Drastic changes in musical taste

[Champ213 1858]

First of all, let me clarify what I mean by the title. In my 10+ years in the online jrock community I have more than once experienced how people drastically change their tastes in music within a very short time, often only a few months. And by "drastic" I don't necessarily mean that they start to listen to music that is completely different in style (quite often it's just one variety of rock/metal to another variety of it), but the way that they suddenly regard bands they once loved with nothing but disgust.

 

 

The most obvious example in jrock is that people listen to vk for a while, then suddenly change rather abruptly to something else, and subsequently start to hate all or at least many of their old favourites, feeling embarrassed for what they listened to just about a year ago.

 

 

I never really understood this kind of fickleness, and I don't recall when it last happened for me. It's one thing to keep expanding your musical horizons, but it seems odd to me to do such an 180° turn. That's not expansion, it's replacing one thing with another. 

I guess there's some stuff I listened to when I was 10-15 that I'm not exactly proud of, lol. But I can say with confidence that any band or any song I truly loved since about that age (15/16) is still dear to me in some way. I may not listen to them anymore, but I can usually still understand what I saw in those bands/songs at that time. And never has my love turned into hate or embarressment. As you could say, I'm completely at peace with my musical history of the past 15 years.

 

 

So I wonder....

 

Is it an age thing? Something that just may occur naturally when growing up, and may happen any time between 15 and, dunno, 22, but rarely after that? Basically, you just give up on music that was part of your childhood/teenage age in exchange for something that is perceived as more "adult"? Most people where I witnessed this change were probably between 20-22 at that time.

 

Is is something specifically about vk? Maybe something about the way that many binge-listen to vk for several years up to the point that they literally get sick of it? (And often listen to it very indiscriminately too.) Or maybe because vk is considered "immature" and has to be left behind when changing to a more "adult" taste? Or does this happen with other genres as well?

 

Has such drastic change ever happened to you, and why do you think you suddenly feel hate/embarrassment towards something you loved not too long ago?

[hyura 465]

I can't really contribute because I'm very much like you. My musical taste did evolve somehow since I was a teenager of course but it's more that I still like the same things in a more refined manner than a real shift to something new. Most bands that were on my favorites list back then are still there now and the ones I don't listen to that often anymore didn't become unlistenable either.

 

But it's something I'm very interested in, too. It seemed to happen to so many people I knew and I still wait for the moment it happens to me (although since I'm 10 years in the fandom now it might just never happen after all.)

Sometimes it was pretty painful to lose friends simply because the thing that once connected us suddenly became meaningless to them.

[relentless 254]

I've always found the concept of people suddenly hating music they used to love quite ridiculous. One may not prefer the old music they listened to; but to suddenly dismiss everything they listened to before? It sounds like many are not listening to the music solely for the music, and that perhaps with things like VK and other scenes, the drive is to be apart of the experience less than it is the enjoyment of the music. That or they're embarrassed they listened to a certain kind of music and want to rebel against that? It's a bit confusing for me.

My taste in music seems to be a constant enjoyment of everything. From a young age I listened to Rap, Pop, Rock, Folk, Jazz, Metal, and Classical. If anything has changed, it's the prominence that one will have in my life over the other. Now I find myself listening to more Classical and Metal vs. any other "genre"; but I still recognize my enjoyment in those other forms. If anything has influenced what I listen to now, it could be age; but I also attribute it to musical maturity. I was not studying music when I was 13 nearly as much as I am now, so what I listen to may have been influenced by that (I used to love Nirvana, now not so much); but never has there been an instance where I'll just suddenly hate something.

[cruel-crucible 89]

While I've had quite a few periods when my music direction shifted (can't really call it a change of taste), I've never been ashamed of the bands I used to listen to. I might not listen to them these days much or even not at all, but that doesn't mean I am embarassed by the fact that I used to like them.

