5 ms·

Wow. What an incredible article. >There are writers we instinctively, permanently dislike: not only will we never read them, we will quietly relish the not-rea

Wow. What an incredible article. >There are writers we instinctively, permanently dislike: not only will we never read them, we will quietly relish the not-reading, finding in it a pleasure that can occasionally rival reading itself. I know exactly what the author is talking about, and it doesn't just apply to books; in fact, a far more visible and pervasive instance of this kind of behavior occurs with respect to music. So many people (and I don't exclude myself in the slightest) are so opinionated about what kind of music is "good" and make such gigantic points of what they refuse to listen to, sometimes to the extent of hostility! I fell into this trap for many years; within the last 6 months I decided to trash my preconceptions and force myself to believe that all music is good, and that "good music" is really just "music I like" since any judgement on the quality of art is necessarily subjective...not to say I completely stopped disliking some music anymore, but at least with that viewpoint I can happily coexist with people that like music I don't. Anyway, great piece about a behavior lots of us engage in but few of us like to admit :P

brazzledazzle 11y ago
I've been on a similar path, a lot more pop music has become accessible to me even if only temporarily (it tends to get old fast). But I still can't enjoy almost any (modern) country music and I can't yet figure out if it's truly my taste or not.
shaunxcode 11y ago
I once tried to do this with my preconceptions about music. Phish and 311 were still terrible (to my ears).
- MichaelGG 11y ago
  Pretty sure a lot of the attraction of Phish is when using psychedelics. So if you just tried to play some of their songs normally then it might not have the same impact.
- bitwize 11y ago
  Hope you don't live in New England. Phish are gods here; publicly disliking them is very nearly grounds for lynching.
  - aidenn0 11y ago
    I never noticed that in Rhode Island, though I've only been back there for brief visits in the past decade.
- corndoge 11y ago
  Yeah, but at least you become able to acknowledge and understand (if not through direct experience) why other people like music you don't. Plus i've found that dropping a lot of my judgemental attitudes towards music resulted in a much larger breadth of material to listen to since I didn't hate myself for listening to it.
  - WalterBright 11y ago
    I finally admitted my uncool like for 1960's easy listening music. I have quite a collection of it now, bought from thrift stores and ebay. I enjoy inflicting it on people who still believe it is uncool.
    - brightsize 11y ago
      Brasil 66 is great stuff. :-)
      - WalterBright 11y ago
        Got me some of that. And also Conniff, Mantovani, Kaempfert, Jackie Gleason, etc. A regular low treatment of that will keep the kids off your lawn. And the coolest (!) thing about easy listening is you rarely have to pay more than $.50 for an album of it. It's almost as if people are trying to get rid of their grandparents' albums!
- hockeybias 11y ago
  With you on phish, but I had unrealistic expectations as they had been overly hyped to me ..And I wanted to hear something 'Scarlet Begonias'-esque in them due to my fondness of another band. :)
mindcrime 11y ago
Yeah, I can relate to that. Over the past 10 years or so I've really tried to broaden my musical horizons. I mean, look, I'm a metal-head. Full-stop. I like heavy-metal and I think heavy-metal will be my favorite music until I die. But for years I thought that anything that wasn't metal (or classical) was crap. Rap? Feh... had no use for that stuff. Dance music? Bah... maybe for a couple of hours while I was at a club, IF I was really drunk. Country? BARF And so on. But then I started listening to more rap.. and a little more... and a little more... and while it'll never be my favorite genre, I'd developed a real appreciation for rap / hip-hop and listen to the stuff quite regularly now. Same for a lot of electronic / techno / house / trance stuff. Not my favorite, but certainly on my playlists now. I got really into listening to Giorgio Moroder last year. Love his stuff. 80's New Wave and pop stuff? Again, I've found there's some really amazing stuff there. Sure, there's plenty of crap, but there's some really genuinely fun and interesting stuff there. And so on... I still don't listen to jazz, and I doubt I'll ever listen to much country or bluegrass, but I definitely decided to open up, and I've been rewarded by the effort.
- jqm 11y ago
  My musical tastes have changed with age. I don't care for hostile or aggressive music I liked years ago. Also, music isn't the important cultural marker it was in youth. I listen to whatever sounds good and I'm in the mood for.
PhasmaFelis 11y ago
Yeah, somewhere around 25 or 30 I apparently decided to grow up and do something similar. I've found that there is now barely any music I actively hate unless the lyrics are genuinely offensive. (It also helps that I'm no longer in high school or a retail environment, so I'm much less likely to be a captive audience for overplayed radio stuff.)

