Je älter wir bekommen, desto weniger Lieblingslieder haben wir: 15 Jahre Hördaten zeigen, dass der musikalische Geschmack mit dem Alter raffinierter wird. Im Übergang von der Adoleszenz zum Erwachsenenalter erweitern Musikgewohnheiten. Mit zunehmendem Alter wird sich diese verengt, während Musik persönlich und von früheren Erfahrungen beeinflusst wird.

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3708319.3733673

From the linked article:

**The older we get, the fewer favorite songs we have**

Do you think that Spotify’s suggestions for new music becomes stranger all the time? It may be because of you. In a unique study with researchers from University of Gothenburg, **15 years of listening data shows that musical taste becomes more refined with age**.

Music is a strong marker of identity – but what we listen to changes with age. The results may not be that surprising, but now there is scientific evidence for the first time through an analysis of how listening habits change over time.

The international study from University of Gothenburg, Jönköping University and University of Primorska, shows that younger users listen to a wide range of contemporary popular music and follow trends in popular culture. **In the transition from adolescence to adulthood, music habits broaden** – more artists and genres are explored, and listening becomes increasingly varied. **With age, this spectrum narrows, while music choices become more personal and influenced by previous experiences**.

“When you’re young, you want to experience everything. You don’t go to a music festival just to listen to one particular band, but when you become an adult, you’ve usually found a style of music that you identify with. The charts become less important,” says the study’s co-author Alan Said, associate professor of computer science at the University of Gothenburg.

It turns out that music listening continues to change throughout life. In middle age and beyond, nostalgia becomes a strong driving force; the music from one’s youth accompanies one as a ‘soundtrack of our lives.’ Among older listeners, the patterns is twofold; they continue to engage with new music, but at the same time repeatedly return to songs from their youth.

Musical taste also becomes more unique the older the listener is. Teenagers can find many favourite songs in common with their peers. This becomes more difficult with age. Your neighbour listens to death metal all the time, while you are obsessed with Genesis or reggae.

I am much more likely to music from before 1985 than after, just as I was 30 years ago. However, the proportion of my listening now that is jazz, non-English folk and less-easy classical has gone from 3% to 30% in the last 20 years. These are vast areas and almost all of that was a closed book to me even 20 years ago.

Add that all my favourite songs from when I was 20 are still favourite songs now, though the list has been added to hugely.

I certainly don’t have fewer songs that I like enough to call favourites. I am 61, so perhaps the effect you describe still awaits me, but I hope not.

This could also be the reason everyone thinks the best music was the music they listened to when they were coming of age (late teens to mid-20s.)