How up to date are you musically?

[HoobleDooble]

I remember as a kid in the late 70s/early 80s listening to Radio 1 in my room, checking the charts on Ceefax when they updated during the week, watching Top of the Pops on a Thursday and taping the my favourite songs during the Top 40 Countdown on a Sunday. My parents would dismiss most of it as "a racket" and just listen to what they liked (mainly classical, but with some 60s, Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel etc.). I always said I'd never be like that and couldn't imagine not being up to date with the latest charts.

Fast forward to now, I'm nearly 50 and haven't got a clue. I watched that quiz show 'The Hit List' a few weeks ago and had hardly heard of anything or anyone this side of the Millennium except maybe Adele, Ed Sheehan and a couple of others. I don't understand what happened, I do remember house music creeping in sometime in the late 80s and thinking "This isn't for me", then dance music filling the clubs to the point that I only went to Retro places, so I think this is when I started shutting my ears and changed over to Radio 2.

Some of my friends (younger and older) seem to still have their finger on the pulse, my older sister occasionally introduces me to a new artist if she thinks it's something I'd like. I just wondered whether my "I know what I like, and I like what I know" approach is a common phenomenon?

I only really know what my dc listen to and they have quite eclectic tastes eg Will Wood and the Tapeworms, Cavetown, Mother Mother, Crane Wives, Panic at the Disco, Set it off etc

I really like their stuff but I don't listen to it without them around, I used to hate it when my Mum muscled in on 'my' music!

Maudbegone

I've never heard of Spotify or either of the two artists you mentioned - I thought Lana Del Ray was a meteorological phenomenon

Occasionally when pissed I will get Alexa to play 80's music - maybe twice in last few years

I get my music fix from going to opera/ballet/concerts - about 3 or 4 times a year

Apart from that have zero time to listen to music

I'm also the only person I know who has NEVER heard a podcast (or read a blog)

but it's not good quality music at all.

Yeah... that's what my parents used to say in the 80s 😂😂

I listen to Heart. Used to listen to KissFM in the late 90’s and 2000.
My dds like asking Alexa to play the latest tunes. I currently like Year and Years.
We listen to Magic in our office. One in her 60’s, one in her 50’s and me in my 40’s.

I agree with PP about Radio 6 - they play a lot of new music but it's generally more indie/alternative. Kind of the NME to Radio 1's Smash Hits A lot of the older Radio 1 DJs who are about the music (rather than being a radio personality) migrate there.

I think mainstream music now is much better than mainstream stuff when I was young in the 90s/early 00s.

Alexi Sayle on DID chose Bonkers by Dizzy Rascal. Well I had not heard that track before, what a toe-tapper, even if my eyelid got a bit twitchy at times

It's so weird you've posted this thread I've been thinking of starting one similar myself

I'm 48

I mostly listen to absolute 80's but starting to get bored of it

Have recently signed up to free premium spotify trial as I use that too

But even on Spotify my playlists are mostly the music I listened to in the 80's and 90's with a few older tracks and a very few post 2000 ones

I feel I started to lose an affinity for finding new music I liked when pregnant with and just after having dd which I think is possibly quite common for many people

Then the newer stuff is what dd exposed me to as she started to get into music but that is also a limited way of finding new music to like of course

I'm not a fan of rap or metal or what I would describe as "house" music, dance/techno music.

I like a good melody and strong lyrics (possibly as I've always been a singer since I was 5 starting in church choirs but then later non religious choirs, karaoke and occasionally as part of covers bands)

So I was debating starting a thread to get tips on how to find new music to my taste

To be fair though even my dd (20 now) says modern music is mostly shit! She listens to a fair amount of older music herself

Relieved to see I'm not the only one, also is it possible that 80's was just a GREAT decade for music?

Not at all really. Mainly as I don't listen to music much and when I do it is usually albums I have that I like which tend to be 80's/90's. Every now and then I listen to the radio but tend to listen to Magic so that isn't much help! It's not that I wouldn't like current music I guess, I just don't get the opportunity to hear it much and don't care enough to go looking for it!

And like PP my DD and DS listen to quite a bit of older music themselves (a lot of grunge stuff from the 90's) so I don't hear it from them either!

I’m nearly 50 and I listen to KISS, Capital, Radio 1 and Heart in the car. I also potentially to Hot Hits UK on Spotify.

*listen

I love finding new music and old music too
I’m mid 50s and have a very wide taste in music
I don’t really keep up to date with pop music but I do like some new music, Billie Eilish, Yungblood, Creeper and Strange Bones

I used to be really into new music, particularly indie, and most of my favourite bands no one's heard of (Decemberists anyone?). I always listened to BBC 6 music but then they changed the playlist to be far more dance heavy (this is some years ago) and I switched off and never came back, particulary when Keaveny left. I have no clue now! I somehow found 'the forces' station on my DAB in the car the other day and quite liked the combo of old tunes and new so may carry on!

@DramaAlpaca

I'm still firmly stuck back in the 80s

Me, too. The 1880s.

I’m totally not in tune with what is popular but I do like going to concerts and have picked up on some younger / newer artists over the years but they are not mainstream in any way . I couldn’t say what had been in the charts for the last 10 yrs in reality .

I'm up to the 1980's

On a scale of 1 - 10?

0!

Yeah, I'm still with it (although that's something my mum would say!)

I do listen to R2 during the week but always have Annie Mac & Danny Howard on Friday nights and R1 Dance Anthems on Saturdays. I listen with Spotify open and download any song I like.

My eldest son is very into rap and dance (baseline and hardbase) so we get recommendations from each other 😁

I've lost track in the last five years or so. It's funny that I used to hear people complaining about modern chart music being "just noise" and think whatever but now, in my thirties, I find myself saying the same!

My 7 year old DS is more up to date than I am. I dont even know how, but he seems to know lyrics to all the late releases.

Apparently though, the older kids on his school bus were singing backstreet boys last week, so.I cant be the only parent stuck in the 90's!

Spotify (paid version) has opened things up for me so much in terms of new music. I've found music I'd never have discovered on my own via Spotify's own playlists, eg singing in the car or funky jazz or whatever. Another way is to find a song you like and click on the song 'radio' just for that song.

Its so worth the money!

I knew I'd hit middle age when the 'newest' music I heard was in Zumba classes*.

• and even then it was Jason Derulo and Meghan Trainor.

@Cocolapew

I'm not really and I've always loved music. I'm 52 and mostly to listen to Magic Soul all day. I hear stuff from the DDs room but it's mostly shit . I have Spotify, but it's all old stuff on my playlists. The newest on it is the new Black Keys album.

Is the new Black Keys any good?

I listen to 6 music, so I'm up to date with quite a bit of the type of music I like. But the radio 1 sort of stuff - haven't a clue.