I think that when you are a teenager music will have a greater impact than when one is old and a bit cynical. I can remember in the late seventies or early eighties listening to Radio Luxembourg at night and hearing all the Jam, Squeeze, Clash, Rats, Blondie when these groups were always in the charts. Even the general run of the mill pop songs are better remembered than later decades. All the slightly oddball stuff like Echo Beach By Martha And The Muffins- there was just so much interesting, slightly off kilter stuff on Radio Luxembourg- even plenty of mad seventies disco had a certain appeal, but certainly maybe the human brain is wired to make more of experience when one is young.

As we get older our brains shrink and neurotransmission slows down- hence we feel maybe less alive as we did in our teenage years or in our twenties. That may account for the tendency to look back on the past, because we are looking back on a perhaps more enchanted time, when everything seemed a bit more magical.

As someone who had always taken an interest in psychology and read loads of books on the subject I am always aware of how the music is listen to today compared with music in the past. Does it have the same impact?  Is there some magic key in music that no matter when we hear it, if it is good enough it will have a deep significance. There are lots of good books on the subject of music and how it affects the nervous system, attempting to explain the neuroscience of music, mood, and memory. It is fascinating to read about, without necessarily taking from the simple joy of listening to music.

My six fav albums are the six Rats albums in no particular order because the Rats are my favourite alltime band and the initial impact happened when I was a teenager so undoubtedly there is a link. The Rats are a band I have never disowned or grown out of. Lyrically and musically there is enough 'meat ' there to last a lifetime.

noelindublin wrote:

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As we get older our brains shrink and neurotransmission slows down- hence we feel maybe less alive as we did in our teenage years or in our twenties. That may account for the tendency to look back on the past, because we are looking back on a perhaps more enchanted time, when everything seemed a bit more magical.

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Speak for yourself!

Agree with the second sentence though that it's late-30s/40-something wistfulness, looking back at youth, wondering where the years have gone to, comparing teenage dreams with later reality.

(I shamefully nicked that off maplegirl on the comments on His 'n' Hers, but it more or less sums up how I feel).

However in reality, I tend to look back on the period when I was in my mid-late 20s/early 30s with this wistfulness.  Hence my current Pulp obsession overriding my Rats obsession at present.

Lisa wrote:

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... maybe the 40s are the new teenage years - as maybe you get more freedom and more liberated again ..... Nice thought anyway

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 Keep thinking that way.  And when you hit 50, the fifites will be new 20s

I must confess I have become more nostalgic in the last five years or so.  Prior to that I would generally listen to newer music, but these days I just can't be bothered.  Even when I do buy something newish (XX, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, Vaccines) I buy it on vinyl. 

The only CDs I bought in recent times were a load of Kinks CDs for £3 each when HMV were selling off the previous re-issues when the new deluxe editions came in.

noelindublin wrote:

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I ad a short dream the other night in which I though how music in the nineties was much better than it is today-

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That wasn't a dream that's just a simple matter of fact.  I'd go as far as saying that from 1989-1998 it was the greatest era ever in popular music.