Does Creativity Wane With Age?

[Tim Smith]

 

It seems all the best songs were made when artists were in their younger years. It is true we get less creative later in life?

My example is probably different than any other but maybe similar to a few. I started out as a musician and went to recording in DAWS later on.

I have always worked a day job that wasn't a work from home job which means I get home later in the afternoon. The weekends are often spent doing the things you need to do to keep a house and property tended. Long story short, I don't have loads of time to do anything musical. At one time I could stay focused on a project late into the evening often paying the price the next day. I also took to learning a new instrument abut 8 years ago and only recently pulled off of it temporarily because it was burning me out and my teacher was not a good match. This alone took a lot of the time I might have been in the studio mixing. So maybe my issue isn't age but lack of time. Now when I get home after chores I'm tired and don't feel like pushing it at the mixing desk for 3 or 4 more hours.

How about you? Do you feel age is a factor?

[Gswitz]

I was never very good. I better know the truth of this now than when I was younger. 

[PhonoBrainer]

I'd say no, it does not. It's an interesting question, to be sure.

If the Q is "does musical inventiveness wane?" Then for me that's a no. I'll be creating melodies, baselines and rhythms in my urn.

If the Q is "is there less energy for it as we get older?" Then 10-4 good buddy.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

I would say no. But it's true when we are younger we are different people, with possibly more time and energy, less aversion to risk and without the musical baggage we may carry in later life. So I think it's normal that bands and artists do their best work in the early years.

There's also the novelty factor, a new fresh sound in the 80's is dated now and some bands have sell by dates or can't evolve. They are often expected to stay in the same stylistic lane for the rest of their careers or risk alienating their fanbase so it's harder to re-invent yourself later into a career and stay relevant.

Personally I have been vastly more creative in the past 5-6 years than the previous 45. This is because I got into music licensing and started writing music in many different genres for TV music library briefs.  I was mainly writing a handful of electronic/rock/pop songs each year ( think New Order-esque ) but now I write 100 tracks each year and I've had music on TV in many different genres , most of which I'd never attempted prior to 2015.

These are all the genres I've had on TV: 

Electronica -EDM - Pop - Tension - Trailer - Hip Hop - Rock -Orchestral  - Acoustic - Hybrid Percussion - Funk - Dubstep - Seasonal/Xmas -Indie

 Plus a few more that haven't been used yet !  So no I don't think we get less creative as we get older but as we grow up, we get wives/husbands, girlfriends/boyfriends, families and other more pressing responsibilities the creative part of life can take a back seat. 

Edited September 30, 2021 by Mark MoreThan-Shaw

[RobertWS]

Everyone is different and ages differently.

Beethoven wrote the 9th Symphony when he was 52.

 

[bitflipper]

1 hour ago, RobertWS said:

Beethoven wrote the 9th Symphony when he was 52.

So when he was young, then. 

Creative people are doomed to remain creative their entire lives. However, one's focus does shift over time as we move from inventing wheels to refining the implementation, style and manufacture of said wheels.

 

[Shane_B.]

3 hours ago, Tim Smith said:

How about you? Do you feel age is a factor?

Priorities change over time. For me the closer I get to the finish line the less important music is to me. So I guess I do believe age is a factor but for many different reasons and every situation is different.

I still have that urge to record and I still love music, but it's habit and muscle memory. I actually bought a guitar a few weeks ago. It came broken and I returned it and in the end after a bunch of hassle I just told them to cancel the order. I was even looking at midi controllers. But I hesitate because I know once I get these things they'll just sit there collecting dust just making good future yard sale items after my death. Or end up in a landfill. I'd rather be working on remodeling my fixer upper house, or mowing the lawn, chopping trees and splitting firewood, harvesting and selling my seasonal crops I grow on my tiny little acreage, saving what's left of my hearing.

I was way more in to recording and music when I worked 14 hours a day 6 days a week. I had to to relieve all that stress. My wife is glued to her books and Kindle to this day, I was glued to my music. Then my wife and I both lost our jobs up in Iowa but she was lucky enough to find another one in the Kansas City area. It was the 2nd time in my life I had to start over from zero and I didn't make it the second time because of age and the changing hiring climate which I shouldn't get in to here. You'd think being the #1 tech in a 3 state marketplace for a fortune 500 company would carry some weight but nope. The world has changed.

