As you get older, does it change?

I listen to the loud stuff, just that the loud stuff that I listened to when I was younger is perhaps too engraved in the memory, so I try less familiar loud stuff instead. Yay!

As for lyrics, what are those?

At 39 and a third I think I still rock as hard as ever. I still enjoy all the 'noisy stuff' that I used to, but I'm more open to other things too. I'd never have listened to The Beach Boys in 1979, for example. So it's a win-win.

I've never really given a shit about lyrics, and overt ranting about 'causes' and 'issues' has never been of much interest.

I'm less tolerant of also-rans who are just around the place as part of the latest scene. And I don't dig as deep into a genre as I used to, partly because there seems to be so much more to find out about these days, and partly because I've learned by bitter experience what the bottom of the barrel smells like. I'm becoming aware, though, that this 'top-skimming' approach means that I sometimes miss out on great music - ILM is helping to bring some of this to light for me.

I've probably gone off topic now.

Here's something Xxxx Xxxx (American rockwriter you've all heard of, even older than me, but the point stands w/o his specific imprimatur, and also trumps indeed your hostility to same: hence not named) said to me, maybe three years ago, re _Uncut_: "It's fascinating: to some of these young guys, the PAST is news!"

He meant (a) that some kid's excited take on, oh, the tale of Sly Stone — despite longtime insertion in canon blah blah — could rescue it/reanimate it for anyone, and just provide totally unexpected perspective (a perhaps not-that-remarkable point); (b) that the story of Altamont, say, or Wattstax, or whatever, could just be run as a feature in itself: not an anniversary, or a "re- evaluation", but just as WAS. Non-perfectness of public memory a public good.

Anyway, yes: you hear something you set aside as not-for-you two decades ago, and you hear it this time as-then AND with-yr- now-ears, and it's kind of brilliant. Everything shifts (sometimes). Non-perfectness of PRIVATE memory a private good.

Getting old is way cool so far.

Yes, as I get older, my hearing gets worse. So I need to crank up the volume. Bring on Ace Of Spades.

stevie - as long as it's not ace of base

Re my life - at 15 I never thought I'd hear anything as brilliant as Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation or At The Drive-In's Rshp of Command - each year it gets better. Considering REM, Sonic Youth etc are all in their 40s, does that make it old ppl's music now? I dunno - but then, at 15 my father played Bob DYlan, ELvis, Glen Campbell, Dusty Springfield and I hated them all...now, my "maturity" has taught me a lot about life and love, and some of these ppl seemed to know what they were on about...

I find that I r0x0r just as hard as ever :) Last year I saw Dark Star live, expecting sort-of-ok-ish, like their album. They were fucking awesome, and rocked harder than any band I've seen in nearly 20 yrs of gig going. That made me feel pretty good (sadly though, it made the album sound pretty poor by comparison).

What I do find, though, is that I'm more selective about that which rocks me (!) Stuff i thought was k-rad when I was a teen, I now realise completely sucks, and of course I look @ thee kiddie punk shit 6th formers seem to listen to today, and come over all superior like the pathetic sad old fart I am....

So...IMO it dores change, but for the better.

x0x0x

I have noticed that around the time I turned 30, the amount of more "adult" sounding music (I am really being lazy by using this description) I listened to increased, and the amount of angry/hard stuff decreased. Something like Brazilian Bossa Nova sounded a lot more appealing than it ever had (though taking some Brazilian dance classes had something to do with that as well), and I have come to really like the Lebanese singer Fairouz, who is very melodic and somewhat smoothe (and quite amazing). (I like Oum Kalthoum, more though, and she's definitely edgier.) On the other hand, I may still enjoy listening to some punk and industrial (etc.), but usually in fairly small doses. This is very oversimplified, since I've always listened to several genres at a time since I was about 12 and discovered a bunch of different styles of music all at once, so at the time I was listening to Joy Division every day, I might also have been listening to Bach, or even some Irish folk music. I am less willing to make allowances for offensive lyrics. I hear some artistic merit in NWA's "Fuck Tha Police," but just because it has some sort of aesthetic value doesn't mean I have to listen to it. I am less patient with wallowing-in-depression type music (except maybe the middle eastern kind) because I've been fairly seriously depressed at times and I don't see it as particularly romantic.

I also am more interested in technical competence than I used to be. I am less patient with musicians who really seem to have no skill, though how it sounds and makes me feel is still the most important issue. I think there's an irony in the idea of consuming someone else's DIY product. DIY is great if you are really going to DIY. I also put a little more value on music that I can listen to repeatedly and continue to hear new things.

Getting older has been great because my ears have gotten bigger and I can enjoy more stuff than ever before. There's a finite amount of really good music out there that I've been exposed to, and every year I become aware of more of it--old and new. Kinks, old Prince and the Buzzcocks sound better, to me, every year. They're even more miraculous in the context of all that's come since, if that makes sense. Lyrics never mattered much to begin with, but my appreciation for really good lyrics has grown. Put me down as pro-getting older.

i had to move house recently and i was baffled by the fact that i actually own albums by unsane & today is the day. i even find the shouoty bits on slint's spiderland embarrassing & histrionic now. herb alpert's tijuana brass it is, then! (and no that's not "ironic" like anyone can resist "bean bag" or "country lake" or "mexican road race")

I made a vow in 5th grade that I would rock and roll all night and party ev-er-y day. I still dig yer Black Flag & yer Big Boys. (Not too excited about KISS.) Loud is not a problem - but if it's boring like Insane Clown Pusse or Limp Bisquit, then I can't stand it - because it's monotonous, not because it's loud.

Christ maybe I have a midlife crisis when I'm 30 or so and start listening to all the hard stuff I missed out on due to my country fetish.

I fully expect to discover Black Sabbath when I am 50.

I've never rocked hard and at 36 I don't intend to start now. I will instead listen to Music for airports on my wind up gramophone while smoking a pipe and drinking cherry brandy. As for modern music, all that foul language really is quite shocking, can't they sing about nice things like mortgage rates and male pattern baldness.