I have some friends my age still listening to the same bands they used to 20 years ago, complaining about how music today sounds all the same. However I discover something new almost every day and I’m not kidding.
It’s true that some of my discoveries are bands from decades before I was born, so they can’t be considered new, although they are new to me if that makes sense.
What about you? Still listening to the same tunes you used to listen to when you were a teenager?
I’ve always been the type to look for music. In highschool I was torrenting music constantly, then in the last couple years I subscribed to Spotify. I get so much dopamine from finding new music that I listen to new things probably every week/month. I do still listen to what I listened to 10-20 years ago, it’s just all a mix of my favourites at the time.
Don’t be too hard on your friends. This is actually scientifically proven. https://neurosciencenews.com/music-youth-17765/ You love the music that you “grew up with as you were forming an identity” You can always change but it is more work to create new memories and nostalgia based on different or “new” songs.
Of course not 😅 I’m not judging them at all, I finished years ago that phase where I thought my music taste what better than theirs
now I just know it is/s
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Every so often I’ll put on some of the old jams. But man, I’m just not angry enough anymore to listen to the old hardcore punk stuff I used to be into. Every so often I’ll put on a few albums though and think about those old times. Lately though I’ve gone down some crazy rabbit holes from jazz, ambient new age stuff, lots of lo-fi and lo-fi adjacent stuff. I recently discovered Macroblank and Monodrone, those two artists have taken up a lot of my time lately. I went through a pretty heavy vaporwave and futurefunk phase a few years back when I was trying to find more eletronic/funk style music like Breakbot. So all the stuff I listen to now is a far cry from the punk and metal I used to listen to back in the day!
Is it just me or is the process of finding new music also succumbing to the forces of enshitification? Like for me the sources went like this:
- Old forum-style/niche internet sources (userbase died out)
- Internet radio (ate by Pandora)
- Pandora (ate by other music streaming sites, enshitification of algorithm)
- Spotify (enshitification of algorithm, bad treatment of music industry creators)
- Google music (rip… But tbh wasn’t ever really good at finding new music)
- Music publications?? (Pitchfork is the best I guess??? Npr maaaybe? That’s sad, and also all of these are prone to enshitification)
- Local underground music scenes (lots died with covid, hope they come back, but now I live in a more rural place)
Like… How do we find new music now? If it’s up to an algorithm, it’s enshitified. If it’s up to people’s suggestions, idk where a userbase would even exist.
I literally used to run charting for a radio station and I STILL don’t know where to find new tunes. I’m still a baby, too, so some of you that think it’s harder just because you’re older… I have bad news lol
KEXP.org is free streaming and has a huge variety of music. It’s indy, run by human DJs, and has an app. They play just about every music type and publish their playlist live. Try that for new music. I find new stuff to listen to every week ( I find stuff to like in every genre, but if you’re more particular, then you might have to scope out the schedule to see when the genres you like get play)
Listen Local!
I’m more focused on new releases by bands I’ve listened to for a long time. Mostly rock, folk, and pop from the 80s/90s.
But I also got into EDM a little while ago and added a lot of new and old stuff to my frequent plays.
I don’t want to be the old grumpy guy, but the current pop music is very rarely pleasant for me… Queue the struggle for control when I’m in the car with the kids: We found that Yacht Rock is safe territory for all :p
I don’t know what it is, but I rejected pop music so hard when I was young (I was a big tomboy and lived for punk, still do, but I’ve embraced my femininity a bit more) and now I’ve kind of come to love some of it. That being said, I only listen to pop music if I agree with the message. You won’t find me listening to blurred lines or my humps because I just don’t vibe with it. Pop songs about loving yourself? hell yeah!
