Musically, are you stuck in the past, or moving forward?

[Denninmi]

Guy across from me is probably a few years older than I am, maybe early 50s. He brings a boombox outside and listens to music while he cleans out his cars or his boat.

And it's always the exact same stuff from the 70s early 80s -- Foreigner, Springsteen, Journey, Bob Seger, The J. Geils Band, Aerosmith, The Eagles, groups along those lines. I can just about predict what he plays ever time. How many times can one man listen to "I Want To Know What Love Is" or "Glory Days" or "Hollywood Nights"?

And I can't fathom that, listening to the same songs over and over and over FOREVER. Blech! I like to buy new albums and listen to new music.

[raccoon]

1. I love music of the past too. You got a problem with that?

Sometimes, I like something new--"Truly Madly Deeply" by Soundgarden caught my attention--but basically I like the music of the days of my youth. Well, I like some other stuff too, some classical/folk/ragtime/C&W, but the music of my youth I guess I like the best.

[TwilightGardener]

12. Do you mean Savage Garden? Pretty sure that's not Soundgarden..

[raccoon]

18. You're right. At least I got the garden part right. nt

[Angry Dragon]

2. There hasn't been any good music since the 1940's

[whistler162]

25. Got that right!

[Bertha Venation]

3. I'm stuck in the 70s.

Not exactly happy about it, but 1. I don't know how to find new music that doesn't turn me off after the first four bars and 2. at least it's good music.

[RebelOne]

10. Me too. Love '70s music. n/t

[a kennedy]

46. ditto, the 70's music for me.....Mowtown especially

and these in particular....http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_songs-motown.html

[sakabatou]

4. I listen to stuff from the 90s through the 2000s

[onehandle]

5. Both. My heart lies in the past, but I keep up and can find a lot of new stuff to appreciate.

However, music took a slight nosedive in the 90s.

Grunge is the soundtrack of posers.

It's gotten better since then.

[TwilightGardener]

14. "Grunge is the soundtrack of posers"--

LOL. Grunge saved rock music--it's still some of the best stuff I've ever heard.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

41. I'm not much of fan, but I agree

It was the last gasp in the midst of an otherwise total cultural and musical capitulation to all things commercial and shiny and vacuous.

[TwilightGardener]

49. In general, there was a rebirth of good music during

the 90's. I think it was a reaction to, as you say, all musical things shiny and vacuous, which was pretty much the 80's in a nutshell. It didn't last, though--I feel like we're in a musical drought again (with the exception of newer rock groups like the Black Keys and Kings of Leon--bands that can actually play their instruments and write decent songs). And the state of commercially successful country music is just downright dreadful.

[HopeHoops]

6. Not only am I stuck in the past, my middle daughter knows MY music better than I do.

She hates the new shit.

[zen_bohemian]

13. my kids know most songs from the 60's to 80's because that is all I listen to

I am definitely stuck in the past musically, and I will just stay here, haven't really cared for too much music in the past 10 years. I listened to what was popular when my kids were younger (backstreet boys, Eminem, Brittany spears, Christina aguilera, spice girls (haha), and loved that music, but I am still stuck in the older music, it's just my preference.

[HopeHoops]

16. I'm mostly stuck in the progressive rock few people knew about at the time.

But if anything by Heart, The Cars, Steeley Dan, ZZ Top, Meatloaf, The Who, etc. comes on, my daughter knows every word.

[RevStPatrick]

7. I'm a little of both.

Studies have shown that our musical tastes tend to be pretty much set in stone by late adolescence.
Seems like your neighbor grew up around the same time I did.
For the most part, I simply cannot listen to any of that music that you mentioned ever again!
Totally overplayed.

That being said, there are some things from my childhood/teenagehood that I can listen to any time, all the time. Certain Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin type stuff I will never get sick of. You could put Revolver and Beggar's Banquet on constant repeat and I would be happy. I'm still discovering 50's/60's Jazz that I love. 70's Reggae and Funk still sounds great.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of new music that sounds fresh to me. Most music these days has been done before. It seems like most bands are trying to be retro, or are stuck in the electronic "bug music" thing. I go to see quite a bit of live music, and while a lot of it is good, little of it feels original.

Except for what my friends and I do. We have big jam sessions where we mix electronic and old-school instruments. iPad apps, hand drums, Moogs, violins, theremins and other weirdo instruments. Totally free-form, not your typical "jam-band" music, no blues, no songs, often rather cacophonous and/or minimalist. I go through periods where I don't want to listen to anything else.

But yeah... Bob Seger, Foreigner, Eagles... I would probably poke out my eardrums with an icepick if that's all I had to listen to!

