I Confess : What sucks most about your musical tastes and attitudes ?

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one word: clueless.

some hills are never seen (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 25 January 2011 20:50 (thirteen years ago) link

my horrendous "taste" sucks all attitude OUT OF musiclife. ;_;

Ioannis, Tuesday, 25 January 2011 21:08 (thirteen years ago) link

Most of the music I like best is depressing.

Can't stand "funny" music (TMBG and the like)

Also, really high voices bug me. Like Geddy Lee. Scoldy and screechy. Even Robert Plant.

thirdalternative, Tuesday, 25 January 2011 21:16 (thirteen years ago) link

you need to listen to Spike Jones. stat.

Ioannis, Tuesday, 25 January 2011 21:19 (thirteen years ago) link

contenderizer- 2) i don't listen to music all the time. even now, while doing nothing but posting alone in my apartment, i'm not listening to anything. i don't want to. i prefer the silence.

I recognise this. Most of the time I can't read & listen to music.

Thing I find most frustrating is the low degree of overlap in taste I have w/ most of my friends. Partly me spending much more time on music generally & partly just different interests, but the music I go see & enjoy most is often stuff that is not peripheral to my taste but not core either, just because it's what I can persuade ppl/be persuaded to go to & obv going to shit alone or w/ patient but unenthusiastic is much less fun. But I'm used to it.

I also wish I cld improve my consumption of some stuff; certain shit w/ low UK presence I only really hear about online and my engagement is a bit patchy as a result.

ogmor, Tuesday, 25 January 2011 21:38 (thirteen years ago) link

With regards to some of the above posts:

a.) silence is the ultimate palette cleanser and should be utilized! If I find myself starting to feel a little burned out, a few days of no-music is the ultimate cure.

b.) I, too, often feel like a dilettante. But if you want to sample a shitload of new music while still at least occasionally enjoying your past favorites (not to mention having a life other than constantly listening to music nonstop), isn't that almost necessary? To some, maybe spending months exclusively checking out '50s bebop jazz records is more rewarding, but I find that tedious and boring.

I'll come up with my own shortcomings in taste later after thinking a bit (probably too many to list, tbh)...

musicfanatic, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 02:32 (thirteen years ago) link

This thread (poss. the oldest one I've ever seen) reminds me how irritating Marcello could be (when he wasn't OTM)(and when he wasn't posing as "Comstock Carbinieri")(that WAS him, wasn't it?)

ilxor gets into jazz (Myonga Vön Bontee), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 03:35 (thirteen years ago) link

Yup.

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 03:43 (thirteen years ago) link

This is one of those ancient thread where I read it with a knot in my stomach, knowing some dumb statement I made might be lurking around the corner. There was also a period around this time where there was another plain "Mark" I think-- is that possible? I'm almost certain that during some early switchover you could have the same display name as someone else, but I never monkeyed with it. I think that's when I went to MarkR for a while.

This is a good old thread.

Mark, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 04:36 (thirteen years ago) link

I'm actually ok with my musical tastes, I like what I like, but...There are a few artists that I discovered in my youth that, while great, I overrate way out of proportion. I have a distorted image of the post punk music of the mid to late 80s as being the greatest music ever made, bar none. I suppose old hippies who still go on and on about Woodstock are the same way.

I tend to fixate on artists I really like, and play them exclusively, really get to know their
discography, until I burn myself out on their music permanently and I'm not able to listen to
them again.

I tend to focus on new music that has just been released or even leaked. I am anal about stay
ing current with the latest music, but I feel like I only have a surface level acquaintance wi
th new releases as I often only listen to the singles off an album, or skim the album once the
n only listen to a few tracks. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of rewarding 'deep album
cuts', but everytime I try to listen to newer albums all the way through I get bored and go ba
ck to my iPod shuffle of singles, it's like I have ADD.

I have a very minimal knowledge of Jazz and Classical, despite owning a fairly extensive colle
ction of Jazz and Classical albums. I'm just too lazy to devote any time to close listening (see above). I also can't get into Blues, most old Folk, Country, and Dub Reggae. When I talk to real music obsessive fans like on this board, I often feel like my exposure to a lot of canonical works is very incomplete, and I'm only able to identify famous names. Like
I know that Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Eno, etc. have extensive catalogs of classic works but I ju
st can't be bothered, because I get a more immediate sugar fix via my iPod shuffle of 80's pos
t punk and current Top 40 mashups.

John Lennon, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 05:07 (thirteen years ago) link

I think I have fairly good taste overall, however as with probably a fair few ilxors, I'm a dilletante and a jack of all trades.

I'm as comfortable or uncomfortable chatting about house as I am post-punk, but sometimes I wish I had a deep knowledge of one particular style, particularly dance music which I enjoy but in which I don't have any particular specialisms.

