We all have different tastes in music.
From rap, to country, hip pop to R&B, music tastes are varied and we all have certain songs, albums and artists that we love.
For many of us, the songs we listened to during our childhood and teen years will stick with us. They’re the ones we love and remember the most. According to a 2018 study in The New York Times, by the age of 20 your music taste will have already have formed.
Well, apparently the reason why we are more into older music and not so much the top-of-the-charts stuff is pretty simple – we have just heard it more; i.e. mere exposure.
Frank McAndrew, a professor of psychology, writes in The Conversation: “In a nutshell, it means that the more we’re exposed to something, the more we tend to like it.
“This happens with people we know, the advertisements we see, and, yes, the songs we listen to.”
Apparently, the older we get, the less time we have to listen to new music, so if we get a chance to throw on some tunes, we opt for the older stuff which makes us like it more and more.
“For many people over 30, job and family obligations increase, so there’s less time to spend discovering new music. Instead, many will simply listen to old, familiar favourites from that period of their lives when they had more free time,” Frank concluded.
Many of us couldn’t resist checking out our Spotify most-played songs and artists of 2019 this week – so, were you listening to old tunes? Or were you right up there with all the latest hits?