So I do my own thing now and I'm happier. Hell, I lost well over 100lb's. Closer to 2 if I were to be painfully/embarrassingly honest. The stress was literally killing me. Now that I don't have that, I focus on other things. I spent 5 hours remixing and fixing an old band demo last night but that was the first time I was able to concentrate on music in a very very long time. I rushed a song back in January. It took me a day to record, mix, and master a song that normally would have taken me months. And then I completely lost interest.

Maybe it's depression, maybe it's the world and the horrible people living in it, maybe it's age? I don't know. But I've certainly lost my zest for life and music. I look forward to going to bed and getting a good nights sleep and taking a normal dump in the morning. Seriously. People throw in my face all the time about not working a 9-5 (or in my case it was a 7am to whenever you got home which was usually after 9pm) job and they don't know how I can stand being home all the time. I can honestly tell you I am busier now than I was when I drove 50,000 miles a year running service calls 6 days a week, but I'm busy taking care of my own world now not someone else's.

The other thing is, the music I love is all but dead and I don't have an audience anymore. I can sit here and perform and record for myself but what's the point? My wife couldn't care any less about music so what's the point? I have 68 people on my Facebook page. All friends from high school and family. I keep a small tight circle. I get maybe 5 likes from a few cousins maybe so I don't even waste my time creating and posting there anymore. My brother who is a musician too never even responds so why bother anymore. Without someone to play my creations for I really don't see the point. All I do is obsess over the process. The real joy is playing it for someone who enjoys the end product and I have nobody left.

[Wibbles]

Middle-aged men from the world of dance music:

Underworld - "Border Country" (Live 2019)

 

Orbital - Kendal Calling 2019

 

Hardfloor - NEOPOP Festival 2019

 

The Chemical Brothers - Live at Somerset 2019 (Full Set)

 

[Shane_B.]

Uh ... The Rolling Stones.

[Byron Dickens]

You tell me:

 KK is 70

 

Rob and Ian are all pushing 70 here. Glenn is already there.

[Michael A.D.]

1 hour ago, Shane_B. said:

Without someone to play my creations for I really don't see the point.

I disagree.  I create music for me.  It's a process that I enjoy.  

I'm 67 and I think music keeps my brain and body engaged in a healthy way.  

 

 

[RobertWS]

2 hours ago, bitflipper said:

So when he was young, then. 

 

Not relatively.  At that time the average life expectancy was around 40!

[Tim Smith]

Well thanks guys for relating your opinions on this. I can very closely relate to more than a few of the comments here. 

I think when I was younger I had this feeling I could go somewhere with what I was doing. That part of it was exciting. As the years have gone on I have come to realize that if I want to continue with any of it, none of it will ever go anywhere. What it amounts to then is simply my own satisfaction. When I say "go anywhere" it didn't necessarily need to be monetarily. I just wanted to feel like what I did was somehow relevant or valuable in some way. I have never been a musician's musician. I know a few of those guys who make their living at it going around in bands playing local bars and events. Most of those guys I know don't do extremely well at it financially. More like they squeak by. They love what they are doing and wouldn't trade it for anything. My squeaking by is in the music, although I don't want to sell myself short because I can be pretty capable.

I don't really look at those acts backed by lot's of money because it isn't mine or probably anyone else's reality here. In all honesty I doubt I would like that lifestyle . I mainly just miss those 3 or 4 hour nightly stints where I had an idea and developed it and stayed up late. Sometimes I would spend all day Saturday at it.I have a space set aside for a studio eventually. There are like three projects in front of it, so it hasn't happened yet. I think this has a big bearing on my overall drive to do it. Right now I go into a small bedroom to record and play and it isn't always quiet there. Granted I have come up with some decent material in that room before one of my dogs was trapped in there and ripped all the carpet from around the door trying to get out. It's a pretty depressing space right now. The instrument I was learning (violin) was way more right brained than left brained to learn. I still haven't manged to be able to use it creatively to any large extent. Too much mind power goes into holding it and not touching any of the strings. Proper bow force etc. I can play it, I just can't creatively play it. Does that make sense? I guess I'm still not after 8 years familiar enough with the instrument. I have seen that process as more of a DRAIN on creativity than anything helpful. My teacher was so strict she wouldn't ever let me play for longer than 5 minutes without stopping me to correct me. I had fun playing before I took lessons from her. I eventually decided to look for another teacher. I haven't found one yet.

