Debates about music are a constant, and they continue. We continue to analyze why we listen to some styles and not others. What factors determine that what was popular before is no longer so, and vice versa. There are, for example, the current discussions around reggaeton, which arouses hatred and passion and has opened a generational gap.
Obviously, there have been numerous social, cultural and music industry changes over the last two and a half decades. Transformations ranging from the means through which we listen to music to the emergence of a growing eclecticism in tastes. But what is certain is that music continues to be a central part of our lives.
melodies of youth
And recent article by American psychologist Vanessa LoBlue precisely addresses the permanence of memories and musical tastes that are forged during youth. Sociological and biological or physical factors combine to find an explanation for this phenomenon.
On the one hand, the social perspective is very present when analyzing the weight of music in shaping individual and collective identities. Likewise, the styles and songs with which we socialize in these formative stages are associated with key moments in our lives. And finally, our brain has a greater capacity in those years to listen and assimilate new sounds, something that is lost as we age.
In the next few lines we will focus on the more social aspects, without denying the importance of the biological ones.
Tell me what did you hear…
Music has always had a generational component and has been linked to a kind of “rebellion” with respect to what the previous ones listened to. This is a process that has not changed since the birth of the rock and roll or of punkfollowing the grungy or the aforementioned polarization caused by reggaeton, to give a few examples. But, as we have previously pointed out, we are also in a more eclectic moment, in which listening to and enjoying musical styles without prejudice is mixed.
In other times, a musical style marked an identity, a more evident differentiation. The so-called “urban tribes” were linked in many cases with specific music. They listened to some specific records and went to the bars and clubs where those songs were playing. Everything was more closed.
To give an example, thirty years ago it would be very difficult for someone to admit that they liked Nirvana, José Luis Perales and Mecano at the same time (although surely there would be cases).
And as we grow, changes come that can also influence our relationship with music. On the one hand, it seems that those tastes or styles –or times– with which we have socialized have settled. And for another, various factorssuch as the emergence of obligations, work and personal, make us spend less time on music as we get older.
That is not to say that it does not continue to be present in our lives as we grow up, but perhaps in a different way. Once again, we must take into account the context and, regardless of eclecticism, how the music industry has evolved and the way we relate to it in recent years.
Nostalgia sells
These changes are shown, for example, in the success of stations that broadcast songs from the 80s and 90s, repeating many of them. Nostalgia is a factor that must also be taken into account. The songs of our childhood, adolescence and youth sound again. And artists or groups that were associated with previous generations are valued.
Comments such as “the songs that played in my parents’ car” are even frequent. The biological factor is key, but the social component is very present. They are also the melodies of that adolescence and youth, of that time.
The success of festivals dedicated to past decades, or of tours by returning singers and bands, should therefore come as no surprise. Nor should it be neglected how the festival model has been institutionalized and evolved, converted to a large extent into more social than musical events. And that in not a few cases they also pull from that collective nostalgia.
In short, the songs and musical styles that we listened to in our adolescence and youth have a greater permanence in our memory due to the combination of social and physical factors. It’s something that has always happened: I remember how many of my friends, with whom I shared a similar taste in music, “disconnected” from music after their thirties.
To this we must add that now it is also easier to continue listening to the “usual songs”, either through YouTube, the platforms of streaming or to the “nostalgic” stations. And it is that music is associated with those memories, with those key events and periods in our biographies.
2023-08-28 18:02:17
#hooked #music #listened #youth
