Felt old, today, when I was seemingly unreasonably annoyed when a kid drove by in a rattling junk car with a boomin' system. Pretty sure the kid thought it sounded good.
It's unreasonable, because I may or may not have once been a kid in a rattling junk car with a ridiculous set of subwoofers who may or may not have thought it sounded good at the time. I guess tastes change with age, wisdom, exposure, and experience. A "friend" might have once been able to stomach some Mad Dog 20/20 Orange Jubilee but now thinks he appreciates terroir.
Aside from perhaps having more "disposable" income as "audiophiles" age or moving with technology, might others prefer different types of music/gear than they once upon a time did?
I listen to more Jazz now (America's great contribution to Music!). Here in the Tampa area we have great Jazz broadcast every night from WUSF 89.7 FM. Commercial-free from 9 PM to 5 AM! Sounds great on my collection of vintage tuners!
As I’m aging, my tastes are definitely changing. When younger, I was all about electronic music. That’s all I would listen to, all I was interested in. Moving to the UK and getting in with a great group of DJs and musicians exposed me to all kinds of music. They loved Shostakovich, Leadbelly, Terry Riley, John Cage.. they were into abstract film and all kinds of great generative art. Since then, i listen for the soul in each piece of music, as opposed to the sounds it’s made from. Now I like just about everything that has, at its core, space and harmony. The sounds may be death metal, noise or sweet k pop, but if it stirs me, I’ll listen to it.
As for overly loud, car rattling stereos, I’ve hated them since I was a wee lad. Never understood why my friends did that to their cars, back in the day..
@Stfoth > “… as "audiophiles" age or moving with technology, might others prefer different types of music/gear than they once upon a time did?”
Blindjim > change is inevitable. Do nothing and as humans we change, lie it or not, just like tubes. We are always changing.
Getting much older, I am far more interested in the hear after lately then ever before. I’ll go to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, and when I get there, wonder, what in the Hell am I here after?
Perhaps my favorite ‘change’ of them all is Social Media. Spacebook. Tweeter. Insta-headache. Drop out. All of which enable us to now become instant non culpable voyurers immune to proscecution regardless what we witness electronically. It’s a long over due facility.
Especially Spacebook. I’m always impressed to hear someone’s cat is on their roof, or the garage door is stuck and they’ll be late for work. Or someone just ran over road kill. Stopped. And took a picture to prove it. It makes for a much fuller, richer life!
How I was able to enjoy life without some innocuous Spacebook email notification every 5 minutes telling me someone posted what they had with their corn flakes, or a picture of a vulture sitting on a billboard advocating against texting and driving, or a pic of their kids first pulled tooth. OMG. I am ever grateful!
I’m praying for a Spacebook chip insert directly into my eyeballs so I can enjoy a constant 24/7 feed of all the utter nonsense.
I feel we are obliged to change and even forced into change by technology. Sure, preffs vacillate. But tech has certainly changed our lives and what we use on a daily basis. Indeed, how we use it or them.
I still don’t listen to ‘face down, butt up’ rip rap or hip hoppity noise. Somehow it just doesn’t hit any buttons for me.
I still like Rock, but am not thrilled with how poor the SQ is all too often. On SQ, it has moved me into new genres which exhibit better fidelity though, purely for the sake of better sonics.
New tech and approaches in Class D. Advancements in Digital tech has moved Digital conversion much farther ahead. In the proper context it is now closely approaching analog quality.
Loudspeaker technology is steadily marching onward and new materials and tech is being devised for motors, and diaphragms. As well,loudspeaker building is enduring yet another influence in manufacturing perspectives as they lower overall impedance yet slightly increase sensitivity. Little harder to push, little louder if you can.
Following loudspeakers lead, amplifiers are escalating outputs be it SS or glass to accommodate that industries current obsession. .
The presence of the dark and dangerous web has delivered us new sources and resources for streaming content. Connectivity in the home or outside it. Now we store entire libraries on network storage devices or merely in a off site Cloud and on Flash drives you can hide in the palm of your hand.
Software too has forced or obliged us to migrate into new worlds with the advent of subscription rather than once upon a time, free programs, or pay just once. Music and video services abound and are to prolific to number.
Even remote controls are in our phones, not on the coffee table or chair arm.
Mobile devices have made TVs cameras, and voice recorders, notepads, calendars, address books, rolodexes, all quite optional.
The only audiophiles who will live longer lives will be the ones spinning LPs. At least they have to get up and walk around every 20 minutes or so.
As a kid while complaining about having to walk half a mile to the bus stop, or about what was for dinner, my mom would relate stories of her youth wherein she had to walk thru the snow 5 miles to school. Uphill both ways. In the snow. Avoiding alligators snakes and ferrel cats, while slaying zombies with only an iron skillet, then had to kill and clean and cook what ever was had for dinner with that same skillet! Always ending with, “so shut up and be greatful!’