 

I think I often feel like Shane where I would literally collectively spend days on something only to put it somewhere and have three people listen to the first 10 seconds of it. Not really worth it if the goal is to get it out there.

The other option would be to make music to sell to libraries or similar as at least one other person mentioned so far. 4 to 8 hours in front of a computer recording and editing is enough for me with some time away in between. I can't imagine doing it every day day in and day out. 

[Byron Dickens]

5 hours ago, Tim Smith said:

 

It seems all the best songs were made when artists were in their younger years. It is true we get less creative later in life?

Judas Priest's  2018 album Firepower absolutely RIPS.

Rush's last album Clockwork Angels was outstanding.

[Shane_B.]

1 hour ago, pwalpwal said:

creative how?

Performance, longevity, all the members are constantly creating new music as solo artists and they are working on new music as a group. I'm not sure what more you could do than still be making new music, be the longest running band in history, and playing to sold out stadiums for 60 years to be considered creative.

BTW, I'm not really a fan. I like a few of their songs but I really couldn't name more than 3 or 4, if that. Angie, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Ruby Tuesday ... and ... uh, I'm thinking ... Oh, Satisfaction. Used to do that one. Who didn't.

[Shane_B.]

25 minutes ago, Michael A.D. said:

I disagree.  I create music for me.  It's a process that I enjoy.  

I'm 67 and I think music keeps my brain and body engaged in a healthy way.  

I started playing out young. I was 12 or 13? Can't remember now. I've known the drummer in my last band since I was 6. He's 74 now and I'm 50. He can still sing really well. He records a lot at home using my old copy of SPE 8.5. I tried to get him on CbB so we could collaborate more easily but he's stuck in his ways. He puts his music to video's and posts on Facebook. He takes photo's and video's of our home town and posts on the town's Facebook page. He really enjoys it.

If I hadn't have moved away he and I would still be playing out. But once he's gone, I am done with music for good. Nothing will be the same for me and I dread the day. He's the last person in my life that I share this passion with. I have dozens if not hundreds of hours of recordings he and I have done since the mid 80's on 4 track, 8 track, live in the band, and on our DAW's but I won't be able to listen to them ever again when he's gone. I like going back and listening to us talking on the tape masters and hear how I grew up and got better over the years.

You are 100% right about it being healthy. His wife passed away and so did the lady he met long after his wife passed. He's been through a lot and music has absolutely helped him. He's still as sharp as he always was and still has his voice so I hope he'll be around for a good long time still. He's always trying to talk me in to leaving MO and moving back to NJ but I just can't do that. Believe me, I want to, but I can't.

[Tim Smith]

Old guys with all day to practice might get pretty good after awhile. Even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then. There is a tipping point though. If you wait too long to retire your ears don't work any more.

[SteveStrummerUK]

As I get older, I seem to lack the motiva

[craigb]

Once you get older and forget everything you once knew about how to play an instrument and music theory, then things get super creative! ?

[slartabartfast]

There is also some confusion added to the discussion by the "albums-in-the-hope-chest" phenomenon.

Typically a young artist will come to be recognized after he has been working for a decade or more without public success. Then he hits the audience with the best stuff he has created over that long time period, and everyone thinks he is brand new at this, and marvels at his creative productivity. A second or third album comes out with some of his lesser but still impressive songs, that have been sitting on ice for years sometimes, and the image of a huge amount of creative energy personified in an up and coming talent is solidified. As often as not though after he has used up his best stuff from storage, his creativity seems to lag, because he is not putting out such great work every six months. Once he starts to go a couple of years between releases, he is already judged to be a has-been who can no longer create new stuff, and that is just if he has not succumbed to drug abuse or the loss of motivation and deflections from his meteoric rise that comes with new distractions that often accompanies "success."