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I'm 30 years old. I fell out of touch with American music sometime in the late 2000s, because I got into European metal music. I started off listening to symphonic metal, but eventually ended up listening to power and epic metal. Along with some folk metal and pagan folk. Yeah, I'm eclectic. Anyway, in 2012 I saw psy's 'gangnam style' for the first time, and was blown away. I eventually become addicted to kpop and stopped listening to metal all together.

When I was young, I listened to the typical pop music you saw in the late nineties (I was in middle school then). In high school I pretty much just listened to Rammstein and 93.3 the planet (a radio station). I got more into NDH metal after high school, but did still have a secret interest in the pop music of the time.

Of course, I know its not common for people my age to listen to kpop. But I was wondering, what do people in my age group normally listen to? I've been out of the loop for a while, and I'm a shut-in that never goes outside other than to buy groceries. I don't even know what artists there are now. I know of Lady Gaga (I don't care for her though, she's weird). I also heard of Justin Bieber when he was in the news several years ago, for acting like a dumbass. I also used to hear a lot about some group called 'one direction', though I've never heard any song of theirs.

I'm not looking into getting into new genres. I'm just a weird guy with weird interests and I'm just curious what would be considered normal for my generation.

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  • You can still like Kpop. I know some of my friends whose parents love Kpop. It is your choice on what you listen to, not others. So if someone is judging you, just say," I like listening to this. You can't tell me what I should and what I shouldn't listen to.
    – MoodyToody441
    Jan 17, 2019 at 1:48

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Your own musical journey might not be as unusual as you assume. A recent study showed that teenagers tend to like the music that is most popular at that moment, whereas people's tastes get less mainstream as they age. So it's very possible to tell you what your peers were listening to 15 years ago, but much harder to give a definitive answer for who they listen to now (it's probably not the hot acts talked about in the news). This is almost definitely who (most of) your peers listened to in high school: Nelly, Ja Rule, Ashanti, John Mayer, Nickleback, Creed, Usher, Eminem and Linkin Park. Basically pop-rock, pop-rap, pop-r&b and rap-rock-r&b crossovers. Of course there was a lot of other and different music happening at that same time, but your peers probably weren't listening to it back then.

But now, they've grown up, so their tastes have likely branched out (just like yours). They probably never listened to One Direction, which was music-strictly-for-teens after you guys had already grown up, and even Lady Gaga (who is your age) hit it big only after your teen years. So who are they likely to be listening to now? It's much harder to say for sure. Top 40 is always inescapable, and it's actually a bit better now than it's been a while, so they might like a couple of the more listenable current hits like "Sorry" (Bieber) or "It Ain't Me" (Selena Gomez). They also might still be following the careers of a few 2000s-era survivors who have aged well and matured, like Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z, who have managed to stay continually popular ever since your teen years.

On the other hand, maybe they're more into newer and less mainstream artists close to your own age, like Janelle Monae (31), Gotye (37) or Mark Foster (33). This might include some of the innovative new, introspective hip-hop, like that by Frank Ocean (29) and Kendrick Lamar (30) or some modern folk, like Fleet Foxes (members are in their early 30s) or Connor Oberst (37). On the other hand, they might be enjoying some some retro pop, like recent hits by Bruno Mars (32). Their playlists quite likely include some recently popular dance styles driven by people in your own age group, like electroswing or dubstep (Skrillex, age 29). They might even be listening to some K-Pop or J-Pop. Just like you, they may well have left American pop behind in favor of a wider palette of sounds (and unlike people my age, they grew up in a world where the Asian artform called anime was a significant cultural influence).

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  • @lXBlackWolfXl Sorry for initially responding negatively to your comment. I have edited this post to remove most of the value judgments, and have added some more of my reasoning on why this is plausibly what your peers listen to today. FWIW this is NOT my own list of favorite music, although I did (mostly) add links only to songs I personally like. My own list of favorites would include a lot of music from before I was born, as well as a number of classics from my own Generation X that your generation almost certainly can't stand.
    – Chris Sunami supports Monica
    Oct 9, 2017 at 13:55
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Anything anybody likes or wants to listen to the great thing about music is whether it be electronic, acoustic, orchestral, spoken, etc it can be enjoyed by everyone age doesn't nessecarily indicate that one will like one genre more then another.

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