At what age are your favorite bands set in stone?

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I realized recently (probably not for the first time) that I will likely never again acquire a new favorite band. There is a stable of about 4 bands (of course I won't name them here - I ain't crazy!) who I consider all-time favorites. That is, I will buy anything they release, if they come anywhere near my town I'll make an effort to see them, and so on.

But these bands have been my bands since 10 years ago, at the latest (I'm 31). Sure, new bands come along whose music I enjoy, and I go through periods where I don't listen to my favorites for a while. But those 4 or so groups, it seems to me, are the same 4 I will be following closely and listening to consistently for the forseeable future.

What about you? Have you found a new band after, say, age 30 to whom you have pledged your eternal allegiance? Or are you like me?

― Justin, Friday, 30 September 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

my favorite bands have changed a lot in the past 5 years. im 23, though - i guess thats not outside the realm of malleable.

― petesmith (plsmith), Friday, 30 September 2005 17:11 (twenty years ago)

I think the last new favorite band (i.e. a band I'm willing to get in needlessly heated debates over, as opposed to a band whose new album I kinda liked) of mine arrived in 1996, when I was 28. Once you cross the rubicon of 30, I'd say there's a very great chance that your life is at a stage where you can't quite immerse yourself in music fandom in a manner that you previously did.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 30 September 2005 17:16 (twenty years ago)

no more "eternal allegiance" here for anyone. My "all time favs" of the past all made a shambles of themselves at some point: REM's New Adventures In Hi-Fi, PE's Greatest Misses, Son Volt's Trace (after UT's last). Like a love-spurned idiot I bought a few more records by these jokers, but not preorders, no automatic concert trips, etc...and a few years later I wouldn't touch anything new by these guys (though it breaks my heart). No sense wallowing in mediocrity out of loyalty...we ain't talking warfare here this is pop music, and I just want a good tune.

Up to age 22 though I felt differently...

― sal mineo (aarana), Friday, 30 September 2005 17:16 (twenty years ago)

1992

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 30 September 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

Well, R.E.M. is one of the 4 I didn't name. The thing with R.E.M. (or insert Band X here) is that they were such an inextricable part of my life during my formative years that I feel bound - by allegiance, love, thanks, curiosity, whatever - to follow them on their flights. There is always something - in R.E.M.'s case, Stipe's voice - that links whatever they are doing now to their misty past triumphs.

But I understand what you are saying. And it sounds like I am not alone in my inability to adopt a new group and get to know them thoroughly.

― Justin, Friday, 30 September 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

33.33

― Old School (sexyDancer), Friday, 30 September 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

hopeful answer: never.
real answer: 16-24.

― strng hlkngtn (dubplatestyle), Friday, 30 September 2005 17:33 (twenty years ago)

Hmm. I'll go with the 16-24 in general, but what about NEW bands/artists that become your favorites after that time period? E.G. Devendra Banhart, Fiery Furnaces, MIA, LCD Soundystem...

And then there's the "I never got a chance to check them out" category. I didn't listen to Spacemen 3, Soft Boys, Tall Dwarfs, etc. until after 25. In fact I think it took me that long to get into Beefheart. So there are some exceptions.

― sleeve (sleeve), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:03 (twenty years ago)

If you genre hop then you have a good chance of acquiring new favorite bands.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:08 (twenty years ago)

"the music you were listening to when you started fucking is pretty much the music you are stuck with for life. thats why i'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Whodini"-Chris Rock

― JD from CDepot, Friday, 30 September 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

i hope i'm rich enough that my epitaph can be the definitive list of my favorite bands when i die.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

So far it looks like 24 to me, I haven't picked up any new "greatest evers" since then but I'm not 30 yet, and my favorite albums have been disturbingly stable for the last 4 years or so. I notice that instead of approaching a particular artist or album or piece like an event(which I probably used to, if only vaguely) I appreciate it more 'in the moment' and won't overstate or understate the effect right off for a lot of reasons. I appreciate what I hear as much if not more than I did, and still find transcendence, but it's not in me or most people past a certain age to deify what these guys and girls are doing(though I still deify the ones I did when I was younger. I dunno it's tricky(not Tricky))

