By: Mario Estiverne
Does age affect your taste in music? As everyone is stuck at home, many are looking to music as a distraction. Artists like Tyler the Creator, Billie Ellish or Lil Nas X all came a long way with their music; each to their own when it comes to the music genre. Others beg to differ though. One example is listening to Tyler the Creator’s song "Magic Wand" (from his album "Igor"), which he performed at the Grammy Awards in January with different flows of lights and a lot of other visual effects. I enjoyed the performance and the song. It was like music to my ears. But music tastes sometimes are associated with age and genre preference. The reason I say this is that during the performance, someone I was with who is much older than I am did not enjoy the performance at all. I heard comments ranging from, "Is this the music you people listen to?" "Why is there so much red and why is it aggressively flashing?” to "I don't understand what he is saying and why is he screaming into the microphone?"
Other than hearing the complaints about Tyler's performance, the people around me also disliked other performances that night. When Lil Nas X and BTS performed "Old Town Road," also known as "Seoul Town Road," the reaction to the performance was not that different than for Tyler.
So, does age affect your taste in music? To a certain degree it can be true. Music should not really be associated with someone’s age because you can find a child as young as seven possibly who will perhaps come across a copy of your Queen CD or Elton John CD and find their music to be the best thing since sliced bread.
Factoring in how the person was introduced to music and how their standards are built is an important influence to their taste in music, especially if you think of the environment they grow up in and the music they end up being associated with. There are people who are 21 years old and younger who despise the music of today, whereas people much older than 21 are having the time of their lives with the music of today.
How someone normally feels about a certain genre and how it is portrayed can change. For example, my music taste was found thorough a relative and then my taste in music branched out on its own and soon I became aware of different types of genres. I think enjoying the music you listen to and what you do with it is your choice.