[Arugula Latte]

8. Both.

I listen to a little classic rock (although sometimes I wonder how much more I can listen to hits from the Stones or Who or Beatles), but mostly to a lot of alternative '80s, some alternative '90s, and also music from the 21st century. I really like bands like Doves and the Bravery & Franz Ferdinand (they both have a neo 80s sound so that might explain it ), etc. I've got tickets to see the Shins. I'm always looking for new music I like or older music that is new to me, because I think you're right in that after awhile listening to the same old stuff gets a little pathetic.

[RiffRandell]

9. Both.

I still listen to all my 80s/90s band like Ramones, Blondie, DRI, Circle Jerks, Nirvana, Green Day but have satellite radio and find some new bands I like, but nothing like the old days.

[Enrique]

11. i'm always looking for new music

but the music that I grow to like is almost always from before 1980. Anyway, there is an infinite amount of such "old" music to last me the rest of my life.

[TwilightGardener]

15. I like stuff from the 70's, 80's (but not that much--

music shit the bed by 1983 with some notable exceptions), 90's, 2000's--so far since 2010 there is not much new that I like. Tried listening to Mumford and Sons, I don't get the appeal. Arcade Fire--lame as shit. Decemberists--meh. Running out of stuff to listen to, so I retreat to bluegrass, country, progressive rock, alt-rock, grunge. It's not us oldsters' fault that music isn't very good right now.

[TrogL]

17. Prog Rock, then a big gap, then electronica

Freaked some guy out at the music store. I walked in, old, grey, bald and limping then went off on a ten minute rant about the differences between house, trance, dub, bass and drum and dubstep. Then I'm looking state-of-the-art drum boxes.

Last time I was in there, did a 15 minute impromptu Pink Floyd set.

[hifiguy]

19. We have plowed similar furrows.

Prog of all sorts - English, French, German, fusion - and electric folk (e.g., Fairport Convention) but little else through the 1970s, but I did get into some of the newer groups like Magazine and Siouxsie & the Banshees. No disposable income through most of the 1980s while in college and grad school but I kept an ear to the ground and got seriously into classical and the Led Zeppelin and Grateful Dead back catalogs in the mid-late 1980s and after graduating.

Love electronic music of all kinds, from Deep Space (Klaus Schulze, old-school Tangerine Dream et al), to Space Fusion (Ozric Tentacles), techno-pop (Kraftwerk, Air, Yellow Magic Orchestra, some J- and K-pop), and much trance music, particularly Armin van Buuren and the prog/epic trancers.

[TrogL]

22. I got into dance when I came out in 1983 and got dragged (pun intended) to a lot of gay clubs

Then I was out of the scene for awhile, but saw Deadmua5 on some award show and about the same time discovered 2 dance channels on SiriusXM. Now I'm not really listening seriously to anything else. I can listen to a good dance track 10 times and still find subtleties.

[sendero]

35. By even knowing of Magazine...

.... you are elevated to the ranks of the elite! On a more serious note, Secondhand Daylight is an eternal favorite. When I am in the correct mood, I will crank that sucker to 11 and love it. I'm in my 50s BTW.

As for what era I am stuck in, none. I love music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s - oh and maybe precious little from the 01s as of yet.

People who really love music do not restrict themselves to the music of their youth. Exciting new music is being made constantly, but you have to search it out. I have friends at work who love the same "bands" I do and who turn me on to new stuff I was not aware of. I owe my awareness of much of my all time favorite music to mix tapes and recommendations from friends.

[hifiguy]

39. I still have my orginal British 45 of

"Shot By Both Sides" which I bought new. All the LPs on UK pressings, too. John McGeoch was a guitar god and played for both Magazine and Siouxsie.

[sendero]

45. Yes he was.

.... and a relatively unknown one in the US. As was Adamson. It was a shame that Magazine was just a bit ahead of their day and there wasn't a ready audience for them during their time.

[Populist_Prole]

20. Mostly stuck in late 70s/early 80s "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" stuff

But I like punk like the Ramones and later hardcore punk from the 90's through today. I like some 1960's rock as well ( Cream, TheWho )

You wanna know what's bizarre? I also have a strong like of Scott Joplin ragtime piano music.

[Avalux]

21. Both. Depends on my mood.

I have 'comfort' music that I listen to every now and then; my favorite bands and songs. I'm always looking for new music too though. The guy across from you is STUCK, definitely living in the past.

And I want to add - I HATE the 'hits' from the 70s and 80s.

[elleng]

23. WAY past, Den!

[Blue_In_AK]

24. I like a lot of new music.

I'm really quite tired of the old stuff unless it's something obscure that you don't hear on classic rock stations. (I'm 66.)

[PD Turk]

26. I'm probably more stuck in the past

But my tastes don't always run into the big radio hits as much. I like Gram Parsons/ Flying Burrito Bros. New Riders of the Purple Sage, Willis Alan Ramsey, The Meters, The Band, LeRoux, ...and of course Zappa. Even with the big radio acts I find myself liking the B sides and deep cuts of the albums that didn't get a lot of airplay.

