Science Says Listening to New Music Is Good For You and Rob Agree

Science says listening to new music is good for you. However, I can tell you as a radio programmer, many of us stop listening to new music as we age. An article on the subject says many of us stop seeking out new music around our 28th birthday. And yeah, that happened to me.

I was running a classic rock station. I never really had embraced the alternative and grunge music that gained popularity in the early 90's and sort of became the dominant flavor of rock and roll around my 28th birthday. Top 40 music had changed significantly too and was not longer speaking to me. Add into it that I had radio career and part of my job was trying to figure out what songs people wanted me to play on the radio. And well, listening to music for pleasure just wasn't that much fun.

I started embracing music again when I wound up programming and Adult Contemporary station. Back when we were kids, the music these stations played was so square. But after eight or nine years of running Classic Rock or Classic Hits stations I embraced playing new music. I got into it.

Then after years of carting around my turn table and never setting it up. I decided it was time to rediscover vinyl. It was time to discover artists I had never given a chance as a kid. Artists I thought were dorky as a kid. Or artists that I was just curious about. And I was going to discover them on vinyl.

Why vinyl? It's the perfect format to listen to artists and music you want to discover. It's sound is a little warmer. An LP makes it a little more difficult to skip the cuts that aren't hits. And the format itself gives you something to look at while you listen. It's a little harder to say that with CD's or even digital formats.

One of the reasons I chose to put my radio show on Kix 105.7, instead of Awesome 92.3, is the new music. I've always enjoyed country music. Yet, never had a chance to DJ the format, and never dug really deep into the format. Now I get to do that, and it's a lot of fun.

So how is listening to new music good for us? According to Rewire listening to new music does the following:

It makes us feel good.
It creates new pathways in our brain.
The unpredictability of hearing new music increases dopamine in our brain.
It's easy to find new music.

It is pretty easy to find new music these days. We play new songs all the time on Kix 105.7. Any of the music streaming services have playlists of new music in a variety of genres your listening to. And there's bound to be at least a short list of artists / albums you didn't take time to discover earlier in your life that you can remember. That's what I did, and the biggest bummer about that in West Central Missouri is having to drive to Kansas City or Columbia to get my used record fix.