Music: Music you hear before your 14th Bday will always be your favorite

[Elvis P]

There is a theory that the music you hear before your 14th birthday will always be your favorite. It may or may not be true and you may or may not agree with it. Regardless, what are your favorite albums you heard before your 14th birthday? I'm gonna try to limit mine to the first half of the 70s, 70-75. To me 75 was the last great year of classic rock, then punk/new wave washed away our sins and saved our souls.

The Rolling Stones, Exile On Main St. (1972) - Best rock album ever
Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks (1975) - I love 97's Time Out of Mind also.
Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On (1971)
Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) - Their greatest work was pre-The Wall.
Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run (1975)
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
Miles Davis, Bitches Brew (1970)
The Beatles, Let it Be (1970) - I heard a rumour they're gonna break up.
David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
The Who, Who’s Next (1971)

Click to read more...

 

[Shareefruck]

I can't imagine that being true for most people.

I have to think that most of us had pretty terrible taste at 14 that we do not feel hold up at all now. Personally, I wasn't really aware of anything besides crappy radio hits and Linkin-Park/Green Day level music, at that point-- stuff that I outright despise and feel embarrassed about in hindsight.

 

[izzy]

my favorite song is gangnam style so ya i agree

 

[HanSolo]

Nah. Almost none of that music is remotely close to my favorites.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

It's a no from me too.

 

[Osprey]

It applies to me. Late 80s rock is my favorite and that's when I was 10-13. Those years greatly shaped my taste in music. I've expanded the types of genres that I like since then, but I still find that I prefer examples of other genres that are reminiscent in some way of my first love. For example, I prefer pop, country and even classical music that's up-beat and catchy, probably since so much late 80s music was that way.

 

[x Tame Impala]

I was 14 around 2003/2004. Foo Fighters have been my favorite band for a while but outside of them there’s a lot of Sum 41/Taking Back Sunday level stuff that’s super unlistenable to me now.

I think that theory only holds up if you turned 14 when a lot of the legendary bands from the 70’s and 60’s were playing...and therefore the theory doesn’t hold up that well since people of all ages love those bands anyway

 

[Mike Mills]

I bet this works way better with 24 than 14. All of my favorite bands like The Stone Roses, Electronic, and the Velvet Underground but only on songs that are not similar to Sister Ray were bands I discovered before that age.

 

[Ozz]

"No More Tears" - Ozzy
"Paranoid" - Black Sabbath

Favorites then, favorites decades later.

 

[Vex]

I think there's something in a lot of people's brains that make them go "Today's music sucks" and "I can't stand [current popular act], I listen to real music."

But I thoroughly disagree with the main part of this theory. There's new music I fall in love with every day. My taste in music is much more varied compared to when I was 14.

 

[Shareefruck]

I find that many of these theories that claim bias/conditioning only really have to do with most people losing interest in the medium as a whole as they get older. If you actually continue to be interested in exploring music that you're unaware of, those assumptions really don't apply, IMO. Time and exposure generally corrects such frivolous biases.

I think there's something in a lot of people's brains that make them go "Today's music sucks" and "I can't stand [current popular act], I listen to real music."

But I thoroughly disagree with the main part of this theory. There's new music I fall in love with every day. My taste in music is much more varied compared to when I was 14.

Popular music really has generally progressively gone downhill since the 60s/70s and has somewhat dried up in the 2010s, though, at least in terms of the peak acts, in my opinion. I really don't think that's a trick of the brain.

When I was first getting into music at around early college age (in 2007), older music sounded weird to my ears and I was keeping up/getting into all the typical indie/Pitchfork-y bands and growing attached to some of them, but over time tastes develop and they really do not hold up as well as some of the more legendary influential bands throughout history, in my opinion.

Still being possible to find good stuff if you dig hard enough may be true, but I don't buy that it's anywhere close to still being at that same level.

Even now, I've actually had way more regular success falling in love with new albums by digging through the cracks in the past rather than by keeping up with the newer stuff that's coming out.

 

[kook10]

Actually I heard this as an old radio formatting maxim: the music you listen to from age 15 to 25 you will listen to for your whole life. That holds a little more true, but the internet has changed that quite a bit.