I like some newer stuff but they have to live up to a certain standard of musicianship and craftsmanship in their songwriting, arranging and production. Sucking and calling it "new and different" never cut it in my book

[MrScorpio]

27. I appreciate and honor the past and I love the future

There's a ton of great new music out there, if you know where to find it.

[alarimer]

28. Moving forward, for sure.

For some people, the music that resonates best with them is what they listened to in high school and never move off that.

I am one of the few people I know for whom that is untrue. I listen almost exclusively to new stuff.

[fishwax]

29. Both -- there's a lot of great new stuff and a lot of great old stuff

No reason to cut myself off from any of it, I figure.

[kwassa]

30. Not moving forwards, but moving outwards.

Rock and things related to it are but a small part of musical experience.

Most classic rock I can't listen to because I've heard it so many times that it is permanently ingrained in my memory. It simply isn't interesting to me to hear the same thing one more time. I do get into an occasional mood where I have to play it, but not too often. I am a child of the sixties. I went to Woodstock.

The idea that music progresses is really not true. It just changes, or keeps repeating itself. Rock has not changed much in 40 years or so, and rock is derived from earlier musical forms that it is not very different from, except that it is played on acoustic instruments. I have no objection to the newer rock stuff, but it is really just repeating older forms.

My satellite radio channels are devoted to blues, jazz, funk, soul, Latin, classical, and a variety of different types of rock. I also like many forms not represented on these stations like zouk, soca, soukous, conjunto, more specific Latin styles like salsa, son, merengue, and Brazilian samba. I like certain types of roots music such as bluegrass, country swing, early country, acoustic blues, Cajun and Creole music, like zydeco. Gospel and spirituals, too.

I like earlier forms of jazz like swing, bop, cool jazz, all the way back to Dixieland, and before that, ragtime.

[sanatanadharma]

31. past has past by the least music-literate boomer alive, me and the future receeds...

...true story,

Sitting with friends when CD's were new, listening to their music as it ends.
I ask, "Who was that?" and see several quizzical faces looking back reflecting the one voice that said, "That is Elvis!"

[shanti]

32. stuck in the past

guess i'm just getting to be an old fart, hee!

[Initech]

33. I'm always looking for new music to listen to but I definitely appreciate the classics.

[madinmaryland]

34. I'm kind of stuck in the 80's. The 1780's. nt

[Art_from_Ark]

40. So I take it that Haydn's "London Symphonies"

are probably a little too modern for you

[Generic Brad]

36. I like it all

That's what keeps us old guys fresh.

[Jetboy]

37. I am always digging further and further back.

50s and early 60s rock-n-roll, 40s r-n-b and jazz from the roaring 20s. Music is great because we all can just trust our ears and gobble up everything that pleases them.

[Systematic Chaos]

38. From the Beatles to Gotye, I have it covered!

As long as it doesn't have some autotuned, talentless twit for a vocalist, I can probably find at least something to enjoy about it.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

42. I think for the most part its all been done before.

And since I value authenticity, I guess that labels me as stuck in the past. I love sounds and places that I never personally experienced, and for all I can prove, they never even existed.

[ivanincali00]

43. I like older and newer stuff.

I like a lot of classic rock (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc...) but I still do listen to a lot of new artists. I always like to know what's going on musically! I don't really listen to the radio, or watch MTV to discover new bands.

[AllenVanAllen]

44. I love the classics but

but I crave new music. These days it's mostly alternative and indie but I have a wide variety of tastes. And hearing new music that I dig is one of my greatest pleasures in this life.

[bluedigger]

47. I guess I'm sliding sideways.

I'm in my early 50's and started out in the Rock groove. About the mid-90's I lost interest in most new Rock, though. Seems like an endless string of one hit wonders since then. I still buy new Springsteen and Neil Young, but I don't even have my radio hooked up in the Jeep and could care less about the latest hits. I have found myself listening to a lot more bluegrass and alt country type stuff the last few years. There's a lot of great music out there, and some of it was recorded 50 years ago. Takes a while to get around to it all.

[pipi_k]

48. There's so much

great music from the past that I can't see anyone getting tired of hearing it, even over and over.

Not just rock, and not just American music.

For example, I have a CD with music played by some pygmy tribe in Africa. I have Turkish music. I have a few CDs with Gregorian Chants. Ravi Shankar's Indian music.

There's Bluegrass and the real old Country and Western (not the crap they mass produce today).

Classical.

Dixieland and Zydeco. Some Gospel.

R & B. Soul.

And yes, Rock...soft and hard


I don't particularly care for most of the new music. It tends to sound the same, which is to say, obnoxious. A lot of loud screeching and other noises like kids banging pots and pans around on the floor.

So I guess I'm mostly stuck in the past, with occasional forays into the present.