EPTTo be fair when I was in my teens, I wasn't exactly following pop as a genre, or one specific genre at all for the matter. I was an individual, along with several other classmates who all listened to various hardcore, and metal acts (Between the Buried and Me, Chiodos, Lamb of God, a bit of Cradle of Filth, The 69 Eyes, I was/am all over the board). Even today my playlist is a bit schizophrenic, the last song that just played was a French, Reggae-ish group called Tryo followed by MC Chris.
I don't think this experience is uncommon, in fact the reason I was even struck to write this little blurb was because an Underoath song came up on my Grooveshark station and sucked me right back to high school. What I realized this morning though, was that I have reached a point at twenty five where I have by and large stopped acquiring new music. Like with friends, I've reach a limit of music I want to listen to or see in the context of the analogy, on a regular basis.
David Mitchell does a pretty elegant job elaborating on this.
This isn't to say that I don't find the occasional artist or song that really does it for me, but all positions are currently full. I may spend a few minutes with them if we stumble across one another but adding a new discography is something I just don't have the space for.
The strange part about this to me, as much as the fifteen year old Thomasjservo may have frowned upon it, is that I enjoy being at least partially oblivious to the goings on with regards to music. There is a certain satisfaction in having friends show me new music videos or music and not having head of them much less seen the music video; I think that it goes both ways as well.
I no longer feel compelled to spend the time and energy loathing a genre music on a very fundamental level, nor do I even bother bringing music along with me in the car. That isn't because the tape deck in my junker is only occasionally functional and I would have difficulties streaming from my phone more often than I would care. NPR does for the commute, with the exception of the odd Sunday I've got to come into the office, as the less newsy aspects of public radio bore me to tears.
I am not by any means old, just having edged my way nearer to thirty than to twenty, but there are thoughts you just can't shake. The older I get the ideas of people actually seeing you as an adult, or having to stop referring to other people as, "that kid," are really strange things to be cognizant of. This is made more strange, considering I much more identify with the following quote from Dylan Moran:
![[image loading]](http://www.thespittake.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/0910_dylan_h_208595t.jpg)
“You’re not really an adult at all. You’re just a tall child holding a beer, having a conversation you don’t understand.”
All of this I suppose is a reflection of a necessary redirection of energy from a relative complete lack of responsibility to reality where I have to make sense of insurance, retirement planning, and making sensible career moves instead of getting drunk on a Tuesday night. To be fair the last bit of that sentence does still happen on occasion.
The thing I live in not fear of but perhaps angst of, is the inability to move beyond some of my more ingrained habits, be they music related or otherwise. Being the cynical, rather judgmental individual I am, at least as far as my inner dialog is concerned, I exert a bit too much energy worrying I am going to become one of those people who has completely lost interest in new experiences.
In my experience largest group of offenders in that category I've been exposed to personally, seem to have peaked somewhere in the mid to late eighties if their hair cuts, and radio station choices at their desks are any indication.
Looking forward it is my singular goal to stay interested, if not in music then in Chess, in Starcraft, in some activity that maintains some level of mental acuity. Jobs will come and go, as will many people and songs, but I always want to to be engaged. Short term it is, stay away from too much television, regular visits to the library, and stay interested in something though I don't know what that something will be years down the line.
