What do teen-age and young men listen to nowadays?

[Michael_ Gee]

People will be listening to the songs of Lennon-McCartney and Dylan, even if not their original recordings, when the infants of today are my age. Gershwin, Irving Berlin, etc. are still well known. Sinatra songs are still played today and they'll be around then too. Any kid of 2075 who picks up a guitar is going to wind up listening to some Jimi Hendrix. Less of the music of that era will endure (I'll bet not one percent of the music of the 20s does today), but some will, because it ought to.

 

[Batman]

I think, in a hundred years, the great musicians of today will be viewed like the great poets of the 18th and 19th centuries. We'll study their work, appreciate it as an art form, and some will be more influential and favored than others. Many will be completely and utterly forgotten. Instead of reading giant volumes of poetry in English class, maybe the Class of 2116 will get an updated version of "Now That's What I Call Music, Vol. 12"

 

[FileNotFound]

My 17-year-old son listens mostly to Dylan and Hendrix, with The Strokes and The Pixies to add variety.

 

[king cranium maximus IV]

I guess it won't help anyone that in retrospect, I should've included The Knife's Shaking the Habitual or Dirty Projectors' Swing Lo Magellan.

 

[Big Circus]

Heard of six artists. Own two of the songs. I actually listen to a fair amount of newer alternative music, too. Guess I'm not as hip as I like to think I am.

Looked at the list and recognized zero songs and only 3 artists.

Those are albums.

 

[Buck]

People will be listening to the songs of Lennon-McCartney and Dylan, even if not their original recordings, when the infants of today are my age. Gershwin, Irving Berlin, etc. are still well known. Sinatra songs are still played today and they'll be around then too. Any kid of 2075 who picks up a guitar is going to wind up listening to some Jimi Hendrix. Less of the music of that era will endure (I'll bet not one percent of the music of the 20s does today), but some will, because it ought to.

I love Sinatra. I love the popular music of the second half of the 20th century.
I just don't believe it will maintain the level of reverence, appreciation and admiration it enjoys now.
That does not mean it will never be heard or played, but it will gradually fade over time.
Perhaps that is at it should be. I don't know.

People of certain generations, such as me, attribute great aesthetic value to it. However, that does not mean future generations will do the same.

This is not a dig at you or anybody, really, but as a Gen Xer I find it amusing that the Boomers, who were so often insistent during their youth upon toppling the culture of previous generations and discrediting any value associated with that culture, are now alarmed that rising generations do not hold the Boomers' culture in the same esteem in which the Boomers hold themselves.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

This is not a dig at you or anybody, really, but as a Gen Xer I find it amusing that the Boomers, who were so often insistent during their youth upon toppling the culture of previous generations and discrediting any value associated with that culture, are now alarmed that rising generations do not hold the Boomers' culture in the same esteem in which the Boomers hold themselves.

I've been struck lately at how freaked out and genuinely angry Boomers get when they realize kids today aren't living in the same world they grew up in. There was a bill in our state legislature this term that would have mandated schools to teach cursive writing. It has also popped up in Facebook memes. I mean, if there's a bigger waste of time for our kids than learning cursive, I can't imagine what it would be. But dammit, it worked in 1960!!

 

[EStreetJoe]

I've been struck lately at how freaked out and genuinely angry Boomers get when they realize kids today aren't living in the same world they grew up in. There was a bill in our state legislature this term that would have mandated schools to teach cursive writing. It has also popped up in Facebook memes. I mean, if there's a bigger waste of time for our kids than learning cursive, I can't imagine what it would be. But dammit, it worked in 1960!!

Unless times change and a printed name (or electronic initials) becomes acceptable on legal documents like a mortgage, a lease/rental agreement, a will, employment contracts, etc. then cursive will always be needed. I don't see a printed name on a mortgage or a will becoming acceptable anytime soon.

