“You shouldn’t like music that was made before you were born”

I thought I would do something different today. I was reminded of this by the phrase, “it was before my time.” Movies and music fall into this category. I do know people who will not watch movies made “before their time.” I don’t think many of my readers would agree to this statement, but who knows?

I had a co-worker in the early 2000s (Sam) tell me that I shouldn’t like music that was before my time because it was unnatural (yes, he said that). I was first kinda of amused and shocked. I like Sam a lot, and we would talk a lot; he is a smart fellow. However, on this point, I didn’t understand. Why? Is there some unwritten law that I can’t like 1950s or 1960s music up to 1967, when I was born?  That cut off some of the best music of the 20th century and beyond.

He grew up in the 80s, as I did,  and was probably around 5 or so years younger than me. I’ve seen other people act the same way. If it were before they were born, then they would not give it a second listen. If a movie is black and white, they act as if they are near a radiation leak!

 I think the subject centered around how I loved 50s and 60s music and The Beatles, The Who, The Stones, and The Kinks. He said I should be listening to music from my teenage years (well, I WAS…60s music was my soundtrack growing up), but I DID listen to the top 40 when I was a teenager, which, to me, didn’t live up to those bands to any degree or form. Maybe it wasn’t fair to compare Men Without Hats to those 1960s bands. It was hard to stomach some of the ’80s for me, but not all. Now I’m busy catching up on music I missed that wasn’t on Top 40 radio at the time. I did find an oasis in the 80s, alternative music like The Replacements and REM…and the classic bands.

I still want to find other music and movies I like. Why would age have any effect on the music, whether we like it or not? That doesn’t mean I don’t like new music. I have posted newer bands here before who have just released albums. If it’s good, it doesn’t matter what era it came from, at least not to me. Christian, Graham, and Lisa all posted some newer songs that I liked. With movies, yes, I find some I like. I just saw Weapons and loved it, plus there are others.

I’m not putting people down at all who think like that. Hey, if that is what they believe, more power to them. I never believed in criticizing people for their opinions, music, or otherwise. Whatever blows their hair back.

Anyway, what do you think? 

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

81 thoughts on ““You shouldn’t like music that was made before you were born””

  1. I have not run across anyone that has used that particular logic. I know some who don’t really like older music but not because they weren’t born yet, more because of developed taste based on their music environment. But I also know people who were exposed to music by their parents and have grown to love certain genre. One of my son in laws born in 1994 is a big classic rock fan via his father.

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      1. I can see the benefits of access but it takes a bit of effort and an open mind as well. I have a couple nephews who I love to death but they are a couple of dead fish when it comes to music!

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      2. Sometimes pop culture helps. I’ll give you a huge example…Guardians of the Galaxy…whether you like the movie or not (and I did but I was surprised!) it exposed so many older songs to Bailey’s generation…he was 14 or so….I think the Bob Dylan movie with that actor also spread older music well. It doesn’t always happen though.

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  3. All I can say to that sentiment is that it’s f-ing nuts. Even though I’m old, the roots of the music of my youth pre-date me. At the moment, I’m thinking of Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway. I told a classmate yesterday that I liked her water bottle sticker (“I miss Jerry”), though Jerry (Garcia) died before she was born. She said most of her age peers didn’t know what it meant and wondered if it was about an uncle. And to stretch this even further in time, when I arrived at my son’s house Wednesday morning, he was singing a song by Franz Schubert (1797-1828). That was popular music at the time.

    And movies? Where would we be without the classic films of the 30s and 40s? That same son found the AFI (American Film Institute) list of the 100 greatest movies. When he realized he hadn’t seen “Citizen Kane”, he and his friend jumped on their bikes and headed for the library to check it out.

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    1. I totally agree with everything you said. It’s basically saying…forget your roots. All of us stand on the shoulders of the greats because they got us this far into music and movies…and that includes The Beatles and everyone else.

      I heard this line in elementary school and Jr High…because I liked the older stuff…so it wasn’t new but those were kids…and that is basically what I told Sam. The black and white movie hangup for people…is totally beyond me.

      I have heard people say oh “that was before my time”…well? So what? I didn’t want to come off as the “get off my lawn” guy because I like some newer music as well.

      That is great about your son…my son as well likes older music and is into swing big band music as well and some classical. I never pushed that on him…I never pushed at all because that is a sure fire way of kids not liking something…but once he found the older stuff…he kept on. He told me…dad it has more soul and life than some of the newer stuff I heard….but not all.

