What is it that makes older people stop listening to music the way they used to? I’d think that the generation that were teenagers and young adults during the sixties and the seventies would still be listening to that music today, if not still discovering new music based on the influences those artists have caused.

Spirit In The Sky came on my iPod while at work one day, and due to some glitch in Apple’s Soundcheck, it plays at a much louder volume than anything else in my collection (it is an equal to “Last Train To Clarksville” which also plays at ear splitting volumes). I reached out to turn it down but both my co-workers (a 50 year old woman and a 60 year old man) told me not to turn it down, that that was “their music”.

The woman, who hardly seems to enjoy living life at all, actually rocked out a little bit, got a little groove on, and it was so uncharacteristic. The only other time I saw her act jazzed about music was when she found a video of her marching band from the 1970′s and heard the music they used to play. One time she reminisced about all the prog-rock she used to listen to, but never actually listed any names that are still significant today. (She stared at me blankly when I offered Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis).

My mother was a Beatle-maniac. She saw The Beatles all three times they were here in Southern California (she says, since this was pre-major amplification, that all you could hear were girls screaming, but you could tell what song the band was playing). She still has all her old mono vinyl (though they’re all used and probably stored incorrectly) and owns all the original CD releases of their albums. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her actually listen to a Beatles album in the 18 or so years that I have been conscious of my surroundings.

When I was young, so about 16 years ago, my mother got into country music and I ended up at a couple Billy Dean and Alan Jackson concerts in my younger years. I can’t blame her for country, it was a natural progression I suppose: The Beatles -> The Byrds -> Gene Clark -> Getting Old -> Country Music.

Deep down it bothers me. I have to wonder: when I stop being 24 and start being 42, will music no longer be such a draw for me? Will I not thirst for it as I do now? A month can’t go by without me discovering at least two new albums. Can I really sustain that sort of enthusiasm for my whole life?

Times have changed, I have to admit, and back when my mother was my age, when old people were my age, they didn’t have millions of songs available to them for free on the internet. They had their vinyls, where if you listened to them too much they stopped sounding good (I’m sure the ‘music industry’ wishes that vinyl were still the norm, a instantly degrading medium makes good business sense), the radio, and American Bandstand. They couldn’t watch their favorite artist on demand. They couldn’t just jump online and have new music pushed at them like we do now.

But come on! The Beatles! How can you outgrown the Beatles? How can a year go by without at least one or two listens to Revolver and Sgt. Peppers? And Rubber Soul? Even just Eleanor Rigby? Who can go without that! If you can randomly rock out to Spirit In The Sky, then why don’t you listen to it every day?

I have a lot of questions about adulthood, a lot of curiosity. I’m wondering if some changes will be against my will. One day I’ll wake up and I just won’t feel like dedicating so much of my time to music, or I won’t feel like spending so much time with my friends, or I’ll come to accept that working is all there is and stop feeling like I should rebel against allowing it to take over my life.

I don’t feel like I can live without music. I have to wonder if part of getting older is just giving up on living your own life. You have kids and/or a wife that take over your life, or you have a job that takes over your life. When will I stop feeling like my time is so damn valuable? Is the erosion of that sense of worth what getting older is all about?