 

I used to have a best friend who liked VK just like me. We ended up drifting apart and after some time I stopped listening to almost all VK for around half a year. During these months, I listened to some Kpop as one of my current closest friends introduced me to some groups. However, in the end I found out that it wasn't really my thing and started listening to most of my beloved VK bands again. Later on I learned that my ex-best friend told my other friend that she was surprised how easily I stopped listening to VK and traded it for "shitty" Kpop. At this point she wasn't listening to any Japanese music anymore. It's quite funny, really, as I've never entirely stopped listening to Japanese music, never really got into Kpop, and now this ex-bff of mine is a huge Kpop fan who finds all VK "shitty". 

 

I don't get this.

[lichtlune 915]

I think its quite dumb as well, You'll stop listening to visual kei bands for example because they're visual kei and you only care about the "music" but then at the same time you'll only listen to a band if they look like this. Its like the opposite extreme of only listening to visual kei. 

 

[paradoxal 2948]

I can't really contribute because I'm very much like you. My musical taste did evolve somehow since I was a teenager of course but it's more that I still like the same things in a more refined manner than a real shift to something new. Most bands that were on my favorites list back then are still there now and the ones I don't listen to that often anymore didn't become unlistenable either.

 

 

I couldn't have summed up my thoughts better than you did. Even though I used to be a hard-core H.I.M fan when I was 11-14 years old, I still understand why I did listen to them. Though now I consider only two albums listenable (The greatest lovesongs vol. 666 and Venus doom) I still understand why I liked them so much and don't consider all their music "crap".

 

I have this uni friend who told me in a party that she used to be a huge Girugamesh fan when she was younger, around 15 years old or something. Right after that she told my how she nowadays hates their music and can't stand the idea she used to listen to them and that she feels embarrassed about being a fan of them.

 

 

 

I think its quite dumb as well, You'll stop listening to visual kei bands for example because they're visual kei and you only care about the "music" but then at the same time you'll only listen to a band if they look like this. Its like the opposite extreme of only listening to visual kei. 

 

(I put the picture under a spoiler so that the thread would still be readable)

 

 

I have actually never thought it like that. That's so true it makes my brain hurt.

[nightwish666999666 12]

Yes, it happened to me when my favourite band Suede became a more pop band. I wasn't able to listen to their new albums anymore. I mean, they stop to be my favourite band. Anyway something changes when I saw their live shows. Wow, I though that their music was still so rock on stage.
I mean... sometimes bands change because of business (I never saw it in Japanese music, maybe was my lack and that's why I still love vk/metal/rock and so on LOL), maybe at the same time you grow (I was 16 when that happened. I'm 35 and still I can remember this as something drastic). Maybe at the same time the band changes guitarists or bassist, maybe your favourite ones!
"Your" mind has always to find a good excuse to accuse someone or something for the things you don't like anymore.
With experience, things change! Guess, is ilarious: my favourite band now, is the one I didn't like at all at their start! So... things come and go, people changes. Important, most of all, is the feelings. How do you all feel when you listen to that music that once you loved? I'm not able to "hate" a song or a band, anymore. I think I did. I had to accept departures and their changes in music styles.

[blackdoll 907]

To me music is a freaking rollercoster. when i fist started it was into the uppeat - heavy stuff . my team was lm.c the gazette D oz screw lycaon sid born sadie mejibray megaromania kriyu deathgaze. then i just wanted all the heavy and hard bands. but then every thing changed when i herd signal melt/animosity and XecsNoin bright darkness, those were really heavy (around that same time i started to notice how generic japan was like everyone useing the same riffs and how simply some bands were so i cut bands and started to hate).  the hunger for something stronger, heavyer, bands began to grow and japan was cuttin it (vk, TOUHOU) so i set of to the the rest of the world minus some countries for metal/deathcore and MDM, got in death metal while still having a foot in vk. after that i cut more bands and moved some bands rank down. i cant explain what i like and dont like now because its still a mystery to me but yes my taste changed alot even out of japan. i like bands that i thought were trash now too and to this day bands' ranks are getting shiffed.

