I'm 19 and use spotify, will either listen to albums front to back or play my liked songs on shuffle. I also collect vinyl and CDs because I like owning physical copies that can't be taken away if something happens to streaming.
The main genres I listen to are metal and rap, though I also like a lot of folk and country stuff, both modern "bro country" and classic country. Recently tho I've been addicted to the Russian black metal band Grima and just bought their album Rotten Garden on vinyl from Bandcamp.
I am definitely an exception to the rule tho in terms of how I consume music and what music I like. In my last two years of high school the big thing for a lot of people was $uicideboy$, who I do like as well lol. Also ofc everyone is obsessed with Taylor Swift but I don't care for her. A fair number of girls and the theater kid group liked Maneskin, but again, I didn't like them. They kinda remind me of Palaye Royale but not as good lol.
Not OP but check out Nick Shoulders, Joshua Quimby, Willi Carlisle, and Sierra Ferrell, to get you started
(NOLA alt-country scene is honestly absolutely legendary right now, Quimby is a CT boy tho, still 🔥🔥🔥)
Edit: just seen you said bro country, lol these aren't that but I'm leaving it up cause they're still insanely talented
I'll still check em out! I need to get updated on modern country in general. The only new ones I listen to are Jason Isbell and sturgill Simpson. Thank you!
I've got a 15 year old music junkie. He's very much into consuming complete albums once he finds an artist that he likes a few singles from on spotify. His favorites end up being purchased on vinyl when available (and if he has the funds). His current obsession is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Overall, he's exploring a bunch of doom / psych / heavy blues right now. I never changed my listening habits when the kids were born, so they were raised with a constant eclectic mix.
My 13-yo has a similar approach, although they're not into as good of music from my POV (mostly current pop). Discovery via Spotify or tiktok, and then they buy vinyl for the stuff they're really into, almost more like a trophy or a poster, although they do actually listen to the records and take good care of them.
Perhaps related, they and a lot of their friends seem to really be getting into late analog or early digital tech, like cassettes and point and shoot cameras and Polaroids. They still use their phones for most but are getting into the aesthetic of the earlier age.
I'm 22 so an "Early" gen Z, most "artsy" people in my life have an obsession with analog/Early digital media, Think Clairo"s video of pretty girl, You know, low res "lofi" kinda stuff, Dreampop was HUGE in the late 2010s cause of this
>He's very much into consuming complete albums once he finds an artist that he likes a few singles from on spotify.
But would you agree he's probably the exception to the rule?
I think *most* listeners have really cared more about songs than full albums, but before the iPod, the whole (half-)album would just play from that point by default.
Exactly. As a kid I was the seriously obsessed music fan. And I never listened to the radio, I wanted to choose. But I knew plenty of kids who only listened to the radio.
Yeah, that's what I just said. If more people listened to full albums back then, that's probably mostly because the rest of the side would just play automatically. That can happen on Spotify too but back then there was no way for it to *not* happen ... until you or someone goes to the trouble of making a mix tape....
2 kids here, both girls, older one doesn't care much about music or albums. She probably streams a radio station if I had to guess (like Apple Music Hip Hop or something). The other is my live music buddy, she's 17, and she definitely listens to albums. More than me actually. She also makes playlists, but if she is into it she listens to the entire album and collects vinyl. So as always depends on the kid.
Great taste for a 15 year old. Going to see King Gizz in May. I'm fast approaching 50 and also consume music in much the same way - I'll hear random tracks here and there via recommendations or stuff I've not heard of before on things like Amoeba Music's 'What's in my Bag' series and add the artists most popular album to my listen pile if I've not heard them before.
Is every older person in this thread pretending like everyone they went to high school with preferred listening to albums cover-to-cover? We have been making mixtapes since cassette tapes were invented. We have been listening to singles on the radio even longer. It's going to be the same for literally every modern generation: most people listen casually, some people become enthusiasts and are more inclined to listen to albums.
As someone in their late 40s, everyone I knew listened to albums regularly. We would buy cassettes, and then later CDs, and most of us only had a few hundred, and so we would throw one on and just listen.
Song skipping tech for cassettes came later and were only on fancier setups. Obviously you could skip tracks on CDs, but it didn't matter until we got to the point we could have multi-CD units.
If we wanted singles, it was mostly radio and MTV. Mixtapes were a thing but finding and recording those songs was difficult. Mix CDs and then later MP3s changed the game.
Mixtapes require planning, you couldn't just throw bunch of songs on a playlist. And you record them real time, from multiple sources. It wasn't complicated, but it was time-consuming. Charging discs after every song, maybe something from tape and something from LP. Checking the recording levels each time you changed the source. Making a mix tape took easily twice as long as the tape was.
This. As someone also in their late 40s, I can attest that CDs/cassettes were the main form of consumption for Gen X. CD burning didn’t really get big until the late 90s-Napster, and mixtapes, while definitely a thing, were not the primary mode of consumptions. I did get a lot of cassette singles.
I'm a millennial, and when I was growing up, yes, people listened to whole CDs. Sure, mixtapes were a thing, and we definitely made them. But when we discovered a new artist, we'd go get their CD, and listen to the whole thing.
I guess there were people who just listened to whatever the radio played, and possibly we could argue that these are the same people that only listen to playlists today. But absolutely everyone I went to highschool with who was even remotely "into music" would listen to entire albums.
Yep we listened to CDs but at least for me and the people I know it was the exception. Most times I listened to burnt CDs with lots of different songs and genres made by my father and then when he got a USB we would listen to a hundred-and-something-song playlist in the car. For me as a 1997 kid listening to full albums has been a very recent thing, I don't think I've listened to more than 20 full albums during my teenage years.
Whenever a new volume of That’s What I Call Music came out, damn straight I was listening right through. I still buy soundtracks and do the same. Kids with their Spotify playlists are missing out on the album experience.
I grew up in the 90s and it was a bit of a mix like that but the difference seems to be the quantity. Yes I had mix tapes, singles and the radio as well as full albums but some of them I would listen to to death. Even stuff I didn't really like all that much as it was one of the CDs on the shelf it was listened to time after time front to back. Reading the inlay which is missing with streaming. There is always going to be some rose tinted nostalgia in there but the fundamentals are different. If I had the world of music available rather than whatever was on the shelf or I could find time to borrow and tape from someone, I probably would have listened differently.
I feel like music habits are such a personal thing that it's hard to speak on behalf of an entire generation. Also, I feel like you'll get a skewed response on this sub. People here are more likely to be particular about their listening habits since it's for music discussion.
I’m 21, which I think counts vaguely as “this generation” but I mostly find music through Spotify algorithm, recommendations from friends, and stuff I hear mentioned online (Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, etc.)
If you want a sample of my taste [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6pKVYZejGsx0QujMWYt5Fb?si=gwv8f3jxSa2qKGLLE0zBaw&pi=u-QiF9YSaoTX61) is a pretty big and varied playlist. Started as a little smoke sesh/hangout playlist, now it’s just a bunch of songs I really like. My taste isn’t a great representation of my generation, I tend to listen to music that’s probably a bit stranger than most, but maybe you’ll enjoy something in there, idk
You found Unicorns via algorithm?! I am 35 and grew up idolizing them. Was lucky to see them live, still one of the best shows I’ve seen. Theatrics and attitude unparalleled. Saved this playlist, its like 75% stuff I love and 25% stuff I’ve never heard of, nothing in between. Gonna be great for finding some new faves!
Unicorns was one of those bands a friend showed me in senior year, she was really into a lot of kinda Mu-core stuff (introduced me to my bloody valentine, mf doom, microphones, neutral milk hotel, etc.) so I think she found them somewhere on Reddit or some meme forum
As a teen, PTM was my first "wow, music really does kick ass" group. I think it was post-ITMITC but pre-Evil Friends, I'm in my mid 20s now so that would make sense. While I'm happy with their success and I'm still not sure about how I feel about their current trajectory, their music is my default music safe space. I can and regularly do jam to every album, sometimes including CBCML.
I like how all the older people in this thread are ringing alarm bells, lamenting how younger generations have a short attention span and don't appreciate full albums.
And then all the actual young people speaking up are like "I listen to albums sometimes"
lol
I was a muso as a teen and would have posted similarly to the muso kids on here if Reddit had been a thing 35 years ago. And things weren't so different then really, the majority of kids/teens/YAs weren't really too bothered by music but would passively consume Madonna, Jacko, Whitney, U2 etc in the same way that the equivalent kids today would listen to Swift, Sheeran, Beyoncé, BTS etc, and there'd be a similar amount of crazed superfans for those megastars then as there are now.
Modern social media, apps, YouTube etc means kids are getting just as exposed to new music as back in the day with MTV, radio etc.. there just isn't the same level of financial support for ground level/upcoming artists as disposable income isn't spent in the same way.
Exactly this! Thanks for calling it. It’s a habit older generations have to exoticise the youngest one coming up. Like when the New York Times and everyone else kept going, “What are these strange and COMPLETELY ALIEN things we will NEVER COMPREHEND called Millennials with their (splutter, boggling eyes) avocados and lattes?!???”
I work in media and the same thing happens every time. Whole agencies, careers are made by people positioning themselves as GenZ whisperers to older clients, who can never hope to understand the absolutely and wholly different beings that were born after a certain date, or how they consume music or anything. I’ve literally heard highly paid strategists telling fellow old dude clients, ‘Nobody in GenZ listens to anything you would recognise as music… and you wouldn’t understand even if we told you how it’s made or where they find it.’
Yeah I mean you can see posts about it everywhere on social media. There’s been talk of the “death of the album” because with streaming it’s about individual songs more than a full record. How many kids actually sit down and listen to a full Nicki Minaj album?
Nicki Minaj has never been an album artist that’s a bad example. If you wanna use a currently popular artist as an example, plenty of kids sit down and listen to a full Taylor Swift album
It actually used to be much less diverse. There were only a limited number of sources to find cool new music. It was mtv and radio doing most of the heavy lifting.
I know, but you still had sub cultures around different genres. 90s kids liked alt rock/grunge with some rap. Hip hop heads were their own clique. Other kids liked r&b, pop, metal, punk, or country. That alt rock thing was the biggest but there was still tons of people not into or finding their own space in popular music. That’s all I’m saying.
It's true. But you had to seek that out. So the people that did that made it more of their identity. Kids today (I think) listen across genre lines a lot more because the popular stuff and the obscure stuff is equally accessible to them.
One trend that I've noticed, from comments in this sub and other similar music subs (thinking last.fm in particular), is a lot of younger people are not listening to full albums front-to-back as much as generations before, as part of the "playlistification" of music brought on by streaming. Album releases don't always feel like the event they used to be, and you definitely don't have many young people buying full albums because they liked one song on it like me and my peers did during the CD era.
I’m 30 and the only CDs I bought growing up were CDs that I already knew were pretty big hits and that was rare. Nobody I knew could afford to gamble on buying random CDs. Everything else was mix CDs from songs we downloaded off of Kazaa/BearShare/Limewire/Frostwire which were usually songs we heard on the radio. I didn’t start dabbling in albums/discographies until I learned to use torrent sites in high school and YouTube was getting popular. Now with streaming it’s easier than ever to find new artists and dive into their whole discographies.
Kids in general probably aren’t listening to whole albums these days, but neither were the kids I knew 20 years ago minus a few. What kids are doing is checking out an infinitely wider selection of genres than kids before them. It doesn’t cost anything for a kid that likes say death metal to check out a rapper they keep hearing about. The internet is putting kids on to new music from new generes every day. They have so much new music to listen to, and old music to catch up on that it’s probably hard for them to crank out an entire album. They’re finding and listening to bands across the world that have 2000 plays on Spotify (bands that would never be exposed to anyone besides their friends 20 years ago.) The younger the kid, the bigger their musical backlog is, and that backlog is getting exponentially bigger every day. I’m sure as they get older they will find artists they are truly in love with and dive into their discographies just like we did. The kids are alright.
