Check out this week’s Billboard chart of top-selling albums and nestled among Bruno Mars and Eminem you’ll find perennial dorm-room favorites like Journey’s Greatest Hits (released in 1988) and Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers (1984). Why? Credit the influence of your parents—and their parents—according to a cool new study from Cornell University.
Researchers had college-aged students rate their emotions while listening to songs from 1955 to 2009, from “Rock Around the Clock” to “Poker Face.” Even though the students were born around 1990 and—as you would expect—liked new music the most, they also felt strong personal associations with songs released in two distinct eras: 1960 to 1969 and 1980 to 1984.
The study participants specifically remembered listening to those classic rock tracks with their parents, who just happened to be between the ages of 20 and 25 during the early 1980s. The explanation: Our 20s are the period we remember the most clearly, according to previous research. As a result, the music we listen to during those years forms strong emotional connections, which parents pass on to their children when they reach the same age. “Parents may use music to convey personal values and define family and cultural identities,” says study author Carol Krumhansl, Ph.D.
Music from the ’60s peaked a little later than when the grandparents of today’s college students were young enough to form their musical identity, but other psychological studies have found that music from that epochal decade resonates across generational gaps. “Because of the quality of the music, the grandparents may have continued to listen to popular music later in their lives than other generations,” Krumhansl says.
Still can’t quit classic rock? That’s okay. But whether you’re 20 years old or nearing 65, many music apps can decipher your love for the Kinks or Marvin Gaye to suggest new acts from 2013 you might like—or vice versa. Here are our favorites:
Discovr (iOS; $4.99)
Discovr gives you a cool visual map of artists, their influences, and acts with similar sounds, letting you jump degrees of separation between bands to find new music.
Slacker Radio ( OS, Android, Blackbery, web; ad-supported or $3.99/month to $9.99/month for premium;)
In the realm of create-your-own station streaming services, Slacker Radio stands out by letting you “fine tune” your stations by adjusting whether older or newer music is played, and how often your favorite songs come up.
Google Play All Access (Android; $9.99/month)
Google’s Internet advertising business is known for delivering targeted ads based on your web history, and now they bring the same predictive powers to your earbuds by analyzing your music library to guess which new artists will best fill in the gaps in your collection.
Rdio (iOS, Android, Blackberry, web; free or $4.99/month to $17.99/month for premium)
Rdio combines your own listening habits with the tastes of your social media contacts, along with the current favorites of music critics and artists like Snoop Dogg to build personalized music streams.
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