For everyone, like myself, over 25...

I'm 31, too. I definitely don't feel too old to be as into music as I am, but I do occasionally feel sheepish about posting to boards like this at my age. I can't shake this slightly awkward feeling...since most ILMers are probably 25 or less, it feels something like hanging out at a party where no one my age. Not all the references are there, for example. Most people can't remember what 70s radio sounded like and so forth, so they wind up hating Joni Mitchell (to reference a recent thread.) That's a half-joke, actually; there are many reasons to dislike her that have nothing to do w/ age.

Really, though, in terms of appreciating music, age is only a plus. Just that much more experience & listening to draw on. Without question, I like 10 times more music now than I did when I was 20-- more abrasive & agressive music to boot. In fact, for the past five years ago, the variety of music I enjoy has been expanding exponentially, with no end in sight. It feels great. I'm sure I'll never "get old" & set in my ways where this sort of thing is concerned.

Just turned 30 a month ago. In a word, hell no. People have their interests and obsessions in all ways and areas of life. This is just one of mine. No need to worry about something so fun.

As for feeling 'younger,' well, that's a bit of projection, I'd think. I also try and think of it this way -- "Well, the students working for me don't necessarily have the full interest in music I do, but who's to say they're not very interested in something I couldn't begin to stammeringly describe to someone if asked?" *shrug*

Never crossed my mind. My dad was always into Northern Soul big time. It never looked weird to me that he was spinning his records. By the way, you listen to records made by people who are your age and older... Do you think they are weird?

I'm not sure if most ILMers are under 25, actually. Not the active posters anyway. Tom's the market research man, so I hereby charge him with investigating further on this matter.

I'm 28 in a couple of weeks and intend to stop listening to pop music when I am 32 and get into trad jazz instead. I'm serious. This will coincide with the birth of my first child. I'm not going to allow myself to be a hip dad.

I was born in June 1960, and still sometimes think people have made a silly mistake when they answer questions about THEIR birthyear with a different figure (like, er 1985? Don't understand... ). I am at no risk of becoming a dad, hip or otherwise. I was an extremely weird little old man as a teenager anyway, and intend to evolve into the William Burroughs of, oh, something or other. So only a few months to go, hey?

hi.

i was born in 1980.

1980? Don't understand...

Why are you people all so hung up on age? I mean, honestly, I may be only 22... (ouch! Stop kicking me, Ned! Ok, I've turned 22 for, erm... 8? 9? years in a row now, but still).

I don't know. Sometimes I worry about it, but mostly, I don't. I see many of my age group with (to my mind) far more ridiculous concepts like status and wealth, their careers, religion, sport, or worse. People need passion in their lives, or else they become hollow, burned-our wrecks and turn to bigotry and hatred to justify their existence.

My opinion is that the majority of a certain kind of "pop music" and "rawk" is indeed focused on a narrow band of adolescent subjects (yer typical sex, drugs and the like). Therefore it is loved by The Youth, and those trying to Recapture Their Youth.

I'm trying to think how to express the answer in my head without sounding completely pretentious, and think I'm failing horribly. (Random Capitalisations are a dead giveaway).

There is a certain kind of music that, to me, sounds hopelessly adolescent, and I can no longer appreciate it, except in nostalgia (you'd be surprised, it's more of the angsty mope-rock variety, than the sex, drugs and teenage kicks type). But my appreciation of music itself is not going to change, it's too much a part of me, it would be like failing to appreciate food or oxygen as I got older.

Oh, I'm failing and getting pretentious. Sorry about that.

Oh, I would never kick you, Kate. Just look at you askance.

What friends I have left get worried (as do I) when I put on Jan & Dean's "Gonna Hustle You". I'm 36 and I need help. Thank god my Spacemen 3 obsession is there to provide the ying to Jan & Deans yang.

Didn't yang play bass for Galaxie 500?

I've only be 25 for a bit. I can't say my love for music has diminished, I have more money to spend it on nowadays! I still like bands I liked 5 yeras ago, I'm just getting back into bands I liked 10 years ago...and I still like new stuff. So age ain't nothing but a number.

The only time that I worry about such things is when I go to see a band and realise that most of the audience are about a decade younger than me.

With respect: strange question. Surely the thing to worry about is not enthusiasm, but losing your enthusiasm?

I just turned 32 on Sunday, and for some strange reason I've just rediscovered that I really like the Swans, which is not exactly what I associated with getting older. I have always liked to think that when I get older, I won't lose my taste for the obscure, and so far that's holding. What I do notice is that I occasionally go through periods where hardly anything excites me, musically speaking...generally the result of hearing stuff that I feel I've already heard a million times before. (There's very little new under the sun, really, and it's just a question of finding new ears with which to appreciate things.) I usually snap out of these phases fairly quickly, though. I can't imagine a point where I just get completely bored with music, because there's such a backlog of great stuff to explore.

http://holidays.saga.co.uk/

Now bugger off and stop moaning. :-)

I'm 39 and 1/3 and still up for it, as are most of my music friends of similar vintage. I'm pleased that I got to see JoyDiv, Magazine, Teardrop Explodes and just about everyone else of that era, while they were going, and freely admit that I do look back on 1976-1980- ish as a kind of golden age. I tend to look wider for new music these days, but not as deep. Last album bought : Ladytron. Best albums of 2001 : Tortoise and Daft Punk.

Dr C - you're almost a decade older than me and think of the late '70s as a "golden age" whereas for me that lies between '87-'93.

Is it a constant search to recapture that teenage infatuation?

Sterling said it the most brilliant way: "Year zero is always now"!

The Golden Age is IN US: we can rebirth it. Probably this is a delusion: s'a good one.

Venga - I guess that for me , whilst I have lost NONE of my enthusiasm for music since the punk/post-punk era,(I wouldn't be on ILM if I had) it's just that music is now "part of things", not EVERYTHING. When I was 18-25, nothing else mattered, now I have other concerns - family, money, whether I can put off re-plumbing the kitchen for another year etc etc. An evening of the best music from that time can't help but transport me back to when life was simpler. Simpler, not BETTER, but different.