[coffee000 14]

I didn't experience drastic change in musical taste ever. Maybe that's because I wasn't a music fan when I was under 15. I liked some mainstream 90s rock bands (bands like Blur and Garbage) and some 80s and 90s pop artists. I still think they are good today and won't deny to people that I liked them. I never had the embarrassment phase to like bands I consider shitty or average during my teen days. Those include a lot of mainstream Western bands (the nu-metal, grunge, pop punk/rock types) people mentioned. I never liked them even when they were big in those days. Like you said, I did expand my taste to a lot of different rock genres as I got older. One change I've had is that I am not that interested in electronica music anymore like I used to be. I never dislike the 90s/early 2000s electronica bands I liked. Another change is that I like some J-pop or anime/game/seiyuu songs. I didn't have any interest in this type of music when I was younger.

I've found that those who have become huge fan of some kind of music and hate another kind of music with a passion tend to be still in school or college. A lot of people at those ages seem to like music not because of music, but because they are following a trend or scene. A lot of outside factors/people will influence them to change trends they like. I believe that's the reason why they can be fans of totally shitty groups or stop liking something purely because of things unrelated to music (looks, trends, etc.). That's why music industries can easily market something to these young people and gain a lot of fans among them, while can't do so easily to older people or people who have left school/college since a lot of the latter are not interested in music anymore (many already had their younger days listening to music for reasons unrelated to music then lost interest in such).

[Kaye 296]

While I've had quite a few periods when my music direction shifted (can't really call it a change of taste), I've never been ashamed of the bands I used to listen to. I might not listen to them these days much or even not at all, but that doesn't mean I am embarassed by the fact that I used to like them.

 

I used to have a best friend who liked VK just like me. We ended up drifting apart and after some time I stopped listening to almost all VK for around half a year. During these months, I listened to some Kpop as one of my current closest friends introduced me to some groups. However, in the end I found out that it wasn't really my thing and started listening to most of my beloved VK bands again. Later on I learned that my ex-best friend told my other friend that she was surprised how easily I stopped listening to VK and traded it for "shitty" Kpop. At this point she wasn't listening to any Japanese music anymore. It's quite funny, really, as I've never entirely stopped listening to Japanese music, never really got into Kpop, and now this ex-bff of mine is a huge Kpop fan who finds all VK "shitty". 

 

I don't get this.

 

This has happened a lot to me. I've never understood people just doing a 180 degree turn out of the blue. Those who once loved VK so much they'd nearly drown it in, and would now be disgusted just looking at them while all their prince-y kpop kids walk in front of them. But when I end up listening to something they don't expect, it's suddenly "oh, you changed?" No, I still love the other one just as much.

 

Rather than a 180 degree, I agree more with Champ and multiple people here to be honest. You grow up loving something, and from there on out you just broaden that taste. The things I've loved when I was a kid, I might not listen to them as much anymore, but I still like those albums. Same goes for VK. I haven't been following a VK band for years but the records I used to love from bands like Gazette, -OZ-, old Girugamesh and Dir en grey, among many others, I still love them. I've recently gone back to a more alternative/hardcore sound, but I might as well get another VK phase sometime. I really don't get why we should keep ourselves to one thing, and completely ban the other. My music library is a mix of so many different genres and I wouldn't want it any different.

 

So I wonder....

 

Is it an age thing? Something that just may occur naturally when growing up, and may happen any time between 15 and, dunno, 22, but rarely after that? Basically, you just give up on music that was part of your childhood/teenage age in exchange for something that is perceived as more "adult"? Most people where I witnessed this change were probably between 20-22 at that time.

 

Is is something specifically about vk? Maybe something about the way that many binge-listen to vk for several years up to the point that they literally get sick of it? (And often listen to it very indiscriminately too.) Or maybe because vk is considered "immature" and has to be left behind when changing to a more "adult" taste? Or does this happen with other genres as well?

