Even if you enjoy music so much, it doesn't feel the same as it did when you were in the your teens or 20's? Like with feeling emotionally attached to artists you love so much? I'm still a fan of my main 3 (michael, janet, madonna) and that won't change, but loving MJ has really been depressing too as much as it has been joyful. Right now I feel like I feel like though I still listen to him the emotional attachment is slowly drifting away for a few minutes and I feel angry he's gone and I let my feelings get hurt so badly and am still affected and retaliate sometimes; but when I have him on or I dance to him, it's cool again though it doesn't feel the same as before and it's taking time to restore the same feeling. It just may never come back, and I have to accept it if it doesn't. I'm too hurt. I know he's at peace, but I'm more upset about how I don't feel at peace.

I'm enjoying Janet like crazy still and went to her recent tour, I've seen her multiple times. It was special and exciting and I was enjoying myself, but it felt so different from the past, like though the excitement was there, I was much calmer in comparison, like used to it.

As for Madonna, right now her 80's stuff is really getting to me and she's the first huge artist I knew alongside MJ as a little kid so I'm listening to it a lot, and feel almost like if something happens to her, it's going to be very hard.

[Edited 3/15/11 1:50am]

My 2 main performers are Madonna and Prince, I'll listen to them as long as they keep releasing music, but a bit of the excitement has gone. When you first get into someone, there's so much to discover and experience. After being a fan of M and P for 20 years, I still get excited at their new work, but certain eras of their career are more interesting to me (Madonna: 90-93, Prince: 93-95) so I usually go and listen to that stuff.

I guess cause there won't be anymore real "eras" for mj, it's going to be different from now on and that's part of why I feel the emptinesss. Also it feels weird cause I knew mj, prince and madonna were the three big ones of the 80's and now just two of them remain. I knew he would go first, but not so soon. It actually makes me feel very old, and I think that might be the depressing part, though I was just 26 when it happened.

[Edited 3/15/11 3:12am]

Interesting thread.

As MJ fans all we have left is the past and bits and pieces from the cutting room floor. I don't think it helps that MJ's estate have firmly reminded every fan that the man is well and truly dead by letting some imposter sing three songs on his new "album."

Buy Tori Amos's back catalogue. That'll keep you busy for a few years.

alphastreet said:

I guess cause there won't be anymore real "eras" for mj, it's going to be different from now on and that's part of why I feel the emptinesss.

I imagine many people felt the same way when Sam Cooke died, or so many others that died much too soon. It's all a part of this journey we are all on.

I miss Mike too (along with so many others).

This is one of those occasions when I like to use the dating / kissing / sex analogy.

Sure, it feels new, exciting and special when you're younger and just starting out. Then when you are older you just have to laugh at your own naivety in retrospect, but doing those things still feel good.

Then at one point some will have to get into the really weird shit to stay interested.

novabrkr said:

This is one of those occasions when I like to use the dating / kissing / sex analogy.

Sure, it feels new, exciting and special when you're younger and just starting out. Then when you are older you just have to laugh at your own naivety in retrospect, but doing those things still feel good.

Then at one point some will have to get into the really weird shit to stay interested.

My taste in music appears to be a bit more diverse, than my teens and twenties

"Even if you enjoy music so much, it doesn't feel the same as it did when you were in the your teens or 20's".?

I can't say that's been my experience or the experience of my family, and my mom is in her 80's. Our attachment has always been to the music not really an emotional attachment to the artist, if that makes any sense. The only thing that's changed is the free time I had to didicate to music . . interms of exploring new stuff or maybe being able to jump up at a moment notice to attend a concert. Good music is like a good novel or film, the really brilliant ones always show you something that you've never heard or seen even when you've heard it, read it or seen it a thousand times.

The only thing I miss is the live music / club scene; I never thought that would change . . . disappear hence I took it for granted.

==============

[Edited 3/15/11 7:23am]

I'm 43 and when I hear a good OLD song that I've never heard before, I feel exactly like I did when I was in my teens. I love music just as much now as I did then. Actually, I love it more now than then.

I haven't lost interest in new music due to getting older. I've lost interest because it actually IS a bunch of bullshit. Hell, I'm too young for all that senior citizen tempoed bullshit they are releasing these days and I'm too old for those Fisher Price instruments they use to make it. As far as age goes, I can outjam any of these young motherfuckers out there these days. Of course, it doesn't take much though, considering that they have the taste of Lawrence Welk or Slim Whitman wrapped up in a thug looking packing. The fucking dorks.

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[Edited 3/15/11 7:28am]

angel345 said:

My taste in music appears to be a bit more diverse, than my teens and twenties

To add, therefore, I do feel the same, but I have become more embrasive. About MJ, I believe the man and his music will always live on in me.