 

[peate]

I was 13 when Ed Sullivan changed history. So there's a lot of truth in the OP statement.

 

[Brodeur]

I certainly fit that to a degree. I was 14 in 1995, and the early 90s were a fun time musically. I probably snuck in some Jimi Hendrix by that point as well. Once mp3s became more readily available, I was able to explore more classic rock once I was in college. I wasn't allowed to buy many CDs/cassettes as a kid, so I retroactively re-lived some stuff in the late 90s.

I look back at the Woodstock '94 list of bands and think that might've been close to my ideal show. Meanwhile Woodstock '99 never interested me as much in the moment.

 

[Langdon Alger]

I certainly fit that to a degree. I was 14 in 1995, and the early 90s were a fun time musically. I probably snuck in some Jimi Hendrix by that point as well. Once mp3s became more readily available, I was able to explore more classic rock once I was in college. I wasn't allowed to buy many CDs/cassettes as a kid, so I retroactively re-lived some stuff in the late 90s.

I look back at the Woodstock '94 list of bands and think that might've been close to my ideal show. Meanwhile Woodstock '99 never interested me as much in the moment.

You’re a year older than me, so our taste in music might be similar. I listened to a lot of 90’s rock music, and still do. There were lots of rock bands during that era.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Big no from me. I can still listen to some stuff, but favourite? Not by a longshot. 1985 LA hair metal didn't age well.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Im mostly a yes on this.

I've gotten into different genres and bands since. but in general if i just go pull up a mix or Pandora station to listen to without a certain band in mind it'll be stuff from that time.

70s rock, 80s pop and Motown, grew up listening to from my parents
90s music (all of it, alt, punk, hip hop, r&b)

edit: born in '85, so turned 14 in Jan '99

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Alice Cooper's old stuff is still top shelf material for me. Otherwise, I really don't think this theory holds up!

 

[Pilky01]

I mean, I don't hate the stuff I liked before I turned 14. But I am not enthusiastic about it either.

The stuff I liked from about 18-24'ish has stuck with me more than anything else.

 

[Stylizer1]

Happy birthday was my favourite song before my 14th birthday.

 

[The Macho King]

Ice Ice Baby is still my favorite song, so this checks out.

 

[The Macho King]

I mean, I don't hate the stuff I liked before I turned 14. But I am not enthusiastic about it either.

The stuff I liked from about 18-24'ish has stuck with me more than anything else.

Before college, I basically piggy-backed off of my brother/pop shit that was available. By 18 until say... 25? I actually explored and found what I liked, but my encyclopedia of what I listened to regularly was vast. Post-25 has largely been curating the stuff I got into prior into basically a "greatest hits" of shit I regularly listen to.

 

[Shareefruck]

Before college, I basically piggy-backed off of my brother/pop **** that was available. By 18 until say... 25? I actually explored and found what I liked, but my encyclopedia of what I listened to regularly was vast. Post-25 has largely been curating the stuff I got into prior into basically a "greatest hits" of **** I regularly listen to.

I think that's probably a better theory for most people. There's a wave of interest that overcomes you where you start obsessively discovering new artists/bands and building your brain at a rapid rate (usually around late-high-school, early-college age), and 5-10 years after that initial enthusiasm, you kind of hit a bit of wall and may become somewhat content just re-circling that initial material for the rest of your life, partly because there's enough of it to sustain you, partly because adults often have higher priorities and are too busy for the investment, and partly because anything you haven't already gotten into by that point requires much more effort/challenge (either to become aware of or to listen to/understand) that you may no longer be up for.

Beyond that common circumstance, though, I don't think there's some wiring in our brains that forces us to continue to remain biased even if we push through that hurdle and actively continue looking/trying, though. Personally, nothing bothers me more than when people try to use the sentiment to dismiss opinions.

 

[Xelebes]

I do enjoy the music that I listened to when I was 13-14 (1998-1999) but it's not necessarily my favourites. It did contribute greatly to what I listen to nowadays which I think is the most important takeaway.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Nope. Green day came out in my 20s