 

I have noticed this as well and I think part of it is a "society" thing. It goes for Kpop, VK, Jpop, even Western "emo" bands/rock. Most of society considers things that aren't regularly seen on tv or around them as weird. It rubs off on other people, whether you want it or not. Subconsciously, people will start thinking that "it's just a thing of their youth" and will leave it for what it is once they "grow up." I've seen people completely go away from any genre they ever listened to, and be totally embarrassed with all of their favorite bands from when they were teens.

 

As an example. I have been listening to Japanese music ever since I was 13/14. Through the years, Chinese, Thai, Korean, etc came with it. Mixed with Western bands I grew up with. Even to this day (I am 25 going on 26) I still have my family ask me "Why Japan? Why Korea? Do you really like it that much?" knowing it's been what, 11 years? And it always comes with the "Shouldn't you act your age?" one because I am not a girl who uses layers of make-up, and wears high heels all the time, because apparently having your own style isn't allowed in today's society.

 

 

Something else I've been wanting to say.

I don't think that "they aren't my favorite band anymore" and "180 degree turn" is the same thing. There are some bands that just change through the years, so I understand that bands just go into a direction you personally don't like even though they were once one of your favorites. I don't get though, how some of those people can actually say "they're crap now, I don't get why I ever listened to them" as if they are embarrassed to have ever listened to them. An album you once thought to be good, should still be the same? Why would it suddenly be bad years later, because a band changed its direction? Like all these Girugamesh fans for instance (same goes for the west with Linkin Park and all... yeah I know). "OMG THEY ARE SO TRYING TO BE WESTERN/MAINSTREAM NOW" why are you stuck with your head in the past and won't let a band evolve? Fine if you don't like the music anymore, but that doesn't mean suddenly everything they've ever done and is not 13's Reborn is crap.

[Kawaii_Minpha 194]

Edit: Message deleted

[rebelstrik 111]

 

But i know that i will always love Visual Kei.

 

 

yeah sure, u thought the same about death metal aswell. i know loads of ppl that think the same, but after a while they end up liking something different again.

[Kawaii_Minpha 194]

Edit: Message deleted

[Champ213 1858]

Yes, it happened to me when my favourite band Suede became a more pop band. I wasn't able to listen to their new albums anymore. I mean, they stop to be my favourite band. Anyway something changes when I saw their live shows. Wow, I though that their music was still so rock on stage.

I mean... sometimes bands change because of business (I never saw it in Japanese music, maybe was my lack and that's why I still love vk/metal/rock and so on LOL), maybe at the same time you grow (I was 16 when that happened. I'm 35 and still I can remember this as something drastic). Maybe at the same time the band changes guitarists or bassist, maybe your favourite ones!

 

 

 

Well, a band changing their sound is bit of a different thing. Obviously it's totally possible that a band changes so much that their new music doesn't appeal to you anymore. Happened to me as well. But I was more thinking of people who suddenly start disliking or even hating the very same songs they once loved, not new songs by bands they used to love.

 

Also, w0000000t for a fellow Suede fan! I do agree that their newer stuff is not the same as the older stuff, but I still like them. The new songs are okay, but the old ones mean so much to me that it will never change. As a band, Suede are still my favourite.

 

 

Anyway, lots of interesting replies so far, still have to catch up on reading some of them. XD

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

It could be that they got exposed to more things in a very small amount of time. Hypothetical example, but suppose they started college and had 3 roommates who were very musical. That would have exposed them to a great deal of other genres outside of vkei and possibly cause them to feel they've really compartmentalized their own tastes and try other things be it for variety, better production, or to fit in with the people they're around most now.

 

It could also very well be that they've been changing all a long, but the result seemed immediate to an outsider. 

 

As for the people who seem like their favorites change within 10 minutes, they probably never really liked that "favorite thing" to start with and seem like the kind of person who throw around superlatives without really placing any stock in their severity.

[Paradeisx 65]

I really thing it's beacause of the age and the maturity you gained.

 

I used to be a helpless Himeyuri and Paradeis stan (lol), now I just listen to things such as Dummy xD, The God and death Stars and especially Plastic Tree and Deadman.

