Ongoing History Daily: Your musical midlife crisis
For all of us, we have a musical sweet spot in our lives. It happens roughly between the ages of 14 and 24, from the time we enter high school to the time life begins to intrude with its demands of jobs, mortgages and families.
During that period, almost nothing is more important to us than music. It not only becomes a personal obsession but something we use to proclaim our identity to the rest of the world.
Beyond our mid-20s, though, we become too busy to keep up with what’s going on in music the way we used to. Don’t worry because this is perfectly natural.
But according to big data gleaned by streaming music companies, people suffer some kind of musical midlife crisis around the age of 42. That’s when they make a serious attempt to get back into the music scene, maybe in some sort of effort to prove that they’re not old and just as vital as they used to be. Call it a musical midlife crisis.
And for a while—how long is still to be determined—people try to consume music as they did when they were younger. But in the end, we all will slip back to our old ways and seek solace in our musical comfort food.
Anyone want to weigh in on that theory? Perhaps the 42 year-olds out there?
I’m 43, and I guess a little. I think maybe even last year, I started making it a routine to listen to the Spotify “Discover Weekly” and “Release Radar” playlists to hear some new stuff, but nothing really hits. So ya, guess I’m old now.
Nearly 71 and got tired of listening to “classic rock” in the late 80s (in my mid-30s), found CFNY and never looked back.
At 42, after years of not playing guitar or songwriting, I got into it full force. Started a band and went to a Songwriting Workshop. Loved it. Then…it went away and I had to re-focus on work.
I know many friends who have lost total touch with anything new. I’m 66 now, found CHOM in Montreal in 1975 and then CFNY in 1977 and have continued on with listening to new bands all the way through and have no intention of stopping. Music keeps me sane !! The problem with classic rock is they stations play the same stuff over and over. And that makes it a bore to listen to on a regular basis.
If you look at the mainstream American guitar manufacturers, what are some of their most popular (and expensive) models? Completely accurate re-issues of the electric guitars that were used in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The reason that this is, is because the boomers, who watched their musical idols play these instruments, couldn’t afford them when they were teenagers. But fast forward to when they are in their 40’s, and they now have some disposable income, these same boomers are in a position to buy that Gibson Les Paul that Jimmy Page played.