If you think of a song you truly love, there’s a good chance it takes you back to a “time and place” says AUT senior lecturer in radio, Peter Hoar.
He says as a general rule, people pick up lifelong music tastes between the ages of 15 and 25, and those tastes stick around.
Even when hearing a new song that has a lasting impression, that new love is, more times than not, influenced in some way by those early years.
As for what makes those years the important ones? They’re the formative years in life, and developing lasting connections to music is no different.
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This is the age most people have their first significant relationships, start their first jobs and establish their cliques and characters.
Gender, ethnicity, the people you spend time with and where you work can all come into play. The music we love, he says, is an extension of our personality, our culture and how we present ourselves to the world.
“Obviously people listen to new music and develop and change, but when people talk about the songs they really love, they often mean a song from their past,” he says.
“We definitely have a relationship with those very special songs that speak to us.”
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Peter Hoar says most people develop lasting music taste between the ages of 15 and 25.
We’re not all still listening to that one song we rewound and replayed for months when we were teenagers, though, and Hoar says falling out of love with a song can work similarly to personal relationships, where you meet someone, fall head over heels then lose the spark.
Hoar recalls going back to listen to one of his favourite artists, Tom Verlaine (of Television) when the musician died in January this year.
“I went back and listened and thought yeah it’s good … but it’s not what it was when I was 17.”
As for new songs? They can absolutely form an instant spark with us says Hoar – whether through the lyrics, music or simply an “emotional or intellectual” attachment.
Even so, those instant hits will likely be based on what you’ve heard before.
“If you’ve decided hip hop is not music, it’s very unlikely you’ll hear a hip hop song and [fall in love].”
And in the end, what ultimately makes us fall in love with a song is a personal connection, whether that be with music, lyrics or a triggered memory.
“I think personal connection is the real thing,” he says. When a song “gets you” it has an emotional or intellectual effect on you and piques your interest.
“It’s like meeting and interesting person. There’s going to be a conversation here, perhaps.”
