There are so many ways in today’s world that people connect to each other. For some, it may be literature or art, but many feel that the greatest form of communication and connection to people is through music. Teens, through every generation, had music to escape and relate to. Nowadays, with the whole world at their fingertips, they can be diversified into all different kinds of music. Currently a very popular music genre is considered oldies music.

Oldies music to teens now would be 90’s and everything beforehand. 60’s psychedelic, 70’s rock, 80’s punk, anything this generation could name before the year they were born, would be considered oldies music. There are many different ways that today’s teens could have found out and opened themselves up to a completely different world of music. A big influence on how teens today have gotten into this genre of music is their parents. Kids might find nostalgia in hearing songs that they remember from when they were little.

Something that goes along with why teens today like the older genre of music, is their infatuation with the culture of those decades. The 60’s, for example, was the time of one of the biggest social revolutions including the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam war movement, women’s rights movement, gay rights movement and environmental movement. Especially in modern times, people tend to be more accepting of different interests and ideals. Reason why people find it interesting is being able to look back at the days where all those ideals were challenging the social norms. 

Another enormous reason that this generation is more in touch with a lot of different songs from different decades is the access to all the music they have. Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and Amazon Music are just a few services that have contributed to the streaming of over tens of thousands of songs for millions of people all over the world. 

The biggest and most relevant answer to the question of why teens listen to older music is the realization of the time, talent and hard work that goes into making a record then. Thinking about how 40 years ago people would be standing and shouting at a concert, hair teased up, leather jacket on, with a lighter in hand watching true music and magic be performed right in front of them. Going to a record store and looking through all the vinyls deciding which one to get. That is a completely different reality from today’s music industry where you can listen to any song at anytime, and instead of lighters being held up, they have been replaced by phones. The idea of a completely different way of viewing music is what intrigues and draws these teens nowadays, because the music is the only thing left behind from those awesome old memories.