Things are that I knew these band when I was younger (like 13+) but I didn't pay much attention cause of their "dark" and melancholic vibes and I had not the maturity you need to fully understand their compositions. 

 

Anyway lol whatever you can't listen to the same things all the time i guess 

[hiroki 5521]

Like almost everyone here, my musical tastes certainly expanded a great deal as I grew up. I gave a lot of things that I never think I'd try a go. I loved some of them, hated others, and was indifferent to the bulk of them. I guess I'm not sure if that counts as 'refinement'.

 

Ever since I was young, there were a few genres/scenes that I've vacillated between - visual kei, classical, and r&b/poppish stuff. There are points in my life where I listened to nothing else but just one of them - or a subgenre within them - almost exclusively, and these periods can last anywhere from a few days to months. Still, I find that eventually - and that may be a long long time - I will return to my other music at some point.

 

Of course there are also stuff that I absolutely loved which I am unlikely to listen to as much as I used to, but I've never felt ashamed of having liked what I liked. And I know that at some point I'll return to them and reminisce over how much I used to be so obsessed over a particular song/artist. The nostalgia that washes over you at the moment you accidentally stumble on something you haven't listened to in 10+ years is amazing. I guess these are little 'surprises' that will always keep me interested.

 

So, no, I don't think I'll come to "hate" what I used to love - at least not as dramatically as some other people have.

[hyura 465]

I couldn't have summed up my thoughts better than you did. Even though I used to be a hard-core H.I.M fan when I was 11-14 years old, I still understand why I did listen to them. Though now I consider only two albums listenable (The greatest lovesongs vol. 666 and Venus doom) I still understand why I liked them so much and don't consider all their music "crap".

 

www It's funny that you say these things in one paragraph, because HIM was the first band I got into, too. Also when I was around 11 years old and I agree: If a new band would come out now that made the same music it's very unlikely that my adult self would get into them but I can still understand what made me like them as a kid and if I ever stumble upon one of their songs it still makes me excited somehow. My favorite album was greatest lovesongs vol. 666, too and I still have it. ; D

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

wings of a butterfly>>>

[Champ213 1858]

If a new band would come out now that made the same music it's very unlikely that my adult self would get into them but I can still understand what made me like them as a kid and if I ever stumble upon one of their songs it still makes me excited somehow. My favorite album was greatest lovesongs vol. 666, too and I still have it. ; D

 

Me too! XD

 

But yes, that's an interesting point. I guess it's true that sometimes it's just the nostalgia that lets us continue to enjoy some songs that we probably wouldn't take notice of if they were released today.

 

 

 

Anyway lol whatever you can't listen to the same things all the time i guess 

 

 

That's true. But I'm mostly baffled by the abruptness with which some people seem to exchange the things they love. My listening habits have changed a lot over the years as well, but I have to go back really far to get to some "lol, wth was I thinking?"-moment. And my answer would usually be "Well, I was 12 years old."

 

On the other hand, I have literally experienced people saying things like "Lol, I have just seen my last.fm charts from last year. I was such a weeaboo back then, totally embarrassing." Some people suggested that maybe they never loved the music to begin with, or loved it for the wrong reasons, but I think it may be the other way round, ie. they reject it now for the wrong reasons, like wanting to present a more "adult" taste, wanting to disassociate themselves from a fandom they grew to dislike etc.

 

 

I think music should be journey and you should keep exploring stuff, but a journey becomes kinda pointless if you vehemently try to forgot parts of your journey once you have moved on somewhere else. I do not listen to the same music I listened to 10 years ago, but I always try to bring the best bits and pieces of each stage of my musical journey as luggage into the next. Thus I can on rare occasions spin some old HIM or Marilyn Manson CDs, or some generic but fun vk song from 5 years ago, and be completely unashamed. XD

[Nyasagi 259]

I think everyone has one or a few of these "teenage embarrassment" bands they used to listen to, that's okay. I still like many old music from my teens, though. When I hear it, I'm suddenly like "woah, I haven't heard this for ages!".