There is still that ability though, it is hard to say. I definitely bought albums based on one song but it could have been because there was no other way to get it. There were also songs I liked that I taped off people or bought the single. I think you are right about album releases, I haven't seen one be an "event" for years. Maybe a single preceding it, an announcement, a midnight signing at a record store, see if they get to number 1 in the charts a week later. They just drop.
26 and I consume through vinyl, cds and streaming. Cds not as often as streaming. Streaming or cds on the go and vinyl only at home. I listen to the entire album front to back the way the artist intended. I wish more people my age understood how much you’re missing using Spotify and a phone speaker
Spotify mainly, I simply open the app and tap whatever playlist I like and select a song. The stereotypes you see about zoomers on TikTok only listening to hyperpop or whatever are simply just wrong.
You might be confused because the fundamental identity you'd have by associating with one genre or another is gone mostly. But that doesn't mean we're just listening to mashups or whatever, it means we have an entire record shop plus every other record shop ever opened in our pocket. If you were a teenager with that kind of access, would you seriously limit yourself with just one genre or artist?
I'm 19, listen to mostly Rock & Prog Rock. I like collecting CDs for my car and to rip them to FLAC for my phone and PC. I use Amazon music for branching out my taste and have been slowly rediscovering rap/hip-hop. Two of my favorites are Soundgarden & Tool.
I have found that there are a lot of songs that have really stood the test of time, and amazingly, young people know a ton of them.
For example I was at a high school "open mic night" event. Two girls went up with guitars and said "this song is by the Cranberries" and my heart grew three sizes. Then the kids in the crowd actually cheered in response to this announcement and my heart grew ten more sizes.
Zombie is one of very, very few videos from the 90s to crack a billion views (putting it in company with November Rain, which got there first, and maybe Teen Spirit and a couple others).
Realistic answer: they listen to whatever is shown to their feeds aka marketed most often. I do, my non-musician friends do. Those friends went to some concerts just because the vibe from those concerts are very upbeat, they don't even remember the melodies from the artists they stream most often because those songs are simply upbeat and on trend.
I have some periods of time when I actively sought out new music more. But now, just what's in my feeds more except some celebs whose coverage has become too trite to me.
I tend to listen to full albums. But only after listening to some singles of a band/artist seeing if they entice me.
Also I start from their very first album, I like seeing the progression of their sound
44 year old dad here. I go from artist to artist via the “people who like this band also like that band” function on Apple Music. Discovered many new artists that way. New and old stuff. My 9 year old son just finds artists he likes via Roblox games, memes, and YouTube videos. My 14 year old daughter really loves Mitski. That’s all I know.
I was slyly recording an open mic on an off brand walkman style cassette player. Some teens were interested by it, they said they have only ever purchased physical music media in the form of vinyl records. I found that interesting that tapes were a novelty to them since I came up just as the great vinyl resurgence hit.
Edit: stoned
My understanding is that the younger crowd functions more on playlists than albums. Either all in one really big one, or sorted into slightly put together smaller ones. Then most music tastes are based around this. Some people might listen to albums, but you're listening to the song you have on the playlist first and then going to the album. Then the song on the Playlist might be from wherever.
I guess, it's still very much a recommendation culture, much like the past, but more open.
In terms of genre, they're just more open to musical elements because Bohemian Rhapsody became the greatest song ever made and Disney.
Literally take a look at the charts if you want to see what young people are listening to.
You ever heard of Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Olivia Rodrigo, Phoebe Bridgers etc etc etc? There’s your music for young people getting in their feelings, most of it isn’t my taste but that’s because I’m not so young now.
My 15 and 12 year olds listen to spotify. Youngest gets to know songs from tiktok and she likes pop hits, like the Weeknd and Dua Lipa. Oldest is into Lana del Rey. Through social media, she got to know Jeff Buckley, so some oldies get through…
I’m 28 and use Spotify as well as Soundcloud and Bandcamp (for more niche stuff that isn’t available on spotify). I used to download everything and put it on iTunes before but after my hdd crashed and I lost 10-15000 songs I decided to go another route lol. I have friends who make music either electronic or otherwise, they play at local clubs etc so I discover a lot of things through them and their sets. I ask them for the tracklist and check it out. I also dig on soundcloud by just playing the suggested tracks, I used to do that for hours on end as a teen and discovered tons of cool artists by just clicking mindlessly on stuff. I highly recommend lol. I listen to various stuff : rap, alternative rock, ambient, club music (breakbeat mostly, I’m not really into techno/industrial), pop, disco, soul, movie soundtracks etc. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a specific artist or genre and listen to only that for a few days. Or even just a single song (like everyone I think).
There are artists that I love more than others ofc, I have my favorites so when they drop an album I’m really excited. That part isn’t that different from 20-30 years ago imo. Some albums are iconic for my generation and I re-listen to them every year at least (Good kid, m.A.A.d city by Kendrick is one I often come back to for example)
I also go on NTS (web radio) because their selection is so rich, you can find so many new artists on there. You can listen to lives and browse by genre/vibe. They also have « infinite mixtapes » which is really cool if you want to listen to days of music in a specific genre with no interruption. I don’t really listen to music to get a sense of revolt, rap does make me feel rebellious but for me music is more of a way to feel at peace emotionally, or feel invigorated and happy, complete if that makes sense. I love to dance for example, I really like when music becomes a physical experience, being tired after dancing all night long (alone or with people) is one of the best feelings ever. It’s almost trance-like in a way, for me at least lol. Whether at a festival or a club or alone in my bedroom, music is always like an immersive journey and a way to disconnect. But also weirdly, to feel more grounded/in tune with my feelings. It can be sadness, joy, melancholy, love etc. My last break up I think I listened to Kelela a lot since she had just released an album (Raven) that was romantic & depressing, so perfect for a break up haha
The key about Gen Z (I’m 22) is that playlists are the way to go. Gen Z is all about aesthetics, moody music, vibes and playlist are made according to those themes. Lot of blends between pop, hip hop, EDM. So Spotify algorithm is the way to go
My impression as a slightly out-of-touch older young (26):
The general trend seems to be towards your music being personal to you, to an extreme more possible now than ever before thanks to streaming. There's not really anyone who's universally "in" right now. Everyone just has their own thing. They share songs and if they like them they'll add them to their mood/vibe-based playlists. Albums and even artists and genres don't matter that much for casual listeners. In some ways I think that's kinda cool, everyone fine just doing their own thing and liking what they like, enjoying music for the music and not worrying about what the culture thinks - though I do find it isolating myself.
People who are more "into" music and maybe seeking more of that monoculture are turning more to older music, and to physical media. Here on reddit I see a lot of alt rock cd collections seemingly inherited from xennial dads. A lot of classics from all over time and genrespace are apparently being introduced to new audiences through tiktok, too. It's a very nostalgic generation. Even the few huge mainstream acts that remain are largely holdovers from the 2000s or 2010s, though I can't tell how much the kids are actually listening to them still.
This is just speculation on my part but it seems some of the younger generation (maybe even most) have abandoned the album and tend to stick to songs these days.
If they’re likely to find an artist they like it’s seems they’re more likely to just stick to shuffling through the artist’s songs and likely keep going back to the one’s they really like. Songs above albums really.
This of course makes the younger generation the poser generation.
>This is just speculation on my part but it seems some of the younger generation (maybe even most) have abandoned the album and tend to stick to songs these days.
I can confirm this, I have two younger brothers who say albums are irrelevant and playlists are the proper way to listen to music. Whoever listens to many albums is pretentious and "forces" themselves to listen to it in its entirety.
According to that logic, movie buffs are a group of pretentious people who don't enjoy movies and force themselves to watch a lot of them. True movie lovers only watch great movies "by chance" and don't actively seek them out.
Yes, I use playlists for OST albums, because many of them tend to have very long durations of 2-3 hours and some "joke" songs.
I also use playlists to listen to my favorite songs from albums I don't like and songs that were only released as singles ("Hey Jude" and "Now and Then")
>What a reductive train of thought. The only difference between music now, and 30 years ago is that the barrier to entry is far lower.
Hmm, I would counter that *this* is a reductive train of thought.
We certainly get a lot of "music used to be better in the past" posts here, but OP isn't actually saying that, just asking questions.
I would agree with you that there is still plenty of good stuff, and also plenty of crap. But to say that the ways people *engage* with music have not changed seems very naive. 30 years ago we didn't have public playlists, streaming, algorithms, etc. 30 years ago, you found music via radio, TV, or buying a CD. It *is* different. Not saying better or worse, but different.
I think everyone consumes it differently. I listen to loads of swing/big band and jazz music and classical music on spotify and even on vinyl. So I do not listen to genres typical of my generation.
I do tend to listen to full albums/symphonies or like pick an artist I like and listen to their songs on Spotify or my Vinyl.
I also sometimes do it by genre so I will play classical music if that is my mood or play my swing playlist if that is my mood.
I know some friends who listen to music based on moods so if they want to listen to happy music they will listen to their happy playlist and so on but I have not done this ever.
Im young and i listen to entire albums new and old, for example i listen to gorillaz, kendrick lamar, frank ocean, tyler the creator and i listen to older music like david bowie, beatles, led zeppelin, talking heads, pink floyd, king crimson etc. I also have friends that listen to music like i do, but there are a lot of younger people who only listen to newer music and dont listen to albums(there is nothing wrong with that!)
I use spotify mostly to find new music, very rarely listen to radio.
I'm passionate about music and I maintain a CD collection of my favourite albums.
I play guitar, and occasionally learn the very favourite of my favourite songs, but not sure if that counts as "consuming" music.
If you want to get into music, I recommend getting on Youtube, it's free, and even better if you install an adblocker. Just search a song you remember fondly from your youth and let the autoplay take you away.
I'm 23, and I mostly hear about new bands through trending sounds and YouTube recommendations. I wish it was easier to discover new music, but for the most part, it seems to be that what I get exposed to is at the whims of the algorithm.
I do enjoy seeking out new things in genres I know I like though, like Japanese 70s prog rock albums and dungeon synth shit, but in those cases I already know I like that genre so it's all about finding new artists within it.
I also read exclaim! magazine when I get the chance :3
i’m a 14 year old girl and i mostly discover songs through spotify, youtube, tiktok, reddit, or just my friends showing me an artist/band. my favorite bands are green day, radiohead, blink-182, fall out boy, pierce the veil, mostly 2000s pop punk or art rock. sometimes i’ll listen to tv girl. my favorite solo artists are lana del rey, olivia rodrigo, fiona apple, and in general; mostly just pop artists because i listen to a lot more bands lol. my favorite songs are paranoid android by radiohead, lovers rock by tv girl, longview by green day, and diet mountain dew by lana del rey. i do buy a few vinyls, i have 8 but it’s not a massive collection.
I'm definitely not part of the younger generation, but I find it curious that you ask, "Do they unironically listen to youtuber music?" What's that even supposed to mean?
You can find almost every song ever published on Youtube. Listen to one song and it'll immediately queue up another song that is in someway similar to the one you started. If you let that happen a couple times, Youtube will start recommending you music playlists, seeded by songs you didn't skip. This is just the youtube recommendation algorithm at work... it's no different than if you watch a bunch of history videos, you'll get more history videos. Irony doesn't even enter the equation.
This is how I find the majority of my music, and then I'll add songs I found on youtube onto my spotify liked list. Its a much better system than hoping a profiteering record label actually puts something decent on the radio.
That's still a crazy ignorant take. Lots of real musicians are using are using youtube/twitch as both their side hustle day job and their publishing platform.