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

I'm 31 and just got into the Fall this year! I like lots of stuff now I didn't used to like.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

my last favourite band was giant sand. that was in 2000 or something. when i was 37 years old. since then nothing. there is a point where all new young bands sound like pale shadows of bands you knew in your past. i definitely have trespassed that point.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

I dunno... I haven't had a "favorite band" since when I was around 13-17, getting into the Pixies (92-97ish). Since then, I've just been getting more and more and more and more music at an ever increasing rate, so I end up listening to a couple albums from one artist, then a couple from another. I don't really have the camp-out-'til-midnight-on-monday thing going on anymore, and I can't imagine doing that ever again, really. I enjoy so many different bands for so many different reasons, and I've totally given up on any attempts to be a completist (after I realized that I just didn't have the cash to buy all the things that might be mediocre from anyone).
Oh, and that post-high school realization that a lot of the bands that you like were actually pretty egregiously crappy and you kinda wonder how you ever liked 'em...
For me, the huge amount of music that's availible now means that I think a lot of those fierce loyalties to a small number of bands have turned into wide interests in whole genres or subgenres of music.

― js (honestengine), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

25 or 6 to 4

― PappaWheelie B.C., Friday, 30 September 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

oh no it makes me sad to think there are people out there that will never have a new favourite band.

it makes me smile to think that i still like all the same things i did as a kid though. which means that blood on the tracks is the album i have listened to most in my life. aw.

― cake (cake), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:54 (twenty years ago)

For me, the huge amount of music that's availible now means that I think a lot of those fierce loyalties to a small number of bands have turned into wide interests in whole genres or subgenres of music.

i usually hate changes in my tastes, etc, but i have noticed this particular change in myself and i dont really mind it at all. i still like a lot of stuff by some particular artists, but it doesnt bother me to have a genre/album/song-based view of things sometimes, either.

― petesmith (plsmith), Friday, 30 September 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

I'm 33 now and I still find new favorites all the time, only they're usually old bands. I don't follow what's going on now like I did when I was 19. Maybe in fifteen years I'll be into stuff from 2005.

― robertw, Friday, 30 September 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

i'm 31 years old and i think that as long you're truly interested in all kinds of music you'll find new favorite bands and musicians all of the time. on the contrary you will look back once in a while to past favorite bands and realize that they're not so favorite after all with the years gone by. some bands and artists stay with you forever, some are added to the list, some disappear when you realize your youthful folly. people whose favorite bands stay the same forever probably don't listen to enough new music.

― vincent romain (nico vrintman), Friday, 30 September 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

I'm 41 and have spent my life watching bands since I was 15 and have many a favourite.Nothing for a good few years though until I saw the Magic Numbers playing in May.
I've seen them a few times since and will catch them 9 times on their October UK tour.
I used to hitchhike around the UK in the 80's and early 90's following bands and this is the first band in over a decade that gives me that feeling again!

― Lorne, Friday, 30 September 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

I don't think that it's necessarily that you stop discovering new music; I think you just stop thinking in terms of "favorites" when you get older. You either like something or you don't and you move on to the next thing. You eventually have too much history with music to be set in stone. Like my favorite disc this week, The Magic Numbers, in a year may not be as good as my favorite disc last year, The Streets, but I don't care. I stopped thinking favorites when "The Reflex" hit #1.

Like the answer to which is your favorite, The Streets, Afghan Whigs, Beethoven, Yo-Yo Ma, Bang on a Can, or The Dirtbombs is: YES. How could it be anything else?

Or you could just start listening to classical or contemporary classical (one of the best oxymorons out there)--You can discover lots of new favorite composers: Osvaldo Golijov, Steve Reich, John Adams, Olivier Messiaen (Radiohead digs him the most), Phil Kline, etc.

