A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about what it was like growing up with a parent who had spent most of their life invested in music – playing, writing, and collecting instruments are a few things that I’ve grown up with that just seem like a normal thing to deal with in my household. One thing that I didn’t really touch upon or go into any detail in was how this affected my own tastes in music.
As you might have guessed from the title of the article, I listen to what most people today would call “older people music.” My iTunes library is mainly a collection of what most people don’t listen to today – things like rock, folk, old 50s pop, some bluegrass, jazz, blues and some soul.
A lot of this is probably the result of my father, who is the parent that’s been so inclined to music for most of his life. The reason that I say this is because my father has told me that when I was a baby he would play music by the Doors to get me to fall asleep.
When I was told this I thought it was almost funny that before I can even remember I was listening to music that people probably considered to be going out of style. And this is all not to say that I don’t find some modern music appealing or that I think that there will never be a revitalization of the type of music I listen to, but it is rarer to see bands like Mumford & Sons have the kind of success that they do and maintain it.
Anyway, back to the main question: why do I listen to this type of music? As cliché as it might sound, why does anyone listen to a certain type of music? Because it makes them feel something or it moves them in some way. For me, the thing that I’ll always like is a singer and a guitar. Doesn’t matter if it’s folk, rock or anything else.
My go-to band for an example would be Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, who continue to put out music despite the fact they’re all in their 60s. I think that Tom Petty is one of the best songwriters that I’ve ever heard, and he’s always had such a solid band behind him that they’re able to add so much personality to the music. I grew up on rock n’ roll music, which is probably why I keep going back to it and why bands like the Heartbreakers and the Doors have always had a place in my library.
With all that said, I think the reason that I’ve never been able to stand most of the music that I hear today, again with some exceptions, is because to me so much of the music that is produced today seems formulaic and to my ear it’s all just too much of the same. The genres that are popular today are also different and I’m a person that likes to hear drums and electric guitars, something that isn’t present in most pop, hip hop and rap music today.
Having said all this, I do want to make it clear that this is just my personal preferences and opinions and everyone is entitled to like what they like for their own reasons and no one has to agree with what I say.
