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

[SRN]

I like discovering new music, all the time. Whether that be mainstream or not, I don't really care - if I like it, I like it. I don't put any particular pride into exclusively listening to this or that or only being into underground or alternative music; that just means you are limiting yourself. So yeah, I guess I am still "hip to new mainstream music", whatever that means.

[Benji]

About 13, and then I let myself admit I always liked it at about 18,

[DMN in the House]

While I did kinda slag current hip hop and pop, I too am of the mindset that if I like something, fuck it, I don't care. I even have some Miley Cyrus on my phone!

[Kyle]

I'll listen to pretty much anything, but since about 2008 I've not paid attention to when new "pop" music is released, and since 2012 I've not really paid attention to any music releases because I stopped talking to the friends that informed me of the new releases.

[KAMALARAMBO]

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.

I know what you mean. It's pretty impossible to not hear some songs like that. Royals gets played a ridiculous amount.

[Noah]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not all "Blah blah mainstream totally sucks" If I find out about an artist and I like them, it wont matter to me what they are classified as.

I'm just saying I get no joy out of what the public generally finds entertaining for the most part these days, as opposed to say back in 2004 when I liked almost everything I heard.

[Quom]

In the past couple of years. It used to be that I didn't like mainstream music and would like maybe 1/30 songs and could tolerate 80% and liked maybe 1/10 songs on alternative radio and could tolerate 95%. Now I don't like either and struggle to tolerate either, it seems like there is loads more talking and I just end up flipping through stations.

It sucks because now I can't find any new bands I genuinely like and have sort of lost my passion for a lot of music. Now I will find a song I like, then listen to their other songs and generally not like them. I've also grown out of a lot of bands I used to love.

When I use Pandora or whatever to try and find new music the stuff they suggest is stuff I either already know and like or things that sound nothing like the reference.

I dunno, but it makes me sad that I've turned into an old person.

[Benjamin]

Is it wrong if I've actually stopped seeking new music and am just comfortable with the music I've liked for years? I used to spend hours listening to new stuff, now it's like, I can listen to same 100 or so songs I have on my phone and I'd be happy with that.

[=BK=]

In the past couple of years. It used to be that I didn't like mainstream music and would like maybe 1/30 songs and could tolerate 80% and liked maybe 1/10 songs on alternative radio and could tolerate 95%. Now I don't like either and struggle to tolerate either, it seems like there is loads more talking and I just end up flipping through stations.

It sucks because now I can't find any new bands I genuinely like and have sort of lost my passion for a lot of music. Now I will find a song I like, then listen to their other songs and generally not like them. I've also grown out of a lot of bands I used to love.

When I use Pandora or whatever to try and find new music the stuff they suggest is stuff I either already know and like or things that sound nothing like the reference.

I dunno, but it makes me sad that I've turned into an old person.

Maaan, if it wasn't for Pandora my list of favorite bands would still be mostly my High School favorite bands like The Used and Wednesday 13 and I wouldn't know of two of my all time favorites. I got so much new(to me) music from it even if it has kinda trailed off now.

[RPS]

I still keep up with what is going on in electronic and hip hop genres and keep up with a few of my favorite bands, but I'm not going out of my way to hear the new Lordes, Black Keys or Arcade Fire albums. I used to view Pitchfork and Rolling Stone every week, but probably ever since I turned 25 I've just stopped following those sites and moved towards things like XLR8R and Resident Advisor. It is time consuming to scour the internet to find 'the best musics ever' and as I've grown older, I've just decided to hone in on the music genres I really like a lot and just ignore the rest.

I don't actively avoid trying to listen to mainstream music - I loved Beyonce's last album, for example - but as I've grown older I've find my tastes have graviated towards less mainstream music. When I was younger and I was really into music, I wore it as a badge of pride to be like "fuck Britney Spears, everyone should be listening to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs". Nowadays I just realized how foolish the attitude was because mainstream music doesn't really describe the quality of the music, it just describes whether a lot of people listen to it, whether the press is covering their new album, what the album sales are, etc. I mean, Britney Spears still makes awful music, but it doesn't really have much to do with the fact she is mainstream or popular. There are lots of great acts who sell a lot of records these days. There are lots of shitty acts who don't sell records.

[EWFan2004]

Personally, I think it was somewhere between late 2008 to late 2010. Or maybe the store I was working for Halloween kept repeat playing current "hits" that I just tuned it away.

[apsham]

Is it wrong if I've actually stopped seeking new music and am just comfortable with the music I've liked for years? I used to spend hours listening to new stuff, now it's like, I can listen to same 100 or so songs I have on my phone and I'd be happy with that.