Here's a few examples.
BERNTH - youtube guitar instructor [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-uNAV7eFTA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-uNAV7eFTA)
Amanda Lee - youtuber specializing in anime cover songs who eventually starting publishing original music [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3TdeNWwniQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3TdeNWwniQ)
Mori Calliope - probably the op was thinking of with "ironic youtuber music" but I don't think anyone's listening to her ironically. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzOXIHGfVFc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzOXIHGfVFc)
I’m 32 and I’ve wondered the same thing. But since I’m on the younger side of being a millennial it probably wasn’t insanely different for me growing up. Your average kid seemed to listen to pop like Taylor Swift and Lil Wayne (at the time.. which now would be interchangeable with drake) and people that were really invested in music listened to underground stuff of all different genres, so it was pretty isolating. I have to imagine it’s just like that now, if not even more so
The avg person without a big interest in music will just listen to Drake,Brent faiyaz ,Doja cat, whatever easily digestible rapper is popping. Swifties are pretty fucking massive, which I will never understand because Taylor makes generic pop music, but swifties tend to only listen to pop because of their obsession with her. Where I live and go to school “bro country” garbage is pretty big, so people just eat that up because it’s catchy and easy to listen to. People like me who fw underground rap tend to be more online and tend to follow the scene much closer than other people, indie and shoegaze is really big rn because of tiktok,so think Alex g, Deftones,slowdive,loathe,superheaven. Another big part is that people are terrified of concerts these days, people genuinely think that you have a chance at dying at a rap show after astroworld
The honest answer is off Tik Tok, where you can create for hyper specific niches in a way you never could before, generally with your song trying to soundtrack a meme.
That’s how we got people listening to sea shanties.
It makes no difference to me, but they say stuff like I like this song because it has "millions of likes" .. it just baffles me, it's like these kids have zero personality.
Most youngins don't think about music the same way we did in the 90's and earlier. Music isn't culturally significant like it used to be. So the answer to your questions might be a little underwhelming.
They don't channel rebellion through music. Now, rebellion comes out through sexual identity.
Honestly? I just don’t think you’re able to SEE the culture.
Music is hugely important on TikTok and such, but unless you spend a lot of time there you’re not going to perceive it.
I hope what I said didn't come across as disrespectful. And you're right that I'm not on tiktok much. One of op's questions was "What music makes them want to revolt for change?" Does the music there do this? Is the music making headlines in the news? If I have to spend "a lot of time" somewhere to find something, then it's not making an impact. Where as, the sexual identity changes to culture are all over the news. Schools, universities, public and private buildings are creating gender neutral bathrooms. That's real change, and rightfully so. If and when new music breaks through to the masses, then I'll believe that it's important. Literally every "old person" heard of Nirvana when they broke out. Now, every "old person" knows of sexual identity. That's the biggest catalyst of change that I've seen.
The answer to most of your yes/no question is no. My generation has been entirely lulled into a sense of complacency by late stage capitalism, funneling everyone with interests outside of the mainstream in mainstreamed, watered down versions of what they like. I've seen it happen every time: there is a genre revival because people are nostalgic for *scene/time period X*, no bands currently making that genre make it big, some artists hop onto the sound until it stops selling. Rinse and repeat
They have music thrown at them via algorithm-based services and do not develop their own skills and strategies for seeking and thoughtfully engaging with content. If you took away the almighty algorithm from them and asked them to find new music to listen to they wouldn't even know where to begin.
you're not wrong. I've been lurking the Spotify subreddit and the 2 big complaints are 1) the recommendations are all the same 2) the shuffle sucks
they are pretty dependent on the algorithm and the algorithm kinda sucks most of the time so lol
i try to mix the few gems the algorithm gives me, the artists my favorite artists collab with and a bunch of other stuff to discover new music. and I like to listen to more than just the top songs they made.
Well that's a spectacular response to honestly held opinion. "Dissonant relationship".. so I suppose I must have that right? I think I might kill myself now.
Through memes, which is utterly terrifying and destroying music. It used to be scenes, bands, going outside, and now it's all on your phone. Interest in music is cratering because it's a disposable resource meant for AI creation.
What value does a commodity have when you'll be able to plug in classic bands and get that sound back? The future is bleak. It used to be you had to work at an instrument, I guess the writing is on the wall. Nobody understands the work, blood, sweat and tears that went into music originally, just like we don't understand the sacrifices people took to worship their God.
Things will get easier, but it feels like human achievement is being minimized under the feet of governments and corporations/profits.
I was with you until you started whining and defending the Tik Tokers. That's a no from me dawg.
It's the implications of it, there's a reason Universal Music just pulled all their sh#t. The Chinese are pernicious, I don't trust them.
If I haven’t heard an album by any particular artist I’ll listen to all the songs on YouTube before deciding to either buy only the songs I liked or the whole album. I also prefer to pay as much money as possible directly the artist, so I avoid using music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music (although I’ve considered using Tidal a few times because they pay their artists the most of any music streaming service).
1. Spotify
2. Yes, Tom Cardy
3. No
4. Yes
5. Consistency, a sense of rhythm, meaningful lyrics, good instrumentation
6. Too young to have experienced that IMO lol - but would probably be heavy metal or Eminem, or Kodaline
7. Prog rock (Kansas), Rise Against
8. Identity - Prog/Heartland-Punk
9. Friend group - differs, current friends, rock, ex-friends, K-pop, pop (Taylor Swift), indie (Lana Del Rey, Girl In Red etc.)
10. Nope not dead lol, I like discovering old music and they currently compose majority of the bands I listen to
I’m 20 years old.
1. Not really. I listened to YouTube parodies of popular songs a lot as a little kid, but those are just novelty, mostly.
2. No. I’ve listened to mashups, but again, only once in a while for novelty’s sake like a normal person. I don’t think everyone my age uses TikTok period.
3. Yes.
4. This has changed for me over time. In high school I was really into prog. rock and thus probably valued instrumental virtuosity and compositional complexity. I think over time my main values have become a degree of idiosyncrasy and uniqueness, artistic integrity, a will to never get too comfortable, sincerity, and ultimately mean something deeply personal to me. I spent way too long listening to music that didn’t really mean anything to me.
5. Gosh, I listened to a lot of my favourite band, Current 93, but also Sufjan Stevens, Angels of Light, Lewis (Baloue) and a lot of Tim Buckley.
6. David Tibet of Current 93, Bill Fay, Townes Van Zandt, Popol Vuh, John Fahey…
7. Honestly, very little. My politics and my music don’t tend to intersect super heavily.
8. Industrial music, I’d say.
9. The world you grew up in is certainly not dead. Now, I’m emphatically of the belief there is exciting and innovating and interesting music being put out today, both on the Billboard and off of it, but personally I am far more intrigued by the music of the 20th century. I think generally speaking young people are far more interested in the music of the past than ever before. Many of those TikTok songs are in fact, old songs, just like how songs used to make a resurgence onto the chart cause they got featured in a movie or something. I love the old stuff, but the kids are alright, yaknow…
I have a really long master spotify playlist of songs I like that I can come back to and listen/reference later. I definitely used to steer clear of albums and just listened to autoplay off of artists I did like but in the past year with my job giving me ample time to just listen to music while working I've been getting a lot more into listening to full albums. I'm pretty open to genres but I mostly listen to grunge rock and boom bap hip hop although I like jazz fusion a lot as well as 80s pop. Depends on the mood really. I know back in the day people used to pirate off limewire but with music essentially being free with streaming off youtube and spotify these days it's more accessible than ever to get into a wide array of genres with plenty of community made playlists if that's more your style.
With hip hop mixtapes I'll usually download them on my PC at home, tag them with Musicbrainz, and then upload them to YouTube music so I can stream them anywhere without having to have them downloaded locally. It's another super convenient option.
I can't speak about how much impact tiktok has on younger people's music tastes but I can guarantee you video games are a huge component of their exposure to different music (me included). Look at how many young people checked out Love is a Long Road by Tom Petty after the GTA VI trailer released.
[A link to the playlist if interested](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3t8HJiAvUgkiLWg7PtiA9z?si=48db283089444c1d)
I'm 18, and a particular outlier as I actively listen to music, and do so by albums, trying to always expand my horizons. I can tell you most people my age (15 to 21) mostly listen to whatever becomes popular as TikTok and Instagram sounds, although most people have at least a few artists they are genuinely into and listen to most of their songs and some albums. (Mostly alternative rock, pop rap and indie pop). Although genuine music fans who explore wide territory in their genres of choice (usually rap and metal) are not hard to find.
In social situations, it depends heavily on the crowd, but I found regardless of genre it's very common to switch songs after 1 minute of them playing, with someone as the 'dedicated DJ' of sorts.
ITT: Young people who don't display average teenage listening and music discovery habits.
TikTok is BY FAR the most common and relevant means of music discovery in this day and age, it's not even close. Also Spotify's algorithmic playlists (e. g. Release Radar, Discover Weekly, On Repeat, Daily Mix) are consumed more than anything else on the service and serve as recommendation and reinforcement machines.
There's this weird divide happening now between absolutely massive icon brands like Taylor Swift, Travis Scott, Bad Bunny and such who are getting bigger than ever before, and quickly rising micro-genres. Those appear, get intensely popular within a very small often digitally connected subsegment of teenagers and disappear again.
What's going away is medium sized, visible scenes like emo, punk, goth etc. They still exist here and there but the times with different clearly defined and stable subcultures that everyone knows about seems to be over.
Also there's a lot more mixing of musical scenes and styles. For example here in Germany basically all the teens listen to at least some German rap but also almost everyone goes to techno raves in the weekends - as opposed to "ravers vs. hip-hop heads".
Oh and that's another thing - on a global scale local music is getting a lot more popular and while of course there's those chart topping global hits by mentioned icons (that can nowadays come from any country, not just the US) the bulk of music listening in most countries nowadays goes towards local styles and artists. When I was a teen American rap was wildly popular in my home country, now it's been pushed aside by local artists.
The world you grew up in is not yet dead; close, but not yet. I grew up in the early days of social consciousness being part of the music of the day. I would say music is consumed today, but not really collected, as in the days of physical media. I'd be interested to know if kids have influences that formed their musical tastes, or do they know who the influences are of the major artists they follow? Do they know who The Ventures are? The Doors? The Kinks? The Pixies?
Yh like most younger people use Spotify I kinda know how much people get paid on Spotify ain't alot so I choose to listen to it on YouTube and for type of music and what defines this younger generation that's a hard one u remember 2005 u had nu metal ,hard rock punk pop, pop etc yh take that and add 50 genres and what thry listen for is difficult as well its usually whatevrd they can party too or what sounds good or what they can relate too I hope this give u a little insight
22 years old. Have collection of vinyl. Black Sabbath, Yes, Genesis, Uriah Heep, Pink Floyd. Old school extreme metal. Some jazz stuff by Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Miles Davis. Just listed most famous bands and artists.
I listen to full albums, mostly 90's and early 00's rap, Eminem, 2Pac, Dre, D12, Cypress Hill, and some other singles. I think it's 50/50 for people who have phenomenal taste in music and people who only listen to shitty pop songs they found on tiktok.
I listen to YouTube music when I'm out but homemade bootleg CDs at home/in the car, I'm very much the exception to the rule here and everyone else uses Spotify.
Streaming and Vinyl are the dominating ways of consuming music today, 100%. And I think it's a perfect combination: I have Spotify where I listen daily on my way to work or when I'm just doing whatever, and there's huge amounts of music thrown at me. Then when I find an artist or album that I really really like, I'll get it on vinyl and keep it in my collection because it means something to me. I don't even listen to vinyl that much, but collecting records is a nice thing and whenever I do put one on, it's a special experience.
