What Age Did You Stop Being Hip To New Mainstream Music?

[KAMALARAMBO]

I'm not sure if I ever was....

[livid]

I'm not sure I'll ever reach that point. I'm always looking for new music and the internet makes it incredibly easy to at least have some vague knowledge of what's going on.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

At some point in my teens.

Then at some point in my twenties I stopped being erm... "hip" to modern alternative music.

Now I just fill in my musical collage with stuff I'm discovering from the past, along with random stuff from unconnected places from nowadays.

[Nerf]

Eminem and Limp Bizkit were probably the last 'mainstream' artists I got into, so yeah, a long fucking time ago.

These days I couldn't tell you the difference between Beyonce and Rihanna.

[VerbalPuke]

It had to have been early on in High School for me. Probably at the time I was still sort of a fan of stuff like the Smashing Pumpkins or Rage Against the Machine, but since then I don't think I've bought a "mainstream" album in a very long time. That's not to say that I don't like new music that is popular with a good following, but most of it isn't "mainstream".

And honestly, I'm in the same boat as Nerf. I couldn't tell you the difference between Rhianna or Beyoncé. That goes for a lot of pop stars.

And it's not an anti mainstream thing, I'd gladly listen to a mainstream band if they caught my attention. I sort of like the Black Keys, but I don't know if they fall under the guideline of mainstream or not.

[Gazz]

Eminem and Limp Bizkit were probably the last 'mainstream' artists I got into, so yeah, a long fucking time ago.

These days I couldn't tell you the difference between Beyonce and Rihanna.

Racist

[METALMAN]

I used to know the top forty off by heart until a couple of years ago when I left HMV.

In the last year, I've stopped caring about tracking down new music in general. There's so much good music and I already have so much of it. I'm confident that if there is good new music it'll be able to find me without me really trying. I've found about four or five albums I like this year without trying or actively seeking. It's about nothing compared to the fifty or so I might have had at a similar point two years ago, but I'm happy with my lot.

[lari]

21. I think before that I was a bit more insecure, and it was around that time when I figured I am just going to like what I like, no matter what others think, or no matter how unpopular it is.

So now I like Axxis

[DMN in the House]

Depends on what you consider mainstream. I still listen to the big rock station out here (KROQ), so I'm up on things like Lorde or Chvrches, and I do my best to keep up with the EDM scene, but I could give a fuck about hip hop or pop.

I'm probably more up on mainstream music now than I was in my 20s.

[Your Mom]

When I had my kids. Now I pretty much "discover" bands on Late Night talk shows or SNL or something like that

[gunnar hendershow]

I've been on and off. Mainstream music has always had good offerings and will continue to do so, so I've actively sought out the good stuff for a long time.

[Skummy]

Mainstream music...I don't think I ever was. And I love that - not because I think mainstream music is terrible, quite the opposite. I remember years ago, I was in an almost consciously unlistenable "experimental" band with a guy who mostly listened to jazz, drone and avant-garde heavy metal, and as a result I spent a lot of my time listening to a lot of weird and wonderful stuff, and a lot of music that most people would find baffling...and that was exciting. But we never listened to anything else, so that was our benchmark. And it was around this time that "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley had been at number one for several weeks, but I'd never heard it, not once. And the two of us were in HMV, and "Boogie Monster" from the same Gnarls Barkley album came on, and it absolutely blew us both away, because it was such a fucking great track. And despite the fact that, at that time, I was just finishing my first week of work at a second-hand record store, and could have bought all manner of strange, rare and exciting records, my first purchase was that Gnarls Barkley album.

And that's kind of coloured my experience of music ever since. I don't give a fuck who wrote or recorded something, or how "hip" it is, and I'm terrible at keeping in touch lately - for all manner of reasons - but I'm loathe to even say the word "mainstream" because it's an insult; I'm as excited by a new Daft Punk or Pharrell Williams track as I am by a new SunnO))) album, so long as it's good.

[gunnar hendershow]

Mainstream music...I don't think I ever was. And I love that - not because I think mainstream music is terrible, quite the opposite. I remember years ago, I was in an almost consciously unlistenable "experimental" band with a guy who mostly listened to jazz, drone and avant-garde heavy metal, and as a result I spent a lot of my time listening to a lot of weird and wonderful stuff, and a lot of music that most people would find baffling...and that was exciting. But we never listened to anything else, so that was our benchmark. And it was around this time that "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley had been at number one for several weeks, but I'd never heard it, not once. And the two of us were in HMV, and "Boogie Monster" from the same Gnarls Barkley album came on, and it absolutely blew us both away, because it was such a fucking great track. And despite the fact that, at that time, I was just finishing my first week of work at a second-hand record store, and could have bought all manner of strange, rare and exciting records, my first purchase was that Gnarls Barkley album.

And that's kind of coloured my experience of music ever since. I don't give a fuck who wrote or recorded something, or how "hip" it is, and I'm terrible at keeping in touch lately - for all manner of reasons - but I'm loathe to even say the word "mainstream" because it's an insult; I'm as excited by a new Daft Punk or Pharrell Williams track as I am by a new SunnO))) album, so long as it's good.

This is largely what I wanted to post but without the personal experience. I agree the label is terrible for a ton of reasons. Good music is good music.

[ROC]

The age I am now, 24. I mostly just turn into a crank and be "what is this shit" and realize I'll have to hear it 100 times at work anyway because popularity.

[Slogger]

2004 maybe? When you're raised on a steady diet of The Eagles, CCR and Bryan Adams the mainstream never looked all that good in the first place, I guess.

[Your Mom]

CCR aren't bad. My parents loved them

[Noah]

I think about a decade ago. Used to be I could put the radio on and If I didn't care for an singer/group, chances are the very next song I would like.

These days, if I put on the radio, I'm lucky if I hear a song I like all day.

Hell I didn't even know Lorde was a thing until she won that grammy and that was after half the world already knew who she was and she's from New Zealand so you'd think I should have known who she was.

[=BK=]

I think about a decade ago. Used to be I could put the radio on and If I didn't care for an singer/group, chances are the very next song I would like.

These days, if I put on the radio, I'm lucky if I hear a song I like all day.

Hell I didn't even know Lorde was a thing until she won that grammy and that was after half the world already knew who she was and she's from New Zealand so you'd think I should have known who she was.

To be fair, I listen to a Hits/Contemporary station and I only know who she is because some of my YouTube subs mention her. I never hear her music. Edited July 19, 2014 by Kirkland

[Noah]

I realized after the fact that I had indeed heard her son "Royals" on the radio a few times but I'd never made the connection to an artist because the song didn't interest me any more than the song before or after it.

[=BK=]

I just looked up Royals just to make sure I hadn't scanned by it before. Never heard a bit of it before.