The older I get the more diverse and eclectic is my taste in music.

This is a good thing but it wasn’t always like that. It should have been but it was a sad sign of the times.

When I was younger, a lot younger, music was almost a tribal thing and it was one’s peers that moulded one into which tribe was your thing.

I liked rock music from the 70s and 80s and so found myself sporting long hair, leather jackets and jeans so became a rocker. If one so much as stated that you liked new romantic, mod, pop or new soul music then you were ridiculed and laughed at. It was tough and music was aimed at different groups socially and one found themselves in rocker or mod pubs. It was often dangerous to venture into the foreign tribal venues.

It was easy to identify the different clubs. Walk down any 80s’ high street and there were punks, rockers, mods, new romantics and trendies all of whom had their official style of dress and with it there were club rules and music styles.

Today the youngsters don’t seem to care. If one takes a look at their playlists on the phones or ipods then they will see tracks of all sorts from dance to rock, easy listening to solo singers and pop to grunge. Its all about what they like without the boundaries of club rules. They all pretty much look the same too so gone is the “club Tie”.

Its fantastic. Music is for all and so what if you like Abba, ACDC, The Sex Pistols, Snow Patrol, Madonna, Elastica, Ministry of Sound, Pavarotti, ELO and Pink floyd on the same playlist? Who cares if you download The Spice Girls, Motorhead, The Cure, Neil Young, Hot Chocolate and Elvis? Its healthy now to buy CDs of George Michael, Earth Wind and Fire, Coldplay, The New Cranes and Dolly Parton from the same store.

Maybe its because music is so accessible today and can be so personal being played through headphones. Or maybe its just because the younger generation have baulked the stereotype genres of society. Maybe peer pressure is less or the ability to be acceptable whatever your taste is the reason. Who knows?

What is still a common factor though is there is one hell of a lot of music out there and it wears many a different hat so there is something for everyone and more.

There is no such thing as brilliant or bad music in my mind. One person’s love is another’s hate. What is important is that if what you listen to, play, sing along to or just enjoy as a group,  evokes emotion and a response then it has done its job.

Listen to what you like not what you think others should want you to listen to.