Its because young people buy the most music and for young people its all new anyway. Its the same thing with movies as well. If older people actually bought the higher priced and therefore more profitable new music you would see more to cater to those tastes.

I don't really know anyone over the age of 40 who buys music which is under 10 years old from release.

That's probably because musical interests have a tendency to peak at around/before the age of 30, when listening to what's new and "it" takes a back seat to just listening to whatever you actually enjoy, whether it's because it helps you relive your happy youthful days or whatever.

When people are young, they are more impressionable. It's typically some time around the college years when music lovers find their real musical tastes (barring the cool kids who already knew in high school), not to say that someone who genuinely only listens to Top 40 hits has no taste of their own. It could just be by ridiculous coincidence that they happen to consistently like what most people tend to listen to.

As you pointed out, by the age of 40, you're probably listening to what your kids are listening to (in the background) and any music being bought for yourself is probably not new release unless you happen to be by some unusual quirk, someone who still likes what most people tend to listen to.

Although you could still be buying new albums from your favorite bands of old assuming they're still together after decades. There are plenty of bands like that afterall.

I used to be a complete anti-pop music snob and stubbornly only listened to older or non-mainstream stuff so that I could differentiate myself from the so-called "conformists" (what a silly phase that was).

Honestly pop music really isn't that bad. I'm not going to go download an entire Black Eyed Peas album or whatever. But I don't mind listening to pop music on the radio and downloading a single here and playing it on my portable audio player when I work out or whatever. I don't just consume Top 40 hits. But I went from snobbing that stuff altogether to at least admitting to myself that the stuff is actually not bad and enjoyable to listen to at work, during a commute, working out or whatever.

Trust me, if you become one of those people who are close-minded to anything that's mainstream (you know those people. South Park has made fun of them before. Forget what the episode is called. Its with those 'anti-conformist' goth kids), you're not gonna make many friends in this world (I've noticed that it's much easier to relate to other people when I'm a lot less of a snob. lol There were times where a hot chick would say "I like hip-hop" and instead of say trying to get into her pants like any normal guy at that age, I'd make some pretty asshole, judgmental comments about her interest and people who like her interest and conversation would be completely shot after that. It was totally unnecessary for me to shit on someone's interests like that. No one likes a snob). Most people are consumers of mainstream entertainment. And mainstream entertainment really isn't as bad as those "anti-conformist" snobs make it out to be. Depends on what age you are though.

If you are much older (like 40 ), then obviously this kind of modern mainstream music isn't as popular with your generation. So if you are 40 and just don't like whats top 40 right now, you're normal. lol.

You can only give one answer. If you want the cookie you gotta choose just one of them!

I agree Bieber, Miley...EEEeek.

I like maybe 5 songs currently in like the top fifty here in Canada. All the artists I like have been around since the early millenium. My favorite music is from late 70's to early millenium. But I hate most of the crap coming out today. I also used to love almost every genre of music but today I despise rap (Except Eminem) and while I like Rihanna , Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera , Beyonce and a few other artists the newer artists just don't appeal to me!

My friends all agree, we talk about it often. Which is funny because I'm in my early 20's and don't consider myself old at all! But I guess once you become an adult you always prefer what you grew up with.

You are just getting more experienced with music rather than just getting old. Mainstream music has always been fairly crap, at least for the past few decades. Its just now you are old enough to realise that fact, no doubt because along the way you've accidently listened to more alternative good music, and so now can distinguish the difference.

At the moment its autotuned club music, before that it was shitty R&B, before that the Britany Spears style pop divas and manufactured girl bands (Spice Girls, Bardo, etc), before that boy bands, before that whole wierd androgyny phase in the 90's, before that synth, etc. All crap, IMO.

Heaps of awesome music is made still, just don't expect to find it on commercial radio and MTV. You need to go out to small clubs with the local live bands and track down some small alternative radio stations to find it.

Alternative music is called alternative because it usually doesn't fall into currently defined genre, which means its something new and innovative. Sure, a lot of it will also be shit, but thats where good music is also found.

"Hit" songs of any year are generally shit.

The radio was no better a decade ago and the decade before that...

Its not you, the music on the radio is pretty awful these days, everyone sounds the same and there aren't many people with there own unique style anymore. I don't even listen to the Radio anymore, because almost every song I hear is either auto-tuned or featuring the same artists I don't like.

You're getting old. We all know that Justin Beiber is going to be bigger than the Beatles and Miley Cyrus's latest album is better than anything Pink Floyd have ever done. You're just set your ways.

I'll just copy and paste what I had in another thread: