I have better taste in music now than when I was a kid. Stagnation is death

Almost every part of this is wrong. But I suspect op's parents do have better music taste than them.

Because mosts music tastes stagnate [sic] after your teens

Assumes facts not in evidence.

Also ignores that pop music, by definition, has the broadest reach, by being the lowest common denominator (no criticism here, it's just a fundamental requirement to be accessible by the most people).

Compare pop music to say, Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" . Far fewer people can appreciate "Kind of Blue" because it's insane complexity. Hell, I have musical training and can only listen to it occasionally, on the daily I much prefer something far more approachable, some form of more-popular music - even stuff we call "classical" (which was the pop music of it's day).

People that say shit like this don't listen to enough music to make such sweeping claims. Your parents may have had music tastes that you align with closer than that of your teenage years.

Not to mention that the "old music" is fairly selectively the ones that stood the test of time, while the younger generation is still experimenting and figuring things out. Expand your horizons; don't fall victim to the bias.

I politely disagree.

I used to love pop in my teens year

Transitioned to rock afterward.

Discovered heavy metal in my late forties and now listening to 2000s prog consistently.

I still love some "old" pop/rock songs, tho.

I can’t say I have any peers that say music use to be better. I hardly find music to be stagnant now, hell a lot of the recent pop music has had some things that have resonated with me and I’m a dude in my 30s. The thing is you can’t let yourself stagnate. I am a music lover who is always looking for something new and different. With the internet and recording being so accessible there are more artists being able to put their work out there than ever. Even then, I am still going back to music of my youth and still enjoying most of it. My parent’s music was never went away- I’m digging even deeper into their record crates and finding the stuff they weren’t quite fond of and finding a lot of things I enjoy. Open your ears, the birds are singing and bells are ringing. You just have to go to the woods or the town square to hear them some times.

I think this cycle is more like half a generation above you than a whole generation. My fav bands in my teen prime were in their early 30’s, while my parents were closer to early 50s at the time.

mosts music tastes stagnate after your teens

Whoah. That claim skipped a few entire genres of my tastes

And I'm pretty sure at least a few artists I listen to are younger than me

I just don't let myself stagnate if I can. So many awesome artists to keep discovering.

It depends what kind of music you were listening to though. If at 15 you were listening to 25-year old artists that's not really your parents' music, is it?

Not quite parents, but older "kids".

I'm a millennial with Boomer parents and I typically listen to Gen X musicians.

Is it stagnation or you just have more of an attachment to the music you grew up with because it literally affected the way your brain matured? Still interesting insight tho.