22:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

We did a gig last night in this pub in crook, which is a small villiage in Co durham. They had VH1 on on a big screen TV projector. God, it was so depressing!! They played Prince "1999" - 20 years old!! They played oasis "Cigarettes & alcohol" - 9 years old!! And so it went on, all this stuff that you remember coming out, & being like a big event or something, and it was all bloody ancient history! If yer over 30, avoid VH1, it made me feel really unhappy. I hate getting old.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Sunday, 9 February 2003 22:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Reading over this thread has got me thinking I should be digging backwards for interesting stuff. And sideways, as it were. I'm liking the jazz and deep house a friend has intro'ed me to, and I would love to hear more Can stuff (cause I now realise I used to rather like Holger Czukay) and other older avant garde things.

Now all I need is money! heh :-/

Trayce (trayce), Monday, 10 February 2003 04:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

agewise, i'm somewhere in between ned (older) and alex (younger) -- and i've long ago stopped caring whether my tastes are congruent with the tastes of the twenty-somethings.

that said -- i do find the retro-fitting of late seventies/early eighties synthpop to be mostly amusing, and for what it's worth has made me spin the old Gary Numan/Human League/Kraftwerk/Depeche Mode cds for the first time in a long time.

Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 10 February 2003 04:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

four years pass...
I just wanted to revive this thread to say bollocks to my attitude here - I have totally gone on a discovery and fall in love with new sounds kick in the last six months like I havent in years. So I guess it is still able to be done.

I suspect context and situations play some part mind you. But for example, this year I discovered the Chameleons who are AWESOME (how I missed them til now I dont know), and new bands like Home Video and Engineers, and I have rediscovered my adoration for all things layered, shoegazey and textured.

Trayce, Friday, 11 May 2007 03:37 (sixteen years ago) link

The Lex keeps me young.

I eat cannibals, Friday, 11 May 2007 03:39 (sixteen years ago) link

engineers! :D

glad someone else likes their album. i'm really looking forward to their return.

Just got offed, Friday, 11 May 2007 03:41 (sixteen years ago) link

You know you are getting old when you actually look forward to going to the supermarket because of the good music they play there.

Last week, heard the Sundays "HWTHSE" AND "Summer Rain" by Johnny Rivers.

Saxby D. Elder, Friday, 11 May 2007 03:54 (sixteen years ago) link

Engineers are awesome! They are all the sexy of shoegaze but with a clarity and psychedelic kick that just ramps up the awesome somehow. I would make a terrible music writer.

Trayce, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:20 (sixteen years ago) link

all the sexy of shoegaze...with better production.

Just got offed, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:22 (sixteen years ago) link

Haha yes, I think so.

Trayce, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:29 (sixteen years ago) link

John Peel is my hero in this respect - he NEVER got old (aside from physically aging) and was always seeking out new sounds. I'm turning 40 this year and I'm happy to report that, yeah, my tastes still sprout from the punk-post-punk era but I listen to stuff now that I wouldn't have touched 10 years ago - alt-country & hard/loud stuff like Die! Die! Die! and The Mint Chicks. And there's still plenty that I passed on years ago to review - who knew I'd dig early Ultravox and Simple Minds? Almost everyone else I know has long since stopped trying to find art that excites them. Like Peelie, I hope to die before that happens.

Mr. Odd, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:34 (sixteen years ago) link

You know you're getting old when...

BOC means "Blue Oyster Cult", not "Boards Of Canada";
El-P "Emerson, Lake & Palmer", not "El-Producto"; and
"Jack Johnson" and "Starsailor" are two classic "LPs" (or "Long-Players") from 1970, rather than individuals from three decades later.

Myonga Vön Bontee, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:38 (sixteen years ago) link

You know a big part of me rediscovery has been last.fm. Its like a giant mixtape community in that sense. Has really woken me up.

Trayce, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:43 (sixteen years ago) link

xpost
means "Emerson, Lake & Palmer", obv.

Also, you're getting old when you think "Emo" is some kinda dream collaboration between Brian Eno and Electric Light Orchestra.

Myonga Vön Bontee, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:50 (sixteen years ago) link

The worst aspect of my musical aging has not that I've stopped discovering new new things: that still happens, albeit less often than before.