Shit changes as you become older, so it's inevitable that your taste does as well. Though...I don't remember how I felt when I used to hear music when I was younger. If I liked it I liked it. I didn't, then I didn't. I remember at one point during the late 90s I totally got sick of American music and I would listen to nothing, but Japanese and European music. Then I was going through a lot of indie pop, because I was always looking for something new to listen to. I still do the same thing, but now I am also taking the time to look for much older material as well and to get more acquainted with the work of those who are long gone and past.

The only thing is that I still get highly annoyed with a lot of contemporary r&b. Something about it really irks the shit out of me. I don't know what it is, but I think that the last time I, truly, enjoyed the genre was back during the new jack swing era. I'm kinda getting back to it now...but not really.

Like, I really liked Janet Jackson's material back in the 90s. When I listen to a lot of it now I just want her to stop singing. Though I still really like her stuff from pre-janet. Guess in another 10 years I might feel differently. =/

[Edited 3/15/11 7:34am]

vainandy said:

I'm 43 and when I hear a good OLD song that I've never heard before, I feel exactly like I did when I was in my teens. I love music just as much now as I did then. Actually, I love it more now than then.

I haven't lost interest in new music due to getting older. I've lost interest because it actually IS a bunch of bullshit. Hell, I'm too young for all that senior citizen tempoed bullshit they are releasing these days and I'm too old for those Fisher Price instruments they use to make it. As far as age goes, I can outjam any of these young motherfuckers out there these days. Of course, it doesn't take much though, considering that they have the taste of Lawrence Welk or Slim Whitman wrapped up in a thug looking packing. The fucking dorks.

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That's so true, what music is now or isn't, I can't say I give a damn. I'm just grateful tons of stuff was recorded before it mostly turned into cow dung. Hell, I can listen to music until the good Lord calls me home.

---------------------------

[Edited 3/15/11 12:44pm]

I agree with Vainandy and tD3.

Soemthing about the SOUND more less the age. When you grow up in liking a certain style of music, there is not way to un-do that. Just as much as my partner loves to hear that country twang of Johnny Cash's guitar even though he didnt grow up in that age...as much as we love to hear a synthesizer over a hot ass Linn drum beat....it makes me go crazy!

I know man that quote could not be any more correct, as soon as I heard "Copy Cat" or "Hydraulic Pump" by P-Funk All Stars for the first time last week..it's like a whole world of wonderful sounds opening that never exsisted before to me.

Same even goes with a Prince bootleg like "Traffic Jam", even "Black Sweat", the sound is amazing.

TD3 said:

vainandy said:

I'm 43 and when I hear a good OLD song that I've never heard before, I feel exactly like I did when I was in my teens. I love music just as much now as I did then. Actually, I love it more now than then.

I haven't lost interest in new music due to getting older. I've lost interest because it actually IS a bunch of bullshit. Hell, I'm too young for all that senior citizen tempoed bullshit they are releasing these days and I'm too old for those Fisher Price instruments they use to make it. As far as age goes, I can outjam any of these young motherfuckers out there these days. Of course, it doesn't take much though, considering that they have the taste of Lawrence Welk or Slim Whitman wrapped up in a thug looking packing. The fucking dorks.

.

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.

That's so true, what music is now or isn't, I can't say I give a damn. I'm just grateful a tons of stuff was recorded before it mostly turned into cow dung. Hell, I can listen to music until the good Lord calls me home.

Totally agree with both of you. I've been listening to the Complete Motown Singles collection. (Let's not talk about I've been doing it for over a year now and I'm only up to Volume 5).

But there are dozens of songs on there I've never heard before, most of which never charted, that blow me away with how good they are. (Boy was that a poorly constructed sentence).

Any way - I think Vainandy's point about most modern music being lifeless is spot on. There just aren't any modern music makers with vast commercial appeal that are creating anything to get excited about IMO. It's all lifeless and soulless drab.

Yeah, but modern music has more bass.

novabrkr said:

Yeah, but modern music has more bass.

Real bass or synth bass? It really doesnt matter if the bass is to a bad song.

[Edited 3/15/11 10:02am]

I'm 47 so I grew up with "The Class of '77" bands like Elvis Costello & The Attractions, The Clash, Devo, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Television, and Prince (maybe "The Class of '79"?) and a lot of those guys either died around the age of 50 or changed their sound radically. I think when you're 18, 19, or 20 you hear music with a strong intensity. You're finding your identity and bands that appeal to you you care about intensely. At least I did. I mean the Clash was not called "The Only Band That Matters" for nothing. So it was especially painful when Joe Strummer died at 50, on Christmas to boot. And I still reel to think about the Ramones being wiped out in a few years of each other with the deaths of Joey, Dee Dee and Johnny all coming fast together. Elvis Costello has changed so much that I've not bothered with his last thee albums, and Prince as well has changed and I've not bought his last album...

paisleypark4 said:

novabrkr said:

Yeah, but modern music has more bass.

