Ok, so what music are people over 30 supposed to listen to? Was I supposed to freeze my CD collection in 2001 or in 1996 when I graduated college? Can I only listen to new CDs by bands like U2 or is all their stuff after Joshua Tree have to suck? Can I listen to music that sounds like stuff I listened to in college? Sum 41 and Blink 182 sound kinda like Green Day…who has a new…CD…but sucks since all their CDs after Dookie sucked. If I listen to Hillary Duff or Ashley Simpson, is that…you know…creepy? If I throw a party and put on some hip hop, will I get strange looks? Should I throw on some light jazz instead? Or old frat-rock classics?
One of the great things about turning older (30 by most definitions) is that you can listen to whatever you want! You don’t have to listen to what others think you should listen to.
I’m am constantly ridiculed for my CD collection, which includes light jazz, classical, and crap like Neil Diamond and Third Eye Blind. I don’t care anymore.
And anyway, there’s nothing more pathetic than a 40-something trying to keep up with the times 
Hey! I’m not a huge Green Day fan, but American Idiot* is a very good record.
You could just listen to whatever music makes you happy, and ignore the rest. I’ve been doing it since forever. Suits me fine.
Well the nice thing is that as you get older, you have a larger pool of music to choose from.
Listen to whatever you want. It can be old favorites, new stuff, or music you missed the first time it was out. After all, because you’re over 30, you’re already out of the recording industry’s demographics. They don’t give a damn what you listen to anymore.
They care when Norah Jones and Steely Dan sell 50 billion records a piece and they care every time some 30something gets his kid to buy “The Wall” or “Dark Side of the Moon”.
They just don’t care about anything else.
I try to listen to what my students listen to. Can’t always get into it, but Jay-Z’s Black Albumis in heavy rotation in my CD player right now. I’m actually liking hip hop more than whatever else is popular these days, though I still also love love love Tori Amos, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, etc. I’ve been listening to them since high school and they still thrill.
My kids keep me in the now and I teach em what good music is. Or was. Plus I’m a top 40 whore.
The two biggest errors are:
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letting your musical taste fossilize with your youth… i.e. the “there’s no good music anymore… they don’t write good songs like they did when I was young” mentality. It’s as pathetic as a balding hippy.
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deciding you have to listen to “adult” music now, and giving away all your old CD’s and buying into the easy listening bilge.
Keep an open mind, and listen to what you like.
This message was brought to you by the self-righteous older music fan cabal.
Rammstein’s Mein Teil.
No question. The best part about growing older is that you never, never, ever have to care what the idiot cool kids think is cool. You no longer have to go through life thinking that you have to listen to crap just because it’s on the Fuse Top Ten. Like whatever you like. Play whatever you want. New, old, classical, jazz, rock, hip-hop. And that includes “adult” music, whatever that might be. If you got some, pass it along to me. I’m an adult. I know what good music of all kinds sounds like.
So I’m also going to say - loudly - that we are in the worst period for popular music that I can remember since about, well, about 1963. Most bands today suck even in comparison to those of 10 years ago. And I was an adult then too.
That’s another good thing about growing old. You don’t have to pretend that crap sounds good just to stay popular with the cool kids.
You are required by law to listen to Adult Contemporary. If you’re not careful, this may include albums that also play on the country channels. If you’re really not careful, you’ll end up decrying radio today, but in favor of prog rock. The phrase “smooth hits of the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and today” shall become your watchword.
Or you could just listen to what you like, but I can’t guarantee your safety.
I’m going back nearly 20 years but I recall a party where I, in my early 30s, was the oldest guy at a party. The teenaged boys thought I was subjecting them to jazz or classical or somesuch crap when I started “Locomotive Breath” with the piano solo. While they muttered about old farts I kept an ear open then cranked the volume during the pause between the piano and All The Sound In The Known Universe. Hell, they weren’t MY speakers.
It was fun. 
But I agree that being “old” you can listen to anything you want and thumb your nose at the trendsetters. You know what’s good. They should be following YOUR lead.
This is a complicated question that I have been thinking about for about a year and have come to the conclusion that it’s okay to listen to stuff from college as long as it doesn’t bring up humiliating memories.
Whatever you like. You make yourself happy.
You’ve got some time and some money. Listen to something you’ve never heard before.
Wasn’t it Homer Simpson who once said that the best music is whatever was playing on the radio when you were seventeen?
The secret to keeping your musical taste alive is not just trying to keep moving forward. Move backward too: check out music that was popular in the 50’s, 40’s, 30’s and 20’s. Or take a step sideways and check out new genres: country fans and rap fans should get together and trade recommendations. Check out jazz or blues or zydeco or celtic folk or house.
Explore and expand your own tastes. You will not go wrong and you never have to justify what you like. One way of broadening your exposure to different things while pleasing your guests is to ask them to bring favorite CDs.
I almost fainted when I heard my granddaughter put on Frank Sinatra when her boyfriend was over. Maybe I should have worried. Now her fourteen year old sister likes Simon and Garfunkel.
Some things are eternal for me – Steely Dan, Ray Charles, Stan Getz playing Jobim, the Band, Miles Davis, Mancini. Find the essential you and it won’t matter what age you are.
And on the inverse, if you like that music, you can listen to it without caring whether anyone thinks you’re cool. Me, I keep my music tastes to myself, because I don’t fit any of the demographics for the stuff I prefer, and I don’t want to get the odd looks from people who think I’m acting like a teenager.
You know, I was thinking about this issue just this morning. I’m 33. Aren’t my musical tastes supposed to moving toward mellower stuff? But no. As I get older, I’m going in the opposite direction. It’s all hard rock, all the time with me. AC/DC. Nugent, The Who…If it’s not frying my eardrums, I’m not interested. This trend has been happening since at least my mid-twenties. I used to be into such a wide variety of music. What’s happening to me?
Though I do just loves me some Neil Diamond. What is it about that guy?