the short answer, would be no... It's not that as you get older you become more mature... it's simply a case of being exposed to more music (which happens with time... that's why it's confused with age)... that's why 30/ 40 year old will like Shinia twian and shaggy, and whatever is in the charts and not much else... while someone like my self, has a very broad taste in music..
Do i write music that matches my age? I've no idea... I dont know what other 18 year olds write.. but i suspect if you listened to my stuff you could tell i was eighteen... you'd probablly be able to tell it's a little amaturish, and maybe not so experienced musically...
About Kid A... When i first hear a "preview" of it from the net (ahem)... I was pretty disapointed... to me it sounded they were resorting to an old trick.. layering and layering and layering and layering untill it all stopped, or you got a guitar /organ part with lots and lots of reverb\ echo... It's something that's used in Ambeince alot... which is something that's not regularly mentioned, is that what radiohead did wasn't new... but because they had a great track record (and quite rightly in my oppinion), becuase of that it was hailed as "genius" and "visionary"... When tracks like idioteque had been done before... and "kid A" was very similar to something done by Aphex twin... but the good side is that the poeple who were already doing this, have started to gain some recognition..
Over the last year or so.. I've mellowed musically alot.. but to be fair, that's only becuase before that i hadn't managed to get my hands on many Bjork/ sigor ros/ cold play / lupine howl/ elbow etc etc albums... and i've found my song writing ideas much more free to explore... now that i dont have to have power chords and distortion or screaming etc etc...
the other thing is good songwriting to me doesn't betray the age of the writer... unless it is specifically like cheese teen angst... or is very very dire...
At the minute i'm listening to alot of joy division... and what they did back in the early 80's would still be considered experimental today... it's very very cool stuff, based on strong song writing.. i'd recomend you give them a listen to if you've got time..
