Realizing You’re Old Through Music Culture: A Thread

When someone mentioned Doja Cat and I said "Who?"

When I heard the Go Go's song "We Got The Beat" being played as background music in a television commercial for a heart medication.

Apple Music provides a year end retrospective of what you listened to during the preceding calendar year. Mine is basically stuck in place with music from the 1990s and 2000s.

I never got into rap.

I'm a millennial. I don't know any of the celebs talked about on TMZ unless they are discussing an older celeb popular over 20 years ago.

Most recently, it was about a week ago, when i took my mother to the orthopedist' office. (She has had her knee joint replaced.)

We were sitting in the doctor's office & they were playing hits from the early MTV era - and it dawned on me: Peter Gabriel singing "Sledgehammer" is the Muzak of 2025.

It sounds like RAP

When I returned to college circa 2011 - I was 40 - and the professor asked people what kind of music they liked.

The cute little Italian boy to my left said, "I like oldies! Really old stuff. Like, from the 90s."

I gave him an evil death stare but he survived.

R6 In my office, we use Spotify and our WiFi was down for a day so we played the radio that day.

We had it in Magic 106.7 which is Boston’s oldies station. That was an old people station. They played Elvis or 70s soft rock or 80s classics.

I as well as well all of my co-workers my age were absolutely HORRIFIED it was playing Avril Lavigne.

- When I recently heard "Steal My Sunshine" (released in 1999) by Canadian one-hit wonders LEN on the radio, remembered they sampled Andrea True Connection's 1976 song "More, More, More" on it, and realized that not only had I danced to both songs in various clubs at the time they were hits, the "sampling song" was now ancient as well--just like me. Justified and ancient! as the (also ancient) KLF once sang.

- When I realized Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" is now famous (again) largely thanks to "Stranger Things"

*Although I don't need music to remind me I'm old (there are other signs every day), it's one of the more gentle reminders

I keep seeing these TikToks of older people dancing and everyone’s freaking out like, “omg how can they move like that??”

But like… they grew up in the 80s?? Breakdancing, Miami Bass, Flashdance, all of that. Of course they can move. They weren’t doing ballroom in the 1940s, they were pop locking at house parties. It’s not that wild.

The fact I even know this probably shows my age a bit lol.

Any current photo of Madonna.

I've got two

Reading a review of the Breeders record "Last Splash"a few years ago--for giggles and shits since I've seen them in concert a gazillion times. A comment read "Great RETRO music."

OUCH

What sealed it was my "It's better than what's on the "radio" retort.” Thereby, making me sound like my parents. Also…nobody listens to the radio.

My supervisor, upon reading that Gwen Stefani was going to be a judge on that fucking NBC talent show.

Him: “I like No Doubt. I need to get their first record.”

Me: In a judgey tone, ”You’re a fan, but you don’t have their first album?”

Him: “Dude, I was 6…”

Followed by me picking up my face that just fell on the floor.

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake are now legacy artists/nostalgia acts.

God, does time seem to fly.

[quote]I'm a millennial. I don't know any of the celebs talked about on TMZ unless they are discussing an older celeb popular over 20 years ago.

When I'm standing in a checkout line, I don't recognize half the people on the magazine covers anymore. The ones I do know are people like Prince William, Tom Cruise, Cher and anybody else who has already been famous for decades.

I got cranky about kids thinking they were so edgy “discovering” Fleetwood Mac. My first thought was “listen you brats I LIVED Fleetwood Mac”.

R16 - have you discovered the pages of Ckoser magazine?

Ava Gardner was on the cover a couple of weeks ago.

I don't watch music awards anymore because I have no idea who the nominees are.

Same r19. They all sound the same and they're really trashy, too. There's no style or innovation or real organic talent anymore.

[quote] When I'm standing in a checkout line, I don't recognize half the people on the magazine covers anymore

I can't remember the last time I've actually *seen* a magazine at a checkout line.....that seems to have disappeared at so many stores.

There are still lots of magazines at grocery stores and drugstores.

Same R8. Overheard in a record store;

Customer: Do you have any Early Music?

Clerk: You mean like Motown?

Tom Holland tells a story about hitting the dance floor with Madonna. His familys reaction (2:10) sums up the marching of father time.

