Officially Old...

... or maybe just out-of-touch. I always thought that I was doing a pretty good job keeping up with new music, and that my tastes were eclectic enough that I was usually ready to give new styles and groups a listen. I read several publications regularly, hunting for reviews of new stuff that I would want to hear and combing through the record stores I visit for something different. This week, the Village Voice published their annual "Pazz and Jop Poll" issue, which I've looked forward to every Spring for over thirty years as both an affirmation that I still know what's going on (based on records from my collection making the list) and also as a guide to material I may have somehow missed. Obviously I didn't like everything that made the cut, but it was one of the most comprehensive surveys of the previous year available-- even more-so when it went on-line and included full reports from all the participating critics, so that I could focus on those who I trusted, based on previous recommendations.

But this year, for the first time, I feel really disconnected from the poll results. Only one of the top ten is in my collection (Neko Case) and only seven of the top thirty. Normally that would cause me to start compiling a shopping list of what I've missed, but in many cases, I've heard the other bands listed and just am not interested in adding them to my collection. There are a few exceptions, of course, but nothing like the good ol' days (yikes, did I just use the term "good ol' days"?).

I've actually been wondering about this for awhile: is it possible to reach a point of saturation, where one just doesn't have the same capacity to absorb new material, especially if one (like me) is still spending a lot of time listening to and exploring older favorites? I'd speculate that some of this is because new bands are often just recycling older styles, and so they don't sound as fresh, or necessary (if you know what I mean). But I suspect that's more of an excuse to avoid thinking about the possibility that, after you've reached a certain age, new music is no longer meant for your ears-- that is, it doesn't really speak to me in any meaningful way. When I look at the artists whose work from last year made the Pazz and Jop poll, and which I actually purchased around the time of their release, it's almost all veteran artists like Bob Dylan, Sonic Youth, Wilco, Bruce Springsteen, Yo La Tengo, even Leonard Cohen (who has got to be in his seventies)-- people whose work has, whatever other qualities, a strong degree of generational compatibility. It should go without saying that these artists are still making exciting, challenging music deep into their careers, but how much of their appeal to me is based on my love of their earlier work, and does my commitment to them in some way inhibit me from embracing newer, less familiar artists? I never thought that was true in the past, but now I wonder. I still get a kick out of hearing something brand new for the first time, and will still seek out such kicks, but I also can't help but think that I've perhaps developed a blind spot (tin ear?) that is going to make it a much rarer occurrence than in the past.