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Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Mahdi" data-source="post: 5248694" data-attributes="member: 59506">I think there are two very different things being discussed here, tween music and teen music, and they are usually very different things. Tweens (*aprox. 12 and under) usually like the simpler, cleaner, watered down, poppy, happy, kid-stuff music. However, 13 and up (*aprox.) is where kids really start exploring who they are. Where they start developing and molding their own identity. A big part of that for many kids is music. At this point, kids aren't necessarily looking for something specifically simpler or watered down, their usually just looking for music that lyrically speaks about what they are going through, and musically just sounds different. That may take the form of a structurally "simpler" music, but can just as likely be the opposite. From generation to generation though, simpler has not been a constant. Hell, when I hit that stage, my music of choice was prog rock (Asia, Yes, old and new Genesis, Pink Floyd, etc., and Christian Rock like Petra), as compared to my parents 50's and 60's pop (their high school music) and Disco (their young adult music). I definitely would not call my choice of music to be "simpler" compared to my parents.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm    :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" /> Even though there is, to a certain extent, a commonality of artists and styles for a generation, every kid is different. Also, the artists talked about in the OP (Justin Bieber, the Jonas Brothers, and Miley Cyrus) are much more Tween music than Teen music. However, Miley Cyrus's current music is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. She has definitely reached a stage where she is attempting to forge her own identity. Whether you like her new music or not, listen to the lyrics and you'll understand exactly what I'm trying to say. She's definitely trying to break out of her "Tween" mold and explore the person and artist She wants to be. Teens want to differentiate themselves from other generations. They want to seperate themselves from younger "kids" music and show to the world and themselves they are "growing up". And they want to seperate themselves from older or "adult" music and show the world they are individuals with their own unique identities. I believe it's why the music "the kids are listening to" will always be different from and ridiculed/criticized by (some) older people. That is unless we understand and simply accept the differences and the reasons for them. Style and level of complexity is most definitely variable from generation to generation. Finding new things to do with music though, is becoming harder and harder. It seems like it's all been done before.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> I think this is one reason why the "recycled" criticism seems so prevalent also. I however think that music continues to evolve and change. When we are 80 years old, the "current" music of the time may likely seem very alien to us. Question is though, will we be as vehement and non-understanding as previous generations have?   (*What age this happens at, and to what extent, can be very different for each kid and has as much of a societal/cultural factor as it does a biological age factor.)</blockquote>

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