Better Off?

I just had a thought (hopefully fairly original). I was listening to some music from the mid-90s, and the I decided to swap to the early 2000s, and I thought ‘the young’uns [i.e., those under my age by a few years] won’t fully appreciate this music, because it isn’t linked to a moment in their lives as it is with mine’, and the logical conclusion hit me: the same is true for all music older than me. Indeed, as I paid scant attention to music before the mid-90s, a great deal of 20th century pop music will have little emotional impact on me. So, again logically: everyone older than me has a greater depth of understanding of, or at least contact with, modern music.

The logical refusal of this, which has only just occurred to me, is thus: you reach a point as you age, for some in their late-20s, for others, in their 50s or 60s, or perhaps later, when new music ceases to impact you. Perhaps you don;t hear it at all, or you simply don’t pay it any heed. Either way, it no longer links to your life, and ceases to leave an impression. So, I guess, for most of us there is a window of perhaps 20-40 years, when music matters, and has meaning, and any music beyond that may be important, but is less likely to be so.

Interesting…