Definition of Old age

"Old Age" is a song recorded by the American rock bands Nirvana and Hole. For years, it was known only as a Hole song, first appearing as a B-side on their 1993 single "Beautiful Son," and again on their 1997 compilation album, My Body, The Hand Grenade. Then, in 1998, a tape of the song being performed by Nirvana was leaked to the Stranger, a Seattle, Washington weekly newspaper. The tape was recorded in March 1991, as part of a demo for record producer Butch Vig (who produced the band's second album, Nevermind, later that year), and seemed to contradict the song's official standing as a Courtney Love composition. In a Stranger article written by Kathleen Wilson following the leak of the tape, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic confirmed that "Old Age" was indeed "a Nirvana song." In an interview with UK music newspaper Melody Maker in 1997, Love stated that "Old Age" was "something somebody had a little bit of and I said 'let me have the rest of it', and I wrote this thing in it and tried to make it goth. I found it, wrote it, and recorded it in the same night". Although, the song had been recorded a year before by Cobain, Love's lyrics were almost entirely different. Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson later clarified that the song had been given to Hole to re-write and record.

Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle. Euphemisms and terms for older people include seniors — chiefly an American usage — or elderly. Some believe there to be prejudice against older people in Western cultures, which is one form of ageism.