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      1. Is it really about forgetting your roots or claiming the current as one’s own. When I was growing up, we KNEW rock was our own. Yeah, the Beatles and the Who and the Stones and the Kinks were ours and ours alone.

        Except that was a crock. We stand on the shoulders of the greats.

        But we need to define who we are. I am who I am, listening to Mona by the Stones and then by Bo Diddley. I am who I am laughing along with Back in the USSR and loving Chuck Berry.

        Psychologically there is a need to declare individuality as we grow up. And if rock is mine then the second movement of Beethoven’s 9th is rock.

        I’m glad I learned about the stepping stones to my rock. My life would be a lot less without the movies of Preston Sturges, the songs of Frank Loesser or Meredith Willson, etc.

        One of the duties I made sure I attended to as a parent to my daughters is to introduce them to the stuff that pre-dated me. I was less surprised when my oldest demanded seeing the then recently released movie of Carmen than she when she heard REM’s “Man on the Moon” on one of the tapes I made for myself driving in the car.

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      2. Yea and I think it’s important to notice all the giants we stand on for music and movies. To disregard that is to disregard the music itself. I love finding what tree a band or artist fell out of… for me that is the fun of music.

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    2. No one would consider Louis Jordan or Cab Calloway “power pop” but I know they are both awfully important to my musical development. Go back and rewatch Blues Brothers for the immaculate perfection of Hi De Ho, if that is all we remember from Mr. Calloway. How timeless and eternal. As for Louis Jordan, he may not be remembered as much today as he should be, but he is responsible for hours and hours of my happy listening.

      In another message I mentioned one of the great film makers from before my time whose work is timeless (Preston Sturges). The list of great film makers active before my 1953 birth is huge.

      Consider the Marx Brothers. Timeless is an understatement.

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      1. I mentioned the Marx Brothers. I have heard of The Ritz Brothers. Never seen or experienced them. Did a search and here is a quick introduction

        Less than a full minute, but hilarious

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  4. I am the opposite of your friend Sam, as I wonder why people need to keep on searching for new music. I know that think that the new music is cool because they are the first ones hearing it, but I could live the rest of my life with the music that I already have. A really cool thing happened to me today, as I wrote a post about a Halestorm song yesterday, and the mother of Lzzy and Arejay read my post and wrote back to me telling me how much she enjoyed it.

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  5. I know lots who think that, but I find it’s good to have an open mind to music of any era. That said, I seldom hear stuff from the last decade that I like (not never, just seldom) and don’t especially gravitate much to pop or rock more than a few years before me, ie most of what I like was from about ’67 through 2000 or so. But I would never want to shut out some classics from early country, the 40s and 50s crooners, even some Classical compositions from the 1800s or earlier. Similar with movies….really old ones seldom grab me, but some are good & it’s often interesting to see how we got to the modern era of film, by way of old ones. Unlike music, I really like a lot of ’50s movies, which pre-date me.

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    1. I agree…but it’s not like you are going to shy away from anything new because it’s new. My biggest problem with newer music is it’s cleaner than clean…and sometimes they let computers lead a song rather than color it.

      I’m glad you know people like that…and they are welcome to their opinions….I don’t agree with them but whatever blows their hair back lol. But to disqualify music because it’s old or new…is shortsighted to me.

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      1. I don’t share your dislike of synths or drum machines but I do know what you mean about today’s music being too clean… like over-processed food. And usually lacking imagination or anything taht really sets it apart. I have to go look up, there’s some song Time reported on that went to #1 on some country charts that’s said to be all AI-generated. I just don’t see computers actually MAKING our music as a good step ahead.

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      2. Dave, it’s probably me playing half of my life on instruments that made that dislike…and just wanting something real sounding. I like Bette Davis Eyes…and those were fake…but every song seemed to have them in it after that.
        No…I don’t like AI generated music either…well buckle up because for now on you will have to check to see if it’s real. That is why I dont’ like autotune or anything like that…give me something imperfect…I don’t want perfection.

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      3. Depends on the music. Something like Black Crowes or my buds Blue Rodeo circa 1987, don’t overthink the sound, just get the emotion. But Pink Floyd, Steely dan ‘Aja’ , yes their efforts to achieve perfection paid off. I wouldn’t want to hear ‘Time’ that you used in your post or ‘Deacon Blue’ played by a drunk bar band which can barely find four chords. I do like clean sound though in terms of, sorry I personally don’t think scratches and occasional skips on vinyl enhanced the sound. Computers can be great tools to help mix or ‘clean up’ originals (the ‘new’ Beatles singles a good example) but I still want an artist with vision controlling it, not the reverse.

