MERO: We wouldn’t ask you like what’s your favorite Rakim album because it’s like bruh...
YACHTY: I don’t know any.
JACQUES: The generational divide over what is and what isn't good hip-hop did not begin with
Lil Xan's controversial thoughts on 2Pac.
JACQUES: Or when Joe Budden went off on Lil Yachty…
JOE: WE DON’T LIKE WHAT HE REPRESENTS.
JACQUES: Or even in 2008 when Ice-T beefed with Soulja Boy.
ICE-T: Fuck Soulja Boy.
Eat a dick.
This nigga single-handedly killed hip-hop.
JACQUES: Every generation of fans has its own thoughts and influences on what is considered 'good.'
But how does this happen?
DR. ROUSSY: Music becomes truly important to us in our teens.
Teenagers use music mainly for socialization to make friends and to belong with a group
of people of their age.
JACQUES: That’s Dr. Arielle Bonneville-Roussy. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Cambridge,
and a co-author of the 2013 study, Music Through the Ages.
ROUSSY: We looked at information from over 250,000 people and found that the taste in
music of those people differed dramatically with age.
JACQUES: The researchers split their findings into 5 categories called the MUSIC model.
DR. ROUSSY: Mellow for danceable and atmospheric sounds.
Unpretentious for music that is more reflective and speaks to real life experiences.
Sophisticated for more intricate and complex pieces.
Intense for harsh sounds that veer from the mainstream.
And contemporary for the Top 40 chart.
JACQUES: Although the initial study separates the groupings by types of music,
Arielle tells us that these categories can still apply to variations in an individual genre.
DR. ROUSSY: Adults and young adults prefer intense music, contemporary music,
and mellow music.
Because it's a period of their life where they try to carve out an identity to find
new groups of friends and also more importantly to find a lover.
DAUGHTER: Simon and Garfunkel is poetry.
MOM: Yes, it’s poetry, it is the poetry of drugs and promiscuous sex.
Honey, they’re on pot.
DR. ROUSSY: Older adults they tended to prefer unpretentious and sophisticated music.
This is simply because as we age and now and when we're older we do tend to listen to the
music that speaks to our own experiences.
DAD: Now something that really rocks.
This is called good music.
DAD: From somebody's heart.
DAUGHTER: This is bumming me out.
This isn’t fun.
DAD: Just listen to these words, okay?
Just listen to the words.
JACQUES: But, how do we explain the pushback older folks have towards new music?
Well, a New York Times analysis of Spotify data found that people are nostalgic for the
music that they loved in their early teens. It says quote,
JACQUES: This is why a 40 year old who grew up listening to hip-hop
could lament the music dropping now.
It sounds different from what they loved in their teens.
And this has remained a point of contention for years.
SNOOP: I don't know who created it, if it was Future or Migos but all them niggas sound the same.
[mumbling]
JACQUES: But like musical trends, a person's taste can also change with time.
DR. ROUSSY: Don't take music listening for granted.
It's not because you like something at the age of 20 that you will still like it the age of 65.
N.O.R.E.: Hip-hop is...it should be a history lesson.
There shouldn’t be kids that don’t know who DJ Premier is.
But if you ignore the present, if you ignore what’s going on right now,
that is the definition of what makes you old.
JACQUES: So it’s not that the youth doesn’t get it, or that the old heads are stuck, it’s
it's just that our taste and experiences with music change as we age.
That’s how one person could believe 2Pac is boring, while another thinks that Lil Yachty
is ruining rap.
JACQUES: I’m Jacques Morel with Genius News, bringing you the meaning and the knowledge
behind the music.
Peace!
BART: Dad!
No one cares about any of your stupid dinosaur bands!
You have the worst, lamest taste in music ever!