'what type of music do you like?'

[CrowleyHead]

So do us nerds necessarily enjoy music more than folk who buy the sort of albums you see advertised on TV and for sale in petrol stations? I know some people who only really listen to chart music but they seem to like it as much as I like my weirdo stuff

This is my personal take on it...

A lot of people can find solace in something that seems perfectly suitable for them that's say 'mainstream' music. But even in mainstream music you know, there's so many things to get into. When I was a child alone, you had nu-metal/rap-rock, which sometimes lead to you getting into post-hardcore/metalcore or becoming a proper metalhead, and in some cases, even getting you into hip-hop properly. Rap fans could become 'better' rap fans by gravitating to certain styles and eras, or lead to one becoming a crate digger and getting really into older funk/soul/jazz records. Cheap euro-trance-pop like Eiffel 65 or whatever, modern rock hits like Smashing Pumpkins could lead you to discover My Bloody Valentine or whatever.

Nowadays it's just as chaotic, because of youtube sensations. I mean, my little 12 year old cousin was trying to tell me about Die Antwoord for a minute until I realize what she was actually talking about, and then a minute later I realized "Oh shit, my cousin only just reached the point that saturday morning cartoons and Disney channel stars are irrelevant not that long ago, and now she's asking me about Aphex Twin because Die Antwoord and Kanye West like him, fuck me."

At the same time though, with me personally, and this is a result of overindulging with mp3s and downloading... I don't remember if I like everything I 'like'. This is actually a result of an old external with almost a terabyte of music on it getting damaged and needing the files to be extracted, but since I haven't redownloaded a lot of that stuff, I can't TELL YOU without actively regrabbing all of those things, which I can't will myself to do all the time. I just tried it with Bowie a month ago, and I was listening to "The Man Who Sold The World", and album I thought I loved, and it was tedious. Granted, that was an album I loved 5 years ago when I had a lot more patience for guitar music, but it makes me call into question that, maybe in my overzealousness to find new things, I tricked myself into thinking I liked what I liked.

Though, I think no matter what technology was around, I'd always hate Joy Division.

 

[paolo]

Re the David Bowie thing, it's natural for tastes to change over time, it doesn't mean that you were 'tricking' yourself (unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying here). Also Joy Division are awesome

Joy Division >>>> Joy Orbison >>>>> Roy Orbison

 

[trilliam]

music is a gateway drug unto itself

its a beautiful thing


i started on pigeon detectives and ended on the replacements. true stories.

 

[woops]

I knew it was too good to be true

Joy Division >>>> Joy Orbison >>>>> Roy Orbison

 

[muser]

I'm sorry but Roy orbison shits all over joy orbison, just go with it

 

[CrowleyHead]

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[Local Authority]

its such an abstract question to answer though isn't it, most people who ask probably listen to well known music and are just asking to make gentle convo. most chances are you like something that they do like but they just don't realise that its x or y genre so all you can really do is probe them and then be like oh yeah i like that kinda stuff and then when they say disclosure all you can say is, oh right not that kind of deep house. i mean DEEP house and look really smugly at them.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

shoulda been more clear before. always respect your opinions john e, just could do w/o some forming social bonds>>ebay snobs false dichotomy

what I usually really do is what some people have said and ask what they're into. whatever the answer I'll almost certainly know and be able to talk about it, and it saves me from having to pick something random on the spot. most people have really boring musical taste tho. nb: boring ≠ bad or inferior. I'm always psyched to meet someone who's not an obvious head who's really passionately into something, even better if it's something I'm don't know or hate, it's just rare.

also, I don't feel compelled to try + bond w/someone just cos the opportunity presents itself

this otoh:

So do us nerds necessarily enjoy music more than folk who buy the sort of albums you see advertised on TV

fuck no. what are even the criteria for that? personally I'm very happy to know about tons of different things and always be looking for more but it's impossible to say whether I enjoy any of them more than someone who just sings along to the radio. I do like making recommendations under the principle that having more listening options to is always better, but enjoyment itself is relative. and there is a downside to being a head, you inevitably wind up in that losing my edge state where it's a neverending quest for every cool song every done by anybody

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Did they like it?

politely indifferent. tho tbf dunno if acid tracks really comes across out of context and on laptop speakers

I'm sorry but Roy orbison shits all over joy orbison, just go with it

thank fuck someone beat me to the punch on that

 

[Leo]

i met a guy at a party one time and somehow got into the "do you like music" conversation. turns out he was a huge fan of bluegrass, which i know nothing about. and it was a really fascinating conversation, because we went off explaining the lineage and influencers in a depth of knowledge and passion that rivaled any genre discussion we have here. he put things in context with the stars but also the less well-known "underground" players, highlighted the producers responsible for building the style, etc.

that type of "what type of music do you like?" discussion is well worth having and, to me, probably more interesting than talking to someone who's also into dance music.

 

[Patrick Swayze]

I play them this


and then tell them it's gabber

 

[mistersloane]

People are still, and always have been, surprised that I listen to and know about hiphop. Happened again just last week.

 

[continuum]

Depends who I'm talking to. If they're young I real of a list of genres like "dubstep, drum n bass, house" and see what they pick up on. If they're older I just say "dance music", turn the question over to them and take it from there.

 

[philblackpool]

I don't get all the folk here who say "I like a bit of everything" is insincere. I always end up saying that cos its genuinely true (proper child of the Peel programme) - and if you were to say "OK, what about the Birdie Song?" then I'd say "F*** yeah, great novelty record!!". All styles are valid, there is not one I can think of that I'd totally avoid although obviously I spend infinitely more time on, say, dancehall than I do power ballads. The only problem with feeling this is an easier & more honest answer than giving a half-hour treatise on all yr favourites is:

I thought "a bit of everything" normally meant the Kaiser Chiefs, Bob Marley and Daft Punk...

Hence, people end up asking you if you like specific bands you have no more than a fleeting interest in...

The way forward on deciding whether you're gonna bore someone senseless seems to be to natter a bit around the Big Name In Genre they've started on (ie Marley), then say "Have you heard the Wailing Souls stuff on Channel One?" or whatever & dependent on the level of bafflement in the reply either retreat politely to the weather or possibly make a new friend!

 

[paolo]

Last night someone I don't know very well asked me to name a band that I like as part of a psychology exercise about different ways of seeing the world. I've been listening to quite a lot of krautrock recently so the first bands that came to mind were all krautrock bands, but then I thought that this person probably wouldn't have heard of them so I just said 'I don't know'

 

[Mr. Tea]

Last night someone I don't know very well asked me to name a band that I like as part of a psychology exercise about different ways of seeing the world. I've been listening to quite a lot of krautrock recently so the first bands that came to mind were all krautrock bands, but then I thought that this person probably wouldn't have heard of them so I just said 'I don't know'

That's lame man, for all you know he might have been an Amon Duul nut and you could have spent the rest of the night talking about awesome music you both love. Alternatively, if you were correct and he'd never heard of krautrock, you could have pretended to be autistic and just talked solidly at him about if for ages, raising your voice slightly every time he looked like he was about to try and leave. It's a win either way.

 

[paolo]

yeah in retrospect I could have handled that situation better

 

[slowtrain]

i got introduced to this guy at a gig a while ago who our mutual said i would 'get on really well with' and it was this guy in sports goth outfit with a monster energy drink cap, and he was telling me about how he only listens to r&b mostly nowadays, what did i listen to and i said 'black metal & techno, mostly' and then i had to go to the bathroom or buy a drink or somethng

 

[mistersloane]

that was meeeeeeee

 

[paolo]

Sports goth? Is that what it sounds like?