brazzledazzle 11y ago

I've been on a similar path, a lot more pop music has become accessible to me even if only temporarily (it tends to get old fast). But I still can't enjoy almost any (modern) country music and I can't yet figure out if it's truly my taste or not.

shaunxcode 11y ago

I once tried to do this with my preconceptions about music. Phish and 311 were still terrible (to my ears).

MichaelGG 11y ago
Pretty sure a lot of the attraction of Phish is when using psychedelics. So if you just tried to play some of their songs normally then it might not have the same impact.
bitwize 11y ago
Hope you don't live in New England. Phish are gods here; publicly disliking them is very nearly grounds for lynching.
- aidenn0 11y ago
  I never noticed that in Rhode Island, though I've only been back there for brief visits in the past decade.
corndoge 11y ago
Yeah, but at least you become able to acknowledge and understand (if not through direct experience) why other people like music you don't. Plus i've found that dropping a lot of my judgemental attitudes towards music resulted in a much larger breadth of material to listen to since I didn't hate myself for listening to it.
- WalterBright 11y ago
  I finally admitted my uncool like for 1960's easy listening music. I have quite a collection of it now, bought from thrift stores and ebay. I enjoy inflicting it on people who still believe it is uncool.
  - brightsize 11y ago
    Brasil 66 is great stuff. :-)
    - WalterBright 11y ago
      Got me some of that. And also Conniff, Mantovani, Kaempfert, Jackie Gleason, etc. A regular low treatment of that will keep the kids off your lawn. And the coolest (!) thing about easy listening is you rarely have to pay more than $.50 for an album of it. It's almost as if people are trying to get rid of their grandparents' albums!
hockeybias 11y ago
With you on phish, but I had unrealistic expectations as they had been overly hyped to me ..And I wanted to hear something 'Scarlet Begonias'-esque in them due to my fondness of another band. :)

mindcrime 11y ago

Yeah, I can relate to that. Over the past 10 years or so I've really tried to broaden my musical horizons. I mean, look, I'm a metal-head. Full-stop. I like heavy-metal and I think heavy-metal will be my favorite music until I die. But for years I thought that anything that wasn't metal (or classical) was crap. Rap? Feh... had no use for that stuff. Dance music? Bah... maybe for a couple of hours while I was at a club, IF I was really drunk. Country? BARF And so on. But then I started listening to more rap.. and a little more... and a little more... and while it'll never be my favorite genre, I'd developed a real appreciation for rap / hip-hop and listen to the stuff quite regularly now. Same for a lot of electronic / techno / house / trance stuff. Not my favorite, but certainly on my playlists now. I got really into listening to Giorgio Moroder last year. Love his stuff. 80's New Wave and pop stuff? Again, I've found there's some really amazing stuff there. Sure, there's plenty of crap, but there's some really genuinely fun and interesting stuff there. And so on... I still don't listen to jazz, and I doubt I'll ever listen to much country or bluegrass, but I definitely decided to open up, and I've been rewarded by the effort.

jqm 11y ago
My musical tastes have changed with age. I don't care for hostile or aggressive music I liked years ago. Also, music isn't the important cultural marker it was in youth. I listen to whatever sounds good and I'm in the mood for.

PhasmaFelis 11y ago

Yeah, somewhere around 25 or 30 I apparently decided to grow up and do something similar. I've found that there is now barely any music I actively hate unless the lyrics are genuinely offensive. (It also helps that I'm no longer in high school or a retail environment, so I'm much less likely to be a captive audience for overplayed radio stuff.)