It's that for a long while I'd stopped discovering new old things - I found I was no longer trawling the back catalogue with the same carefree abandon I had in my teens and early twenties. The reason was partly just lack of spare time, but also self-consciousness: the older I got the more I'd think "you can't just buy oldies, that's embarrassing".

Plus there was a guilty awareness that at my age, I should already have own some say Gang of Four, to give one example of a band which a friend of mine was astonished I had not heard till 2004. (It was astonishing, given the rest of my tastes.)

The guilt is v counterproductive and unrealistic: as if anyone ever knows about all the music which they could or should like.

mrlynch, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:58 (sixteen years ago) link

"Walk This Way". Except I'm still right and those who changed their musical taste after that one are still wrong.

Geir Hongro, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:06 (sixteen years ago) link

(And I was only 15 and I already started disliking whatever was in the mainstream, having even complained about the decreasing quality of pop since mid 1985 or so)

Geir Hongro, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:07 (sixteen years ago) link

There's been a big resurgance of bands that make *textural* music lately. Engingeers, Flowers of Hell, The Early Years, all those Sonic Cathedrals bands, and this makes me so so happy. But the worm will turn again, and the finger of fashion will point elsewhere following its own vagueries. But leaving me with lots of lovely new music that isn't just Electric Prunes reissues. :-)

I think it's fine to have *one thing* that you really love and look for in music. But part of the growing up (as opposed to just getting old) process is realising that this is just your thing, and not try to judge all music and everyone's tastes on how well it conforms to your particular thing.

Masonic Boom, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:17 (sixteen years ago) link

So how does it feel now that everyone's four years older? Are we all empty husks pining for the days when we used to have passion for new music? That's the trend for the population at large, but I expect better from people here!

Fastnbulbous, Friday, 11 May 2007 22:16 (sixteen years ago) link

you're getting too old to rock when:

--instead of Coca-Cola or Budweiser, your tour is sponsored by Metamucil

--instead of panties getting thrown on stage you get Depends adult diapers

--the song that got you banned in 3 states is now used in ads for fruit juice

latebloomer, Friday, 11 May 2007 22:21 (sixteen years ago) link

three years pass...

Just found this on the Red Guitars guestbook:

"I wasn't born until 1989 so obviously wasn't around when the Red Guitars were. Stumbled across you guys by pure chance really, I was 16 working part time at a cafe. My boss had his mobile phone playing music in the kitchen as he washed up, on came Good Technology! I was amazed. I asked him 'Who's that band and what's that song called?' He told me, I went straight home after work and went on Youtube."

Mobile phone + Youtube, that pretty much sums it up.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 1 May 2011 03:02 (twelve years ago) link

one year passes...

Heh. This was my first ILM post (or thread I started, one or t'other). I've changed my tune massively since I started it. I listen to loads of new stuff again these days, and have dug through back cataglogues of so much awesome. What helped was the social recommendation tools of lastfm, emusic, and well - here, as well. If it wasnt for that I'd never have discovered Disco Inferno, Hood, Veil Veil Vanish, late Talk Talk (Mr Diamond was right!), Junior Boys, Home Video... all kinds of things.

Una Stubbs' Tears (Trayce), Thursday, 1 November 2012 08:12 (eleven years ago) link

I'm a year older than Trayce and Mr Diamond were when this thread started, and never mind retreating into music from my teenage years and early 20s (though I do like to hear these too, I just rarely think to put them on any more, and when I do it's often things I didn't really like at the time but have a sudden drunken nostalgic craving to hear), most of the music which has been delighting me these days came out when I was, oh, 3.

And I used to think my dad was oldfashioned for not having any records after he was about 21. I used to be deathly afraid of not keeping up any more, railing abt the music press's obsession with "classics" from 20-30 years earlier, but now I'm doing that too: I'm getting happier and happier to hide away with a bunch of new-to-me-but-old Italo or NDW or whatever, muttering "dubstep schmubstep" etc.

