As an example. I grew up in hip-hop but at a certain point I stopped listening to new people and realised recently that I’d slept on some bangers. Like Kendrick particularly, but even people like Juice WRLD and Xxxtentacion.
The same for the Kendrick and Drake (the nonce) beef which has given some rabbit holes to go down.
So I’m wondering what I can do to keep in the loop with my younger brothers and sisters?
Is it something as simple as watching trending videos on YouTube (somtheing I’ve never done) or are there people to follow etc. I don’t like Twitter though so hopefully it’s not that.
Edit: Man I got so many replies. You guys are awesome. I am going to work my way through them all today, but I’m hella tired and off to work so may take a while. I will reply to you all.
Edit part deux: God damn I think I got all the replies.
KGRG is world famous among radio fans. Those kids have the pulse.
Start dating a 19 year old.
Bro I ain’t drake.
I am aware that at this age gap is have nothing in common with a 19 year old other than sex.
19 is about 9 years too old for Drake.
By listening to their interests you’d keep your fingers on the youth’s pulse.
True.
I also realise I have no idea why Drake is rated so highly, dudes goofy as fuck and his music is mid at best.
Because he used to be in a wheelchair and now he’s not.
Is that what he meant when he said came from the bottom and now we here. He wasn’t talked economically, but literally vertically.
No, he meant that he grew up in Toronto’s cheap mansions and now he’s in a nice one.
You can only sort of ever keep up.
The main issue preventing you an Old, from finding more about people who are Young, is that the Young don’t exactly love the old filling up their spaces, trying to remain hip.
This is exemplified by the slow death of social networks as they grow in popularity. A new social network pops up, its quickly populated by the youth. Slowly, as becomes more popular, Olds start creeping in, until there are so many Olds that the youth want to go somewhere else because they no longer have privacy.
When Mom and Uncle Jim are in the conversation, everything is suddenly less cool.
Happened to MySpace first, and it’s happening to Facebook right now. It’s basically ghost towns of people who will be dead soon.
We are limited because the youth will always want their own private spaces where they can truly be themselves without their weird expectations of the older generations. If you’re older with zero expecations for the youth, congratulations: you’re unusual, so don’t hold it against the youth that they assume you’re just another boring old person who is going to judge them for something. Most adults are out here judging them, so give them a break on assumptions they might make about you.
I used to keep up with music through YouTube channels, but even the ones I used to follow are aging up and soon enough those people I was listening to are Old now too, and they’re doing the same thing as me, trying to keep up with what’s hip and good.
I understand the desire to do so. New music is often so good, and I really get sick of people who act like the music they grew up with is the best in history. It’s not, and it never will be. Music is always growing and making music is more accessible than ever, which means its really exploding and evolving. There’s never been a better time to love music.
However, as Olds, we’re just going to miss a lot of what’s cool with the kids simply because we’re Olds. So much is just going to naturally be hidden from us.
I don’t think MySpace died because The Olds invaded in the same way as Facebook. I think Facebook genuinely out-competed MySpace in features, especially having its own messenger. Facebook absolutely died when The Olds joined, what’s remarkable to me is that Facebook…still exists?
And Facebook succumbed to the olds many years ago. I remember in the mid then late 00s when it expanded from just college students to include high school students, and then suddenly my Aunt Joyce was on it too. Seriously, we’re talking 15 years ago now
Thanks for this throughout and measured response it really does make sense now you bring these points to my attention I was the same when I was younger.
I guess I don’t want to invade their space as much as understand what they like and what they care about, not in a creepy way, more because I think the older generation should do this.
The part where you mentioned you would be unusual to have no expectations of young people. Well I am unusual as I think the youth are alright and a part of my thinking in this post is that we should celebrate the future of the world as they’ve got longer here than me and so they should have a larger part in shaping it.
It’s sad that we have this divide now where it’s us (not literally) against them when really they can learn from our mistakes and we can learn from their new perspectives.
I imagine it goes without saying that I’m not afraid to admit that I don’t know everything and even that we can learn from younger people and I don’t really blame them for thinking all older people are against them or whatever as I am self aware that I would have this mentality towards boomers when there are some great boomers out here that would be with me at pro-Palestine marches and stuff.
Apologies for this being all over the place. I literally just rambled on, and now too lazy to go back and format it better.
It’s fine, no worries on your thoughts being all over, it’s the internet. Who cares? You got your points across fine.