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Friday, 30 September 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

Who the heck are the Magic Numbers? Is there some street-teamin' going down here? Or is this actually something worthwhile?

― sal mineo (aarana), Friday, 30 September 2005 20:04 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and if your favorite bands stop making music (which they will), and you love music (which I hope you do since you're posting here and all), you'll want to seek out new things.

I went through a funk a few years back because my favorite (ha) rock groups during college had all broken up (Afghan Whigs, Rocket From the Crypt, Pixies), or started sucking (Weezer, New Bomb Turks) or both sucking then broken up (Smashing Pumpkins).

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Friday, 30 September 2005 20:10 (twenty years ago)

Ha! No street teaming on my part. Just a coincidence.

Info on Magic Numbers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/arts/music/29sann.html?pagewanted=all

But I was totally into them last week before the Times covered it man. :)

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Friday, 30 September 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

There are tons of bands out there that I missed the first time around that become favorites of mine, or are from genres I either haven't listened to in a while or haven't gotten into yet. There's a lot of potential favorite bands out there that I haven't discovered yet. Additionally, there are lots of favorite bands from the past that I still appreciate but realize aren't anything to get all that excited about. There are also lots of records I bought for one reason or another but didn't really get until much later and have gone on to become favorites.

I think once you get older you don't or can't spend all your time finding new shit. After a few years if it's still coming up on conversation or being cited as influential I'll check it out and am usually not dissapointed.

One of my favorite bands right now and for the past few years I got into when I was 26; I'm 31 now. Of course I'm not all that into their last record but that dosen't change what came before, it just changes how I'll treat future endeavors.

― joygoat (joygoat), Friday, 30 September 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

I'm 23 and couldn't really pick a definite favourite - though there are bands I was listening to between 20-22 that made a big impression and I will check for still.

― Bn1 (Bn1), Friday, 30 September 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

Well I'm 20 & tastes are always changing. I am a girl though & we are meant to be indecisive. But there are some bands and albums which are kind of "timeless" like VUnderground, the Kinks & Pink Floyd. Then again, I may DECIDE that these are awful several years down the track but probably not. Current favourites: the Pixies, PJ Harvey, Architecture in Helsinki, Ben Harper & Tori Amos among many others. And yes I am also rather partial to the Magic Numbers. They sound like something which should have come out in one of those seminal decades like the 60s or 70s. Very good.

― salexander (salexander), Friday, 30 September 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

I think once you get older you don't or can't spend all your time finding new shit.

This worked exactly opposite for me. I'm now 30 and I would say I'm more into music now then I've been at any point in my life. The 3 things I figure most responsible for this are (1)less social distractions ( work, less non-married friends, less partying, etc ) (2) more disposable income and (3)high speed internet. My music library has at least doubled (probably tripled) in the last 4-5 years and I've discovered many new "favorites".

― kickitcricket (kickitcricket), Friday, 30 September 2005 23:18 (twenty years ago)

I'm 35 now -- 36 shortly -- and I'd say I'm still not only getting new favorites but dumping old ones. REM was one of my faves up through "Automatic," after which I stopped buying them; meantime, New Pornographers have been a favorite since "The Law Has Changed," after which I've not only grabbed up all their stuff, but sought out A.C. Newman and Destroyer material. The Posies, and Jon and Ken's solo material, remain a die-hard for me.

― Phil Dennison (Phil D.), Saturday, 1 October 2005 00:03 (twenty years ago)

...I still find new favorites all the time, only they're usually old bands. I don't follow what's going on now like I did when I was 19...

That's pretty much me too. My collection of rock/pop is largely made up of 1964-1982 releases. I'm guessing half of them were purchased in the last ten years I kinda wish I had placed a date-acquired on their jackets.

― jim wentworth (wench), Saturday, 1 October 2005 00:11 (twenty years ago)

No street teaming from me just genuine love for the band.

― Lorne, Saturday, 1 October 2005 12:03 (twenty years ago)

I'll be 37 soon. My favourite band is still changing regularly, tho I don't think I have favourite bands in the same way I did when I was younger, I tend to have favourite sounds or pieces of music more often than not.