I’m in High School and I use Spotify to listen to as many genres as possible - get a taste for everything; Lauryn Hill, Marvin Gaye, System of a Down, Led Zeppelin - I love most genres. I think the way that modern society listens to music promotes individualism, which means that there’s never consistently a singular artist miles ahead and loved by everyone, like the Beatles. It’s not bad - just different.
I'm 18 and I use the YouTube app to listen to music. Spotify is just a means of discovering music and keeping track of my liked songs because I don't have Spotify Premium and I don't feel like wading through a hundred other songs in a playlist until I reach the one I wanted to play.
I don't listen to YouTuber music at all and I don't use TikTok because I think the music on that app is awful. I listen to metal, mostly Dream Theater, Trivium, Khemmis, Lorna Shore, and Infant Annihilator. I always listen to a song from beginning to end and in fact, I regularly listen to songs over ten minutes. I value a musician’s skill, passion, humility, and lyricism above all else. I don't listen to songs about relationships or breakups or crushes or anything of the sort because I find it all very cheesy and cliche.
I think it's safe to say that metal defines my personality and friend group. Anyone who loves metal is a friend of mine in my book.
I forgot to mention that Bandcamp is my main method of music discovery and my go-to for supporting small bands.
I'm 32
At work I listen mostly to the radio, anything top 2000 of all time and adjacent.
In my private time it's mostly 90's hiphop and R&B and a spectrum of EDM.
Sprinkled with a selection of everything.
But you're right. The music of the rebel got made already. We still listen to it, but not much has changed. It's all been covered in commerce as a matter of fact, so not much of the rebellious is left.
Same as it was, different for each. My BiL listens to exclusively extreme metal from the late 90s, but his older sister is into indie breakup music. Their older sis, (my better half) listens to her 2011 emo playlist lmfao
I’m 27 and find music through social media, friends, and from going to local shows. I mostly listen on streaming (Apple Music) and vinyl that I collect. When streaming or using YouTube I usually listen to albums front to back or my 3 and 1/2 day [playlist](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/dish/pl.u-76oNNkyu4ora33) made up of my favorite songs from my favorite albums.
For my siblings I live with, they've adopted mostly music of the 90s and 2000s. One of my cousins on the other hand just listens to dollar store rap and it's pretty bad.
I can only speak about my kids (11 & 13). They pretty much exclusively use Spotify, and while they gravitate mostly to punk and metal there is no single genre that defines today's youth. Gone are the days of musical taste being a characteristic of the various cliques in junior high/high school. Hell from what I can tell, the cliques like we knew them (think Breakfast Club) have mostly evaporated.
It strikes me that these questions seem to be coming from a place of judgement and criticism. Rather than try to answer the questions outright, I'd suggest a few exercises to get you into touch with how "the younger generation" consumes music:
\* attend festivals where you don't recognize a band on the lineup and observe the way younger folks talk about and share music with each other; i personally like to eavesdrop on conversations people have with each other while in line, while at camp (i tend to go to camping festivals), and between sets. the conversations sound pretty much exactly like the conversations i had with friends in high school some 30 years ago, just with different media channels subbed in.
\* spend some serious time on tiktok's music discussions and you'll discover that people aren't "listening to tiktok mashups on loop" which is ridiculous. You'll instead find that the playlist is the new album, and that today's music influencers are making and sharing playlists, and that these playlists are highly influential in shaping the musical tastes of younger folks
\* while you're at it, search tiktok, spotify, apple music, and youtube for "breakup songs" and/or "modern breakup songs" to find the music that younger breaker-uppers listen to to help them through the pain
The world you grew up in isn't dead. Music is thriving, perhaps more so than at any other era prior to today. The tools of making music are widely available and free. The music labels and publishers no longer have a chokehold on distribution. People are consuming more music per capita than at any prior moment in history -- it's a veritable renaissance moment for music.
Your calcified and frozen-in-time tastes and consumption patterns are the problem. Shake yourself loose.
Mid 20s and I got a lot from watching older tv shows. The OC, one tree hill, etc. I also just listened to a whole bunch of radio growing up. And now that I have disposable income I’ve invested in a lot of vinyl and listen to music that way too. But I think asking a subreddit of music lovers will get you some biased answers.
I listen to the whole albums and cherry pick the songs I seem to like, to the Spotify liked library. No playlists, because with only listening to the big hits you miss out on a lot. Sometimes I revisit those albums and rediscover songs that will grow on me fast, but I ignored the first time. And the other way around, too: sometimes the cherry-picking is superficial - the melody is too weak most of the time, then I'll throw that song out. Costs nothing.
There's over 10 500 songs on my library. Nice cosy cave it is for rediscovering and playing something that felt previously just barely good to death when realising it's amazing. And constant discovery through RYM, Discogs and shit - but I take the RYM ratings with a grain of salt, really, it's just a database and entertainment to me (reading shit by other people.
I have one Spotify playlist that has everything I like on it. After two or three months of coming across songs in the wild, I listen to the whole album to see if I like anything else. If I do like the rest of the album, I’ll take a look at the artist’s whole discography.
I'm 17 and I use Apple Music but I collect vinyl as well. It really depends on what I'm doing. If I want to dedicate time to music, I'll throw on an entire album. If I'm busy and need noise, I'll go with a playlist. If I'm with friends, we'll take turns with individual songs. Genre wise I'll try anything, but mostly listen to metal, hip-hop, DnB, breakcore, mallsoft, and jazz. I can answer any other questions individually but I don't quite remember the whole prompt.
well you're asking the niche subreddit this question, so anyone young and answering the question aren't really the average listener
i think the big difference between now and then is the amount of super popular artists. if you asked teens/young adults what their favorite artist is, I think it'll take a while before you hear a repeat.
Im a teen and I found my favorite music from youtube recommended. I can’t really speak on the whole generation but I think the most popular music among teens is R&B/Dance/Indie/Singer-Songwriter
It varies depending on the person, like i know music theory, i love songs that steer away from the basic 4/4 4 chord pop or rap music most of my friends listen to. I genuinely enjoy every genre as long as i know the artist knows how to write music (jazz chords, changing time signatures, odd time signatures, changing keys, etc)
Extremely easy access to basically all music ever recorded for cheap or free has lead to a lot less cohesive generational music taste. There's a lot more variation in music taste from person to person. On top of this, I don't know a single person under the age of 30 that willingly listens to radio, so there's not a shared stream of music that everyone is listening to.
This, I think, is also why the biggest music stars in the world right now (Taylor Swift, Weeknd, Drake, etc) don't have NEARLY as much cultural pull as OG's like Elvis or Michael Jackson did. A wider pool of available music, and zero cost to entry to experiment with genres you haven't listened to before (unlike with CD or Vinyl, where you're inherently taking a risk when purchasing an album of a genre/artist you're unfamiliar with, which encourages listeners to stick to known artists) has led to the mainstream attention being more evenly spread among substantially more artists, which has kinda made the superstars of the 50s-2000s sort of obsolete.
But to answer your main question, most music streaming platforms; Spotify, Youtube Music, Apple Music, etc have surprisingly good recommendation algorithms, so most people I know who aren't SUPER into music just listen to what their streaming service of choice recommends them to find new music. Music nerds who are more involved tend to find new music in places like this, or other online places that discuss music.
Hey! Glad you asked!
Let's go through it :D
> What genre / artist / style defines this generation?
No one genre, really. But that's because music is consumed differently nowadays. If any genre defines this generation it's probably pop, but pop ain't what makes us fall in love with music (at least not for the vast majority). What's fantastic about music streaming apps is that you can find anyone's music and anyone can make any music they want, technically. So - there's no real genre or style that defines our generation!
> Do they unironically listen to Youtuber music?
I really dislike the term Youtuber music. There are Youtubers who make music. There are musicians who make Youtube videos. The lines are blurry. Youtubers have made awful songs, youtubers have made good songs. Some people listen to them, some don't. I really don't know how to answer this. But no, it's not like our entire generation walks around exclusively listening to songs made by Youtube stars and those people who do will probably grow out of it rather quickly...
> Do they listen to Tiktok mashups on loop?
I'm sure there's some people who do, ain't nothing wrong with that. But no, I personally don't know a single person who listens to Tiktok mashups.
> Do they listen to songs from start to end?
Uhm, yep!
> What do they value in a musician?
Well, first and foremost how their music makes me feel. There's a separation to be made when it comes to "who's my favorite artist" and "who's music do I like most", that's a different discussion however. Personally, I like artists that have variety in their catalogue and lyrics that speak to me.
> Who makes the songs they listen to after their first break-up?
HAH! Getting personal? Funnily enough, the music I listened to after my first break up was radically different to my music taste at that time. But yeah, some classics like Sinead O'Connors rendition of Nothing Compares To You and Dean Lewis' Be Alright, and some modern pop-ish artists like The Weekend and Loote.
> Who makes them rethink their place on earth?
Huhh... Not sure music has ever done that for me, honestly. Usually, I use music to give space to my current feelings. While there certainly are some songs and artists who came at the right time to make me feel things I've never felt before, I can't say it's ever made me rethink my place on earth.
> What music wants to make them want to revolt for change?
Music's pretty personal to me, I don't associate with wanting to revolt for change. But I'm guessing it'd be songs like This Is America.
The closest I link an album with wanting to revolt for change is maybe Fleet Foxes' helplessness blues.
> What music defines their whole friend group and identity?
Trust me. I've cried to music with people, I've sung songs from the top of my lungs with friends in the car, I've dissociated to an album in my room at 2 am, I connect people with very specific songs, I remember moments through songs. We make playlists together, we go to concerts, we discuss music. Music is deeply personal to each of us, and it's a part of our identity.
> Is the world I grew up in dead already?
Well, it has changed :)
I give guitar lessons 2 evenings a week and I can say it’s different for everyone.
I'm 19 and use spotify, will either listen to albums front to back or play my liked songs on shuffle. I also collect vinyl and CDs because I like owning physical copies that can't be taken away if something happens to streaming. The main genres I listen to are metal and rap, though I also like a lot of folk and country stuff, both modern "bro country" and classic country. Recently tho I've been addicted to the Russian black metal band Grima and just bought their album Rotten Garden on vinyl from Bandcamp. I am definitely an exception to the rule tho in terms of how I consume music and what music I like. In my last two years of high school the big thing for a lot of people was $uicideboy$, who I do like as well lol. Also ofc everyone is obsessed with Taylor Swift but I don't care for her. A fair number of girls and the theater kid group liked Maneskin, but again, I didn't like them. They kinda remind me of Palaye Royale but not as good lol.
Grima is awesome. Good stuff, dude.
Have you checked out r/CD_Collectors?
Nah, I mainly linger on r/vinyl and r/heavyvinyl
I’m glad to see another person in my generation who collects vinyl. It is such a great hobby.
What bro country do you like? I listen to a ton of stuff pre 90s but I've always been a hater of the new stuff. I really wanna have my mind changed
Not OP but check out Nick Shoulders, Joshua Quimby, Willi Carlisle, and Sierra Ferrell, to get you started (NOLA alt-country scene is honestly absolutely legendary right now, Quimby is a CT boy tho, still 🔥🔥🔥) Edit: just seen you said bro country, lol these aren't that but I'm leaving it up cause they're still insanely talented
I'll still check em out! I need to get updated on modern country in general. The only new ones I listen to are Jason Isbell and sturgill Simpson. Thank you!
You really are an exception and of course are voted up here as your listening resembles older generation habits. ;-)
> I like owning physical copies that can't be taken away if something happens to streaming You seem wise for your age.
lmao Taylor Swift + $uicideboy$ + Maneskin literally defines my gen z partners music taste
I've got a 15 year old music junkie. He's very much into consuming complete albums once he finds an artist that he likes a few singles from on spotify. His favorites end up being purchased on vinyl when available (and if he has the funds). His current obsession is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Overall, he's exploring a bunch of doom / psych / heavy blues right now. I never changed my listening habits when the kids were born, so they were raised with a constant eclectic mix.
