How does age affect music taste?

Everyone experiences times when their parents or grandparents say "Turn that music off" or "Turn that music down." A lot of the time the music my friends and I enjoy is very different from the music my parents and their friends enjoy. Different age groups experience different changes in society which causes their music taste to differ. But how does society directly link to music? Jaqueline Howard, Associate Science editor for the Huffington Post, explains how peoples music taste evolves as they age. How your taste in music evolves as you age

Source: RocketNews24

As you age society ages as well. Those changes in society may change your taste in music but why does this happen? “It seems that taste crystalizes around the music one is exposed to from around 16-24 years of age,” Dr. Adrian North, who heads the School of Psychology at Curtain University in Australia During the ages of 16-24 society is most influential in our music preferences. This range of age is the time in our lives when our personality is starting to shape who we are. That means that from the age of 16 to the age of 24 society around us determines our choices in life, such as music taste. Whether we realize this or not society is a big influence in our day to day life. 

While society is constantly evolving so are we. Different music styles are constantly being created. The music you enjoy when you are 6 compared to 16 is most likely going to be very different. This is because a decade has passed during that time, in that time our personalities have changed and so have the people around us and our environment. “With the broader perspective of our research, we find that older generations listened more to popular music, and importantly the popular music of their children’s generation.” This means that each generation has a common popular music taste. As society evolves and changes older generations adapt and create their own opinions due to the new material being introduced. 

Overall it is clear that age and time period are the most relevant factors to how your music taste changes as you age. 

A future research question may be, How does gender determine music preference?