 

My taste has never changed much, but for example with visual kei, there were bands I started with, and I don't care about these bands anymore. I either liked a few songs of them and I found the rest boring later, or they stopped making interesting music and my interest in them just died. I also found many other bands I liked much more than the ones from my beginning. I even had a kpop phase, but it started making me boring after I discovered all the music I liked and the rest was all the same... the trends have changed as well, and I didn't like that "new" sound. I still don't. I have a friend who likes it, so I was basically forced to watch their videos. There was only one interesting boysband, but when I checked their other videos on youtube, I was like "nahhhh".

 

Something that changed with time in my case, is the whole point of view and attitude on the visual kei scene. I can see it more from the real, not just the fanasy side. Maybe it has something to do with my age, or maybe it has something to do with the knowledge I gained about it. I can't deny I hate it sometimes, because it's far from that image all foreign fans have on the beginning, but somehow I still manage to find some bands whose music and image I like. There are less than before, so I just focus on them more and follow them more closely. Maybe one of  the reasons why some people stop being interested in vk is discovering the real facts about the scene, so their imaginary world shatters?

[Pretsy 1343]

I went a full round in terms of my musical taste.

 

My teens were filled with various nu-metal garbage (of which some ended in my frequent playing habits even nowadays) but pre-teens instead were filled with glee, house-y, poppy, disco-ish and calming/serene music

They made a comeback last year, but now with much poppier and wider content. In that sense, I would say that I am more accepting music-wise than earlier - and much more defensive in terms of my own taste (affected my circles a bit but I won't even talk about it here).

 

And as with most MH veterans/sophomores, I lost my grasp on frequent "vk-ing"  - okay, VK scene these days might have some curiosities lying ahead, BUT they won't necessarily please me the same way like before.

[TheBistroButcher666 228]

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Edited January 8, 2019 by Arithmetica

[CAT5 9075]

I've gone through phases, but usually some vestige of each phase sticks with me as I evolve. For instance, I once had a rather brief VK phase that began sometime in 2005 and lasted til late '06. During this time both Rentrer en soi and D'espairsray were competing for spots as my favorite band. I'm no longer crazy about those bands, nor am I excited about the VK scene at large, but I'll still jam to some their songs today - and i'll also poke my head into the scene every now and then.

In retrospect, I've trimmed the fat off of many of my musical interests, but I've never cut anything out completely. And while I've never just drastically changed my taste, I often develop new affinities for styles that I never really jived with in the past. When that happens to me, it feels sudden, but I know that some kind of subconscious conditioning must have been involved.

[LIDL 692]

Definitely not an age thing.

 

I see that many elderly still in love hearing their Nana Mouskouri or Elvis Presley records.

 

Personally speaking, regarding VK, or Japanese music in general.

The fandom are the part where I can grow tired of.

Beginning of last year, aside of getting too handful at irl, things that happened

in this forum just make think I need a step back and away from all these fandom thing.

It just feels like everyone seems to just bitch, bitch, bitch, and it does affect me personally.

I slowly become one of them, and that is not healthy when all I want just to enjoy music.

Also the elitism of the fandom in VK doesn't really help at all.

 

Besides the lack of innovation within the VK musicians make the music gets old really fast.

When Ziyoo Vachi, 8-eit and 9GBO had to disband or having indefinite hiatus,

that is the "That's It." moment for me. 

So sent away a resign PM to Kai, get it over with, and venturing to another interests for a moment.

 

And at this point, I began listening to more Japanese indie band that is not VK.

It is refreshing. And find some new favourite bands, SEPTALUCK, Secret 7 line, loffel, JAWEYE, SFTS, to name some.

And of course even more Western music that is more relatable to me.

 

Relatabilty. That must be it.

When someone don't feel like they can connect to the music of artists or bands

that they used to hear, I think it is always good to find a new thing, new sounds, new inspiration, new perspective.

With so many choices out there, it is such a waste if we just bask in one place/genre only.