― Don King of the Mountain (noodle vague), Saturday, 1 October 2005 12:22 (twenty years ago)

I'm 56 and my favourites are not set in stone yet, and I doubt ever will be. Most of the people in what I'd name today as my all-time favourite bands weren't even born when I was 25.*

(*OK, I was 16 when Janet Weiss was born)

― chris j (chris j), Saturday, 1 October 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

19.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Saturday, 1 October 2005 17:25 (twenty years ago)

i can list my faves and the era's, and see how it stacks...

pre teens=? (nothing i can recall, some songs, here and there)
13-15-the doors/cream-very early 90's
16-18-smashing pumpkins/butthole surfers/nin/breeders/beck-early to mid 90's
19-21-jsbx/beck/sonic youth/pavement/revernd horton heat- mid to latter 90's
22-24-pavement/sonic youth/Queens of the Stone Age/Kyuss-latter 90's to early 01
25- qotsa/trail of dead-2001-2002
26 to present- all my favorite bands have come to either more "easy listening" stages or left behind parts they'll never get back.
SP has aged in various ways, the doors/cream no longer hold the LSD inspired glory they once did, still love me some SY, RevHo-i don't drink like that anymore. pavement went-eh...
qotsa/tod went-eh...
BHS...went vomit.
still, i'd still listen to just about any of those bands at certain times.
nin has got some alright new songs...
and just saw beck, and he's still alright in my book!

― eedd, Saturday, 1 October 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

I'm unquestionably (and perhaps foolishly) loyal to both Neils - Young and Hagerty - and have been since high school. That'll never change. And no smokin' Akarma reissue, no limited edition hand-painted CDR, no long lost free jazz classic, no genius new folksinger will ever get my dollar before even the crappiest (err, i mean 'most challenging') releases by either Neil.

― God Body (Roger Fidelity), Saturday, 1 October 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

What I'm in love with right now changes pretty regularly.

The notion of "eternal allegiance" or even of having a "favorite band" probably evaporated by 24, if only because the world got bigger and there were other things my identity started to stake itself on.

But then, I do still pimp for Chris Whitley...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Saturday, 1 October 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

I'm 42.

I discovered the band / musician that I (currently) consider to be my absolute favourite when I was 34.

I think there's some truth in the theory regarding the period from age +/-14 to +/- 25, insofar as I do tend to cling to my affection to the bands I discovered at that age in a far more emotional / sentimental / uncritical manner than I do anything else.

I also think my tastes at that time were far more closely tied to the bands that were active and operating within the scenes I identified with at the relevant time; whereas subsequently (following the eventual surgical removal of my punk-rock blinkers) I've been far more prepared to investigate music from any era or genre.

Nevertheless; subject to my overall level enthusiasm for music (which over the years has been governed by all sorts of other factors like relationship and work commitments governing the amount of free time I've had, disposable income, etc.); I think I've carried on discovering new favourites consistently throughout the last 28 years.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 2 October 2005 15:28 (twenty years ago)

I suspect I've been slowed down in the new-band-discovery process a little by age just because I spend more time listening to stuff I already know. But I also still assume that my favorite band ever is probably having its first practice this afternoon.

― Douglas (Douglas), Sunday, 2 October 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

you speak in riddles there, stewart. which is your fave band you discovered 8 years ago?

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Sunday, 2 October 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

i'm 30 and i have a new favourite band every year. i barely listen to the bands i would have called my favourites five years ago.

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Sunday, 2 October 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

that magic numbers article makes me wish i didn't like them. "hey here's what's new for fall, kids!"

me, i'm only 23 (24 tomorrow), but i'm still constantly getting favorite bands. it's definitely not the all-consuming, unconditional fanboydom of even a couple of years ago, though. and trust me, that's a very good thing.

― marc h. (marc h.), Sunday, 2 October 2005 23:31 (twenty years ago)

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