Spotify’s signs of midlife crisis

The protagonist in my novel he & She is approaching age 50 when he realizes he’s suffocating in the throes of male midlife crisis.

Music giant Spotify recently said male midlife crisis happens younger than we think, perhaps even as early 42.

That’s surprisingly young. If memory serves, most of the middle aged men I’ve seen suddenly flying around town in a flashy sports car were in their 50s. On witnessing one together a few years back, my friend, a woman, pointed out one and asked: “Do they really think a young woman is going to want to jump in that car and want to spend the night with him?”

The Spotify blog item ( https://insights.spotify.com/us/ ) defines midlife crisis as beginning when people stop listening to their usual musical playlists, which usually contain hits from their younger days, and start declaring love affairs with current big-name stars.

I’m a jazz fan and even at the age of 42 I was listening almost exclusively to the greats from my youth and my 20s. I never latched onto the current big names. I didnt think I was entering male midlife crisis. On the other hand, after leading a mostly sedentary life for decades, I suddenly started to train that year in the hope of making a baseball time with men all 10 or more years younger. Perhaps my donning a pair of baseball cleats at that age was a sign of midlife crisis settling in.