Music: How old were you when you stopped liking pop music?

[MMC]

I was born in 2000, and I was recently thinking about how sometime around 2013-14, I stopped liking and listening to what was being released as pop music. I currently listen to lots of pop songs released from the 90s until around that time, but with a few exceptions, there's no pop music that I like, or really find enjoyable at all. It's sounded worse and worse to me as time has gone on since then, but I know it's just my tastes, and not that today's musicians are inferior. I started wondering if other people commonly have a similar experience, like me as they become a teenager, or if it was at a different point in their lives. Curious to hear what you guys experienced, and I'm sure many of you still enjoy today's pop, or maybe you never enjoyed pop music at all?

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[johnjm22]

Phase 1:
You're a child. The first music you're exposed to that you like is simple pop.

Phase 2:
You get a little older. You start learning to like harder, edgier or more sophisticated music. You're too good for pop.

Phase 3:
You get old. The pretentiousness you had in youth is gone. Now you hear occasional new pop songs that you like. You can appreciate pretty much any form of music now (except bro country which is objectively terrible).

Well at least that's how it worked for me.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Phase 1:
You're a child. The first music you're exposed to that you like is simple pop.

Phase 2:
You get a little older. You start learning to like harder, edgier or more sophisticated music. You're too good for pop.

Phase 3:
You get old. The pretentiousness you had in youth is gone. Now you hear occasional new pop songs that you like. You can appreciate pretty much any form of music now (except bro country which is objectively terrible).

Well at least that's how it worked for me.

Nah, it's just too above you. Or your taste is terrible

 

[TheStuntman]

For me it was once I graduated college and started my career. I no longer had the time or energy to keep up with pop culture, and I was more interested in sports.

 

[Osprey]

From my teens through my 20s, I was in johnjm22's Phase 2. I turned my nose up at pop, especially acts like the Spice Girls and Britney Spears. In my early 30s, however, that pretentiousness faded and I started liking pop again. Now, I have dozens of Spice Girls and Britney Spears songs in my catalog, along with hundreds of songs from newer pop artists. I also started really liking older country. I still like and listen to all of the rock bands that I grew up with, but I now listen to a wider variety of music and don't really care any more if what I'm listening to is uncool or not meant for guys my age.

 

[zombie kopitar]

i hated pop music from like 14-22 yr old. i've come back around to it. A few of my Sirius saved channels are tiktok radio, modern country, broadway and Sinatra channel , so yeah I listen to literally everything. The tiktok era is an interesting time for pop music, it's producing way better pop than the labels rn, and also the most random shit comes back around from it

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

I’ve never liked it.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

It depends if you mean "pop" as in what is popular or "pop" as in pre-packaged, targeted music for teens and pre-teens.

I never liked bubble gum pop like any of the boy bands or the Spice Girls-types. But if you mean "pop" as what the popular trends are, I will always love classic rock from the 70's, hard rock from the 80's and grunge from the 90's and beyond.

I occasionally find interesting new bands like IDLES or Wet Leg, but they are few and far between

Also, I loved rap and early NY hip-hop like Public Enemy, Kool Moe Dee, Beastie Boys, KRS-ONE, and some west coast like NWA and Digital Underground. But since it's become mainstream it's changed, and not for the better.

 

[beowulf]

Really young, before high-school for sure. I remember my godmother buying me Thriller on vinyl for like my 10th birthday but not long after that I fully became a listener to hard rock and heavy metal. Since then my tastes have continued to evolve and refine to include jazz and blues along with a number of metal/rock offshoots, especially progressive music.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Even if you hate the pop music that is out when you're a kid, you will become nostalgic for it and like it as you age. Even though you dont realize it, you are still hearing it in the background of those memories and you'll get nostalgic for it.

 

[IBleedOil247]

Im 38 and I still enjoy it

 

[kihei]

About the time that drum machines and producers, rather than musicians, began to dominate. Probably some time in my late-ish 50s

 

[John Price]

about 2015 or 16

kpop is the only good pop music now

most us or western music is shit other than the dua lipa / elton collab

who the f*** is lizzo? who is billy eilish? i don't know these people

the only reason i know megan the stallion is a collab with BTS. And then Machine Gun Kelly (who?) wants to rip on Eminem it's like bud nobody knows who you are, sit down and be quiet

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Is peak Linkin Park considered pop? Because that was when for me I strayed away from pop. That's probably 13-14 yrs old. And then at 15 I started listening to RATM, Doomtree, Cunninlynguists, Blue Scholars, the Roots, Immortal Technique but Linkin Park put me on that path.

 

[PK Cronin]

Depends how early you're exposed to things you won't find on the radio and how you define pop music. I think a lot of things blend together as you get older and you stop caring so much about labels.

For example, in my youth nu metal was marketed as pushing against the mainstream pop sound of the time. I was definitely into it, but now it's pretty obvious it was just a different branch of the same mainstream. When I hear a pop song from the late 90's and early 2000's it makes me feel similarly to when I hear a nu metal song and I couldn't care any less about what category something falls into.

I also think that if you're into music you stop focusing so much on pop music the moment you're exposed or able to easily access less popular things. For me it was the fact I had an older sibling who could afford music before I could, so he bought albums I wouldn't have otherwise heard of. Then it grows from there.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Depends how early you're exposed to things you won't find on the radio and how you define pop music. I think a lot of things blend together as you get older and you stop caring so much about labels.