…and I was, or am, or was, before Spacebook and images of road kill and baby teeth, quite grateful. = = = =
@ roberjerman > USF
Blindjim > ever tune in on Saturday nights? They used to do a sort of road show from 3 different venues moving from East to west crosss country ending in CA. Lincoln Center, sometimes, San Antonio, and like Birdland West or some where out there. 7p to 10p or so.
… and Prarrie home companion. Exactly who’s better than Garrison keeler?
No doubt taste in music can change, but in my case I wonder if it didn’t really change so much as it became exposed via higher end gear (less distortion, greater frequency extension, flatter frequency response, etc.) When I listen to music I want to be emotionally and/or spiritually moved and to connect with the performer and their message. I suspect I may have always liked many more genres of music back in my younger years than realized, but hearing them through crap systems (car radio, elevator, dentist office, Good Housekeeping gear, $5 cartridge from Woolworth, boombox, etc.) the only aspect of music that COULD move me was the driving beat, thus R&R. It was the only "message" that could be disseminated from the gook that spewed from all of the crap gear to which I’d been exposed. A pattern certainly emerged for me as I got into higher end gear: better gear begot enjoyment of more performers and different styles of music, some of which I used to ignore, or even hate.
So, did my taste change, or did it simply become evident through better reproduction of sound? Maybe both? Hard to say.
Hey...I still listen to the old Cat Stevens albums! OK, not the new Cat Stevens (aka Yusef), but early Cat Stevens i.e.Tea for the Tillerman, Mona Bone Jakon and Teaser and the Firecat were genius, and still relevant today. He absolutely deserves his place in the R&R Hall of Fame.
I understand. I was being a little tongue in cheek. I really don't have any love for his music anymore, or much respect for him either, but I do know that it is just my own taste and others still enjoy his music.
When I was a kid, I was totally immersed in Black music, especially the blues. I used to listen to the all night blues stations under the covers so I wouldn't wake anyone else. It was a station inside of a record store at Vernon and Central in South Central Los Angeles. The DJ's name was "Huggie Boy." Their sponsor was Mister Jim's BBQ. Mister Jim's motto was ... "You need no teef to eat ma beef!"
As in life you are either getting better or getting worse , it would be strange if tastes din't at least modify over decades . I have noticed that with druggies I've known they seem frozen in time . Walking dead?
So true, schubert. Especially old potheads, who just can’t let go of the late 60’s, which they remember as being so groovy. Good riddance. I hated tie-dye and bell bottoms, hippie bands, and organic food (the worst thing I ever tasted was a pumpkin pie made with the innards of a real pumpkin). I did really like, however, tank top/wife beater t-shirts without bras that hippie chicks wore ;-).
Yep, I still listen to old hippie bands, or "Jam Bands" if you will. Luckily they keep putting out new recordings (usually of older concerts) so I'm not getting anywhere near bored with it yet, even after 40+ years. Right now I'm listening to a live moe. album from the 90's & loving every minute of it. Earlier it was JGB.
bdp24, I did buy Brian Wilson's "Smile" cd on your recommendation. Although I'm still not a fan, I can see where the appeal comes from. He is very talented.
Ouch, @bdp24 ! I loved heavy rock as a kid, and dig it even more now, though it's not mainstream stuff, the more obscure the better sometimes- proto metal, early prog, post psych stuff. Not flowers in your hair, but still stoner music. I've sort of regressed- I listened to and collected lot's of classical (still have most of it), jazz standards (ditto, though never bought the original Blue Notes), and lot's of other stuff that was floating around in the audiophile community over the decades, from soundtracks to pop to the usual warhorses. But, at a certain point, I just wanted to hear heavier rock -- not classic rock-- which is as tired and overplayed as anything else, but stuff that was dark, dynamic, and mixed lyrical passages with deep bass and other instruments. I'm kind of all over the place taste wise, from the UK folk movement to some of the stuff Opeth and Steve Wilson do, mixing in spiritual jazz like some of those records on Strata East with manic Jap Rock like that Satori album. I know by the time I'm at the nursing home, i'll be into Slim Whitman.
boxer12---Did you get the Smile album that Brian did with his current band (entitled Brian Wilson Presents Smile), or the Smile reissue of the original 66-7 recordings? If the former, consider getting either the double-CD or double-LP of the latter. The original recordings are different from the new, very dark and spooky, almost creepy, but also with a lot of subtle humour (Smile lyricist Van Dyke Parks is a very funny, sly guy). There is also a massive 6-CD boxset that contains every take of every song (including those with false starts, mistakes, rehearsals, etc.), but that’s for hardcore fanatics only.
