You might think that you’re born with your taste in music, or maybe that the stuff your parents play in the car when you’re a kid has a big influence.
Or it could be the friends you have during those formative teen years, and the music you all bond over on those early drives to school.
Wherever it starts, experts say your taste in music changes once you hit the big 3-0.
Music streaming service Deezer asked 1,000 people about their musical preferences, and according to their findings, people’s musical tastes stagnate around the age of 30.
That means they tend to stop listening to new artists or genres and to stick to what they know.
At age 24, 75% of people said they were checking out 10 or more new tracks a week, and 64% listened to 5 or more new artists every month.
60% of people feel like they’re in a rut and struggle to break out of their comfort zone.
And although these are just the results from a PR survey, there is some science to back up their findings.
A number of studies have noted that humans are less open to experiences as they age. That openness ramps up during our teen years and then starts to fall over in our mid to late twenties.
We are most influenced by the music around us when we’re teenagers, and the songs that are most popular when we’re between the ages of 11-14 tend to remain our favorites for life.
Examples are women who are now 41 still loving “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure, while women who are currently 69 stream “Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison.
The trend is the same across ages and genders.
Some experts believe that our openness to new experiences also starts around that time, peaks in our twenties, then falls off by the time we’re 30.
Which is why we’re destined to listen to the same 10 songs for the rest of our lives.
I hope yours are good ones.
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