If I do feel like hearing some less familiar music, I’m more likely to go back in time to the forties or fifties. That way even if it sucks, it’s still somewhat interesting as a piece of cultural history. Movies as well.
I would theoretically be open to seeing a new movie, but nothing catches my interest. That Tina Fey comedy thing that’s out right now…I’ll see it when it’s on TV some Sunday afternoon when I’m doing the laundry. Or not, whatever.
Now as for this “social tipping point” thing: the more popular a thing is, the more everyone talks about it, the more I feel it’s being pushed at me and I develop a block against it. When I first heard about Game of Thrones, it didn’t quite sound like my cup of tea. Now that everyone’s jacking off about it, it’s a near certainty that I will never even give it a try.
Actually, now that I am getting older, I’m become much more aware of how much crap we used to listen to. I’ve got XM and occasionally I’ll hit up the Sixties on Six, because that was my formative era. And it’s 80% crap. Every once in a while, I’ll get some CCR or early Beatles or Jim Croce, but mostly…crap.
Beat me to it. I have already personally sifted through 3 decades worth of turds to find the odd peanut. I figure with that and the dilligent efforts of others who have done a fairly decent job of sifting the 3 decades before I was old enough to participate, I now have enough of a buffer that I can wait until today’s offerings have been combed through for a few years and then investigate what’s in the ‘good’ pile.
Kids these days, listening to crap like Justin Bieber! When I was their age, the charts were full of proper music like Milli Vanilli :smack: and 2Unlimited :smack: and almost the entire cast of Neighbours :smack::smack:
Seriously, just beause glancing at the list of massive hits for any one year shows stuff that is generally not TOO dreadful, people blank on the vast amount of crap churning through the Top40 at any given time.
I still enjoy movies, new music, books, etc… but I am a hell of a lot more discriminating than I used to be. Sturgeon’s Law and all that. When I was young I consumed everything because my tastes weren’t formed and I knew less. Now that I’m older I have a better grasp of what I do and don’t like and am far more likely to discard something that doesn’t appeal to me early on.
This exactly. Who has time? I have nothing against Game of Thrones, but I’m not going to start watching it. We watch plenty of relatively new stuff - new to us at least. As for music, no new music grabs me, but in the past five years I’ve started listening to classical music which is much more of an expansion of my horizons than any new music would be.
It’s not that I don’t like new music even though 95% of it is pure crap, but that’s always the way it’s been. As I get older I tend to be more selective on what I spend my time on. I still like a good single person shooter video game and believe that the graphics that they have now are awesome, but I don’t have hours and hours of time available to get really good at them anymore so I don’t bother. New movies, same deal; 95% of them have always been a waste of time.
I suspect that most older people define new as what the kids today are watching and talking about. Myself I never really cared much about what other people liked or who the star of the moment was and what they were doing. Never affected my life then and it still doesn’t.
I “rediscovered” music several years ago thanks to the miracle of the Ipod classic*, and about two-thirds of my music collection** is totally new (to me) stuff.
I go to movies, just not the Fantastical Sci-Fi Imaginary Humans Battle Even More Imaginary Menaces Movies***.
I read several newspapers**** and books (mostly history, true crime and detective fiction*****), and I tend to see a couple baseball games****** a year.
My brain is not “full”.
*obsolete technology, sign of old fartdom
**age giveaway, you’re supposed to rent music, not own it
***codger tell
****newspapers? bwa-ha-ha
*****categories suggest brain-hardening; lack of reference to e-books is confirmatory
******BASEBALL??
I should love all the new blockbuster movies, but every one of them looks and sounds the same. The only changes are exactly who the good guy is, and how he beats the crap out of the CGI bad guy.
I am watching many more films DVR’d off Turner Classic Movies than anything in the theater.
e-books. My wife has a Kindle, and I read a novel on hers. I like it fine - but I have north of 1,000 books in my collection which are unread, and if I want something else I can go to the library and find something, so what do I need with e-books?
When I run out of stuff to read that I already own I’ll get one - but by that time I’ll be dead or they’ll beam the books right into your brain.
Once you realize that you are not the target demographic for whatever movie, music, TV show, etc. that you find objectionable, life becomes easier. I still often wonder exactly what the target demographic is for some of the unmitigated CRAP I see out there in abundant plenitude, but it for sure and certain isn’t me. So it’s not that my brain’s full, it’s just that I ain’t buyin’ whatever it is they’re sellin’.
I thought I would always keep up with the latest music. I was wrong. My decision making process for whether to go see a live band now starts with the question ‘Can we get seated tickets?’
Go look at the Top Hits of 1976 thread in Cafe Society. I was 14 that year. I don’t like any of that music and I didn’t then either. Most of the music I like wasn’t ever top of the charts. I found it through friends, rarely from the radio, sometimes recommendations on message boards, sometimes through duets and guest appearances*, etc.
Yes, I still find new music I like.
"Hey, Peter Gabriel sang on a Afrocelt Sound System album. He also produced it. I should check it out. Hey, that was good. I wonder who else they’ve worked with. I wonder who else does similar music. (etcetera)
I sometimes think that it’s an age thing until I remember that the typical top 20 stuff today sounds like a lot of stuff I despised 30 years ago. AFAIC, Madonna of the 1980s sounds no different from Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey of any other time. And Justin Beiber to me is no different from any other boy-band stuff. I’ve always hated that stuff, whereas 30 and 40 years ago I listened to Black Sabbath and over the last 20 years I’ve been listening to Black Sabbath, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains etc. I think it’s a function of standard FM radio, which I never listen to.
Without looking…76 is just a flat out bad year. When people rip on the 70’s they usually pick around that year because you’ve got the good bands before then on hold, disco ascending, easy listening going nuts, crossover country songs that weren’t so hot. It’s just a bad year. Okay, now I’ll look at the top 20 for 76.
Hunh. A lot better than I thought. Maybe I was thinking of 77. Keep in mind no matter how pablum some of these songs may be, at least most are performed by people who use their actual voices and can play instruments. And they aren’t all about clubbing and getting my mo-nay.
Silly Love Songs, Paul McCartney and Wings
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Elton John and Kiki Dee
Disco Lady, Johnnie Taylor
December 1963 (Oh What a Night), The Four Seasons
Play That Funky Music, Wild Cherry
Kiss and Say Goodbye, The Manhattans
Love Machine, Pt. 1, The Miracles
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, Paul Simon
Love Is Alive, Gary Wright
A Fifth of Beethoven, Walter Murphy and The Big Apple Band
Sara Smile, Daryl Hall and John Oates
Afternoon Delight, Starland Vocal Band
I Write the Songs, Barry Manilow
Fly Robin Fly, Silver Convention
Love Hangover, Diana Ross
Get Closer, Seals and Crofts
More, More, More, Andrea True Connection
Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen
Misty Blue, Dorothy Moore
Boogie Fever, The Sylvers
2 instrumentals (!) Silly Love Songs is pure pop, but 1 billion times better than “All about dat bass”. Some disco pap to be sure. Some classics in Kiss and Say Goodbye, Bohemian Rhapsody, and 50 Ways to Leave your Lover. There’s got to be at least FIVE Rock and Roll HOFers on that list.
As I’ve said before, the real test will be if anyone is playing today’s top hits in movies 20 years from now. I seriously doubt it.
I listen to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd , James Taylor, Carole King, Bob Dylan, Dire Straits, Bruce Springsteen and … Adele.