Study shows that we stop listening to new music by the ripe old age of 33

Remember back in your teen days, how you would spend hours and hours listening to CDs and tapes from new bands that you just couldn't wait to discover and tell your friends about? Well those days are over now pal (provided that you're 33 or older), and you're never going to find the new cool band again...at least that's what the latest research says anyway.

The study, based on data from Spotify users based in the United States, shows that the average age that people stop listening to new, fresh artists is 33-years-old.

According to the data (illustrated in this handy graphic below), it seems that the teenage years are the first step on the musical ladder, as we begin to listen to the popular artists in the charts, before we hit our 20s and start really getting into it, expanding our horizons and trying everything and anything. As we then move towards our 30s, we start to consolidate and settle on what we really like, and then we listen to that until we die or are abducted by aliens or whatever.

Via AV Club/Spotify

Accoridng to the study, there are two main reasons causing this turn away from new music: "First, listeners discover less-familiar music genres that they didn’t hear on FM radio as early teens, from artists with a lower popularity rank. Second, listeners are returning to the music that was popular when they were coming of age — but which has since phased out of popularity". Furthermore, the study also states that those who have children stop listening to new music earlier than those who don't sire offspring.

As the folks at A.V. Club point out though, there's no need to lose all hope yet, as this particular piece of research features on a blog called Skynet & Ebert, which has yet to be given the status of peer-reviewed scientific journal, so the findings are more of a general trend than concrete scientific proof. Still, you'd better hope that you settle on a few artists that are going to remain cool forever by the time you hit your mid-30s. We got stuck with Limp Bizkit. They were the coolest thing in the world at the time, how were we to know that their oeuvre would age badly?