I don’t think trying to know what the youth are into is creepy at all! I think the real issue comes from the youth being used to adults being shitty and judgy to them. Like I said, it’s great if we’re not shitty and judgy, but we have to be patient with the youth and their expectations of older people because they’re absolutely colored by the fact that most older folks are weirdly judgy. So it’s more that we have our work cut out for us because most older folks could give a flying fuck about being interested in the art of the youth, and the youth know that and feel it viscerally. It takes time for them to feel “safe” and open up. Like you said, how we grew up with Boomers and most of them are just dogshit and judgy people when it came to the youth. We like to think our generation is better… but it’s not, sadly.
Anyway, it’s not impossible to make inroads with the youth, but you have to be okay with them ribbing you and smile and laugh when they joke about how out of touch you are. They’re going to assume we’re just like any other jerk of an Old, so it just takes more effort on our parts to prove we’re not just some judgy jerk.
I am thankful for every old person who has genuine interest in what the youth are doing and what kind of art they are creating. You’re right, it IS a good thing to be interested, and it’s a good thing to pursue, because it helps break down the very generational barriers we dislike so much.
Thanks again. You’re a good person SnotFlickerMan. You’ve given me plenty of food for thought and I appreciate you taking the time again.
Enjoy what’s left of the weekend and keep being a stellar bro.
Reddit had too many Youths so all us Olds came to Lemmy 💪
And since we’re not Youngs, how the music appeals (or doesn’t) is really not part of our experiences.
Pop music is a thing of the moment. Not to criticize, just an observation. Because of this, I don’t really get why an Old would want to try to stay hip with music. You’re not young during that time, not part of what the coming of age experience is like at the time. It’s not your time.
Plus pop music, by definition, appeals to the broadest group possible by being less complex - this is true of anything. I always use Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” (a massive avant-garde jazz hit in the 60’s), compared to something by the Beach Boys, Elvis, The Beatles, etc.
Everyone can grok what Elvis is singing, but even as someone who studied music theory, I find Kind of Blue challenging to grasp. And I hear/learn something new every time I hear it.
Even if you’re not personally experiencing the things pop music is currently about, there’s still plenty of really great stuff coming out all the time that you’ll miss out on if you stop listening to new things. For example, NPR popped up recently with a Tiny Desk Concert (which feels like a very Old way to find new music in itself) from Chappell Roan, and I would’ve been missing out big time if I’d skipped it just because she’s 15ish years younger than me and in a different phase of her life. A lot of it feels more nostalgic (fucking Casual, man, so many of us have been there) than current to my life, but it’s good music. And as a queer woman, gosh it’s great to see these queer artists who are able to write their feelings and experiences without having to keep plausible deniability in the lyrics.
I’d say what you’re (possibly) describing is something that’s less specific to it’s writer’s time/age/moment, giving it broader appeal. If someone is 17 and writing classical style music, I’d expect most who appreciates classical to take an interest. That’s just looking for new music, not a focus on staying “hip”, which, again, isn’t really an effective approach.
This fits with the reasons media/arts appeal the way they do - the more “base” it’s appeal, the broader that appeal will be, because more/most people understand it.
These aren’t my ideas - ask a professor of music (especially music history) the difference between the different classifications of music, and why they’re defined the way they are.
One great example: today most people would consider Opera to be “high-falutin classical stuff that us regular folks can’t grok cause we don’t know Italian”, when the reality is it was the popular music of it’s day, with Opera performances being a rough equivalent to TV shows today. Some Opera composers knocked out 200 operas, per year.
Check out any lectures by Prof Robert Greenburg, especially “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music” or “Music as a Mirror of History”, he explains these ideas very well.
Start paying attention to the top new & trending Spotify playlists in genres you’re interested in.
That’s a good shout. One thing I do try is the create station on Apple Music, but it really seems to not stick to the same kind of stuff a lot of the time. Even when starting things you enjoyed and not for the ones you didn’t.
Spotify is much better for music discovery / public playlists. I use Apple Music because it’s cheaper with the family plan, but if I’m wanting new music I will often open up Spotify just to view the playlists there and add the songs I like to my Apple Music playlists.
Thanks for this, I wasn’t aware. I’m not particularly attached to Apple Music, it’s just we got it free when I worked there and so never changed.
I’ll peep the playlists on Spotify.
Late thirties is aging? That’s like peak life. You have money and family (at least a chance of that) and purpose in your life. You have confidence and you know who you are.
You are still a bit dumb, but less dumb than twenty somethings. I liked my late thirties.
I have money and a family?
I meant relative to teens really, sadly I’ve got another 40 years to go before my forever nap.
I should have money, but I was very irresponsible and only the last 5 years have I started to progress at life. No family ever, I like being single and I couldn’t look after children I am too selfish with my time.
You’ve made me think now what period of my life I enjoyed and I honestly couldn’t choose. I guess now as I’m on a better trajectory.