There is also a documentary on the album, culminating in the premier live performance of the album in London in the early 2000’s. It’s magnificent! Smile was a massive undertaking, very complex for Pop music. There was a lot of music just starting to get made in 1967 that flattered itself as being progressive, but most of that sounds childish compared to Smile.
whart, if you haven’t discovered them yet, check out Love Sculpture, the Welsh band fronted by the great Dave Edmunds, later of Rockpile, one of the greatest Rock ’n’ Roll bands ever. Love Sculpture was an oddity, doing not just one style of music. They gained notoriety for performing Sabre Dance by Classical composer Khachaturian, which was inspired, it is said, by Keith Emerson’s work. I much prefer Dave’s solo albums that followed, where he focusses on 50’s Rock ’n’ Roll (he’s the best Chuck Berry-style guitarist I’ve ever heard) and early 60’s Pop (he figured out how to recreate Spector’s Girl Group Wall Of Sound). But then I'm not a Mod, I'm a Rocker ;-).
I concur w/ roberjerman- I fell in love with Jazz (America's greatest treasure) about 15 years ago. I much prefer this genre now. I came into it from a Classic Rock/Hard Rock/ Metal background. Additionally, I can relate to that poor kid in a booming car. My friends and myself used to build those kind of systems back in the 80's.
I've come to a serious "beatnik" period for the last 10 years or so where I can't get enough jazz…love piano trios both old and new (newer brilliant youngsters who can REALLY play give me hope for civilization in general)…and rarely listen to any modern pop or Hippity Hop…ever….and I was a 60's Rock and Roll musician right through now (still play too loud, although my acoustic chops are OK). I have all the signs of Older Dude taste, and own original Steely Dan vinyl that I actually do still listen to…Little Feat…are there current bands as good as those guys? If so, I don't hear 'em, and find that many successful "newer" bands like The National or the Black Keys are unlistenable (to put it mildly) although mostly well regarded by others. Oh well…there's a LOT of jazz (and classical) to get through in my remaining years so I'm not worried about any of it, and try to keep my Hippity Hop opinions to myself when around our mid 20 something kids.
@wolf_garcia - they aren’t traditional straight ahead jazz piano records, but try Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi period records. Speaker’s Corner just remastered Crossings- its funk, jazz, and almost every idiom turned on it’s head. I don’t think you’ll find anybody doing what Little Feat did in their prime with Lowell. I have, however taken a liking to guitarists like Rory Gallagher and Paul Kossoff, Ollie Halsall (Patto) and I still dig Skynyrd, pre-crash. Steely Dan’s first album was one of the great debut albums by a band that turned out pop hits but had the sensibility of avant garde jazz players. Elliott Randall’s leads were smokin’ on that first record. @shadorne - Solid Air is a gorgeous album. Highly recommended- Roy Harper’s Stormcock, especially the first side. It is balladeer stuff, but dark, Jimmy Page plays 12 string on the second track- The Same Old Rock and Roll.
Certainly my tastes have changed over the 50+ years I have had music important to my life.
+1 Wolf. I have in the last five years found Jazz to be most enjoyable. Piano treos and quartets in particular. Play more of this than other. Anything with Ray Brown, Oscar Pederson, as examples.
Still enjoy music from the mid-late 60s to early 70s, was in my late teens early 20s then. Did not care for much of the later 70s rock era. I have always enjoyed the blues and rock/blues guitar bands.
Do also listen to folk, regae, new age, some classical.
real music 777, we SHOULD get wiser as we get older but many/most do not . I find some in my age group(80+) to be dripping with wisdom whilst many are swimming in ignorance . To paraphrase the Budda , we are either getting better or getting worse .
I've been into jazz somewhat for a long time really, used to go to a late night jazz club in Honolulu after gigs, saw Monk when I was a kid (opening for Peter, Paul, and Mary at the Hollywood Bowl…my first exposure to serious jazz piano), saw Joe Pass, Ella, Oscar Peterson, blah blah, and have been WAY into a few newer geniuses such as Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn…Brad Mehldau…my oh my…and I think a love of art and music (I'm a musician also, by default), and actually actively listening to music (which most people simply don't do) keeps the brain in shape. Art is all that matters…you think people hundreds of years from now will remember the great investment bankers? No they won't.
Always liked Rock & Roll,Heavy Metal and some Blues.I have recently discovered and added some Jazz into the mix and some Blues from the Gals like,Sena Erhardt,Janiva Magnuss,Debbie Davis,Joann Shaw Taylor.
Joyce Cooling does some nice Jazz Guitar work,Jeff Golub,Lee Ritenour-Captain Fingers although i did get some of his albums years ago.The Mark Lettieri -Spark and Echo CD is pretty good.I found him through Snarky Puppy.It seems like the Jazz segment has really good mixes.I avoided Country growing up but I can do a little of it now a days.A splash of Classical.I still crank the Heavy Metal out tho.Tool sounds great on the system as well.Yep,some of the old faves were really recorded horribly!It's like"did you guys even listen to this?"
boxer12, if you want to see what lead up to Smile, there is a great documentary on the making of the Pet Sounds album. PS contains what I consider the "best" song ever written---"God Only Knows". Paul McCartney feels the same about the song. There is a video on You Tube wherein a musicologist sits at a piano, discussing, explaining, and demonstrating the incredible construction of this very sophisticated (almost Baroque in quality) song. It was light years ahead of what anyone else in Pop or Rock was doing at the time (or has done at any time).
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