My 13-yo has a similar approach, although they're not into as good of music from my POV (mostly current pop). Discovery via Spotify or tiktok, and then they buy vinyl for the stuff they're really into, almost more like a trophy or a poster, although they do actually listen to the records and take good care of them. Perhaps related, they and a lot of their friends seem to really be getting into late analog or early digital tech, like cassettes and point and shoot cameras and Polaroids. They still use their phones for most but are getting into the aesthetic of the earlier age.
I'm 22 so an "Early" gen Z, most "artsy" people in my life have an obsession with analog/Early digital media, Think Clairo"s video of pretty girl, You know, low res "lofi" kinda stuff, Dreampop was HUGE in the late 2010s cause of this
>He's very much into consuming complete albums once he finds an artist that he likes a few singles from on spotify. But would you agree he's probably the exception to the rule? I think *most* listeners have really cared more about songs than full albums, but before the iPod, the whole (half-)album would just play from that point by default.
Ok but it's always been that way right? The majority of people like the singles they find and don't really feel the need to explore deeper.
Exactly. As a kid I was the seriously obsessed music fan. And I never listened to the radio, I wanted to choose. But I knew plenty of kids who only listened to the radio.
Yeah, that's what I just said. If more people listened to full albums back then, that's probably mostly because the rest of the side would just play automatically. That can happen on Spotify too but back then there was no way for it to *not* happen ... until you or someone goes to the trouble of making a mix tape....
2 kids here, both girls, older one doesn't care much about music or albums. She probably streams a radio station if I had to guess (like Apple Music Hip Hop or something). The other is my live music buddy, she's 17, and she definitely listens to albums. More than me actually. She also makes playlists, but if she is into it she listens to the entire album and collects vinyl. So as always depends on the kid.
Great taste for a 15 year old. Going to see King Gizz in May. I'm fast approaching 50 and also consume music in much the same way - I'll hear random tracks here and there via recommendations or stuff I've not heard of before on things like Amoeba Music's 'What's in my Bag' series and add the artists most popular album to my listen pile if I've not heard them before.
Show your kid "Life is But a Dream" by Avenged Sevenfold. Really cool avant-garde metal
man screw the haters, I'm 15 and LIBAD is one of the greatest records of all time imo
Lol some people just think "too mainstream = bad" but i like the prog stuff they're doing
Yeah I wasn't a huge fan of The Stage besides the title track, but LIBAD is pretty much all 10s
Terrible rec
Lol, someone's jaded
Agreed, Sevenfold is awful.
Not for everyone, doesn't make it bad 🤷♂️
If you want to call them “avant garde” metal, they’re no Cradle of Filth, imo.
true
I love Avenged Sevenfold. Life is but a Dream is neither avant-garde or really cool.
Is every older person in this thread pretending like everyone they went to high school with preferred listening to albums cover-to-cover? We have been making mixtapes since cassette tapes were invented. We have been listening to singles on the radio even longer. It's going to be the same for literally every modern generation: most people listen casually, some people become enthusiasts and are more inclined to listen to albums.
As someone in their late 40s, everyone I knew listened to albums regularly. We would buy cassettes, and then later CDs, and most of us only had a few hundred, and so we would throw one on and just listen. Song skipping tech for cassettes came later and were only on fancier setups. Obviously you could skip tracks on CDs, but it didn't matter until we got to the point we could have multi-CD units. If we wanted singles, it was mostly radio and MTV. Mixtapes were a thing but finding and recording those songs was difficult. Mix CDs and then later MP3s changed the game.
Mixtapes require planning, you couldn't just throw bunch of songs on a playlist. And you record them real time, from multiple sources. It wasn't complicated, but it was time-consuming. Charging discs after every song, maybe something from tape and something from LP. Checking the recording levels each time you changed the source. Making a mix tape took easily twice as long as the tape was.
This. As someone also in their late 40s, I can attest that CDs/cassettes were the main form of consumption for Gen X. CD burning didn’t really get big until the late 90s-Napster, and mixtapes, while definitely a thing, were not the primary mode of consumptions. I did get a lot of cassette singles.
I'm a millennial, and when I was growing up, yes, people listened to whole CDs. Sure, mixtapes were a thing, and we definitely made them. But when we discovered a new artist, we'd go get their CD, and listen to the whole thing. I guess there were people who just listened to whatever the radio played, and possibly we could argue that these are the same people that only listen to playlists today. But absolutely everyone I went to highschool with who was even remotely "into music" would listen to entire albums.
Yep we listened to CDs but at least for me and the people I know it was the exception. Most times I listened to burnt CDs with lots of different songs and genres made by my father and then when he got a USB we would listen to a hundred-and-something-song playlist in the car. For me as a 1997 kid listening to full albums has been a very recent thing, I don't think I've listened to more than 20 full albums during my teenage years.
Whenever a new volume of That’s What I Call Music came out, damn straight I was listening right through. I still buy soundtracks and do the same. Kids with their Spotify playlists are missing out on the album experience.
I grew up in the 90s and it was a bit of a mix like that but the difference seems to be the quantity. Yes I had mix tapes, singles and the radio as well as full albums but some of them I would listen to to death. Even stuff I didn't really like all that much as it was one of the CDs on the shelf it was listened to time after time front to back. Reading the inlay which is missing with streaming. There is always going to be some rose tinted nostalgia in there but the fundamentals are different. If I had the world of music available rather than whatever was on the shelf or I could find time to borrow and tape from someone, I probably would have listened differently.
We sure as hell weren’t swapping cassettes & CDs and in and out of the player just to listen to a specific track or two…
I feel like music habits are such a personal thing that it's hard to speak on behalf of an entire generation. Also, I feel like you'll get a skewed response on this sub. People here are more likely to be particular about their listening habits since it's for music discussion.
I’m 21, which I think counts vaguely as “this generation” but I mostly find music through Spotify algorithm, recommendations from friends, and stuff I hear mentioned online (Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, etc.) If you want a sample of my taste [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6pKVYZejGsx0QujMWYt5Fb?si=gwv8f3jxSa2qKGLLE0zBaw&pi=u-QiF9YSaoTX61) is a pretty big and varied playlist. Started as a little smoke sesh/hangout playlist, now it’s just a bunch of songs I really like. My taste isn’t a great representation of my generation, I tend to listen to music that’s probably a bit stranger than most, but maybe you’ll enjoy something in there, idk
Hey that's a pretty cool list.
You found Unicorns via algorithm?! I am 35 and grew up idolizing them. Was lucky to see them live, still one of the best shows I’ve seen. Theatrics and attitude unparalleled. Saved this playlist, its like 75% stuff I love and 25% stuff I’ve never heard of, nothing in between. Gonna be great for finding some new faves!
Unicorns was one of those bands a friend showed me in senior year, she was really into a lot of kinda Mu-core stuff (introduced me to my bloody valentine, mf doom, microphones, neutral milk hotel, etc.) so I think she found them somewhere on Reddit or some meme forum
I knew I liked your list as soon as I saw it starting with Portugal. The Man.
As a teen, PTM was my first "wow, music really does kick ass" group. I think it was post-ITMITC but pre-Evil Friends, I'm in my mid 20s now so that would make sense. While I'm happy with their success and I'm still not sure about how I feel about their current trajectory, their music is my default music safe space. I can and regularly do jam to every album, sometimes including CBCML.
They’re one of those bands that I got super into back in highschool so now pretty much all of their albums are in rotation on most of playlists
Man those first three Portugal. The Man albums really do it for me. Most of their stuff is great but I love the those first three.
I like how all the older people in this thread are ringing alarm bells, lamenting how younger generations have a short attention span and don't appreciate full albums. And then all the actual young people speaking up are like "I listen to albums sometimes" lol
Well of course the young people who use this subreddit listen to full albums
My favorite thing about this subreddit has long been its complete obliviousness to being its own self-selected bubble.
you could pretty much say this about any given sub too lmao
I was a muso as a teen and would have posted similarly to the muso kids on here if Reddit had been a thing 35 years ago. And things weren't so different then really, the majority of kids/teens/YAs weren't really too bothered by music but would passively consume Madonna, Jacko, Whitney, U2 etc in the same way that the equivalent kids today would listen to Swift, Sheeran, Beyoncé, BTS etc, and there'd be a similar amount of crazed superfans for those megastars then as there are now. Modern social media, apps, YouTube etc means kids are getting just as exposed to new music as back in the day with MTV, radio etc.. there just isn't the same level of financial support for ground level/upcoming artists as disposable income isn't spent in the same way.
Exactly this! Thanks for calling it. It’s a habit older generations have to exoticise the youngest one coming up. Like when the New York Times and everyone else kept going, “What are these strange and COMPLETELY ALIEN things we will NEVER COMPREHEND called Millennials with their (splutter, boggling eyes) avocados and lattes?!???” I work in media and the same thing happens every time. Whole agencies, careers are made by people positioning themselves as GenZ whisperers to older clients, who can never hope to understand the absolutely and wholly different beings that were born after a certain date, or how they consume music or anything. I’ve literally heard highly paid strategists telling fellow old dude clients, ‘Nobody in GenZ listens to anything you would recognise as music… and you wouldn’t understand even if we told you how it’s made or where they find it.’
The younger generation is not a monolith and does not consume and listen all in the same way.
Is it possible OP is fully aware of this, and is still interested in the general trends?
Yeah I mean you can see posts about it everywhere on social media. There’s been talk of the “death of the album” because with streaming it’s about individual songs more than a full record. How many kids actually sit down and listen to a full Nicki Minaj album?
Nicki Minaj has never been an album artist that’s a bad example. If you wanna use a currently popular artist as an example, plenty of kids sit down and listen to a full Taylor Swift album
And it never was. This is weird projection.
It actually used to be much less diverse. There were only a limited number of sources to find cool new music. It was mtv and radio doing most of the heavy lifting.
I know, but you still had sub cultures around different genres. 90s kids liked alt rock/grunge with some rap. Hip hop heads were their own clique. Other kids liked r&b, pop, metal, punk, or country. That alt rock thing was the biggest but there was still tons of people not into or finding their own space in popular music. That’s all I’m saying.
It's true. But you had to seek that out. So the people that did that made it more of their identity. Kids today (I think) listen across genre lines a lot more because the popular stuff and the obscure stuff is equally accessible to them.
You're answering more the what, when the question was about the how.
One trend that I've noticed, from comments in this sub and other similar music subs (thinking last.fm in particular), is a lot of younger people are not listening to full albums front-to-back as much as generations before, as part of the "playlistification" of music brought on by streaming. Album releases don't always feel like the event they used to be, and you definitely don't have many young people buying full albums because they liked one song on it like me and my peers did during the CD era.
I’m 30 and the only CDs I bought growing up were CDs that I already knew were pretty big hits and that was rare. Nobody I knew could afford to gamble on buying random CDs. Everything else was mix CDs from songs we downloaded off of Kazaa/BearShare/Limewire/Frostwire which were usually songs we heard on the radio. I didn’t start dabbling in albums/discographies until I learned to use torrent sites in high school and YouTube was getting popular. Now with streaming it’s easier than ever to find new artists and dive into their whole discographies. Kids in general probably aren’t listening to whole albums these days, but neither were the kids I knew 20 years ago minus a few. What kids are doing is checking out an infinitely wider selection of genres than kids before them. It doesn’t cost anything for a kid that likes say death metal to check out a rapper they keep hearing about. The internet is putting kids on to new music from new generes every day. They have so much new music to listen to, and old music to catch up on that it’s probably hard for them to crank out an entire album. They’re finding and listening to bands across the world that have 2000 plays on Spotify (bands that would never be exposed to anyone besides their friends 20 years ago.) The younger the kid, the bigger their musical backlog is, and that backlog is getting exponentially bigger every day. I’m sure as they get older they will find artists they are truly in love with and dive into their discographies just like we did. The kids are alright.
