Hearing persons can only hear a maximum possible range of frequencies between 20 Hertz and 20,000 Hertz. Sound lower than 20 Hertz is called infrasound, and sound higher than 20,000 Hertz is called ultrasound.

But this maximum range is only true on the day that a hearing person is born. Every moment the cells of the ear age after that point, the highest frequency they can hear drops. This maximum frequency often drops to 16,000 Hertz by the time they’re in their twenties, and continues to drop towards 10,000 Hertz over the next decades.

This means there are certain high frequency sounds that younger people can hear that older people can’t. I hypothesize that this contributes to differing tastes in music between the young and the old. Older people can’t hear every frequency in the music and don’t get the intended experience.