Is it bad I still like metal and punk at my age?

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I don't know if it's the depression I suffer from talking or if it's the crappy culture trying to pressure me but I sometimes wonder if it's bad I still like heavy metal and punk music at the age of 29.

Why am I having these thoughts? Well, I used to dream of being in a band or atleast write my own songs. Unfortunately, music was seen for the most part among my peers (saying that lightly) as not something you made a career out of but simply background sounds unless you wanted to play an acoustic guitar at the local dive bar so that shut down potential connections for me. My own creative energy has also been low due to not only being depressed but not being encouraged (My father, despite playing the guitar himself, discouraged me from playing it), struggling with getting better at the guitar, constantly comparing myself to others, and not having a girlfriend.
I feel like because I failed to live up to my dreams that I don't deserve to continue liking the bands I enjoy.

I also realize even at metal and punk shows I don't completely fit in. Sure, I'd rather go to them than the redneck and gangster rap clubs but I learned the hard way about romanticizing any culture. I thought if I went to metal and punk shows, I'd instantly have new friends and maybe even the girls who went there would like me; I actually once saw one of my older brother's friends going through the crowd with a girl in tow he just met there and I've read stories were both genders said they either met their partners or had sex at the shows they went to. Instead, I've generally been treated with indifference and I don't drink or smoke so I am often the odd man out.

Is there any point in keeping the passion or should I just drop it?

Not bad at all. If you enjoy the music, keep listening to it. At the end of the day, you make yourself - don't let society dictate what you should listen to at whatever age. Hell, I know middle-aged people who are passionate metalheads. You have nothing to worry about in this case, trust me.

Hell no!! !

If it is something you still get enjoyment out of it would be silly to give it up. I am 44, and a metal head from the the beginning. (I like a lot of other music too, but metal is the main genre I listen to and play as a drummer/guitarist)

The metal shows I have been to recently have all had a wide range of age groups for old and new band alike. Within the last year .... Slayer/Testament ( both been around since the 80's), Gojira (never heard of them before the show...WOW so glad I found them), Mastadon, and Anathema just last week. Yeah sometimes I'm the older dude at the show but that's cool, I don't mind.

Life is hard enough with all that we deal with, if there is something that you truly relate to and enjoy....stick with it man.
Kind Regards, Shark

I am turning 60 next month and I still love various forms of loud rock music as I used to.

I'm 31 and my interest in metal music is just as strong as it was when I was 16. I still love going to shows and looking for new bands to follow. It doesn't matter what age you are when it comes to metal or any type of music for that matter. As long as you still get enjoyment out of it, then there's no reason to stop listening to metal.

Not only did my father discourage me from guitar playing, he tried to discourage my music tastes. He used my birthday as an excuse to take me to a Hal Ketchum show instead of asking if a band I liked was playing in Austin instead. He also played stupid songs like Toby Keith's "I Wanna Talk About Me" and Tim McGraw's "Indian Outlaw" as well as other stupid songs around his home.

It is not bad I'm 55 and I still listen to judas priest.

Friends my age (circa 60) still listen to metal, and hard rock. I listen to loud classic rock ( still love Zeppilin, and the Scorpions).


Its not either/or. You can keep on listening to metal but also expand your musical pallet to other things at the same time.

In fact it looks like whats really bugging you is not taste in music, its your relationship with your dad.

He sets examples for you, and then fights against the thing he is setting an example for. He plays guitar but discourages you from playing guitar. But then changes his mind, and takes you to concerts, but not concerts you're interested in. Kinda sucks that the very thing you could bond with your dad with (music) is alienating you from your dad.

I will never stop liking metal....I'd rather die than never listen to metal again, that is how strongly I feel about it.

i am mystified at the musical appreciation many people have for "metal" music.

to me it is like a mood or attitude style of music.

it's like a an emotional screaming protest at some tortuous feelings that plague the mind of it's inspirators.

it's just so raucous sounding, and i am young enough to have been exposed to heavy metal in my teens, and i heard it as a hodge podge of angry sounding sonic iterations of some dark mood.

there is little melodic complexity in heavy metal music because there is no room for delicacy of performance.

usually it is just 3 chords that are screeching renditions of some sort of teenage angst.

whatever.

i like bright, multilayered compositions that are considered more from a melodic point of view than a "wipe your soiled toilet paper in someones face" kind of music.

i did try to play some metal songs on my piano, but it's boring to play in a flat piano sounding way.

i will post shortly a heavy metal song i covered just as an experiment, and ....well yeah.

heavy metal fans will tell me i missed the point entirely i am sure.

ok i did one by metallica called master of the puppets.
i couldn't be bothered playing the whole thing because it goes nowhere and is not fun for me to play.

but there is no accounting for taste i guess.
https://www.soundclick.com/html5/v3/pla ... 18935&q=hi

metal and warfare, Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War (),
metal and torture, Some popular musics are used as instruments of torture by the US military. From Panama to the Middle East, these practices are part of a broader program called psychological operations. Its extent and impact are difficult to measure, but testimonies abound. Some initiatives, such as the Zero dB (Against Music Torture) or Steve Goodman's "Sonic Warfare", alert the public.
"Nifty package" is the name given to the operation launched in 1989 to capture leader Manuel Noriega when he was a refugee in the Vatican embassy in Panama City. The titles were supposed to provoke the surrender of the deposed dictator and they had been chosen mainly according to their messages. The classics R'n'B and soul do not fulfill their mission, they have gradually been replaced by the sharp stamps of hard rock, such as the song "Hair of the Dog" of Nazareth.
This choice proved more judicious to exceed both the recluse and the ecclesiastical authorities. After ten days of resistance, Noriega finally surrendered on January 3, 1990.

and now something completely different

Just enjoy what you enjoy mate. I am a 58-year old metalhead whose tastes are probably more extreme now than when I was half that age.

"Not fitting in" goes with the territory...

I'm bass 48, drummer is 50 and guitar is 49. We get together once in a while and make a very loud racket.

The moral of this story is....if you think you are too old then you are!

Like whatever the heck you like. It is Nobody else's business.