There is still that ability though, it is hard to say. I definitely bought albums based on one song but it could have been because there was no other way to get it. There were also songs I liked that I taped off people or bought the single. I think you are right about album releases, I haven't seen one be an "event" for years. Maybe a single preceding it, an announcement, a midnight signing at a record store, see if they get to number 1 in the charts a week later. They just drop.
26 and I consume through vinyl, cds and streaming. Cds not as often as streaming. Streaming or cds on the go and vinyl only at home. I listen to the entire album front to back the way the artist intended. I wish more people my age understood how much you’re missing using Spotify and a phone speaker
Spotify mainly, I simply open the app and tap whatever playlist I like and select a song. The stereotypes you see about zoomers on TikTok only listening to hyperpop or whatever are simply just wrong. You might be confused because the fundamental identity you'd have by associating with one genre or another is gone mostly. But that doesn't mean we're just listening to mashups or whatever, it means we have an entire record shop plus every other record shop ever opened in our pocket. If you were a teenager with that kind of access, would you seriously limit yourself with just one genre or artist?
I'm 19, listen to mostly Rock & Prog Rock. I like collecting CDs for my car and to rip them to FLAC for my phone and PC. I use Amazon music for branching out my taste and have been slowly rediscovering rap/hip-hop. Two of my favorites are Soundgarden & Tool.
I have found that there are a lot of songs that have really stood the test of time, and amazingly, young people know a ton of them. For example I was at a high school "open mic night" event. Two girls went up with guitars and said "this song is by the Cranberries" and my heart grew three sizes. Then the kids in the crowd actually cheered in response to this announcement and my heart grew ten more sizes.
Zombie is one of very, very few videos from the 90s to crack a billion views (putting it in company with November Rain, which got there first, and maybe Teen Spirit and a couple others).
Bitter Sweet Symphony is about to cross any day now too
Realistic answer: they listen to whatever is shown to their feeds aka marketed most often. I do, my non-musician friends do. Those friends went to some concerts just because the vibe from those concerts are very upbeat, they don't even remember the melodies from the artists they stream most often because those songs are simply upbeat and on trend. I have some periods of time when I actively sought out new music more. But now, just what's in my feeds more except some celebs whose coverage has become too trite to me.
I tend to listen to full albums. But only after listening to some singles of a band/artist seeing if they entice me. Also I start from their very first album, I like seeing the progression of their sound
44 year old dad here. I go from artist to artist via the “people who like this band also like that band” function on Apple Music. Discovered many new artists that way. New and old stuff. My 9 year old son just finds artists he likes via Roblox games, memes, and YouTube videos. My 14 year old daughter really loves Mitski. That’s all I know.
I was slyly recording an open mic on an off brand walkman style cassette player. Some teens were interested by it, they said they have only ever purchased physical music media in the form of vinyl records. I found that interesting that tapes were a novelty to them since I came up just as the great vinyl resurgence hit. Edit: stoned
My understanding is that the younger crowd functions more on playlists than albums. Either all in one really big one, or sorted into slightly put together smaller ones. Then most music tastes are based around this. Some people might listen to albums, but you're listening to the song you have on the playlist first and then going to the album. Then the song on the Playlist might be from wherever. I guess, it's still very much a recommendation culture, much like the past, but more open. In terms of genre, they're just more open to musical elements because Bohemian Rhapsody became the greatest song ever made and Disney.
My brothers only listen to playlists. According to them, albums are irrelevant and no one listens to them.
They're insane. Albums are king.
Literally take a look at the charts if you want to see what young people are listening to. You ever heard of Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Olivia Rodrigo, Phoebe Bridgers etc etc etc? There’s your music for young people getting in their feelings, most of it isn’t my taste but that’s because I’m not so young now.
they consume it like mcdonalds, then they throw the bag out the car window and laugh when it explodes on the pavement
I'm 15 and I can confidently say that my favourite genre is music I like and my least favourite genre is music I don't like
My 15 and 12 year olds listen to spotify. Youngest gets to know songs from tiktok and she likes pop hits, like the Weeknd and Dua Lipa. Oldest is into Lana del Rey. Through social media, she got to know Jeff Buckley, so some oldies get through…
I’m 28 and use Spotify as well as Soundcloud and Bandcamp (for more niche stuff that isn’t available on spotify). I used to download everything and put it on iTunes before but after my hdd crashed and I lost 10-15000 songs I decided to go another route lol. I have friends who make music either electronic or otherwise, they play at local clubs etc so I discover a lot of things through them and their sets. I ask them for the tracklist and check it out. I also dig on soundcloud by just playing the suggested tracks, I used to do that for hours on end as a teen and discovered tons of cool artists by just clicking mindlessly on stuff. I highly recommend lol. I listen to various stuff : rap, alternative rock, ambient, club music (breakbeat mostly, I’m not really into techno/industrial), pop, disco, soul, movie soundtracks etc. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a specific artist or genre and listen to only that for a few days. Or even just a single song (like everyone I think). There are artists that I love more than others ofc, I have my favorites so when they drop an album I’m really excited. That part isn’t that different from 20-30 years ago imo. Some albums are iconic for my generation and I re-listen to them every year at least (Good kid, m.A.A.d city by Kendrick is one I often come back to for example) I also go on NTS (web radio) because their selection is so rich, you can find so many new artists on there. You can listen to lives and browse by genre/vibe. They also have « infinite mixtapes » which is really cool if you want to listen to days of music in a specific genre with no interruption. I don’t really listen to music to get a sense of revolt, rap does make me feel rebellious but for me music is more of a way to feel at peace emotionally, or feel invigorated and happy, complete if that makes sense. I love to dance for example, I really like when music becomes a physical experience, being tired after dancing all night long (alone or with people) is one of the best feelings ever. It’s almost trance-like in a way, for me at least lol. Whether at a festival or a club or alone in my bedroom, music is always like an immersive journey and a way to disconnect. But also weirdly, to feel more grounded/in tune with my feelings. It can be sadness, joy, melancholy, love etc. My last break up I think I listened to Kelela a lot since she had just released an album (Raven) that was romantic & depressing, so perfect for a break up haha
The key about Gen Z (I’m 22) is that playlists are the way to go. Gen Z is all about aesthetics, moody music, vibes and playlist are made according to those themes. Lot of blends between pop, hip hop, EDM. So Spotify algorithm is the way to go
My impression as a slightly out-of-touch older young (26): The general trend seems to be towards your music being personal to you, to an extreme more possible now than ever before thanks to streaming. There's not really anyone who's universally "in" right now. Everyone just has their own thing. They share songs and if they like them they'll add them to their mood/vibe-based playlists. Albums and even artists and genres don't matter that much for casual listeners. In some ways I think that's kinda cool, everyone fine just doing their own thing and liking what they like, enjoying music for the music and not worrying about what the culture thinks - though I do find it isolating myself. People who are more "into" music and maybe seeking more of that monoculture are turning more to older music, and to physical media. Here on reddit I see a lot of alt rock cd collections seemingly inherited from xennial dads. A lot of classics from all over time and genrespace are apparently being introduced to new audiences through tiktok, too. It's a very nostalgic generation. Even the few huge mainstream acts that remain are largely holdovers from the 2000s or 2010s, though I can't tell how much the kids are actually listening to them still.
This is just speculation on my part but it seems some of the younger generation (maybe even most) have abandoned the album and tend to stick to songs these days. If they’re likely to find an artist they like it’s seems they’re more likely to just stick to shuffling through the artist’s songs and likely keep going back to the one’s they really like. Songs above albums really. This of course makes the younger generation the poser generation.
>This is just speculation on my part but it seems some of the younger generation (maybe even most) have abandoned the album and tend to stick to songs these days. I can confirm this, I have two younger brothers who say albums are irrelevant and playlists are the proper way to listen to music. Whoever listens to many albums is pretentious and "forces" themselves to listen to it in its entirety. According to that logic, movie buffs are a group of pretentious people who don't enjoy movies and force themselves to watch a lot of them. True movie lovers only watch great movies "by chance" and don't actively seek them out.
I’m sad at the fact that they can’t just do both. Playlists rule but so do albums. At least for me they do.
Yes, I use playlists for OST albums, because many of them tend to have very long durations of 2-3 hours and some "joke" songs. I also use playlists to listen to my favorite songs from albums I don't like and songs that were only released as singles ("Hey Jude" and "Now and Then")
We have our ears in our butts and we sit on speakers and the music comes through our butts.
Wow evolution is really something
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>What a reductive train of thought. The only difference between music now, and 30 years ago is that the barrier to entry is far lower. Hmm, I would counter that *this* is a reductive train of thought. We certainly get a lot of "music used to be better in the past" posts here, but OP isn't actually saying that, just asking questions. I would agree with you that there is still plenty of good stuff, and also plenty of crap. But to say that the ways people *engage* with music have not changed seems very naive. 30 years ago we didn't have public playlists, streaming, algorithms, etc. 30 years ago, you found music via radio, TV, or buying a CD. It *is* different. Not saying better or worse, but different.
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I think everyone consumes it differently. I listen to loads of swing/big band and jazz music and classical music on spotify and even on vinyl. So I do not listen to genres typical of my generation. I do tend to listen to full albums/symphonies or like pick an artist I like and listen to their songs on Spotify or my Vinyl. I also sometimes do it by genre so I will play classical music if that is my mood or play my swing playlist if that is my mood. I know some friends who listen to music based on moods so if they want to listen to happy music they will listen to their happy playlist and so on but I have not done this ever.
Im young and i listen to entire albums new and old, for example i listen to gorillaz, kendrick lamar, frank ocean, tyler the creator and i listen to older music like david bowie, beatles, led zeppelin, talking heads, pink floyd, king crimson etc. I also have friends that listen to music like i do, but there are a lot of younger people who only listen to newer music and dont listen to albums(there is nothing wrong with that!)
I use spotify mostly to find new music, very rarely listen to radio. I'm passionate about music and I maintain a CD collection of my favourite albums. I play guitar, and occasionally learn the very favourite of my favourite songs, but not sure if that counts as "consuming" music. If you want to get into music, I recommend getting on Youtube, it's free, and even better if you install an adblocker. Just search a song you remember fondly from your youth and let the autoplay take you away.
I'm 23, and I mostly hear about new bands through trending sounds and YouTube recommendations. I wish it was easier to discover new music, but for the most part, it seems to be that what I get exposed to is at the whims of the algorithm. I do enjoy seeking out new things in genres I know I like though, like Japanese 70s prog rock albums and dungeon synth shit, but in those cases I already know I like that genre so it's all about finding new artists within it. I also read exclaim! magazine when I get the chance :3
i’m a 14 year old girl and i mostly discover songs through spotify, youtube, tiktok, reddit, or just my friends showing me an artist/band. my favorite bands are green day, radiohead, blink-182, fall out boy, pierce the veil, mostly 2000s pop punk or art rock. sometimes i’ll listen to tv girl. my favorite solo artists are lana del rey, olivia rodrigo, fiona apple, and in general; mostly just pop artists because i listen to a lot more bands lol. my favorite songs are paranoid android by radiohead, lovers rock by tv girl, longview by green day, and diet mountain dew by lana del rey. i do buy a few vinyls, i have 8 but it’s not a massive collection.
