My theory on music and your youth.
 

I have this theory that we don't progress musically much past our highschool years. I think what happens is that it's like a small escape from our reality. With the benefit of hindsight, in highschool, things were easy but we thought they were complex or confusing. Girls, hormones, homework...

When we get out into the real world things become much more complicated. You need money to do what you want, so you need a job, then you start balancing a wife and a kid between your job and whatever hobbies you've picked up.

Popping in an old CD takes you back, on a sunconscience level, to a time when things made much more sense to you only after you grew up a little.

Or, I dunno, maybe the banana I ate this morning had weed in it.

What do you mean by "we don't progress musically much"?

You expect to sing better than in high school or start playing guitar?

We are exposed and listen to different and new music every day. Just because sometimes it's worse than the one we listen in the high-school days, it' doesn't mean that we don't "progress musically".

I just mean that. I think (and I speak for everyone) that we prefer to listen to music that we liked in highschool.

I listen to some of the shit on the radio these days and it's shit. Just pure shit. Back in my day the music meant something to me. Even if it was considered shit by the grownups then.

Listening to old jams takes me back to a less complex time. No bills, no stress, no wars, just long summer days, and hanging out with friends.

FUCK!!! Am I on the brink of an early mid-mid-life crisis?

Yes and no... my music tastes have changed since I left high school. I was a severe metalhead in high school, played in a black metal band during 1st-2nd year of university, and would only have it heavy. Nowadays, I listen to a lot of ambient stuff, realized that dj tiesto is a god damned genius at what he does, and make neo-classical music myself.

But I still like to crank it up when in a car. :pimp

Since I can't edit, i wanna add that I still go to just about every major metal show in Toronto, mostly for more underground bands.

So looks like my taste has expanded rather than changed... fuck go figure, this is some deep stuff. :1orglaugh

i strongly disagree, in highschool i listened mostly to metal, it wasnt til after highschool that i started listening hiphop and now im totally hiphop crazy - listen about 4 to maybe, on a long day, 8 hours hiphop albums every single day... And it doesnt remind me of anything i just like that shit.

very true, music takes you on a trip :)

its just like a drug

All theories have exceptions. :)

I don't like hardly anything I listened to 20 years ago but in general what you are saying seems to be true.

actually, I think we're both on the brink..

It's all about association. You liked a partiuclar song, you listened to it during a particular time or event, that created a link between the memory and the music, so when you hear it again years later you reminisce. It doesnt really mean that the song was any good or meant anything more, but because of the link in your head, it gets an added meaning.

That makes a lot of sense. Certain parts of a song always conjur the same memories. I got this book as a kid called "Bizarro" it was a 'how-to-book' for special effects. The day it came in the mail I read it from cover to cover, and oddly enough, 'Living color' was playing in the tape player. Every time I hear 'Cult of personality' it instantly takes me back to that day. I see the book, I remember opening it for the first time. I remember how to make it look like you just slit your wrists open with a dull blade and a squeeze bulb filled with fake blood. LOL. 3 years later I was doing fx in movies. Strange.

Judging by your theory. I do not progress i regress, because i started to listen to old romances and retro music. When i was in highschool i listened to techno .

Yea I agree... lots of the music I listen just simply bring back good memories.

But I still like to discover new music thought.

Nothing beats the 70s and the 80s--that's all I could say.