It’s all to do with the ‘reminiscence bump’. Psychologists have shown that we tend to remember more events from our teenage and early adult years, and that our favourite music also tends to be from this time. It’s during these years that our identities are forming, and the songs that accompany our adolescent experiences leave a lifelong emotional imprint in the brain. Research at Cambridge University in 2013 confirmed that we place less importance on music as we get older, and that the music we do seek out tends to be less intense and more ‘sophisticated’, such as jazz and classical.
You can tune intoCrowdScienceevery Friday evening on BBC World Service, or catch up online atbbcworldservice.com/crowdscience.
Subscribe to BBC Focus magazine for fascinating new Q&As every month and follow @sciencefocusQA on Twitter for your daily dose of fun facts.