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50 sats \ 1 reply \ @stack_harder 2h \ parent \ on: People tend to think the world was best when they were young charts_and_numbers
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.
đź“š 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.
Thanks
It does seem to be a common thing. Some of the punk music I used to listen to brings up feelings of nostalgia. Some of my friends are still listening to the same old stuff, where as I have moved on. I started getting interested in jazz (listening and playing) around 30 and now have become a big of a jazz snob (jazz is the real PoW music BTW).
The new stuff sounds trashy and the beats are all the same. But I'll admit there was some equally trashy and repetitive music when I was growing up too.
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