This has been me for years. I REALLY want to try and listen to some new music but I have a terribly hard time of actually doing so.

[RPS]

Two of the best sites - in my opinion - for keeping up with new music are Acclaimed Music and Metacritic. Acclaimed Music compiles end of year lists and has a ranking of the top 3000 albums of all time. So it is a great source for newer music and discovering older music. I assume everyone knows what Metacritic is, but I find it is good at giving a good overview of what is being released that week, what people are listening to, etc. I do find the problem with Metacritic being it heavily focuses on rock music.

[Quom]

I find the problem with metacritic is that it doesn't give me an accurate representation of what is actually good. Most things with scores over 90 upon listen are (generally) incredibly pretentious bollocks and/or crap that nobody will remember in 5 years or reissues.

I used to like Rolling Stone reviews as they at least had key song listings at the end of the review so you could youtube those songs to see if you were into the band/album. I liked that a lot, because I always wonder if I unfairly judged the album by listening to what was potentially filler.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Quom

[Hobo]

I don't really think I was ever super into buying what ever is on the pop charts. I amn't completely oblivious to pop music but I never like anything enough to buy it.

[RPS]

I find the problem with metacritic is that it doesn't give me an accurate representation of what is actually good. Most things with scores over 90 upon listen are (generally) incredibly pretentious bollocks and/or crap that nobody will remember in 5 years or reissues.

I somewhat agree. The problem with metacritic is that if your album is reviewed by 4 people and all four give it 100%, it'll rank higher than an album reviewed by 20 people, half of whom give it 100% and the rest of whom give it more average reviews.

I do find their monthly features that run down every album that scores 80+ to be very good, because their monthly and yearly features require an album to be reviewed by a minimum number of reviewers.

Music criticism in general tends to overvalue certain genres and undervalues others, which also factors into the problem. Rock albums tend to get higher grades than pop, electronic, hip hop, etc. It isn't a hard and fast rule, but it is definitely a trend. That's why I think you have to kind of approach Metacritic in a way where you take into account that a rock album that is average is more likely to get better reviews than an average hip hop album. It's like 'oh, wow, the music press loved the new Jack White album, what a shocker'.

[New Damage]

I think I've sort of ebbed and flowed into paying attention to the mainstream. Around 2001 I discovered Limp Bizkit, Puddle of Mudd and Nickelback, but back then over here, those were getting played in the main charts. And at the same time, I liked other music that was popular - like Usher for one - because I was still in high school, it was sort of something you had to do to be cool. Despite buying the single of Eamon's 'Fuck It', I never got 50 Cent or Eminem though .

But when I left high school through to about a couple years ago, I went into "RAWR ROCK MUSIC IS THE ONLY WAY!!!" mode, and discovered grunge through San Andreas and having access to fast internet and file sharing. In the last couple of years, I've grown tired of the rock scene a little, or just mellowed out more. I think part of it is because there is about only one rock club here in Cardiff, which plays the same music every week to the same people every week, whereas there is another club which can play anything from Kanye West to Boyzone to Michael Jackson and it's just a much more fun vibe. Plus I still know some people like that and I realised how dumb it is.

I have Radio 1 on every morning for an hour or so during Fearne Cotton's show, so a lot of the stuff I know, but more often than not it's "A BRAND NEW BAND WHO ARE THE BEST" that sound incredibly similar to the one before it - toned down dance music with a mid-90s house vibe - that I can't recall who sings the song. Same goes for acoustic artists and moody minimalist female singers. But now as people have mentioned, it's a case of if it's good, it's good. For me personally though, the majority of stuff that they do play is generally bland but tolerable... until it's been played to death. See: Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Ray, Lorde and Pharrell.

About the only new artist I've got into which I've heard from the radio is Royal Blood, and am excited for that album in a couple weeks.

Will.I.Am needs to burn in a fire though.

[METALMAN]

You know, I don't listen to Radio 1 but if Ed Sheeran, Lorde, Lana Del Rey and Pharrell Williams are representative of what they play, that's pretty decent.

I like that one Lorde song that's been everywhere. It works well with her husky voice. Pharrell turns up with a good song from time to time. Ed Sheeran is normally awful but that "Sing" is a wonderful ear worm. And I actually genuinely like Lana Del Rey and enjoy both of her albums.

[RPS]

Pharrell (and the Neptunes) is amazing. I mean, he's cashing in now and good on him because who wouldn't in his position. The guy busted his ass for so long producing some of the most weird pop songs and now he hit it famous with Get Lucky and he's riding that to the bank.

[New Damage]

That's the thing, they're not terrible and generally listenable, but if every time you turn the radio on or get in the car you hear Ed Sheeran, maaaaaaannnnn that gets old.