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12.07am
8 August 2012
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I meet alot of people (age about 40+) who say this, when asking if they like The Beatles: ‘I loved The Beatles when I was a kid/teenager, but I dont listen to them anymore.’ An example: my dad.
My question is: Why is it that so many people leave behind the music they loved when they were young, when they get older? I mean, how can you stop listening to The Beatles?! And to the grown ups here who still listens to The Beatles like you did when you were a teenager: What made you ‘stay’ ?
1.06am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
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A great question, tkj!
Hmmm, I wonder how old you are? Not a judgement about the folly of youth. I just know there’s a 10-year-old floating around on here somewhere.
I fall into that category of “adult” (though still not sure just what that means), and 40+. I can only answer this from my perspective.
I fell in love with the group when I was 13, so many many years ago… Do I still devour them in quite the way I did then? The truth is no. I listen to lots of unreleased, am always hungry for things I haven’t heard, and when I am in the mood – or something stirs me – will sit down and have a good old-fashioned Beatles session like I used to.
They remain my favourite group, and there is only one artist comes close to vying with them for #1 depending on the day and my mood (Bob Dylan).
I suppose the thing is, my first album of theirs was “Rock ‘N’ Roll Music Volume 1″. I started off hearing them doing all these great songs by other people – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, etc. etc. – and I wondered what these other people were like. So I sought them out, and loved them, and wondered where they had come, and where else they had led.
I now have a collection that runs from 20s jazz and blues through to people like Jake Bugg and Paloma Faith. George Harrison once said something about there being so much music to discover, so many styles and forms. They didn’t limit theirselves, I haven’t, nor should you…
Don’t know whether that helps, or really answers your question to old fogeys like me…
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
1.21am
14 January 2013
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I fall into the adult category, but not 40+ (I’m 23). I think along the lines of what mja6758 said people find different music interest. I don’t listen to a lot of music I listen to before I found The Beatles or even some bands I found after listening to The Beatles. My taste changed. For example I use to listen to a lot of pop music before I listen The Beatles. Some people relate some of The Beatles early music to pop music of today. Or others claim they aren’t hard enough. There could be other reasons as well. As for me, I cannot really explain what has kept with The Beatles. Yes, while I have found other bands, The Beatles are like a magnet to me and there is nothing better than them.
1.40am
16 August 2012
Offline I’m not going to say anything negative about your Dad, but from my lifetime experience playing, selling and enjoying music, here’s how what I’ve learned:
Some people experience music as a background in their lives. They like it as a touchstone reference to their youth, but it isn’t something they feel particularly connected with.
Other people connect deeply and emotionally to their music. It defines them and shaped large parts of their lives.
I know and love lots of people in the first category. But I truly connect with the people in the second.
E is for 'Ergent'.
2.23am
8 August 2012
Offline SatanHimself said
I’m not going to say anything negative about your Dad, but from my lifetime experience playing, selling and enjoying music, here’s how what I’ve learned:Some people experience music as a background in their lives. They like it as a touchstone reference to their youth, but it isn’t something they feel particularly connected with.
Other people connect deeply and emotionally to their music. It defines them and shaped large parts of their lives.
I know and love lots of people in the first category. But I truly connect with the people in the second.
I think you’re right here. Im definitely in the second category, and I especially connect to Beatles’ music.
And to mja6758: Im 17 
2.25am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline But did anything I said make any kind of sense!
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
2.37am
8 August 2012
Offline m
mja6758 said
But did anything I said make any kind of sense!
Yes, I understood what you meant. I think I went through the same thing as you did, but I sort of ‘forgot’ the artist that I began expanding from. I loved Michael Jackson when I was twelve-thirteen, but when he died I lost a little bit of interest and started discovering The Beatles. Now I dont listen to MJ that much anymore. I guess The Beatles are to these 40+ people Im talking about like MJ are for me now.. I just hope I wont be losing interest in The Beatles when I get 40+, but the chance of that happening is probably 0,002% so I’ll be fine.
