Dull music

[pathfinder]

As I get older, all the music in my record collection sounds duller. Have my perceptions changed or do ears hear things differently after time?

[andy hughes]

I would suggest that your perception changes - which is a good thing because otherwise you'd never have got past the first record you ever bought! It's the nature of art, and popular music reflects this perfectly, that we desire constant change. Although you may develop favourite songs, or albums, based on the events that occurred when you first heard them, it is the nature of the enjoyment of music to look for new stimulation, which ideally co-exists with your past choices. Yes, I still love my Beatles and Pink Floyd albums, but I couldn't wait to get home with the Dandy Warhols album today. Music moves along constantly, and I for one am forever glad that it does. I don't think 'familiar' is the same as 'dull' what does everyone else think?

[incitatus]

It depends what you buy. There are some records (God that dates me!) that I bought that I would not listen to now. The Buggles springs to mind (The shame of it!). Others I go off for a while, then play them again a couple of years later and get a shiver down my spine... Dark Side of the Moon for example. Hadn't listened to it in years, then played it almost by accident on a flight to Stockholm and it hit me like an aural orgasm. I think this might be the personal definition of a classic, and they are the only ones I keep now ... but tastes do change. I used to think Neil Young was a squeaky-voiced prat. Now I have 12 of his CDs

[Vendetta]

As you age, your perception of high frequencies tends to drop off. The threshold (upper limit of frequencies you can hear) drops and the intensity of what you can hear drops. This, I think, happens from about 30 upwards. Then again, you wrote 'record collection' - maybe you need a new stylus. You could buy some new speakers, with a different 'tonality', as well.

[coemgen]

I totally disagree, but then it depends on your taste.These days there is nothing fresh and new to hit the music scene. We've had to endure a succession of bland and talentless girl and boy bands.
My children's taste in music horrifies me yet not for the same reasons my tastes appalled my parents. I was a punk and I loved the energy and originality that the punk music scene provided.
It may have shocked people but it was vibrant. As musicians they may not have been in the same class as Clapton, yet they offered every teenager something new.
This trash in the charts today offers nothing. It all sounds the same and none of them writes their own songs. They can't even sing.Their voices are so processed they bear no resemblance to their owners.
I still play all my old punk albums as well as the early Stones and the Beatles, they are all still valid today, and I enjoy them just as much, if not more than I did originally.