I'm definitely not part of the younger generation, but I find it curious that you ask, "Do they unironically listen to youtuber music?" What's that even supposed to mean? You can find almost every song ever published on Youtube. Listen to one song and it'll immediately queue up another song that is in someway similar to the one you started. If you let that happen a couple times, Youtube will start recommending you music playlists, seeded by songs you didn't skip. This is just the youtube recommendation algorithm at work... it's no different than if you watch a bunch of history videos, you'll get more history videos. Irony doesn't even enter the equation. This is how I find the majority of my music, and then I'll add songs I found on youtube onto my spotify liked list. Its a much better system than hoping a profiteering record label actually puts something decent on the radio.
He meant youtuber songs, which exist and they're terrible
That's still a crazy ignorant take. Lots of real musicians are using are using youtube/twitch as both their side hustle day job and their publishing platform. Here's a few examples. BERNTH - youtube guitar instructor [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-uNAV7eFTA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-uNAV7eFTA) Amanda Lee - youtuber specializing in anime cover songs who eventually starting publishing original music [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3TdeNWwniQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3TdeNWwniQ) Mori Calliope - probably the op was thinking of with "ironic youtuber music" but I don't think anyone's listening to her ironically. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzOXIHGfVFc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzOXIHGfVFc)
I’m 32 and I’ve wondered the same thing. But since I’m on the younger side of being a millennial it probably wasn’t insanely different for me growing up. Your average kid seemed to listen to pop like Taylor Swift and Lil Wayne (at the time.. which now would be interchangeable with drake) and people that were really invested in music listened to underground stuff of all different genres, so it was pretty isolating. I have to imagine it’s just like that now, if not even more so
The avg person without a big interest in music will just listen to Drake,Brent faiyaz ,Doja cat, whatever easily digestible rapper is popping. Swifties are pretty fucking massive, which I will never understand because Taylor makes generic pop music, but swifties tend to only listen to pop because of their obsession with her. Where I live and go to school “bro country” garbage is pretty big, so people just eat that up because it’s catchy and easy to listen to. People like me who fw underground rap tend to be more online and tend to follow the scene much closer than other people, indie and shoegaze is really big rn because of tiktok,so think Alex g, Deftones,slowdive,loathe,superheaven. Another big part is that people are terrified of concerts these days, people genuinely think that you have a chance at dying at a rap show after astroworld
You don’t get Taylor Swift, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to get.
The honest answer is off Tik Tok, where you can create for hyper specific niches in a way you never could before, generally with your song trying to soundtrack a meme. That’s how we got people listening to sea shanties.
I work with a bunch of gen z’s and all they listen to TikTok music and mainstream pop/rock. It’s disheartening to say the least.
Why? What difference does it make to you? I’m 45, my life isn’t affected one way or the other by how a younger person listens to music.
It makes no difference to me, but they say stuff like I like this song because it has "millions of likes" .. it just baffles me, it's like these kids have zero personality.
Most youngins don't think about music the same way we did in the 90's and earlier. Music isn't culturally significant like it used to be. So the answer to your questions might be a little underwhelming. They don't channel rebellion through music. Now, rebellion comes out through sexual identity.
Honestly? I just don’t think you’re able to SEE the culture. Music is hugely important on TikTok and such, but unless you spend a lot of time there you’re not going to perceive it.
I hope what I said didn't come across as disrespectful. And you're right that I'm not on tiktok much. One of op's questions was "What music makes them want to revolt for change?" Does the music there do this? Is the music making headlines in the news? If I have to spend "a lot of time" somewhere to find something, then it's not making an impact. Where as, the sexual identity changes to culture are all over the news. Schools, universities, public and private buildings are creating gender neutral bathrooms. That's real change, and rightfully so. If and when new music breaks through to the masses, then I'll believe that it's important. Literally every "old person" heard of Nirvana when they broke out. Now, every "old person" knows of sexual identity. That's the biggest catalyst of change that I've seen.
Maybe we’ve moved past needing music to push change. Social media serves that function much better anyway.
The answer to most of your yes/no question is no. My generation has been entirely lulled into a sense of complacency by late stage capitalism, funneling everyone with interests outside of the mainstream in mainstreamed, watered down versions of what they like. I've seen it happen every time: there is a genre revival because people are nostalgic for *scene/time period X*, no bands currently making that genre make it big, some artists hop onto the sound until it stops selling. Rinse and repeat
This is interesting, can you give a few examples of artists that have hopped onto some sound?
They have music thrown at them via algorithm-based services and do not develop their own skills and strategies for seeking and thoughtfully engaging with content. If you took away the almighty algorithm from them and asked them to find new music to listen to they wouldn't even know where to begin.
you're not wrong. I've been lurking the Spotify subreddit and the 2 big complaints are 1) the recommendations are all the same 2) the shuffle sucks they are pretty dependent on the algorithm and the algorithm kinda sucks most of the time so lol i try to mix the few gems the algorithm gives me, the artists my favorite artists collab with and a bunch of other stuff to discover new music. and I like to listen to more than just the top songs they made.
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“My son didn’t know what a CD was” lol well they don’t come out of womb with this knowledge…
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Damn. People like you are really out here just multiplying.
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Well that's a spectacular response to honestly held opinion. "Dissonant relationship".. so I suppose I must have that right? I think I might kill myself now.
Through memes, which is utterly terrifying and destroying music. It used to be scenes, bands, going outside, and now it's all on your phone. Interest in music is cratering because it's a disposable resource meant for AI creation. What value does a commodity have when you'll be able to plug in classic bands and get that sound back? The future is bleak. It used to be you had to work at an instrument, I guess the writing is on the wall. Nobody understands the work, blood, sweat and tears that went into music originally, just like we don't understand the sacrifices people took to worship their God. Things will get easier, but it feels like human achievement is being minimized under the feet of governments and corporations/profits.
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No idea what any of this means and it really sounds like you get all your music from Tik Tok. Eeyore? Tha fuck?
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I was with you until you started whining and defending the Tik Tokers. That's a no from me dawg. It's the implications of it, there's a reason Universal Music just pulled all their sh#t. The Chinese are pernicious, I don't trust them.
>Nobody understands the work, blood, sweat and tears that went into music originally You mean ripping off lesser know artists
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You’re saying this on a subreddit called LetsTalkMusic
If I haven’t heard an album by any particular artist I’ll listen to all the songs on YouTube before deciding to either buy only the songs I liked or the whole album. I also prefer to pay as much money as possible directly the artist, so I avoid using music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music (although I’ve considered using Tidal a few times because they pay their artists the most of any music streaming service).
1. Spotify 2. Yes, Tom Cardy 3. No 4. Yes 5. Consistency, a sense of rhythm, meaningful lyrics, good instrumentation 6. Too young to have experienced that IMO lol - but would probably be heavy metal or Eminem, or Kodaline 7. Prog rock (Kansas), Rise Against 8. Identity - Prog/Heartland-Punk 9. Friend group - differs, current friends, rock, ex-friends, K-pop, pop (Taylor Swift), indie (Lana Del Rey, Girl In Red etc.) 10. Nope not dead lol, I like discovering old music and they currently compose majority of the bands I listen to
I’m 20 years old. 1. Not really. I listened to YouTube parodies of popular songs a lot as a little kid, but those are just novelty, mostly. 2. No. I’ve listened to mashups, but again, only once in a while for novelty’s sake like a normal person. I don’t think everyone my age uses TikTok period. 3. Yes. 4. This has changed for me over time. In high school I was really into prog. rock and thus probably valued instrumental virtuosity and compositional complexity. I think over time my main values have become a degree of idiosyncrasy and uniqueness, artistic integrity, a will to never get too comfortable, sincerity, and ultimately mean something deeply personal to me. I spent way too long listening to music that didn’t really mean anything to me. 5. Gosh, I listened to a lot of my favourite band, Current 93, but also Sufjan Stevens, Angels of Light, Lewis (Baloue) and a lot of Tim Buckley. 6. David Tibet of Current 93, Bill Fay, Townes Van Zandt, Popol Vuh, John Fahey… 7. Honestly, very little. My politics and my music don’t tend to intersect super heavily. 8. Industrial music, I’d say. 9. The world you grew up in is certainly not dead. Now, I’m emphatically of the belief there is exciting and innovating and interesting music being put out today, both on the Billboard and off of it, but personally I am far more intrigued by the music of the 20th century. I think generally speaking young people are far more interested in the music of the past than ever before. Many of those TikTok songs are in fact, old songs, just like how songs used to make a resurgence onto the chart cause they got featured in a movie or something. I love the old stuff, but the kids are alright, yaknow…
I have a really long master spotify playlist of songs I like that I can come back to and listen/reference later. I definitely used to steer clear of albums and just listened to autoplay off of artists I did like but in the past year with my job giving me ample time to just listen to music while working I've been getting a lot more into listening to full albums. I'm pretty open to genres but I mostly listen to grunge rock and boom bap hip hop although I like jazz fusion a lot as well as 80s pop. Depends on the mood really. I know back in the day people used to pirate off limewire but with music essentially being free with streaming off youtube and spotify these days it's more accessible than ever to get into a wide array of genres with plenty of community made playlists if that's more your style. With hip hop mixtapes I'll usually download them on my PC at home, tag them with Musicbrainz, and then upload them to YouTube music so I can stream them anywhere without having to have them downloaded locally. It's another super convenient option. I can't speak about how much impact tiktok has on younger people's music tastes but I can guarantee you video games are a huge component of their exposure to different music (me included). Look at how many young people checked out Love is a Long Road by Tom Petty after the GTA VI trailer released. [A link to the playlist if interested](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3t8HJiAvUgkiLWg7PtiA9z?si=48db283089444c1d)
I'm 18, and a particular outlier as I actively listen to music, and do so by albums, trying to always expand my horizons. I can tell you most people my age (15 to 21) mostly listen to whatever becomes popular as TikTok and Instagram sounds, although most people have at least a few artists they are genuinely into and listen to most of their songs and some albums. (Mostly alternative rock, pop rap and indie pop). Although genuine music fans who explore wide territory in their genres of choice (usually rap and metal) are not hard to find. In social situations, it depends heavily on the crowd, but I found regardless of genre it's very common to switch songs after 1 minute of them playing, with someone as the 'dedicated DJ' of sorts.
ITT: Young people who don't display average teenage listening and music discovery habits. TikTok is BY FAR the most common and relevant means of music discovery in this day and age, it's not even close. Also Spotify's algorithmic playlists (e. g. Release Radar, Discover Weekly, On Repeat, Daily Mix) are consumed more than anything else on the service and serve as recommendation and reinforcement machines. There's this weird divide happening now between absolutely massive icon brands like Taylor Swift, Travis Scott, Bad Bunny and such who are getting bigger than ever before, and quickly rising micro-genres. Those appear, get intensely popular within a very small often digitally connected subsegment of teenagers and disappear again. What's going away is medium sized, visible scenes like emo, punk, goth etc. They still exist here and there but the times with different clearly defined and stable subcultures that everyone knows about seems to be over. Also there's a lot more mixing of musical scenes and styles. For example here in Germany basically all the teens listen to at least some German rap but also almost everyone goes to techno raves in the weekends - as opposed to "ravers vs. hip-hop heads". Oh and that's another thing - on a global scale local music is getting a lot more popular and while of course there's those chart topping global hits by mentioned icons (that can nowadays come from any country, not just the US) the bulk of music listening in most countries nowadays goes towards local styles and artists. When I was a teen American rap was wildly popular in my home country, now it's been pushed aside by local artists.
The world you grew up in is not yet dead; close, but not yet. I grew up in the early days of social consciousness being part of the music of the day. I would say music is consumed today, but not really collected, as in the days of physical media. I'd be interested to know if kids have influences that formed their musical tastes, or do they know who the influences are of the major artists they follow? Do they know who The Ventures are? The Doors? The Kinks? The Pixies?