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      4. LOL…drunken bar band playing Time! I hate to say it…but it would be fun!
        No we used to do SOS by Abba… with a little kick.
        No I don’t like skips…I’m talking about Exile on Main Street dirty…that sound…nothing to do with skipping and stuff like that but a good condition lp…I LOVE to hear…warmth.

        Even when cleaning the Beatles up…which is more about bringing instruments to the front…like Love Me Do…you can hear the bass now! They can actually mix them now and get them off of two tracks.

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  6. so no Leadbelly, Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters? How about Pete Seeger?…..pure nonsense, music is not a badge, it’s like someone telling me they don’t like broccoli, so I shouldn’t. so, never gonna listen to Louis Armstrong What a Wonderful World?…..I have no problem with a mix tape that has Black Pink, Sammy Davis Jr, Miley Cyrus and Fats Domino….you like what you like, no one has the right to say you’re wrong or that your taste isn’t up to their standard…….I’ll always remember when Linda Tillery told me something when I was freaking out because my youngest liked the Spice Girls…she said that’s now, eventually that music will lead to others…and well, my daughter was with me at a folk fest when she told me that…so she was so right

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    1. I hear you…and Sam isn’t the only person I know who thinks like that. Yea I think it’s also bqd to shut new music out because it’s new…and your story about your daughter is so true…you can like both as well but some are fads they go through plus they usually come back to the roots.
      It’s all subjective…but don’t shut something out because of it’s age….black and white movies fall into this a lot.

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  7. I am a big Dr. Demento fan. Oh, I can live the rest of my life without hearing Fish Heads again, although it will play over and over again in my mental jukebox. Because of the Doc, I was exposed to the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet. Demographically, let me restate that. A white kid from the suburbs raised outside of any church was exposed to in the mid to late 1970s and LOVED the A Capella singing of a black church group recording in a very unique style in the mid 1930’s.

    Before my time? I was born in 1953. I can go on for hours about music that was recorded before 1953 that I love. I take pride in the fact that I reminded Max of the incredible “Roll ‘Em Pete” by Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner and he shortly thereafter put it up here. I have too many favorite movies to list but more than a few are older than I am and I consider “Harvey” from 1950 as of the tops.

    The idea is, of course, absurd and completely wrong when taken to other pieces of our culture. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Bizet… C’mon!!! Books and great authors are the same way.

    Yes, I grew up with the Beatles, the Stones, the Dave Clark Five, the Who, Cream, the Kinks, the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean and so many more. Supplemented by stuff that wasn’t rock and roll (the early ’60s was a great period for recorded comedy and I think your education incomplete if you don’t include Stan Freberg in your Thanksgiving celebration) like Allan Sherman, Spike Jones, Big Joe Turner, Mississippi John Hurt, Koerner Ray & Glover, Cole Porter, Yip Harburg and the list goes on and on and on.

    I just did my good deed of the moment here at work. In a casual conversation I overheard a lady tell a guy who is black, in his 20s and has a Beatles on Ed Sullivan model on his desk that she knew somebody who had a snake, a python, and of course its name was Monty. I went over to the guy’s desk and interrupted as she was saying she was a big Monty Python fan. (Demographically, this lady was in her early ’30s, black and involved in her church, as if any of that matters.) I looked at her as the guy, who knew my sensibilities and that I seldom said anything at work that wasn’t of a joking nature, grinned, knowing I was about to make a joke. It wasn’t a joke. I told her “Okay, here’s some homework for you. I want you to look up on You Tube a show entitled “Do Not Adjust Your Set.”

    That was last week. She finally had the time last night. She made a bee line to my workstation immediately after she came in this morning. She loved the stuff, and we would have rambled on about the development of sketch comedy if not for work pressing on her. She loved the show and immediately made connections in the two or three minutes we talked about the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, I Love Lucy and Carol Burnett. I told her she was weird. She smiled and agreed.

    It was all before her time.

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    1. I totally agree…to tell me it was unnatural to like something older…really shocked me. I love that you got someone into other things…sharing your knowledge with that lady is a great thing. I guess that is the reason I blog…to post things to get people talking and selfishly more than any other thing…so I can learn. I learn more from all of you than you all do from me.
      Many of you were there real time I wasn’t…I just put down what I find out and learn more from everyone else.

