but it goes in phases.
Sometimes I get bombarded with and overwhelmed by a lot of small and/or unsigned bands, because there is an awful lot of it that does sound the same or otherwise doesn't grab my attention. But every now and again one new (to my ears) band does sort of stand out, and then I get excited about new upcoming bands again and actively look for more stuff to discover.
And there are a bunch of bands that are always my favorites, that I come back to over and over again, even when I've been listening to them since I was little. I say this as someone who is pushing 40 and grew up with parents who were big music fans. So I don't think how long one has been listening to music is necessarily a factor in how open you are to new music. Some people just get stuck I guess.

Maybe this last part wasn't so much the point of the post, but I did want to respond to it. I love Billy to pieces but I do agree that sometimes it really does seem like he's very much in his own little world and a little out of touch and at times unappreciative of how many people are listening to his music or how many records they sell.
I wish the focus was instead on how deeply the music is loved and appreciated, because even if the numbers have dwindled, the passion among a very large core group of fans has not. Not to mention people who are new to the Pumpkins and very excited about what they hear.
And when he makes comments like that, it gives the impression that the devotion of those fans is not good enough because it's not everyone in the whole world.