We don't want to admit it, but our music taste can change significantly with age. Here are a few ways our music changes as we get older.
Many of us watched alternative music take over the 1990s, and many subgenres grew out of it, such as emo. We're deeply nostalgic for the emo of the 2000s. We were angsty teenagers, and to us, emo bands felt more personal than anything we had heard before. We became emotionally attached to them during vulnerable and impressionable times in our lives. Collectively, we're stuck in the past, unwilling to give new bands a fair shake, even when they share the same elements that made us fall in love with emo in the first place.
As we get older, we don't overthink our emotions as much. In our teens, we attached our whole identity to any band with sorrowful lyrics. As we age, we learn that we feel better about ourselves when we focus on a positive outlook. We may wonder whether we would have liked the same bands if we had first discovered them in our 30s. Our reaction probably wouldn't be the same, because that kind of music may no longer resonate with us. We can still reminisce and feel pure nostalgia listening to our old favorite emo and punk bands. But when new groups come out with the same sound, it doesn't hit quite like it did when we were 16.
For years, our draw to alternative music meant we abandoned our appreciation for the classics. Classic rock, soul, blues, country, and jazz all sit on the back burner in our teenage years. As we age, jazz suddenly starts to resonate with us. It's the perfect example of a style that doesn't speak to us until we reach a certain state of maturity.
Blues and country classics are the same way. We handle heartbreak in our middle-aged years quite differently from how we did in our teens. Teenage heartbreak is often angry and confusing. Middle-aged heartbreak is more of a deep disappointment, and the sound of a blues guitar suits that mood. Rather than throwing a fit, oftentimes, we want something to mellow us out in the moment. We no longer dwell on it; we simply find the strength to move past a dark time.