At What Age Did Music Reach You?

You’ll always have a soft spot for the first music you loved.

Elvis Presley with his Cadillac Limousine. Photo: Author’s collection.

If you ask any kid what kind of music they listen to, they will almost universally respond, “I listen to everything.”

I realize it is a vulnerable thing to express to an adult who your favorite singer or band is. If a child tells me who their favorite singer is, we are friends. Seeing a child excited about anything is good food for the soul. If music reaches you, it doesn’t matter how old you are.

I have worked at music museums for the last two decades. I love meeting people who are passionate about music. If you're excited about a song, I'd love to hear it. If you love an artist, I want to know about them. If I hear a song, it may not resonate with me. But if it reaches you in a way other songs don’t, I get excited about your passion.

The generation gap has always been there. I don’t always embrace the music my children are listening to, but I always have an open mind and am willing to listen when they tell me why they like a song. The same thing goes for the music before my time. There are many recordings I never paid attention to as they were outdated or didn’t seem to be aimed at me.

As I get older, I have a larger framework of perspective to categorize music, and I realize how…