I am still listening to some new releases, though, and don't look forward to the day when that stops being true.

a panda, Malmö (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 1 November 2012 12:52 (eleven years ago) link

I did just make myself feel a bit old writing that and realising that the Clash records that teenage me thought were ancient history and everyone should shut up about weren't even 20 years old by then.

a panda, Malmö (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 1 November 2012 12:54 (eleven years ago) link

... when your teenkid comes into the living room to ask if you have any 'trap' music.

not only do i have none, i have no bloody idea what 'trap' music is.

official : old

mark e, Thursday, 1 November 2012 13:41 (eleven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqmzLgoWl3w

and yet (unregistered), Thursday, 1 November 2012 15:32 (eleven years ago) link

I was told about 'trap' music a few weeks ago, by someone who is using it to influence his own music. But I haven't yet heard any 'trap' music per se.

mike t-diva, Thursday, 1 November 2012 15:44 (eleven years ago) link

it's a trap!

make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Thursday, 1 November 2012 15:49 (eleven years ago) link

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trap+music

Doesn't sound like it's my thing...

And my feeling is anyone on this board who's seeking out new-old or new-new music isn't "old". The people I know who stopped paying attention to music entirely 20+ years ago and have no desire to explore beyond their narrow confines - those are the old folks.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 1 November 2012 17:44 (eleven years ago) link

And my feeling is anyone on this board who's seeking out new-old or new-new music isn't "old".

new-old vs new-new : thats a good point.

in the last few years my groove has mainly been all about new-old music.

mark e, Thursday, 1 November 2012 18:50 (eleven years ago) link

I've been experimenting with my own genre - 'crap music'

ILX until I die (snoball), Thursday, 1 November 2012 19:17 (eleven years ago) link

And my feeling is anyone on this board who's seeking out new-old or new-new music isn't "old". The people I know who stopped paying attention to music entirely 20+ years ago and have no desire to explore beyond their narrow confines - those are the old folks.

Herein lies mostly everything that makes this the ultimate music message board. I have only used ILX for a few years. I found it accidentally when I googled hypnagogic! You learn more about new-new/new-old music here than anywhere else in the known universe. Nothing wrong with getting old, just don't shut up shop with your mind.

Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Thursday, 1 November 2012 20:59 (eleven years ago) link

parrot's got some good points

d-_-b (mh), Thursday, 1 November 2012 21:00 (eleven years ago) link

He's earned tonight's crackers.

she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Thursday, 1 November 2012 23:48 (eleven years ago) link

I know I sounded like a total purple veined dick, but I did mean it.

Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Friday, 2 November 2012 00:05 (eleven years ago) link

We all sound like dicks here. Or at least I do. I rarely mean it! :)

she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Friday, 2 November 2012 00:14 (eleven years ago) link

I fear I am the new millenium equivalent of an old hippy who only likes VU and Neil Young. HELP!

for what it's worth, i would like this old hippy

but the boo boyz are getting to (Z S), Friday, 2 November 2012 00:30 (eleven years ago) link

The people I know who stopped paying attention to music entirely 20+ years ago and have no desire to explore beyond their narrow confines - those are the old folks.

I was never confronted with this until I went to my 25th high school reunion. For some folks, music taste and identity is tied up with their high school and college identities and years down the line music for them was more important for them as a catalyst for those memories than as an ongoing concern.

Tonight, bored out of my brain, I got out the Clouds "Penny Century" album. It came out in 1991. I had forgotten how much I adore this album, and how much of a perfect pop record it is (gorgeous female harmonies, crisp guitar work, lovely production, the whole nine yards).

Co-sign on this. Penny Century is one of my favorite albums and should be as well-known as Last Spash

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 2 November 2012 00:45 (eleven years ago) link

It really is a great album. They were excellent live too.

Una Stubbs' Tears (Trayce), Friday, 2 November 2012 03:11 (eleven years ago) link

I saw their one (and possibly only) Los Angeles show back when they were picked up/instantly dropped by Elektra in 1993. Terrific show indeed! Heard good things about reunion shows this year...

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 2 November 2012 03:19 (eleven years ago) link

reunion shows were ok, some of the vocals were a little rusty but generally the spirit was still there

whining boom (electricsound), Friday, 2 November 2012 03:24 (eleven years ago) link

OK, how have I been such a massive Breeders/Belly fan for almost two decades and only heard of Penny Century on this thread ten days ago? This is a damn good record and if someone had given it to me in 1993 and said "oh by the way, this predates Last Splash and Star" I would've p. much died of instant obsession.

a panda, Malmö (a passing spacecadet), Sunday, 11 November 2012 22:06 (eleven years ago) link

seven years pass...

You start really liking Werther's Originals

| (Latham Green), Tuesday, 14 January 2020 18:55 (four years ago) link


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