Is htere a medical reason why, as we get older, our tastes in music get stuck?

[P-Kasso2]

Why do older people stop appreciating new forms of music? For example my dad absolutely hated, loathed and detested Pink Floyd (which I love). And now I can't see the point of hip hop (which my son is crazy about). Like most people, both my father and I stick to the music of our teens and twenties. This seems to be so universal that I started to wonder...

Is there a universal reason why, as we get older, new music in the charts ceases to be appealing the way it once did? Is there a medical reason or maybe a psychological reason?

[Hiheels]

Got to be the association with the feelings and experiences you were having at the time, surely. Music stopped in the '80s - there is no argument with that.

[Cosmos]

Why do older people stop appreciating new forms of music? For example my dad absolutely hated, loathed and detested Pink Floyd (which I love). And now I can't see the point of hip hop (which my son is crazy about). Like most people, both my father and I stick to the music of our teens and twenties. This seems to be so universal that I started to wonder...

Is there a universal reason why, as we get older, new music in the charts ceases to be appealing the way it once did? Is there a medical reason or maybe a psychological reason?

I may be the exception to the rule but my tastes in music have expanded with age. I must admit though that I don't like rap. I think it's because I don't like people who complain a lot no matter how much I'm reminded about protest songs of the 60s and 70s. I do like techno though. I used to hate opera because of what I perceived as 'screeching' sopranos. Now I have a different appreciation of opera, even those sung in other languages. And of course there are light operas like Gilbert & Sullivan that are much easier to appreciate. I've always appreciated classical music but my favourite musical style is modern jazz.

[P-Kasso2]

I may be the exception to the rule but my tastes in music have expanded with age.....

You being the exception to the rule Cosmos seems to indicate that there is a rule. While happy for you and your snowballing music tastes, I respectfully have to ask again...

Is there a universal reason why, as we get older, new music in the charts is no longer appealing in the way it once was? Is there a medical reason or maybe a psychological reason why our music tastes tend to get stuck in the past?

[Hiheels]

May I refer to you answer #1 in this thread?

[P-Kasso2]

May I refer to you answer #1 in this thread?

Hi Heels. I did indeed read your #1 fine answer and I do indeed totally agree with it and with you. However, rightly or wrongly, I was trying to encourage someone, anyone, on IA to tease out a clinical or medical or scientific reason why older people really hate Justin Bieber rather than it being solely because everyone (apart from our ever-youthful upside down friend Cosmos) tend to stay teenagers at heart and so just love their teenage music.

So, feeling a tad stymied, I frustratedly did some digging in the Google patch...and lucked out immediately with this little gem that gives not one but seven scientific reasons why the ageing process changes our tastes in music and in everything else from losing the teenage rebellious streak to why some people even lose their taste in spicy food and switch to a life of eating bowls of bland pap.

More to the point, here's what the website (aimed predominantly at spotty yoofs) says about the scientific reason for losing interest in newer music as one gets older...

"As you get older, your brain becomes more and more unable to handle dopamine, which, as we've pointed out before, is a big factor in making us feel "the chills" when a new exciting piece of music comes on.

Because nothing you hear will have that same effect on you as the fresh exciting sounds of your youth, it will become harder and harder to get fired up about new music. Your musical taste will therefore stagnate, regardless of how on top of the trends you were at 17. If you want to know what new music will sound like when you're 50, go spend an hour watching TV shows intended for toddlers. See how long you can tolerate it."

So, bliddy dopamine strikes again!  And it is more than backed up, as you quite rightly said, by "the fact that the association with the feelings and experiences" we were having at the time give us an added reason for liking the 'old' music. Plus the fact that music stopped in the '80s. There really can be no argument with that. Rock on!

http://www.cracked.com/article_19722_7-scientific-reasons-youll-turn-out-just-like-your-parents.htmlhotel. Just accept it.

[Hiheels]

Having said all that, though, this is fairly recent and, I reckon, a bit of a corker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0K8uYEZWw

[P-Kasso2]

Having said all that, though, this is fairly recent and, I reckon, a bit of a corker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0K8uYEZWw

I see what you mean, Heels but I have a suspicion you weren't responding to the flow of Dopamine there. More likely to the flow of some powerful hormone?   

[Hiheels]

Nope, not my type - it's definitely just the music. Bless him, but far too young apart from anything else.