Small shout out to !askmenover30@lemm.ee
Hang out with hip musicians.
See I didn’t even know hips were instruments, I’m so out of touch. /s
Switch to Classical music.
I already listen to classical music. Shoutout to the Goats Chopin and Beethoven. I’m a sucker for a minor key. All I hear in my head here is Kendrick saying A-Minorrrrrr.
I’m fortunate to have quite an eclectic taste in music genre wise, as quite frankly music is the best thing on this planet.
Not music specific but you could join probably a bigger Discord community around a topic which interests a bunch of young lads. For example, I’m in a VRC community, where I usually chat sometimes (I’m 23, not that old) and DC communities usually offer music channels where you could maybe check what they share.
I’ve tried Discord before but I never knew where to find channels I might like.
I will give it another go as it seems like a good idea. Thanks dude.
You could perhaps check out this: https://disboard.org/
Awesome.
I get all the inside info from my teenage kids 😅
Dude you cheated, maybe I shoulda had kids but im too selfish 😂
Never take a break from culture. As soon as you take a year off you will be irrelevant. If that sound exhausting (it is) then congratulations; you have discovered why older people are never on top of pop culture.
Nah, tired advice. I was literally on a remote island for most of a year, and missed out on Harambe and clowns and whatever else happened that year. But if you have a real interest in pop culture you stay in tune. Most older people don’t stay on top of it because they don’t care to, which is fine it’s not for everyone.
“You will be irrelevant” to who? People whose identities are so wrapped up in popular culture they can’t conceive of someone liking something from 30, 50, 80 years ago? Lmao
I feel you. I think I’m experiencing the same.
I’d say it’s almost summer now, go out and visit some music festivals. That’s a place where I found some inspiration and new (to me) artists.
Also having friends with a similar taste in music helps.
I have a Spotify subscription and that helps me listen to a broad range of music on a whim. But I think the Spotify algorithm isn’t helping me in discovering new artists. I rarely find anything interesting and new that way.
Seems Spotify is getting so many mentions and many people preferring it to Apple Music for finding new music.
Festivals are an idea too so thanks.
I think the difference is that as a kid music is forced on you from all kinds of sources: parents, friends, radio, etc. So you don’t realize how much time you actually spent just listening to new music.
As an Old, you probably don’t have nearly as much random exposure, i.e. you control when you listen to music now. Which means the answer to your question is that you have to consciously set aside time simply to listen to music. It may feel like a “waste of time” for each track you think is shit, but that’s just part of the process.
Good luck, and thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
That makes sense and I think you’re right about the exposure as you listen to a lot of the current trends when out in bars and clubs and I’m not cut out for the day after those nights anymore.
Dude. Dude. You’re still a kid ;)
Age jokes from an old fart aside, it’s about your willingness to go looking.
It does mean you’ll end up using some otherwise shitty services unless you are active in a local music related scene (like clubbing). But YouTube, Pandora, spotify, and most of the other music streaming services have some degree of recommendations. They aren’t all that great usually, but in the absence of being immersed with real life music explorers, it’s the best option.
You can check out the Billboard top 200 and go the route of hoping your preferred music genres chart in the first place, but also being fairly reliable that other fans have vetted tracks for it to get there.
And radio still exists. You can pick a station that’s genre specific or a top 40 station and find stuff that’s already a little popular that way. It isn’t as reliable as it used to be, but you can find newer raising acts that way.
There’s forums. I haunt the typical lemmy based music C/s, plus the ones for my favorite genres, which keeps me fairly up to date on new releases as well as some new acts.
And, always participate in your local scene when possible. It’s harder with hip-hop since finding local acts outside of cities is damn near impossible, but if you’re into other stuff too, it can be a great way to catch acts before they get going, if your local scene is active enough. I’m fairly lucky in that bluegrass is one of the genres I’m into, and I’m not too far away from one of the better known cities for country and bluegrass music. So it’s easy to find new bands and solo acts performing at a bar or local festival that end up getting popular eventually. That’s an example of what i mean, making use of what’s already there locally.
Thanks you’ve provided many avenues I can go down here and it seems inescapable that it takes work and effort to keep ahead of these things.
I do live in a city but sadly it’s Manchester in the UK, so hip-hop is lacking. I do like UK Drill too but those kids are just a bit too wild for me to go seeking those, I’m not keen on getting stabbed up haha.
https://everynoise.com/engenremap.html
I’m in my mid-40s and I love searching for new (and old) music. It makes me happy. Maybe I start with an artists I like and just go thru the rest of the label. You just have to break the habit of listening to the same thing and challenge yourself.
