"Adult-like" music

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The 'child-like' thread made me think - is there any music that you have to reach a certain age to 'get'? (I was listening to 'Live/Dead' the other day and the flatmate said (nose wrinkling), "What is this...ADULT shit?" Which might mean for some the question is - is there music that, once you DO 'get' it, it means you're over the hill?)

― dave q, Thursday, 8 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And no, I don't mean 'porno' music

― dave q, Thursday, 8 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't think of anything that would qualify the way you frame it. i.e. that you have to be adult to "get it".
I think "Adult" music may be music that is throw-away garbage that adults hang on to because of its nostaligic value. Take Glenn Miller for instance. His music really had very little creative value, but old people love him because he reminds them of ... something. I don't want to start an argument about any specific band, because it's a matter of taste - but my point (if I can somehow make it already..) is that yesterday's favorites are being replaced by today's favorites - so only people who heard them the first time around "get it". Unless the artist had some incredibly unique talent, the kids won't listen. (Some kids will...)

They'll be wondering the same thing about Eminem and Radiohead some day...

― Dave225, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I always thought of Edith Piaf as "adult music." As an adult I still have not gotten into her music, though I haven't seriously tried it for years. I don't believe there is any music that you absolutely must be an adult to enjoy, but, yes, I think there are forms of music that are more _likely_ to appeal to adults than youths, and it doesn't have to be music that the adults grew up with. (On the other hand, my old favorite radio station here in Philadelphia, WXPN, went to a sort of adult contemporary, singer/songwriter-oriented format a while back, and I find it pretty boring, though it still plays a wider variety than most other radio stations in the area.)

― DeRayMi, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As a kid I used to feel a certain way, and I see many young'uns like this now: faster, harder, no subtlety, etc. I played some Burzum to a 17-year-old and he liked his fast stuff, but not his slow tracks.

Until I grew up I would only listen to Rolling Stones songs like "Bitch" and "Brown Sugar". Then I grew up and got into that more subtle stuff (like raging Japanoise =:-D>) like "Wild Horses".

― Kodanshi, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree, WXPN is an awesome station, even with Michaela Majoun constantly steering into being the Dar-Williams-All-The-Time station. But I have discovered all kinds of cool shit on that station. Believe it or don't I first heard GWAR on WXPN.

And no, I don't mean 'porno' music
Y'know what... Titanic gets a soundtrack. Field of Dreams gets a soundtrack. Even Spawn got a soundtrack. How come Clam Lappers, vol 37 doesn't gets a soundtrack?
K-Tel could make a mint off of selling Funk records off of all those old "Dirk Diggler" era 70s porno flicks.

― Lord Custos, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Lou Reed's Magic & Loss.

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

actually, my choice for "adult-like" in the sense of it being the opposite of "child-like" (e.g. adults attempting to sound like kids) would be Michael Jackson singing "I'll Be There"--12 year old singing a pained adult ballad

― M. Matos, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For those who grew up outside the American South (and for many Southerners): country music.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

adult music i see as something like tool where it's all very complicated but it doesn't rock, you can't sing it in the shower and it bores me shitless. at least experimentalists like AMM are just like a bunch of kids mucking about (to me, at least). donald fagen solo albums yEuCH now that's sucky adult for you

― bob snoom, Friday, 9 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What!? 'I.G.Y' is the definition of 'bouncy'!

― dave q, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yeah

― bob snoom, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bob, I believe you meant to say 'Don Henley'! Well, that's what I would've said. I think you have to be 103 before you can like those. I liked "All She Wants to Do Is Dance", tho. And "Dirty Laundry". Fuck.

― dave q, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like "The Boys of Summer".

(and I bet you're feeling as I felt when you said you liked Oldfield and Reilly's "Moonlight Shadow" ...)

― Robin Carmody, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Adult music can help you to know adulthood when you're a child. For example, my Dad listened to Bruce Springsteen, and when I was 10, I used to listen to 'Going Down' on 'Born in the USA' and think 'ah, so that's how my Dad feels. Oh, so that's what it's like for him.' I mean - it wasn't an UNDERSTANDING. Once I stopped listening to the song, I didn't have a set of 'rules' for what it felt like to be an adult. But while I was listening to the song, or thinking it in my head, I could FEEL what it was like to be an adult. And boy I couldn't wait to get those complex emotions for myself, not just through a song! Though I didn't know it.

― maryann, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

New Age seems to be adult music. Bad adult music, but still music for adults. Lionel Richie maybe, did he even appeal to adults?

― Lindsey B, Monday, 12 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fleetwood Mac seems like adult music. Classical music, blues, jazz, ez listening crap like Kenny G (smooth jazz). A lot of country stuff.

― Nude Spock, Monday, 12 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Annie Lennox then I guess.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 12 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

seven years pass...

Le Car

― Flea Kuti (PappaWheelie V), Saturday, 22 August 2009 20:29 (sixteen years ago)

Scott Walker. Neubaten?

― Jamie_ATP, Saturday, 22 August 2009 20:35 (sixteen years ago)

*bauten

― Jamie_ATP, Saturday, 22 August 2009 20:35 (sixteen years ago)

three years pass...

I listened to some of these when they came out in the 80s but as a teenager I didn't really feel they were for me. Most have climbed up on my repeated playlists over the years. I'm also re-listening to more recent offerings from Blue Nile and Anderson.

Kate Bush - The Dreaming, Hounds Of Love, The Sensual World
The Blue Nile - A Walk Across the Rooftops, Hats
Laurie Anderson - Big Science, Mr. Heartbreak, Strange Angels
Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring, Spirit Of Eden
Peter Gabriel - So, 3
Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85

Maybe also Aztec Camera, The Style Council, Anita Baker even The Eurythmics!

― Fastnbulbous, Monday, 11 February 2013 14:20 (thirteen years ago)

Not Aztec Camera, Roddy Frame was like 17-18

― Le petit chat est mort (Tom D.), Monday, 11 February 2013 14:21 (thirteen years ago)

Actually he wasn't by the time they'd gotten big.

― Le petit chat est mort (Tom D.), Monday, 11 February 2013 14:23 (thirteen years ago)

i always felt like Pulp were "too adult" for me as a teenager.

― dog latin, Monday, 11 February 2013 14:24 (thirteen years ago)

Graceland has always been the gold standard of this, for me.

― Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Monday, 11 February 2013 14:28 (thirteen years ago)

"adult-like wonderment"

― dog latin, Monday, 11 February 2013 14:54 (thirteen years ago)

xp Yes to Graceland, though the bubbly music is certainly catchy enough to appeal to kids who might not get nuances of the lyrics. Even Frame's first album is kind of precocious with adult themes. Prefab Sprout too. One Scottish band I haven't listened to yet is Deacon Blue, gonna check out Raintown soon.

There's tons of 70s stuff too of course, like Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan. Finally watched the Aja doc which was great, breaking down not only how they recorded them, but even discussing the lyrical theemes of each tune. Geek heaven.

― Fastnbulbous, Saturday, 16 February 2013 14:25 (thirteen years ago)

Maybe even Tears For Fears? Their singles bugged the shit out of me as a teen but I only learned later their albums are pretty heavy.

― Fastnbulbous, Saturday, 16 February 2013 14:28 (thirteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucYD6DUTW3g

― MarkoP, Saturday, 16 February 2013 14:29 (thirteen years ago)

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