 

[Starman]

Unless times change and a printed name (or electronic initials) becomes acceptable on legal documents like a mortgage, a lease/rental agreement, a will, employment contracts, etc. then cursive will always be needed. I don't see a printed name on a mortgage or a will becoming acceptable anytime soon.

It already is. If you choose to print out your name in block letters on the "signature" line, legally, that's your signature. As long as you affix it by hand, you are golden.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Unless times change and a printed name (or electronic initials) becomes acceptable on legal documents like a mortgage, a lease/rental agreement, a will, employment contracts, etc. then cursive will always be needed. I don't see a printed name on a mortgage or a will becoming acceptable anytime soon.

Sure, teach them to write their own name. Just don't spend a school year hammering them on cursive and penmanship, threatening them that "when you get to high school this is all the teachers will accept!"

Seriously, I'm 49. I haven't written a single thing in cursive (outside of my signature) since I was in junior high. Using that time teaching them to type would be a million times more useful.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Unless times change and a printed name (or electronic initials) becomes acceptable on legal documents like a mortgage, a lease/rental agreement, a will, employment contracts, etc. then cursive will always be needed. I don't see a printed name on a mortgage or a will becoming acceptable anytime soon.

Electronic signatures already are acceptable in most documents.

All of the signatures on or connected to my mortgage were given electronically.

Every document I sign for work, performance evaluations, etc., are all given electronically.

Cursive has outlived its usefulness. Typing and cybersecurity are a much better use of valuable education time nowadays.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I'm really skirting what could be considered young (33), but weighing in here anyway. My stranded-on-a-desert-island top 25 from the 2010s is as follows:

1) Lisbon- The Walkmen
2) Good Kid, M.A.A.D City- Kendrick Lamar
3) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy- Kanye West
4) Halcyon Digest- Deerhunter
5) Modern Vampires of the City- Vampire Weekend
6) To Pimp a Butterfly- Kendrick Lamar
7) This Is Happening- LCD Soundsystem
8) Kaputt- Destroyer
9) Reflektor- Arcade Fire
10) Art Angels- Grimes
11) Currents- Tame Impala
12) Teens of Denial- Car Seat Headrest
13) St. Vincent- St. Vincent
14) Channel Orange- Frank Ocean
15) Yeezus- Kanye West
16) Lonerism- Tame Impala
17) Take Care- Drake
18) No Cities to Love- Sleater-Kinney
19) Days Are Gone- HAIM
20) Summertime '06- Vince Staples
21) Teen Dream- Beach House
22) Human Performance- Parquet Courts
23) In Colour- Jamie XX
24) Bloom- Beach House
25) Parallax- Atlas Sound

Honorable mention: Any of Kurt Vile's. They're all very good.

I'm at least tuned in enough to know almost all the names on this list, and I've listened to maybe a third of it. I like some of it a lot. The Car Seat Headrest album is good.

I still love "discovering" new music, but increasingly it's not new at all -- just new to me.

I grew up on 80s New Wave. For a long time, that was still 90% of what I listened to. Then I decided I should really make an effort to listen to new stuff. I got a lot of popular indie stuff like Frightened Rabbit, Arcade Fire, Beach House, Best Coast, etc. Ultimately, I concluded... meh.

There's newer stuff I do really like -- Butch Walker is great, Ryan Adams, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson -- but a lot of what I'm told I should like seems really weak to me.

At the same time, though, there are decades filled with great stuff I've never listened to. That's the music I'm discovering now. Why should I keep trying to convince myself Arcade Fire is any good where there are still like 20 Van Morrison records I haven't listened to? Right now I've got Spotify fired up and I'm listening to Wayne Shorter's Blue Note collection. Never listened to him before. He's really good. I was in New Orleans over Spring Break and picked up an Allen Toussaint record. Holy shirt, he was brilliant. I've been going down that rabbit hole for the last two months. Curtis Mayfield. The Faces. The Zombies' "Odessey and Oracle." Dennis Wilson's "Pacific Ocean Blue." The O'Jays. George Harrison's 70s stuff.