For example, in my youth nu metal was marketed as pushing against the mainstream pop sound of the time. I was definitely into it, but now it's pretty obvious it was just a different branch of the same mainstream. When I hear a pop song from the late 90's and early 2000's it makes me feel similarly to when I hear a nu metal song and I couldn't care any less about what category something falls into.

I also think that if you're into music you stop focusing so much on pop music the moment you're exposed or able to easily access less popular things. For me it was the fact I had an older sibling who could afford music before I could, so he bought albums I wouldn't have otherwise heard of. Then it grows from there.

So to you, is peak Linkin Park considered pop? They're definitely nu-metal.

 

[DaaaaB's]

So to you, is peak Linkin Park considered pop? They're definitely nu-metal.

They're definitely not pop. They're kind of nu-metal, kind of mainstream hard rock. Pop stations don't play Linkin Park. Pop is N'Sync, Spice Girls, New Kids on the Block etc.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

I used to be with it. But then they changed what it was.

 

[John Price]

Also adding that NSync, Backstreet Boys and Britney were insufferable during the pop phase but nearly 20 years later everyone is singing Britney and all Free Britney this and listening to Britney's 90's and 2000's stuff

They are bops even today, tunes like "Hit me baby one more time" and "Stronger" and "Whoops I did it Again"

NSync still slaps today



Much better than the modern Doja Cat or whatever the kids hear these days

Take a look at the top 40 today. Do you know any of these bands?

 

[PK Cronin]

So to you, is peak Linkin Park considered pop? They're definitely nu-metal.

If you're using pop as shorthand for popular, yeah, but otherwise I wouldn't (I'd say it's Nu Metal generally). However, over time I think they're viewed with the same nostalgia that the pop artists are viewed with and many people wouldn't mind listening to either even if they wouldn't have done so originally.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

I like pop. Pop has existed since the 18th century.

You think Eine Kleine Natchmusik was meant to be the signature and full breadth of MOzart?

No. But he wrote in accodrance of the needs to the commission-giver.

The disdain for pop amongst the non-musicians or musicians with giant ass egos is because the tone and STYLE varies. Even Beethoven despised Rossini's music entering his turf and that the audience like Rossini's style.
Given that most know Rossini through Looney Tunes and can't forget...it's likely Rossini simply had skills Beethoven could not appreciate.

The music of Mariah was "with the times" but it also pulled from sources from a past time. Her musical flow...obviously shows the influence of having heard some European music from 1-2 centuries back. She is...quite Mozartean but with just a little more aggression from Beethoven onwards.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

Also adding that NSync, Backstreet Boys and Britney were insufferable during the pop phase but nearly 20 years later everyone is singing Britney and all Free Britney this and listening to Britney's 90's and 2000's stuff

They are bops even today, tunes like "Hit me baby one more time" and "Stronger" and "Whoops I did it Again"

NSync still slaps today



Much better than the modern Doja Cat or whatever the kids hear these days

Take a look at the top 40 today. Do you know any of these bands?

View attachment 577156

I think "Crazy" is the Britney song that everybody heard an excerpt of but never bought the single because it was in that movie trailer and on Sabrina the Teenage witch.

Britney's skill level is also rather underrated because she was a sex symbol, female, blond, and that she would lip it in her later concerts.

Nick Carter showed his stuff on the Masked Singer as the Crocodile.


She had some real agility in her voice, to do melismatic runs.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

Born in 91 and I've always pretty much been "If I like a song, I like a song" regardless of the genre, even if it was a cheesy pop song. But I find myself liking a lot of "new" music less in general. I also don't generally go seeking newer pop music and rarely listen to the radio/Top 40 either.

And not even as one of those "back in my day!" types. Even some stuff I used to like growing up I find myself listening to less and less or just skipping. Growing up I was mostly into rap/hip-hop/R&B but still liked some bands like Blink 182 or Linkin Park. As I got older started to appreciate a lot of older music from before my time a lot more (Motown/Classic Rock/etc). Even find myself liking some pop songs I "hated" growing up.


EDIT: just read through the thread and I think johnjm22 summed it up perfect.

 

[reckoning]

Back in the 80s I gradually switched over from Top 40 stations to the local AOR station when I was about 14. Added the college station to my radio listening a couple of years later.

But something I've noticed is that today when I watch one of YouTube videos "Top 100 Songs of 1985" or whatever year it is, there's always one or two pop songs that I disliked at the time that sound a lot better today. "Easy Lover" is a great song, but I never cared for it when it was released.

 

[SniperHF]

They're definitely not pop. They're kind of nu-metal, kind of mainstream hard rock. Pop stations don't play Linkin Park. Pop is N'Sync, Spice Girls, New Kids on the Block etc.

Pop isn't always the same, but I think LP you could say had crossover appeal but isn't strictly a pop band. In The End hit #2 on the Hot 100. Nu metal probably had a fleeting moment where it was within the pop realm due to crossover. Grunge and rap definitely did. Hair metal in the 80s.

Chicken egg I guess, but can something become so popular that it essentially becomes part of the "pop" collective? I'd say yes. Otherwise pop wouldn't always be changing, as it certainly does.

I was flipping around the other day and saw "Since U Been Gone" come up on youtube, I could only remember what the chorus sounded like so I clicked it. That song is downright hard rock in comparison to most of what we call pop right now. It even has a little mini guitar solo.

Phase 1:
You're a child. The first music you're exposed to that you like is simple pop.

I think this misses one very important phase, which is your first exposure is to whatever your parents listen to.