The songs we listen to in our early teens form our musical taste as adults, according to a New York Times analysis of data from Spotify. The study also found that these influences were stronger for women than men; and were tied to the end of puberty for both.
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A New York Times analysis of Spotify play data for every Billboard chart topping song released between 1960 and 2000 show that the early teen tears shaped your musical taste for life, For men, this solidification happened between the ages of 13 to 16, with the average being 14 when their favorite song was released. For women, its ages 11 to 14, with 13 being the average age.
“a consistent pattern”
From The Rolling Stone to My Morning Jacket, there are songs that make form rock’s great American songbook. But on an individual level, what those songs are varies wildly depending on one’s birth year.
“Consider, for example, the song ‘Creep, by Radiohead, writes NYT journalist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. “This is the 164th most popular song among men who are now 38 years old. But it is not in the top 300 for the cohort born 10 years earlier or 10 years later. Note that the men who most like “Creep” now were roughly 14 when the song came out in 1993. In fact, this is a consistent pattern.”