Why we are annoyed by modern music, but attracted to tracks from 20 years ago
'01.04.2022'
Source: Adme.ru
Remember how mothers and grandmothers scolded Britney Spears, "Hands up", Eminem, "Agatha Christie" and many other singers, for whom we went crazy in our teenage years? Listen to something from modern music - you will speak with the words of the older generation. And, perhaps, you will try to convince your child that they knew how to make good music before (not like now!). AdMe.ru I figured out why we actually stop perceiving modern music and why this does not mean that it is time to record ourselves as pensioners.
We start to grumble about youth songs for a reason
The music service Deezer conducted a whole study on this topic. After about 30 years, 65% of people are satisfied with familiar tunes. This phenomenon is called "musical paralysis", they describe the reluctance to seek new artists.
In other words, we can spend hours indulging in nostalgia for the Smells Like Teen Spirit from Nirvana heard before the holes or for a night dancing in a disco of the 1990s to the hits of the Mirage group. But to devote some time to cunning verses of rappers with intricate nicknames or unassuming songs about the vicissitudes of love seems to us a trifle.
Musical taste begins to form in adolescence and reaches a peak by 24 years. At this age, 3/4 of people listen to 10 new songs per week. Slightly fewer respondents of the same age study at least 5 new artists per month.
The number of new musicians in playlists decreases in proportion to years, and may also vary by region. The study was conducted in the UK: it turned out that the Scots did not encounter "musical paralysis" until the age of 40. But he comes to the inhabitants of Wales at 23 years old.
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It's not that we're old or they don't make decent music these days.
Although it may seem so: Michael Jackson's Thriller was released in 1982 and has since remained at the top of the list of the most popular albums of all time. But there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for musical paralysis. 11% of study participants do not look for new music because they devote time to family activities, including young children. 16% do not have time for this because of work, and 19% of respondents are lost due to the abundance of new genres and performers.
Favorite music makes the brain release hormones of joy, and we feel happiness and positive emotions. Music can evoke nostalgia and take us back to different moments of the past. Therefore, in the face of time pressure, we will choose a well-known track that is guaranteed to give us pleasure, and not something new. There is also the so-called duckling syndrome: the music that we heard first seems to be the most beautiful.
However, only 47% of people over 30 do not seek to expand their musical horizons. More than half of the respondents would like to get acquainted with new music, if they had a little more time.
Perhaps this half would perceive new music better, because when you listen to it again, the effect of acquaintance with the object is triggered. We like what we face all the time. That is, the more time we spend studying musical innovations, the more we like them.
Without realizing it, after 30 years we perceive music differently
External factors are not the only thing that makes us lose interest in music. Scientists from the University of Manchester conducted an experiment involving two groups of people: 16-40 years old and 40+. The researchers recorded how respondents pick up different combinations of sounds.
It turned out that the representatives of the older generation distinguish chords worse than the younger ones. That is, after 40 years, more and more compositions sound similar to our ears. Therefore, with age, the need to listen to new music disappears.
Some people (3% of the world's population) remain indifferent to music throughout their lives. They suffer from amusia, that is, they are physically unable to enjoy the sound of songs. At the same time, they experience joy from other factors (food, tenderness, material rewards, etc.).
These changes affect not only our perception of music.
Robert Sapolsky, author of Who are We? Genes, our body, society, ”believes that the older a person is, the more difficult it is to comprehend the new as a whole. We perceive modern music worse after 35 years, and unfamiliar food after 39 years. The process of assimilation of a new one is inhibited since about 23 years.
Conducting the study, the scientist contacted the staff of sushi bars in the surrounding cities (for that area, Asian cuisine was considered exotic). It turned out that the average age of visitors at the time of opening the institutions did not exceed 28 years. The older generation was not ready for experiments and culinary innovations.
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But all this does not mean that you must put an end to yourself
If you want, you can purposefully get acquainted with new music. This is not only interesting, but also useful: music reduces stress, improves memorization abilities (is this why teenagers learn material so quickly?), and also has a number of other positive effects. However, if you are more comfortable listening to your favorite and time-tested compositions, then do not overcome yourself, because in the end, self-awareness is much more important.
How do you perceive new music? Do the songs of young performers make you want to quickly turn them off or are you watching with interest the popular (or not so) new items?
