You are a gentleman and a scholar and this is proof.

In much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Haha

what I find frustrating is that these things that give me pause, these moments when I realize that my conviction is perhaps not so much principled as it is circumstantial, don't leave a very strong impression in my mind. Give me a few weeks and I'm once again convinced that they only make sequels now days or that we don't have heroes in office anymore. It's very hard to keep it in mind.

There's been studies on this , i'll drop in the ai summary

There iare a cluster of studies on musical nostalgia and neuroplasticity, most famously summarized by work from researchers like Petr Janata (University of California, Davis) and Valorie Salimpoor (McGill University / Rotman Research Institute).

🧠 The Core Idea

When we’re teenagers (roughly ages 12–22), the brain’s prefrontal cortex and limbic system — responsible for emotion, identity, and memory — are highly plastic.

Music heard during that period becomes deeply tied to emotional and autobiographical memories.

As we age, dopamine and neural plasticity decline, so new songs don’t trigger the same strong emotional imprint.

Result: we perceive new music as “worse” — not because it objectively is, but because our brains literally stop forming new emotional-music associations as easily.

📚 Key Studies / References

Petr Janata (2009, Cerebral Cortex) — The Neural Architecture of Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memories.

Used fMRI to show how the medial prefrontal cortex lights up when people hear songs linked to their youth.

Valorie Salimpoor et al. (2011, Nature Neuroscience) — Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music.

Showed that familiar, emotionally charged music releases dopamine, strengthening reward pathways.

BBC / New York Times summaries of this research popularized the idea that our “musical taste window” freezes around age 13–20.

The BBC article “Why We Stop Discovering New Music at 30” (based on Spotify + psychology data) became the viral shorthand for it.