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'm fifty. I stopped watching TOTP when I was about seventeen and abandoned Radio 1 before that. I very rarely listen to the radio now apart from Pick of The Pops. I used to listen to the Northern Soul programme on Radio Leeds on Saturday before they stopped broadcasting it. I don't get what attracts any listener to earache like Capital and Heart. Easily pleased, I suppose. Every other act is featuring somebody else because they haven't got the talent by themselves to do it alone.

I'm 26 and I've no idea what's going on musically. Occasionally I hear something I like and try and remember it.

It doesn't extend much beyond 2005, mainly '90s and early '00s rock, metal and alternative. A lot of bands I liked back then are still producing music but I've lost track of their newer stuff. I love '80s as well as it reminds me of being a kid.

I'm reasonably up to date, listen to radio in car and ds's play wide variety of music.

I've always listened to pop radio, so have tried to stay up to date. Unfortunately we don't have many radio stations here, and the pop music that played top 40 plus some older music has just switched to a format that plays music from 80's 90's and 00's (what do you even call that?) So the most recent music is over 10 years old, with a focus on classic rock. The problem is that I don't have any other options! We have one country radio station, and CBC that is mostly talk.

So I will have to find another source...I know I can stream on line but need to find the right mix.

If I was living in Haight Ashbury in 1968 I would be bang up to date.

I stopped listening to the radio around 15 years ago. I have no idea of today's music.
I'm in my mid 50s.
I want my 80s back 😭

Moderately as a family member is a musician. Though OP I know several people who have the same ideas as you when it comes to listening to music.

I'm 45 and my husband 50, and we both listen to radio 1 (he used to listen to radio 2 before we got together, but I converted him!).

I love pop music!

I’m mid 40s and listen to Heart radio and am shamelessly addicted to TikTok so have quite a good grasp though my teen seems to be listening to a lot of music from my youth 80/90/00s

I don't get what attracts any listener to earache like Capital and Heart. Easily pleased, I suppose.

Lol 😂 No, it's just called having a different taste in music.

It's surprising how narrow minded people can be about music. I certainly used to be but having kids with different tastes and listening to songs on their own merit with no real idea who is performing them has changed that.

I'm only up-to-date with whatever noise the kids bring home.

I never listen to the radio so no clue.
Right now I have the original Aladdin soundtrack in my car 🤣 and Kutless in the van.

@SoupDragon

I listen to Radio 1 so I'm fairly up to date.

That said, I was very confused by the amount of times they've played Rasputin recently 😂

Thats tiktok for you. Shuffling to it is v popular. I'm not too bad with my music because I go to dance fitness which uses modern pop. If im listening at home though I listen to indie rock from the late 90s, country and western, Northern soul which is from the 60s. I have very wide tastes.

I’m not up to date really, but there’s a podcast on bbc sounds called ‘music for new parents’ which gives you a summary of new releases every month. I love it! It’s quite Radio 2 so probably not ‘up to date’ in the truest sense, but it works for me!

I used to do those things too as a kid OP! Always knew what was current. I wouldn’t have a clue now. My kids aren’t a lot of help either, they are into certain music that I don’t enjoy. I expect we are getting “old” 🤣

@newtb , you are not alone

Have 6music on most of the time, so up to date with a lot of music, but not "popular" music that they play on Radio 1.

They play a very eclectic mix of music, old and new - give it a try.

Stopped paying attention in the early 00s. Don't listen to the radio, so yeah, pretty out of touch.

Not impressed by what I've heard in shops / on adverts / talk shows etc. Seems so... I dunno, plastic, overproduced, soulless, cynical. Something. But as I say, I don't pay attention, so I'm only encountering the mainstream stuff, and there has always been crap in the charts, certainly in the '90s, my musical home, there was rubbish around.

But I sometimes feel there was an energy and creativity in the pre-internet music world that has been lost now, as if the internet has had a homogenising effect. But I legitimately don't know if that's just because I'm middle-aged now.

DH and I have often thought that the music scene has declined while the TV scene has shot up in quality since the '70s and '80s. Like, there's so much brilliant TV now.

I'm 30 and I don't listen to much chart stuff. I mainly listen to Virgin radio or Spotify.

I've always loathed most pop anyway. There are some good artists around now but there is as much dross as there always was. I like everything from classical to trip hop but pop leaves me cold.

Mid 60s, never listen to the radio these days but pick up new music from reviews in the paper and Apple Music recommendations. Currently listening to Arlo Parks, Jesse Ware and The Staves. Can't stand rap.
Love watching The Hit List but like many on here lots of the most recent stuff they play is unknown to me.

I lost touch somewhere mid 20-zeros.

To my suprise, I married a bloke not that into music so stopped going gigging quite as much; no more TOTP for everyone to listen to together. DD (12) doesn't really like pop and these days I see (well, saw pre-COVID) lots of adverts for stadium gigs by people I have literally never heard of and (Old Lady Mode) there do seem to be a preponderance of daft-named artists these days called things like 'L'il Splatty Zim' or whatever.

That said, I do think there's some good pop like Billie Eilish and Christine & The Queens coming out, as well as the generic over-produced crap, and I am glad there are artists like L'il Nas X who are messing with some of the macho sterotypes of their genres, so I definitely think there is hope for music yet!