2.55am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline That was pretty much my point. When I discovered The Beatles they made up around, together and apart, around 80% of my music collection, as I explored more, I found other things I liked – nothing much as much, but others things I liked. As I’ve added things over the years though, my collection of music has gone from maybe thirty-forty hours, to four or five thousand hours.
The Beatles will always be my first love, but I wouldn’t want to ignore the rest.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
10.23pm
18 April 2013
Offline I’m in my early 40’s and The Beatles were everywhere in my childhood but I wasn’t that into them. While I had the Lady Madonna single when I was 7 or so and Let it Be when I was 12, and had the White Album when I was about 22, I wasn’t really a big fan. In fact, I was always turned off by Paul McCartney ‘s silly songs and thought The Beatles were overrated.
Then a couple of years ago a friend gave me the whole catalogue on CD when he bought the remasters, and I listened to the whole catalogue and said “hmm, not bad, I guess.”
Then another friend gave me his record collection about a year ago, and there were some Beatles vinyl albums in it (nothing rare), and I started putting those on, and then one night (while listening to Rock And Roll Music Vol. 1), it just clicked. I suddenly wanted to listen to The Beatles all the time, and pretty much have ever since. I too bought the Beatles in Stereo box, then everything by John Lennon , then everything by Yoko Ono, then The Beatles in Mono, and I haven’t stopped.
A couple of fanatical Beatles friends also gave me a ton of music and videos.
So I guess I’m the opposite of the “adults” you are describing!
In fact, I now have an 80 gig iPod Classic that is devoted entirely to The Beatles and Beatles-related music. I’ve filled it about halfway.
"If you're ever in the shit, grab my tit.” —Paul McCartney
4.16pm
31 March 2008
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I’m 36 and I would say almost everything I like nowadays I either liked when I was a teenager, or would have done had it been released/had I discovered it. My taste in music has barely changed over the years. And yes, that includes some of the pop I listened to as a kid (Duran Duran, Michael Jackson). If it’s good it’s good; fashion has nothing to do with quality.
Some music doesn’t age well, and some things I used to play over and over no longer hit me in the heart, but I can’t imagine my taste ever shifting so much that I’m not interested in pop/rock.
I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll be listening to The Beatles till the day I die, which hopefully won’t be for many more years. Cut me and I bleed Beatles.
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4.32pm
8 November 2012
Offline Joe said
I’m 36 and I would say almost everything I like nowadays I either liked when I was a teenager, or would have done had it been released/had I discovered it. My taste in music has barely changed over the years. And yes, that includes some of the pop I listened to as a kid (Duran Duran, Michael Jackson). If it’s good it’s good; fashion has nothing to do with quality.
That reminds me of a study from a few years ago on this subject.
Our self-image from those years, in other words, is especially adhesive. So, too, are our preferences. “There’s no reason why, at the age of 60, I should still be listening to the Allman Brothers,” Steinberg says. “Yet no matter how old you are, the music you listen to for the rest of your life is probably what you listened to when you were an adolescent.” Only extremely recent advances in neuroscience have begun to help explain why.
More here.
And, Joe, I didn’t know you also liked Duran.
And to tie this directly to the topic at hand, I never stopped being a Duran fan because that was the music I discovered and needed during a very difficult adolesnce. But with the music I listened to as a child, I find that my tastes are cyclical. I loved The Beatles as a kid, got turned off in the ’80s by the blander portions of Paul’s solo output, and now I’ve come back around and discovered even more to love. Same with The Carpenters, whom my 1st grade teacher turned me on to. So, I don’t completely abandon the first loves, it just might take a while to return to them.
parlance
4.49pm
18 April 2013
Offline I suppose that I still like most of the things I discovered as an adolescent, although only the ones that are actually good. I’ve discarded some along the way. My tastes are pretty eclectic and always cycling and evolving. I was into bands like King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Yes, and Pink Floyd until I was 16 or so, then I was also into bands like The Smiths and The Cure. I tend to listen to The Smiths and The Cure more these days than those other bands–in fact, Yes and Jethro Tull not at all, and Genesis mostly only the early years (and Floyd only up to The Wall).