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  8. As for new music, I don’t hear it. By that I mean, I am not exposed to it. I don’t listen to Top 40. I don’t listen to the radio much at all these days. Imagine, I wouldn’t recognize a Taylor Swift song!!!

    But it is like television. I don’t subscribe to any of the streaming networks or services. I am satisfied with the reruns of Gunsmoke and Barney Miller and NCIS and the like. Television is, for me, often background noise while I play with the computer. It isn’t that I don’t like the stuff on Netflix, etc., I am simply not exposed to it, not concerned with it and don’t think it is worth the investment. My wife is happy with her novellas from Univision and Telemundo.

    I do notice that when I hear something new, it just isn’t all that new to me. That is, I recognize what they are doing and immediately identify its predecessors. I think that makes me an old fart. And yeah, I can live with that.

    I don’t listen to a lot of rap or hip hop or whatever the media calls it. But what I do hear when it tickles my ear is how they manage to make the most out of these wonderful riffs, how the incidental stuff colors the recording so wonderfully. I am reminded of how somebody on the last morning radio show I listened to regularly (Mark (?) in the Morning on KLOS, and this was more than a couple of years ago) took the individual pieces of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and how every piece was incredible on its own. Put together it just blows me away.

    So there may not be anything new under the sun, and I may not be actively seeking out the “new” releases like I used to, but I’m okay with that.

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    1. I do that as well…hearing something that I knew from the past in a song.
      The new music I listen to mostly are alternative bands that have a sound that I like. I mean it’s all subjective…but there is a sound I like. Exile on Main Street…that dirty sound The Stones got I love because I don’t like clearner than clean…when it is that clean…it’s sterile to me. Thats why I stay away from top 40 usually…and not just now but in the 80s.

      BTW Barney Miller might be the best written show I’ve ever seen…and yes I love Gunsmoke…especially the ones with Chester….those 30 minute episodes were dark and awesome.

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      2. Oh I love that movie! I hit upon Orson Welles when I was younger and I started to watch his movies…but I need to watch it again…it’s been a long while. He plays the perfect neurotic person in that movie. Thanks for the reminder…it would be a great movie to post on here.

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      4. I haven’t seen that one yet. I have seen The Magnificent Ambersons and F is for Fake. I need to watch the ones I haven’t seen.
        It’s sad about Welles…I read a bio on him…he just didn’t like finishing movies for some reason. I also love his acting…one of the best actors I’ve ever seen…so natural. It’s sad that some only know him for those damn wine commercials.

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  9. I gotta say. You have done a great job of keeping the lines of communication open. I have been amazed at the success of this blog since finding it a couple of months ago. You have an idea and you maintain it.

    Point in hand. I can’t wait for the next Twilight Zone marathon. All because your blog renewed my interest in something that I knew and loved but hadn’t thought of in a long time.

    Everytime I read that somebody had never heard a song before I think to myself, Yep, that’s Max doing what he set out to do. THANK YOU

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    1. I really appreciate you saying that. I love to learn from all of you and I love when people comment and all talk together about subjects we love.
      When I started…I thought…If I can make one person listen to Big Star…I’ve done my job…just pushing out things that are not heard everyday if possible.

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  10. Max, I think each of us is a unique convergence of 10,000 things, which in philosophical daoism means all-that-is. The 10k things come from all times, all places, all incarnations. Our unique convergence has experienced so many things, including exposure to sensory input that shapes us. If I were to begin to share all of the influences, musical and not, that has shaped my musical tastes, I’d be writing for days.

    When someone criticizes our musical likes and generally our aesthetic favorites, they are judging us as to who we are. I would have to ask that person, what kind of a world would it be if we all liked the same things? Scary is what it would be like. The current trend of homogenized musical heroes troubles me. Digital music where you can cherry pick songs from albums to build playlists is a neat toy but it takes something from music. Getting rid of hard copies of music is even more troubling to me. The digital world owns them and controls them. What happens when a mega-virus wipes out everybody’s data? Using vocaloids or whatever they are called merges human with machine and scares the hell out of me.

    Sorry, Sam, wherever you are, the above things are what I consider “unnatural.” That said, if it floats your boat, don’t let me stop you. Just keep it away from me.

    I appreciate your essay and asking your readers to weigh in on it.

    Happy Friday to All!