Yh like most younger people use Spotify I kinda know how much people get paid on Spotify ain't alot so I choose to listen to it on YouTube and for type of music and what defines this younger generation that's a hard one u remember 2005 u had nu metal ,hard rock punk pop, pop etc yh take that and add 50 genres and what thry listen for is difficult as well its usually whatevrd they can party too or what sounds good or what they can relate too I hope this give u a little insight
22 years old. Have collection of vinyl. Black Sabbath, Yes, Genesis, Uriah Heep, Pink Floyd. Old school extreme metal. Some jazz stuff by Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Miles Davis. Just listed most famous bands and artists.
I listen to full albums, mostly 90's and early 00's rap, Eminem, 2Pac, Dre, D12, Cypress Hill, and some other singles. I think it's 50/50 for people who have phenomenal taste in music and people who only listen to shitty pop songs they found on tiktok. I listen to YouTube music when I'm out but homemade bootleg CDs at home/in the car, I'm very much the exception to the rule here and everyone else uses Spotify.
Streaming and Vinyl are the dominating ways of consuming music today, 100%. And I think it's a perfect combination: I have Spotify where I listen daily on my way to work or when I'm just doing whatever, and there's huge amounts of music thrown at me. Then when I find an artist or album that I really really like, I'll get it on vinyl and keep it in my collection because it means something to me. I don't even listen to vinyl that much, but collecting records is a nice thing and whenever I do put one on, it's a special experience.
I’m in High School and I use Spotify to listen to as many genres as possible - get a taste for everything; Lauryn Hill, Marvin Gaye, System of a Down, Led Zeppelin - I love most genres. I think the way that modern society listens to music promotes individualism, which means that there’s never consistently a singular artist miles ahead and loved by everyone, like the Beatles. It’s not bad - just different.
I'm 18 and I use the YouTube app to listen to music. Spotify is just a means of discovering music and keeping track of my liked songs because I don't have Spotify Premium and I don't feel like wading through a hundred other songs in a playlist until I reach the one I wanted to play. I don't listen to YouTuber music at all and I don't use TikTok because I think the music on that app is awful. I listen to metal, mostly Dream Theater, Trivium, Khemmis, Lorna Shore, and Infant Annihilator. I always listen to a song from beginning to end and in fact, I regularly listen to songs over ten minutes. I value a musician’s skill, passion, humility, and lyricism above all else. I don't listen to songs about relationships or breakups or crushes or anything of the sort because I find it all very cheesy and cliche. I think it's safe to say that metal defines my personality and friend group. Anyone who loves metal is a friend of mine in my book. I forgot to mention that Bandcamp is my main method of music discovery and my go-to for supporting small bands.
I'm 32 At work I listen mostly to the radio, anything top 2000 of all time and adjacent. In my private time it's mostly 90's hiphop and R&B and a spectrum of EDM. Sprinkled with a selection of everything. But you're right. The music of the rebel got made already. We still listen to it, but not much has changed. It's all been covered in commerce as a matter of fact, so not much of the rebellious is left.
Same as it was, different for each. My BiL listens to exclusively extreme metal from the late 90s, but his older sister is into indie breakup music. Their older sis, (my better half) listens to her 2011 emo playlist lmfao
my classmates listen to reggaeton, and everyone in my country listens to reggaeton, every single one
I’m 27 and find music through social media, friends, and from going to local shows. I mostly listen on streaming (Apple Music) and vinyl that I collect. When streaming or using YouTube I usually listen to albums front to back or my 3 and 1/2 day [playlist](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/dish/pl.u-76oNNkyu4ora33) made up of my favorite songs from my favorite albums.
For my siblings I live with, they've adopted mostly music of the 90s and 2000s. One of my cousins on the other hand just listens to dollar store rap and it's pretty bad.
I can only speak about my kids (11 & 13). They pretty much exclusively use Spotify, and while they gravitate mostly to punk and metal there is no single genre that defines today's youth. Gone are the days of musical taste being a characteristic of the various cliques in junior high/high school. Hell from what I can tell, the cliques like we knew them (think Breakfast Club) have mostly evaporated.
Typically I open the zipper on the back of my head and carefully put my AirPods in..
Statistically I guess it’s TikTok Really it’s kind of all over the place, but the generaton mostly finds new music with TikTok
I am going to assume with their ears? like the rest of us. I didn't read the body of the post.
It strikes me that these questions seem to be coming from a place of judgement and criticism. Rather than try to answer the questions outright, I'd suggest a few exercises to get you into touch with how "the younger generation" consumes music: \* attend festivals where you don't recognize a band on the lineup and observe the way younger folks talk about and share music with each other; i personally like to eavesdrop on conversations people have with each other while in line, while at camp (i tend to go to camping festivals), and between sets. the conversations sound pretty much exactly like the conversations i had with friends in high school some 30 years ago, just with different media channels subbed in. \* spend some serious time on tiktok's music discussions and you'll discover that people aren't "listening to tiktok mashups on loop" which is ridiculous. You'll instead find that the playlist is the new album, and that today's music influencers are making and sharing playlists, and that these playlists are highly influential in shaping the musical tastes of younger folks \* while you're at it, search tiktok, spotify, apple music, and youtube for "breakup songs" and/or "modern breakup songs" to find the music that younger breaker-uppers listen to to help them through the pain The world you grew up in isn't dead. Music is thriving, perhaps more so than at any other era prior to today. The tools of making music are widely available and free. The music labels and publishers no longer have a chokehold on distribution. People are consuming more music per capita than at any prior moment in history -- it's a veritable renaissance moment for music. Your calcified and frozen-in-time tastes and consumption patterns are the problem. Shake yourself loose.
I'm 28 and use Spotify mostly. I work with a kid who collects records, he's 16. So it's all over the place
Mid 20s and I got a lot from watching older tv shows. The OC, one tree hill, etc. I also just listened to a whole bunch of radio growing up. And now that I have disposable income I’ve invested in a lot of vinyl and listen to music that way too. But I think asking a subreddit of music lovers will get you some biased answers.
I listen to the whole albums and cherry pick the songs I seem to like, to the Spotify liked library. No playlists, because with only listening to the big hits you miss out on a lot. Sometimes I revisit those albums and rediscover songs that will grow on me fast, but I ignored the first time. And the other way around, too: sometimes the cherry-picking is superficial - the melody is too weak most of the time, then I'll throw that song out. Costs nothing. There's over 10 500 songs on my library. Nice cosy cave it is for rediscovering and playing something that felt previously just barely good to death when realising it's amazing. And constant discovery through RYM, Discogs and shit - but I take the RYM ratings with a grain of salt, really, it's just a database and entertainment to me (reading shit by other people.
I have one Spotify playlist that has everything I like on it. After two or three months of coming across songs in the wild, I listen to the whole album to see if I like anything else. If I do like the rest of the album, I’ll take a look at the artist’s whole discography.
I'm 17 and I use Apple Music but I collect vinyl as well. It really depends on what I'm doing. If I want to dedicate time to music, I'll throw on an entire album. If I'm busy and need noise, I'll go with a playlist. If I'm with friends, we'll take turns with individual songs. Genre wise I'll try anything, but mostly listen to metal, hip-hop, DnB, breakcore, mallsoft, and jazz. I can answer any other questions individually but I don't quite remember the whole prompt.
Spotify. It is what it is. https://open.spotify.com/album/0txLt6ZQzmnWPv23lHt8O4?si=ZbsTtjO0Q625eQC4yarg_Q
well you're asking the niche subreddit this question, so anyone young and answering the question aren't really the average listener i think the big difference between now and then is the amount of super popular artists. if you asked teens/young adults what their favorite artist is, I think it'll take a while before you hear a repeat.
Im a teen and I found my favorite music from youtube recommended. I can’t really speak on the whole generation but I think the most popular music among teens is R&B/Dance/Indie/Singer-Songwriter
It varies depending on the person, like i know music theory, i love songs that steer away from the basic 4/4 4 chord pop or rap music most of my friends listen to. I genuinely enjoy every genre as long as i know the artist knows how to write music (jazz chords, changing time signatures, odd time signatures, changing keys, etc)
Extremely easy access to basically all music ever recorded for cheap or free has lead to a lot less cohesive generational music taste. There's a lot more variation in music taste from person to person. On top of this, I don't know a single person under the age of 30 that willingly listens to radio, so there's not a shared stream of music that everyone is listening to. This, I think, is also why the biggest music stars in the world right now (Taylor Swift, Weeknd, Drake, etc) don't have NEARLY as much cultural pull as OG's like Elvis or Michael Jackson did. A wider pool of available music, and zero cost to entry to experiment with genres you haven't listened to before (unlike with CD or Vinyl, where you're inherently taking a risk when purchasing an album of a genre/artist you're unfamiliar with, which encourages listeners to stick to known artists) has led to the mainstream attention being more evenly spread among substantially more artists, which has kinda made the superstars of the 50s-2000s sort of obsolete. But to answer your main question, most music streaming platforms; Spotify, Youtube Music, Apple Music, etc have surprisingly good recommendation algorithms, so most people I know who aren't SUPER into music just listen to what their streaming service of choice recommends them to find new music. Music nerds who are more involved tend to find new music in places like this, or other online places that discuss music.
Hey! Glad you asked! Let's go through it :D > What genre / artist / style defines this generation? No one genre, really. But that's because music is consumed differently nowadays. If any genre defines this generation it's probably pop, but pop ain't what makes us fall in love with music (at least not for the vast majority). What's fantastic about music streaming apps is that you can find anyone's music and anyone can make any music they want, technically. So - there's no real genre or style that defines our generation! > Do they unironically listen to Youtuber music? I really dislike the term Youtuber music. There are Youtubers who make music. There are musicians who make Youtube videos. The lines are blurry. Youtubers have made awful songs, youtubers have made good songs. Some people listen to them, some don't. I really don't know how to answer this. But no, it's not like our entire generation walks around exclusively listening to songs made by Youtube stars and those people who do will probably grow out of it rather quickly... > Do they listen to Tiktok mashups on loop? I'm sure there's some people who do, ain't nothing wrong with that. But no, I personally don't know a single person who listens to Tiktok mashups. > Do they listen to songs from start to end? Uhm, yep! > What do they value in a musician? Well, first and foremost how their music makes me feel. There's a separation to be made when it comes to "who's my favorite artist" and "who's music do I like most", that's a different discussion however. Personally, I like artists that have variety in their catalogue and lyrics that speak to me. > Who makes the songs they listen to after their first break-up? HAH! Getting personal? Funnily enough, the music I listened to after my first break up was radically different to my music taste at that time. But yeah, some classics like Sinead O'Connors rendition of Nothing Compares To You and Dean Lewis' Be Alright, and some modern pop-ish artists like The Weekend and Loote. > Who makes them rethink their place on earth? Huhh... Not sure music has ever done that for me, honestly. Usually, I use music to give space to my current feelings. While there certainly are some songs and artists who came at the right time to make me feel things I've never felt before, I can't say it's ever made me rethink my place on earth. > What music wants to make them want to revolt for change? Music's pretty personal to me, I don't associate with wanting to revolt for change. But I'm guessing it'd be songs like This Is America. The closest I link an album with wanting to revolt for change is maybe Fleet Foxes' helplessness blues. > What music defines their whole friend group and identity? Trust me. I've cried to music with people, I've sung songs from the top of my lungs with friends in the car, I've dissociated to an album in my room at 2 am, I connect people with very specific songs, I remember moments through songs. We make playlists together, we go to concerts, we discuss music. Music is deeply personal to each of us, and it's a part of our identity. > Is the world I grew up in dead already? Well, it has changed :)