Are my kids unusual in listening to this music?

[AInightingale]

Just wondering last night whether teenagers nowadays have their own pop music culture anymore. I was upstairs and my 12 year old was listening to Kate Bush - streaming the Red Shoes album which I remember having as a CD when I was about 22, he got into Kate via the re-release of Running Up That Hill last year - my 14 year old was downstairs listening to the Pogues and had been playing Eurhythmics songs earlier in the day. In a way it's great, and I remember being really into the Beatles and older David Bowie at their age, which predated me, but I'm just puzzled as to why they don't listen to contemporary stuff. Is it really so crap, or are they just slightly unusual?

Not at all unusual if DD and her friends are to go by - lots of their eclectic music tastes are picked up from soundtracks too, so it doesn't have to be current to be heard.
Who is popular now? Depends what you like. DD is a big fan of Taylor Swift but also Will Wood, Mitski, quite likes Wet Leg, Glass Animals and so on. Spotify is very good for suggestions and they all seem to like blends so they listen to each others music. But absolutely loads of older music mixed in too - we were in the car and listened to her music and INXS came on. Had no idea she'd been listening to that - again, clip from something she'd been watching.

Sell I was pleased when DS said he had been in a bar on Friday, you would love it Mum was the comment because they were playing Blur.

My 12 year old has, this week listened to Taylor Swift, Royal Blood, Manfield Mann and Amanda Palmer as well as the Aladdin soundtrack.
We listen to a lot of strange stuff in this house so there's often a bit of a singalong going on.

My 10 year old loves 90’s rap music and my 7 year old was making me listen to classic FM in the car yesterday. They also both love more modern stuff (DD is a Swiftie like me) but they have access to so much music via our streaming services of course they are going to like a wider variety than if they only had top of the pops or Pepsi charts.

I remember loving the Spinners and the Beatles as a pre teen alongside the Spice Girls and Backstreet boys because my Dad listened to them so much.

This thread is going to turn into who's child has the most obscure & eclectic music tastes, so Mumsnet! 😆

I'm sure children have always listened to 'old' music as well as contemporary acts. They hear what their parents play and music in films, adverts, TV, all kinds.

Definitely kids did when I was a teenager so of course they still do. I loved the GTA Vice City sound track back in the day 😀

My teenage son has a very eclectic taste in music, he’s just as likely to listen to Wham or Queen as he is to listen to Drake or CardiB

My DD leaves Spotify running all night on low because once her playlist is finished it will keep playing things in the same genre. Whatever is playing when she wakes up will be added to her playlist if she likes it, so she has a lot of stuff that will never be in the charts or widely known, as well as some older music that she doesn't know is from the past.

The music of the last 20 years has been utter crap so not surprised kids are scouring the oldies but goodies😁

I absolutely love that kids today have such a broad access to music. Spotify is on Alexa in our kitchen and if you play one request it plays similar ones so sometimes it's on for hours in the background. I'm always surprised how they really know some songs but not others, definitely influenced by online memes etc. I think the early 80s stuff really has stood the test of time and 90s dance.

DS2(25) has always had wide ranging taste. He has all my vinyl albums from the 70s and listens to music from the last 50 years. We recently compared our Spotify wrapped for 2023 and we both had Fleetwood Mac in the top 5.
He grew up listening to Bowie, the Pogues, Leonard Cohen, Guns n Roses etc.

Not unusual at all IME. I have an 18 year-old and a 15 year-old. Between them they listen to Kate Bush, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Oasis, The Jam and loads of other 80s/90s bands. 18 year-old also listens to contemporary music but the 15 year-old doesn’t.

Mine doesn’t rate any music later than the 90s. Bowie, Beatles, Pink Floyd are his favourites.

My DD has adored Kate Bush for most of the last few years certainly before she became popular with the yougsters after 'running up that hill' was on stranger things. we do the dance to wuthering heights in the kitchen while cooking dinner.

They definitely are open to older music. DD came back from the year 5 and 6 disco last month telling me about the song they played that she loved, didnt know the words so sung it to me - 'dont you want me baby, dont you want me oh whoa' . Her friends are all into Taylor Swift but DD prefers Katy Perry and Bananarama to Taylor Swift. I guess it comes of having an older mum.

Her favourite xmas song at the moment is a three way tie between Sam ryders latest offering, the pretenders '2000 miles' and Dolly Parton singing 'Mary did you know'

My 23 year old daughter’s favourite band is Led Zeppelin, my 20-yo son’s is Queens of the Stone Age, both been around for ages. We all bloody love Muse (my son’s first gig at 12 to London O2 - we live in Scotland - and his eyes were like saucers 😂) and going to gigs is one of the few things we still all get to do and enjoy as a family - we all saw Muse again this summer in Glasgow. We’re all into a bit of metal and rock, alternative indie stuff mostly. My daughter’s Uni held regular Queen, Abba, Beatles, Eagles nights at the student Union which everyone seemed to love. But they also listen to plenty of even older and new contemporary stuff and some of the best convos I’ve had with my kids during the difficult teenage years was about music. It truly is a universal language.

My 7 year old listens to gregorian chants and medieval music🤣

Kids today are into all genres and decades of music which I think is great. Some songs and groups are just timeless.

15 year old grandson is obsessed with sixties music, playing riffs on his guitar and listening to Bowie and Beatles and Stones!

I remember DD listening to something nm in the car on her headphones and DH asking her who she was listening to - she said oh you won’t have heard of them, turned out it was David Bowie😂

My 11 year old loves Kate Bush, Journey etc. All down to Stranger things I think

Mindless fact is Lenny Henry does backing vocals to "Why should I love you" on the Red shoes album.

Olivia Rodriguez and Billie Eilish.

My DS18 loves Oasis and anything Liam and Noel have done. He listens to quite a bit of stuff from the late 90's/early 2000s including a lot of a Coldplay. He loves Arctic Monkeys as do all of his friends. But he also listens to rap/grime and goes to see lots of current artists I've never heard of yet are playing big venues.

No idea what DD15 likes but she randomly sings along to songs from decades ago and when I ask how she knows it she say's it's from tic toc.

I think streaming has massively changed the way we listen to music and I do think it's a shame for the younger generations that it's less likely that they'll have that shared experience of all being into the same artists and albums at once.

Of course everyone has artists from the past that they like too, but having exciting current bands in the charts making fresh music that your parents don't really get is a special thing.

Music and pop culture is driven by teenagers, so I hope that that creativity isn't damaged.

Well I listened to older stuff as well as current as a teen and I'm 60! They have access to so much these fat, it's way easier.
I'd be very happy as it shows they don't just follow the crowd 😊😊

I don't think it's unusual. I know loads of kids that don't listen to much new stuff and mainly stick to their parents music that they heard growing up. One of mine loves oldies, and the other two prefer more modern stuff