Several studies show that, after a certain age, our musical tastes remain fixed for the rest of our lives, making us fall into the category of “nerds”. And this age is coming faster than you think…
Do we all inevitably become old nerds? This is a question that the Deezer streaming listening platform has looked into. This study, conducted in 2018 on a panel of 5,000 people in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Brazil, sheds light on a funny phenomenon called “musical paralysis”. Different questions were asked to the interviewees and among them: how often do you listen to new music? The response is mixed. 65% of respondents say they only listen to songs they already know, when 60% say they want to discover new musical horizons.
In France, the age of this “musical paralysis” would be 27 years and three months, against 30 years for the English and 31 years for the Germans. It would occur at 22 years in Brazil and 24 years and 6 months in the United States. A study conducted in 2015 by the other streaming giant, Spotify, had already established a similar observation, revealing that from the age of 33, we stop listening to new artists.
The study then argued that, once we reach our thirties, our musical tastes are sufficiently established that we no longer “need” to listen to new music or even keep up to date with their release. Another observation: with age, we tend to listen to the favorite sounds of our youth and therefore turn away from new things.
But then, why only in your thirties? According to the Spotify study, this age corresponds to…. the arrival of children! “Becoming a parent has the same impact on your ‘musical nerdiness’ as getting about 4 years older,” the study reads. Severe, even cruel.
In the study conducted by Deezer, 14% of respondents say they are indeed too “busy with their children” to be interested in new music, while 25% say their “demanding job” and 18% are held back by “the masses choices available.” Does the advent of streaming listening platforms therefore also contribute to the end of our musical curiosity once we reach our thirties? The debate is open.