Green Day songs being played on "classic" rock stations.

R12 you hit a nerve ! A few years ago I went to my nephews wedding and had a few drinks (wich I dont do much anymore ) and the dj started plating some fab dance hits from the 80s . So I get out there and strut my stuff and afterwards my nieces and nephews were all agog that I could dance so well . I was like "Do you think I was BORN old and fat???"

About 10 years ago, I gave up on Weird Al Yankovic's new albums because I didn't know the songs that were being parodied.

R20, “trashy” is a very accurate word to describe it.

This happens to all of us, and no one except ourselves feels sorry for us.

[quote]Green Day songs being played on "classic" rock stations.

I was listening to Weezer's "Buddy Holly" and still thinking of it as relatively contemporary.

The video was released as a bonus on the Windows 95 CD-ROM.

R29 Lighten up, mom. Christ.

Noticing how wrong younger people get the eras you lived through and the music of those eras.

Time and music move on!

There was a time when, if you didn't have a copy of the sheet music for "Maple Leaf Rag," you could be considered by any discerning muso to be a bit of a square.

Commercials (not teen or kid commercials) using hits from my childhood and teen years. It used to be gen x and boomer songs trying to target the middle aged population.

[quote]This happens to all of us, and no one except ourselves feels sorry for us.

This happens to people who become stuck in time and who think that music stopped when they stopped caring, stopped playing, stopped dancing, stopped listening, stopped paying attention to music in TV and film, stopped hearing a song and Shazaming it to find out who the artist is.

"Music culture" is a thousand things now. It's not the "shared experience" of Grammy Awards, nor radio hits countdowns nor even a radio, nor the magazines at a grocery checkout.

After a certain age new music starts to turn into “noise” for people and they fall out of touch.

I don’t think as a millennial I have that issue. Aside from not really liking trap music or Billie Eillish pop, everything else I like.

Music hasn’t really evolved in the last 15 years. If you play a song before the 2010s, I’m really good at guessing the year the song came out. I go by the production and instruments, especially the drums.

I can tell the difference between a song from 1983 and 1988 or 1992 or 1998 or even 2002 and 2008.

But 2012 and 2018? Not a chance.

And I don’t think that’s “aging” because I can hear distinct musical evolutions in the 1950s and 60s and 70s before I was born.

And to continue to my R36 post I think that’s due to music in general being run by modern technology- more sampling, more drum machines, and producers and artists today have less formal training and musicality than they have since the evolution of blues came out.

Not to mention in pop and radio music in general, the same 3-5 producers are pretty much behind every big song over the last 20 years, mostly Max Martin.

Aside from trap music and I’d say the lo-fo indie rock created by Mac Demarco, there hasn’t been any real explosive genres or music. Not like punk or rap or grunge; etc.

And even in trap music and hip-hop, producer value has declined because producers today don’t have a distinct sound or style.

Before the 2010s in hip-hop / rap, you’d listen to a song and you’d know exactly where they were from. East Coast, West Coast, and the South all had distinct sounds and styles and even those reigns in those areas had distinct sounds.

Today it’s all big one sound. There aren’t even any notable producers today cause everyone makes the same kind of beats.

I always feel old, but in April I felt exceptionally old when I found out that David Bowie's daughter with Iman, Lexi Jones, had released her debut album:

Lexi Jones:

The first time I heard a Beatles song on a classic rock radio station during the 80s.

This did it for me. After I heard this, I realized I was old and that I would never again listen to anything " sung" by anyone whose name started with " Lil."

Realizing that all of these newspaper and magazine interviews and features and NPR spots about pop musicians are just lame advertising bullshit designed to make filthy carnies look like artists.

"Filthy carnies" is so spot on.

It's a lot cheaper for the music labels to run a song through a software program instead of paying musicians. Like everything else, it really comes down to money.

Theres a shit ton of new and good music out there but the powers that be only want what they think sells aka rap . In earlier days new artists had a chance to be heard and nurtured ,but now if isnt mumbly crap or violent sexual rap they dont stand a chance .

