Over the years of my life, I’ve always been into metal and rock n’ roll. It was pretty much the only genre I listened to ever since I was a kid. When I was young, I was heavily into stuff like Twisted Sister, Sammy Hagar solo, Bruce Springsteen (I’ve been a lifelong Springsteen fan and still am, btw), the Talking Heads, The Clash, Jethro Tull, Billy Joel, etc. As I got older into my high school years, I started to get into the new grunge movement around that time. Of course, I first discovered Nirvana and all the rest of the grunge bands in the 90’s like Soundgarden, Alice N’ Chains, Pearl Jam, STP, etc. In my teen years, I started to get into pop and rap a little bit. I also tried to get into country over the years too. While I liked a lot of country artists… I’ve always found that Johnny Cash has always been my favorite.
I’ve always been a hard rock and metal fan… still am too in a way. I don’t like the death metal/black metal stuff where there’s a lot of screaming and growling, that genre has never been my thing. I just like regular heavy metal with real singing stuff like Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Sabbath, etc. That’s the kind of metal I like.
Today, I’m noticing that my taste in music is starting to change again. I’ve gotten into a lot of instrumental music lately. I’ve also gotten heavily into the Allman Brothers as you can see so I guess I’m heading to the blues, jazz, and acoustic music mostly. Today, I just bought two albums from Rodrigo Y Gabriela and an album by jazz guitarist Al Di Meola. I’ve been wanting to get into Al Di Meola for a long while ’cause I’ve read so much about him through Guitar World over the years. The album I got from Al Di Meola was “Elegant Gypsy” an older album of his. If I like it enough, I’ll get some more of his albums.
I listen to albums. Not just songs. I listen to albums like a piece of art. A lot of people would only select one or two of their favorite songs to get for their Ipod but not me. I never listened to music that way. I’m a full album kind of guy. That’s how you wanna listen to music. I know a good album when I hear one.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll always love metal and rock n’ roll. I’ll NEVER turn my back from those two genres but as I get older, I start to listen to other things like more blues, jazz, fusion, etc. Instrumental music with great guitar playing. I love listening to that stuff. Instrumental guitar music. The Allman Brothers did that a lot too. They did more instrumental music than songs with vocals and that’s one of the reasons why I respect the hell out of them so much.
That’s what happens as you get older. Your taste in music slowly changes. That is what’s happening to me.
I wanna get into more jazz as for more inspiration for my own guitar playing. I wanna listen to those guys how they play their lead guitar solos as a way to improve my own. If I want to become a better lead guitar player, I figure listening to a lot of jazz would help me. So I think I’m gonna get into jazz and instrumental guitar music more.
Al Di Meola gets a lot of praise from metal guitarists especially from Zakk Wylde so I think I’m gonna get into Di Meola’s music myself. I’ve been watching Al Di Meola’s live performances in youtube quite a lot so I think I’m gonna start getting his studio albums now.
Kev
K'Brocking 
I think as you grow older, more time passes and more opportunities to experience new things (like music.)
Also, when you’re older, you’re less susceptible to peer pressure and can expand your interests.
I believe appreciation also expands and grows as as well. The older you get, the more you can appreciate.
I agree. I feel that I just need to grow up and listen to better music. I look through my music collection and I admittedly felt guilty of some of the stuff I got. I just get rid of stuff I don’t like anymore.
I want to get into more jazz and classical.
The same thing with watching movies and reading books. With movies, I quickly gotten away from stuff for kids and started watching more serious films like a lot of classic movies. With books, I’ve been reading a lot of political stuff and history.
That’s kind of why I stopped watching wrestling too.
Time to grow up and be an adult for a change.
Kev
Interestingly, I have found that I haven’t really listened to anything new since around 1994.
I hear ya… today’s music industry is pretty much garbage but not all of it, though… sometimes good music still comes around. I don’t buy new albums all that much. Once in a blue moon a good album will come out. I’ll only buy a new album if I like it enough.
I still mostly listen to older music though like music from the 60’s through early 90’s.
I still prefer to listen to music from the 60’s to 70’s. If you ever took a look at my Ipod Touch, you would find that my playlist library is mostly old music.
I hate the way the industry is today, though. It’s all pop and mainstream garbage.
Kev