- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.smeargle.fans
Open-earedness refers to an individual’s desire and ability to listen and consider different sounds and musical styling. Research has shown that adolescents exhibit higher levels of open-earedness, with a greater willingness to explore and appreciate diverse musical genres. During these years of sonic exploration, music gets wrapped up in the emotion and identity formation of youth; as a result, the songs of our childhood prove wildly influential over our lifelong music tastes.
I guess there is a difference between childhood music from when children cannot independently choose the music they listen to and when they are teens and usually end up listening to “newer” music. The music my parents listened to or that was playing on the radio when I was young feels kind of wholesome. But the music that really happened to change me and that I identified with was the music I could choose on my own. And this was all “new” music (compared to the music of my early childhood) old people didn’t get or made fun of.