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    1. Thank you Lisa…I was hoping it was worthy of a discussion. I pulled this post back for over a month because I wasn’t sure of it. But yes, it’s part of who we are. We gain something through every life lesson and makes us go a certain way.
      Yea and I wasn’t going after Sam…but damn Sam…open up buddy! And I mean it as well to new music. I know people who will not give new music a chance. The only thing that I don’t like about newer music is the sound…the cleaner than clean sound but…that is just me. I STILL like some songs that are cleaner than clean….I just prefer the dirty sound of Exile on Main Street…or the White Album but I will not openly dismiss it just because it’s new. If it’s a good song…it’s a good song.
      Well…people are talking on this so that is good. That is always my goal.

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      1. You’re welcome. I understand what you’re saying about “clean” music. Digital has a bad habit of sterilizing music, imo. Also, LPs can bring texture out as they play. I keep going back to the old quote on the liner notes of the Woodstock album about the mars in fine leather giving it character (paraphrasing.)

        I don’t rule clean music out though. I would call The Analogue Sideshow album very clean, but oh my, is it good!

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  11. I’m getting my hair blown back by Zoot Sims circa 60’s right now. Later tonight it’s a Bogie film 40s/50s. You know what Max. CBs hair is going to have a very windy look. Maybe later this weekend I’ll listen to Kamasi Washington and catch the new Sisu flick which Earl and the Big Fella (sons) recently turned me onto. Shit is shit and good is good. All personal tastes.

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    2. Thats how I feel CB! Don’t wear a hat…let it go. I didn’t know if this post would fly much but people are talking so mission accomplished. Bailey just turned me on to a band named Geese…I like them.
      It’s all subjective…but I tell people…keep their minds open…just don’t disqualify something without giving it a chance.

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      2. I’ll check out Sisu…I know nothing. I just check out MJ Lenderman on NPR…sounds good. TY Segal…rocks…I just checked out a few from him.
        I checked out Graham’s site Monday and he had Geese there…I liked it.

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      3. You have me very curious Lisa. Dont tell anyone but the other side of the water is where I watch most my shows in the last few years. I will check out. Did you ever catch ‘The Bridge’ from Sweden/Danish production? First couple seasons are dynamite. One of my favorite female characters of all time.

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      4. CB I’ve seen several “Nordic” series the past few years and am never disappointed. You know I saw trailers for “The Bridge” you are talking about but I had just watched the American remake and so didn’t want to see it then. Enough time has gone by. It’s time to give it a watch. One Nordic series I really liked was Bordertown. Not sure if you saw Vikings yet, but that’s quite a ride.

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      7. Yes I do and I have it saved already. I had a film editor friend recommend The Bridge when it came out. He knew how much of a hard see I was on films etc. I just about turned it off after 10 minutes but hung in and was rewarded with great story, great characters, atmosphere and Sega.

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      9. CB, another good one is the Russian series, “To the Lake” which was supposed to get a season 2 but never did. It’s time for me to re-watch that one now that winter is here.

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  13. Well, my experience is having siblings that are 16, 13, 10, and 6 years older than I am. My earliest memories are of the 45s they would play from the 60s. I was born in 1962, so I was out of my own time from the start. I never had much money to buy my own records, so I mainly got my music education from late 60s and into the 70s AM radio. As I grew older, I would meet people who turned me on to certain artists and my tastes became more varied, and one thing led to another, seeing the influences of other artists. I guess I don’t actively seek out as much new music as I once did, but I welcome it when I find something good. So at heart, I’m a 70s pop radio kid, and I’m not ashamed of that, but I like a whole lot more too.

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    2. Wow…you did get exposed to more older music…and I bet really good as well. I had a cousin that I learned from more than my big sister. I could see with those ages that you did get a varied music menu.

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  16. I think it comes from a teen sense of rebelling against what has gone before and especially what their parents or grandparents like and feeling a part of a new exciting scene, but I think as one gets older one goes back to stuff parents played and these days especially music that gets included in TV, films or adverts, or indeed christmas playlists – so the notion that old music is dead and gone is iself dead and gone when the charts and streaming data show that is not the case. When I was a teen in the 70’s the idea that 50-year-old pop music would have any relevance would have been dismissed by all, because 1920’s music sounded like it came from prehistory, so much had changed in 50 years. The last 50 years pretty much is reinforcing what already existed, albeit with variations on a theme and a lot more niche genres. And of course Classical Music has never gone out of fashion, it’s everywhere, and is unlikely to ever stop being everywhere, borrowed, adapted, in movies, what with being copyright free. My motto is, old music is great, new music is great, and the only problem is there arent enough hours in a day to enjoy listening to it all so the very best tend to stand out in culture and the rest falls sadly by the wayside as time passes! 🙂

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