I'm an elder-elder gay, but in recent years I've discovered music from artists ranging from Midlake, Father John Misty, and Sharon van Etten to Tyler, the Creator, Ethel Cain, boygenius, Megabog, Fontaines DC, Heartworms, St. Vincent, Claire Rousay, Sleep Token, Zaho de Sagasan, Janelle Monáe, and so on. I was pleased to discover I still have an ear for pop music produced after 1983. Doesn't stop me from being old and decidedly NOT "down with the kids," mind you, but I'm happy to have rediscovered the joy of pop (after listening to only jazz and classical for years).

This thread reinforces my knowing I'm old. Because I have never heard of trap music. And I don't want to know what it is.

That “easy listening” is songs I danced to in the 1980’s

For me the first real “damn I’m old and this is for the young” was when Britney made her first pop splash in late ‘98. I was age 31 and realized her typical teen fangirl was half my age.

It all keeps happening, relentlessly. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac 50 years ago. When they did, “50 years ago” to them was the pre-Depression Roaring 20s when just about every facet of life was completely different.

R47, just because you don't like rap doesn't mean it's not popular

I once sat with the office clerical staff for two days while crews worked on relocating the electric panel from my office and drywalled and painted what was left in its place. The clerical staff was composed of 20 and 30-something young ladies, and I had to endure them gushing over Shawn Mendes and Charlie Puth, and gossip about Camila Cabello, Sabrina Carpenter, etc. I didn't recognize any of these names and they tried to educate me. I felt so out of touch.

Later, I turned on the radio, and whatever station it was set to was playing radio hits of the '80s and '90s. Now, back in the day, I was heavily into alternative music and was too cool for Top 40 radio, but that day, I was totally jamming to the tunes, singing along (softly) and head bopping to Britney, Whitney, Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men, etc., and loving it. I looked around to see if anyone else was enjoying the tunes, and sadly, I was alone in my nostalgia kick. The ladies were all buried in their work, unfazed and uninterested in oldies pop.

R53 I actually began my "Too cool for Top 40" phase around the Britney, N'Sync invasion. It's been punk, reggae, hip-hop, alternative ever since with a tiptoe into contemporary beginning around the Age of Gaga.

Music is SO accessible now, BUT I don't have the energy--or desire--to find it.

When I don't like a single current song on the radio. In the 1970s- 1990s there was always a handful of songs that were good and memorable. Today I'm hard pressed to find more than just one song I like. I think that is mostly due to soulless corporate influence rather than me being from previous generation.

Sweet baby Jesus, why would anyone listen to radio?

That little "gay pop renaissance" some of us enjoyed back in 2010 or so, when Gaga was still quite new and fun and Robyn was so good ... Dancing On My Own, Paparazzi and Telephone, etc... is now 15 years old.

Tempus fugit indeed.

Bohemian Rhapsody will be 50 years old in October.

Im a songwriter and my recent songs keep getting rejected, not because they arent good but because im too romantic. They want me to get dirty, negative and to stop being so nice. DL, gimme some interesting song titles or ideas. X

Listening to Sirius XM Classic Vinyl right now - and I can remember when at least 85% of these songs were released. I remember when people said "Fleetwood WHO?" and Led WHAT?".

R48 I applaud you—honestly, outside of mainstream music, there’s a ton of artists on Spotify who are retro in style but modern in sound, and they cut across generations. It’s not all “there’s no good music anymore”—that’s just what people say when they stop looking. You didn’t, and that’s what keeps your ear young.

My grandmother is convinced she listened to this song in the 1960s and refuses to believe it’s from the 2000s.

People act like rap is still all guns and gangs, but most trap songs now are about toxic love, heartbreak, and trust issues. It’s more emotional than violent.

Usually about mental health struggles like anxiety and depression or sex. There’s materialism and gang culture but it’s not all like that.

If you don’t know it’s been like that for about 15 years, yes you’re old.

Rap doesn’t have to be gangster rap to suck though.

I personally don’t think rap sucks but I’m also not old.

Rap has been the “new rock” for 3 decades now. What old people said about rock and roll or punk or metal are the same things they’ve been saying about rap for decades lol.

When Cher or Madonna stopped being about the only two famous musicians with single performer-names.

My top music channels on SiriusXM

First Wave 80s on 8 The Groove Shade45 Lithium 90s 0n 9 60s Gold