Real bass or synth bass? It really doesnt matter if the bass is to a bad song.

[Edited 3/15/11 10:02am]

Low frequency energy.

vainandy said:

I'm 43 and when I hear a good OLD song that I've never heard before, I feel exactly like I did when I was in my teens. I love music just as much now as I did then. Actually, I love it more now than then.

I haven't lost interest in new music due to getting older. I've lost interest because it actually IS a bunch of bullshit. Hell, I'm too young for all that senior citizen tempoed bullshit they are releasing these days and I'm too old for those Fisher Price instruments they use to make it. As far as age goes, I can outjam any of these young motherfuckers out there these days. Of course, it doesn't take much though, considering that they have the taste of Lawrence Welk or Slim Whitman wrapped up in a thug looking packing. The fucking dorks.

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.

.

[Edited 3/15/11 7:28am]

But there's some great new music that don't sound boring but yeah this especially the first sentences in the first paragraph.

Actually, I think almost everyone in the "Music: Non-Prince" section of the org never grew away from loving music. If we had, we wouldn't be in here almost every day talking about it and we sure as hell wouldn't be argueing about it like we do if we had outgrown loving music.

Many people have outgrown music and you rarely hear them talk about music at all unless someone else brings the subject up. I don't think they were very much into music anyway to begin with and just what you call "casual listeners".

vainandy said:

Actually, I think almost everyone in the "Music: Non-Prince" section of the org never grew away from loving music. If we had, we wouldn't be in here almost every day talking about it and we sure as hell wouldn't be argueing about it like we do if we had outgrown loving music.

Many people have outgrown music and you rarely hear them talk about music at all unless someone else brings the subject up. I don't think they were very much into music anyway to begin with and just what you call "casual listeners".

Yeah we would be some BORING MOTHERFUCKERS ARGUING OVER SOME BULLSHIT. I'm avoiding those type of threads from now on.

I could never get tired of it, but do get sad being reminded I'm not getting younger and mj is gone.

My sister is into Tori Amos and plays her, I really like some of her songs for sure

I went through a time too when I was being a music snob even if I liked newer mainstream songs and would play older pop, rock and r&b like I still do and classical. And the genre I liked best would change constantly too. Like 80's music and world music till the mid 90's, dance music in the mid 90's, then r&b/hip hop from the mid 90's to early 00's, then pop from early 00's though around this time it became a little bit of everything slowly, though I was still being a music snob about certain artists and styles out there and was mostly listening to 70's, 80's and 90's throughout, mostly 80's like new wave and adult contemporary, most of which I knew when I was younger, but others I missed out on back then, as vainandy put it, discovering songs from certain times he didn't know but now knows, it IS a great feeling Now I like a little bit of everything, but I'm picky about the music when I need to be and don't like everything I hear.

[Edited 3/15/11 22:05pm]

yes its true... i will always just love michael jackson and janet jackson....

but its not the same like it used to be when i was younger... truthfully i feel guilty i put them on pedstals like some kind of celebrity figure that was invicible and above the average person ... now that im older i know its not right to do that...

so i just see them more as a family member that I love and look up to.... Like if i ever get to meet janet I won't cry anymore, I would have a few years back... but now she is like a sister so I would give her a hug and talk to her....

TotalAlisa said:

yes its true... i will always just love michael jackson and janet jackson....

but its not the same like it used to be when i was younger... truthfully i feel guilty i put them on pedstals like some kind of celebrity figure that was invicible and above the average person ... now that im older i know its not right to do that...

so i just see them more as a family member that I love and look up to.... Like if i ever get to meet janet I won't cry anymore, I would have a few years back... but now she is like a sister so I would give her a hug and talk to her....

I beat myself up for years since I was a teen cause I was worried about loving them too much and feeling guilty all the time like I'm going to be punished and stuff like that, and overanalyzing everything to death. I also agree that it was like a family thing and I know that now, or friend thing...and the circumstances in my life that were leading to me getting caught up with something that had nothing to do with my personal affairs which I was running away from. You can't help who you love, you just do, and I had to give myself credit for knowing the difference even if I got excited. I really thought I would go nuts more than ever and have the biggest high of my life from seeing mj, but it didn't happen cause he died, and I felt like the withdrawl from anticipating that for ages was awful, but I'm slowly readjusting. I should be high off life in the present day instead and stop putting life and people on a pedestal or I will be so disappointed in the end, I've learned this with people I encounter too and have to change my attitude about it.