But I also am always discovering other music–classical, country, indie rock, avant garde, pop, even occasionally rap.
Recently I’m very into some of the music of my childhood (introduced to me by my father)–Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley.
And of course, my new obsession is The Beatles.
"If you're ever in the shit, grab my tit.” —Paul McCartney
2.50am
14 December 2009
Offline Joe said
Some music doesn’t age well, and some things I used to play over and over no longer hit me in the heart, but I can’t imagine my taste ever shifting so much that I’m not interested in pop/rock.
I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll be listening to The Beatles till the day I die, which hopefully won’t be for many more years. Cut me and I bleed Beatles.
I feel the way Joe does, bleeding that green-apple Beatle-blood and loving them…even though I really haven’t willingly listened to their music since last spring, when I found & bought the mono box at a garage sale (for $10!!). I go through these binges every seven years or so, when I listen and re-listen to “the canon” again and again for like a year or more. Last big revival of interest came with the 2009 remaster-hype (and my shortly-thereafter discovery of Joe’s wonderful forum!) and lasted several years before I finally basically began diverting my attentions elsewhere. But don’t worry…I’ll start listening again, probably when the 2020s roll around. And you can bet in the meantime I’ll keep watching for big developments in Beatle-news (“Let it Be” dvd/bluray! “Carnival Of Light “!) because the excitement of discovery never goes away. (And of course I’ll keep on posting here, even though my current listening interests are elsewhere.)
Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
4.56am
10 August 2011
Offline @tkj
Interestingly, I still like and appreciate all the music I liked as a teenager. In fact, with the passing of time, I often appreciate it more. I don’t take greatness for granted anymore.
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
3.48pm
Reviewers
4 February 2014
Offline SatanHimself said
I’m not going to say anything negative about your Dad, but from my lifetime experience playing, selling and enjoying music, here’s how what I’ve learned:Some people experience music as a background in their lives. They like it as a touchstone reference to their youth, but it isn’t something they feel particularly connected with.
Other people connect deeply and emotionally to their music. It defines them and shaped large parts of their lives.
I know and love lots of people in the first category. But I truly connect with the people in the second.
I get exactly what you mean, that’s what I’ve noticed, connection to the music directly correlates to the interest and the longevity of that interest. I am a musician and hope to one day make a career out of it (if I’m lucky) so I really connect to the music I like, especially the Beatles, and I know there’s no way I’ll ever get bored of them. I also feel like musicians especially respect the music as they know what goes into it. The sheer musical genius is something so amazing that anyone who really pays attention to the music, like everyone on this website, has to love them as theres always something new to find so the music never gets old.
9.19pm
Reviewers
1 November 2013
Offline Mr. Kite said
SatanHimself said
I’m not going to say anything negative about your Dad, but from my lifetime experience playing, selling and enjoying music, here’s how what I’ve learned:Some people experience music as a background in their lives. They like it as a touchstone reference to their youth, but it isn’t something they feel particularly connected with.
Other people connect deeply and emotionally to their music. It defines them and shaped large parts of their lives.
I know and love lots of people in the first category. But I truly connect with the people in the second.
I get exactly what you mean, that’s what I’ve noticed, connection to the music directly correlates to the interest and the longevity of that interest. I am a musician and hope to one day make a career out of it (if I’m lucky) so I really connect to the music I like, especially the Beatles, and I know there’s no way I’ll ever get bored of them. I also feel like musicians especially respect the music as they know what goes into it. The sheer musical genius is something so amazing that anyone who really pays attention to the music, like everyone on this website, has to love them as theres always something new to find so the music never gets old.
What do you play? Right now I only play bass (which has helped me become pretty good, if I do say so myself), but I’d like to expand to at least guitar and piano in the future.
I’d love to become a professional musician, once I learn guitar and work on my songwriting. I’ve recorded some stuff on this 8 track digital recorder my dad has, but nothing ambitious yet. I’m still young though, at least.
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