Have you hit ‘musical paralysis’? Study says over-30s stop discovering new tracks

Have you hit your musical peak? Here’s a hint: if you’re in your 30’s or more, you probably have

Most people hit a musical paralysis in their late 20s. That’s when they stop discovering new music and just settle in with the music they already like, at least according to a new survey.

Hi friends, I’m Jeff, JR is the producer, and you are listening to episode 72 of Plain English, a podcast for learning English. Here at Plain English, as you know, we go just a bit slower than normal speech, which should let you track and understand all the words. And every episode has an interactive transcript absolutely 100% free on our web site—the transcripts have translations of about 100 words or phrases from English to Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and French. Today’s episode transcript with all those translations can be found at PlainEnglish.com/72.

Listen up for the phrasal verb for today. At the end of the episode, we’ll talk about the phrasal verb “settle in.” You’ve already heard it once—listen up for when you hear in the main story and we’ll talk more about it later on in the episode.

Have you hit your musical peak?

Here’s a question: do you think you’ll ever stop discovering new music? If you’re a big music fan, then you may never stop. Finding and listening to new music might be a lifelong hobby for you. But if you’re like most people, then there will come a time when you’ll probably just settle in and listen to the music you already like over and over for the rest of your life. That point—right when you stop discovering new music—that point is called “musical paralysis.”

And a new survey of 5,000 adults in the US, UK, Germany, France and Brazil attempts to identify when that musical paralysis moment is for most adults—and the results are little surprising.

First, the overall result is that on average people stop discovering new music when they are 27 years and 11 months old—that’s a ridiculously specific number, so let’s just say that on average people stop discovering new music right around age 28. Obviously some will be earlier, some later, and like I said, some may never stop. But for most people, according to the survey, that moment comes at around age 28.

So let’s dig a little deeper. The researchers also think that right before your paralysis moment comes, you are actually in your best music-listening years. You actually have a “peak” of listening to new music in your mid-twenties.

Interestingly, the researchers found that these ages vary by country. In Brazil, they said, your peak comes when you’re 22 years old, but then soon after you turn 23, you’ve hit paralysis. Germans are the more mature music listeners; they hit their peak of discovering new music around their 27th birthday, and reach paralysis around age 31.

So why would this happen? The survey asked people why they stopped seeking out new music to listen to, and here’s what they had to say. Twenty-five percent of people said it was because they had a demanding job. Eighteen percent said they were overwhelmed with all the musical options out there, and then a bunch also had young children to care for.

There was one other finding that I found interesting, and that is that 60 percent of the survey respondents said they wanted for more time to listen to new music—and that’s including those that already passed their peak and just don’t listen to new tracks any longer.

There are a few potential explanations for why we have a musical peak in our lives. Younger people tend to have a wider variety of contacts—they’re meeting new people, going places, being in school, being in work, whatever—whereas older people are more set in their ways. They meet fewer new people and settle into their old habits. I think there is also a lot of nostalgia involved. People tend to settle into musical tastes they had when they were younger, and listening to the music that was popular then reminds them of those good times. I think that’s true for me. I don’t mind disclosing that I am above the age of musical paralysis—by which I mean, yes I am older than 28 but I also think I have personally hit musical paralysis. I tend to listen to songs that were on my favorite radio stations in Connecticut growing up. Whatever that station played is the kind of music I still like today.

Spotify did a similar study a few years ago and had some interesting findings. They found the age of musical paralysis was around age 33, so a little bit older than what the most recent survey from Deezer said—but regardless, they uncovered this same phenomenon of musical paralysis. What they found is that the youngest listeners tended to listen almost exclusively to the most popular bands, whereas older listeners tended to listen to singers and bands that are less popular; these older people had wider musical tastes. And then when music fans settle into their habits later in life, it is a combination of the popular music from a long time ago and what they might have discovered more recently. And that is actually what happened with me too. In fact, I can tell you personally that I identify with that survey finding I mentioned earlier that said people feel overwhelmed by all the choices. We can now get so much music, from all over the world, all through time, small indie bands and big mega-bands, and everything in between. I often feel like I can’t decide on something new to listen to because of all the options.

So I’d be interested to hear what your experiences have been like. And listen, this is all about habits and trends—this is not to say that you’ll never hear a new song again or you’ll never discover a new artist. But in general the survey says in your late 20s or early 30s you settle into your life’s playlist and don’t often add much new to it. So let me know if you find that’s true, or maybe some of you are the exceptions here—the lifers who are always on the lookout for something new.

Today I want to say hi to Andy from Germany. Andy’s story might sound familiar to a lot of you. He said he didn’t pay too much attention to English class when he was in school because he didn’t see the point—he didn’t really care about English then. But now in the last few years, he’s trying to get back into it and has been using all the great technology out there—apps, books, movies in English, and now podcasts too. That’s exactly what happened to me, too. In school I studied French and I liked it, but never really thought it would be useful—and then I lost almost all of it. Then when I got older—right around when I hit my musical peak, in fact—when I was a little older, I wanted to get back into languages and started learning Spanish. So anyway, Andy, better late than never, that’s what I say. And welcome to the Plain English audience, it’s great to have you and everyone else listening from Germany.

I also want to say hi to Thiago from Rio—actually Thiago’s story about learning English is not too different from Andy’s. Thiago is giving me some travel tips for the next time I go to Brazil. And also a quick hi to Luciana from Down Under. Actually she’s from Brazil, but is currently in Australia in business school. Thanks to Andy, Thiago, and Luciana for saying hi and being part of Plain English.

If you want to send a note, don’t be shy—you can even suggest future topics if you think something interesting is going on in your country and you’d like to hear about it in English. You can send me a note to [email protected].