[Edited 3/15/11 22:39pm]

i can't say i have an emotional attachment to michael, because he doesn't belong to me. i love him and i consider him to be my life's teacher; however, i realize his time, just as the same for all of us, is not permanent. i just honor what he's taught me, and do the best i can to share.

when i listen to his music i get sad, not necessarily because of his transcendence. his music made me sad before 2009, because i felt a lot of it contained a lot of pain. i identified with that side of his art. i was indeed sad (and i still get sad) due to his transcendence, but i'm not attached to him not being here. his teachings live on.

i would say that my musical education began when i was a teenager; i used to hang out in record shops, shut up and listen to the older dudes talk. they'd throw on records and i'd eagerly listen. i can remember how i felt the first time i heard 'maiden voyage'... these are the moments i will always cherish... when i listen to STEVIE'S 'earth's creation', it brings tears to my eyes. there will always be those pieces of music which resonate with us emotionally. i knew that i love music, hearing 'giant steps' or the 'brandenberg concerto no. 5'.

a lot of music today doesn't resonate in the same way for me personally; but i am sure there is some person out there who's life was changed by some piece they heard, even if it's something i think is straight up garbage. i still value their connection to the piece they heard.

good music doesn't have an age...

I pretty much agree with what Vainandy wrote, I still love and enjoy music, and I must admit I enjoy music from the past even much more than I used to enjoy it back in the days when it came out because I either understand the lyrics much better or because I appreciate the musicianship much more. Then again, there are also tons of songs that I appreciate less because as I get older I see that some of the stuff that I liked so much was just stolen here and there. I don´t mind a good sample but come on, when you´ve grown accustomed to a certain beat, melody or hook and find out much later that the main reason why you like a song in the first place was shamelessly stolen, then you lose your appreciation with the swiftness and it leaves a bitter taste.

This being said, I think it has, at least in my case, much less to do with age per se but much more so with the situation we´re in at a certain age. That is we work more and harder, have less time for the good things in life, and probably buy less good music because there is not as much good music out there like there was a few decades ago.

The digital age is nice and practical but on the other hand it makes you a bit too lazy to still play old cassettes and vinyls when you might as well play your music from a hard drive that contains hundreds or thousands of songs, and you don´t have to run to your stereo all the time.

Thing is, most of the time , at least in my case, we listen to digital music on a crappy computer stereo system or crappy speakers in general, unlike in the old days when we would listen to our beloved vinyl or tapes on a decent stereo system.

That is something I want to change this spring and summer....I want to get a decent amp and some nice little loudspeakers with enough boom.

Is there any specific brand that you guys would recommend? I heard Logitech makes some decent computer loudspeakers. What about other brands? Maybe not necessarily from a company that is specialized in making computer hardware?

alphastreet said:

TotalAlisa said:

yes its true... i will always just love michael jackson and janet jackson....

but its not the same like it used to be when i was younger... truthfully i feel guilty i put them on pedstals like some kind of celebrity figure that was invicible and above the average person ... now that im older i know its not right to do that...

so i just see them more as a family member that I love and look up to.... Like if i ever get to meet janet I won't cry anymore, I would have a few years back... but now she is like a sister so I would give her a hug and talk to her....

I beat myself up for years since I was a teen cause I was worried about loving them too much and feeling guilty all the time like I'm going to be punished and stuff like that, and overanalyzing everything to death. I also agree that it was like a family thing and I know that now, or friend thing...and the circumstances in my life that were leading to me getting caught up with something that had nothing to do with my personal affairs which I was running away from. You can't help who you love, you just do, and I had to give myself credit for knowing the difference even if I got excited. I really thought I would go nuts more than ever and have the biggest high of my life from seeing mj, but it didn't happen cause he died, and I felt like the withdrawl from anticipating that for ages was awful, but I'm slowly readjusting. I should be high off life in the present day instead and stop putting life and people on a pedestal or I will be so disappointed in the end, I've learned this with people I encounter too and have to change my attitude about it.

[Edited 3/15/11 22:39pm]

Since you are aware of it, then you can change it

Often times I find when artists that I have a very strong affinity for record new material, I just don't connect to the music the way I did when I was younger.

KoolEaze said:

Is there any specific brand that you guys would recommend? I heard Logitech makes some decent computer loudspeakers. What about other brands? Maybe not necessarily from a company that is specialized in making computer hardware?

I just bought these. They're pretty decent and don't cost a lot. Check out the reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Cyber-Acoustics-Subwoofer-Satellite-CA-3602/dp/B0027VT6V4

Regarding the topic. I think that when I was young music had a magical, mysterious quality to it that it just doesn't have anymore. I wonder if the young folk of today hear that same magic in today's music that I heard growing up in the 70's, 80's, and some of the early 90's.