Strangely now I come to think of it, the only style of which I have close to a deep knowledge is reggae, but it's such a big sphere that I think I only scrape the surface in the grander scheme of things.

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 11:05 (thirteen years ago) link

Haha, reading upthread it seems "dilletante" is the mot du jour ITT.

My pop/hiphop/r'n'b tastes have widened. Whereas I used to despise most pop, not understand r'n'b and new hiphop alienated me, thanks to ILX polls I'm coming round to all three.

I used to find hiphop frustrating because I felt it needed a lot of attention paid to the lyrics, which isn't always practical if you're reading or something.

Conversely another thing that frustrates me about the music I listen to, is it's getting more accessible. This is down to living in closer proximity to people than before. I can't exactly blast Deicide all day long without complaints.

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 11:27 (thirteen years ago) link

Not interested in new music. Actually, that's not true, I love the new stuff which I get largely from polls on here or, um, from shazaming when I'm at the shops. But no way am I spending my own time doing the filtering, so while I miss out on tons of dull stuff, no doubt there are masses of great tunes that I'll never hear.

Also, lyrics are basically dead to me now. I like the voice as just another instrument, with the advantage that it's the one that's most fun to bellow along to, but a tiny sample does basically the same job as I get from all but the best singing. The exception that I do appreciate is cleverness with form - I'll get a kick out of a long series of rhymes, say, but I'm not hearing the meaning at all (kind of odd because what I like reading has followed more or less exactly the opposite trajectory).

The days of being thrilled by an eighteen-year-old with an attitude are not, I think, coming back.

Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 12:18 (thirteen years ago) link

My resignation that R&B and hip-hop will never again mean anything to me. Used to listen to quite a lot, but when I met my wife she actively disliked it, so I stopped playing it anywhere near so much. And now I have preteen kids I dare not put any on for fear of the language. And having been away so long I have no idea where to return to.

Alan Partridge Project (ithappens), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 12:57 (thirteen years ago) link

^^^
Who you hang around with can have as much of a negative impact as positive when it comes to things like this.

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 13:02 (thirteen years ago) link

Yep. But, you know, my wife makes me happier than hip-hop, so it's not a hard choice. First Wu-Tang album was the definitive cut-off moment: the skit about anal rape (am I remembering that right?) saw her walk over to the CD player, press eject, and tell me she didn't want to hear that, because it upset and offended her.

Alan Partridge Project (ithappens), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 13:15 (thirteen years ago) link

I can't help feeling like there's something disingenuous about people's shame about listening only to older music. But that's probably because I'm sometimes embarrassed that the vast majority of what I listen to is new.

Tyler/Perry's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (jaymc), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 13:57 (thirteen years ago) link

i refuse to give any new hip-hop or R&B a listen. i stopped listening to anything in those genres in 1998...the hip hop I have heard sounds like complete shit and to me is a disgrace to the classic hip hop of the past...it just seems like anyone with a beat, some screaming and a stupid fucking name like waka flocka fucka and whatever can make a hip hop album. I'd like to hear what some classic artists think of the new shit.

The Round Mound of Sound (chrisv2010), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 14:51 (thirteen years ago) link

Lex to thread.

Alan Partridge Project (ithappens), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 14:54 (thirteen years ago) link

Wow. I'm really surprised to see such a blatantly regressive attitude expressed on ILM. I mean, if you're not interested in current hiphop or think it compares negatively to that of the past, that's altogether fine, but to put it in those terms...I generally assume everyone here is smarter than that.

banjee trillness (The Reverend), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:04 (thirteen years ago) link

i think most ARE smarter than that, cf WAKA (rightly) placing second in the 2010 trax poll we've just concluded.

lextasy refix (lex pretend), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:08 (thirteen years ago) link

I've totally come round to stuff like Waka Flocka - sure it's not really dextrous rap in the original sense (Fu Schnickens or whatever) as the rapping's slower and more, i dunno, shout-along i guess? but it's unadulterated fun - pure maniacal glee in tracks like Hard In Da Paint. Comparing it to old stuff doesn't make much sense. It's like trying to compare Chase & Status with Altern-8.

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:13 (thirteen years ago) link

hip-hop is not, like, one monolithic thing with one set way of doing things and one set spirit to keep alive. its essential formal values can encompass a huge range of stuff. i don't know why in 2011 i still seem to have to say that.

lextasy refix (lex pretend), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:15 (thirteen years ago) link

I find it really weird when people say they only listen to new music (and many on here do). Do you throw away albums when they reach a certain sell-by date? Do you not enjoy having a historical frame of reference to the current stuff? I like new music, but things like, say, there are certain production values in sixties music which just don't exist any more but are just as welcome to my ears as something produced in an ultra modern studio.

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:17 (thirteen years ago) link

assume they just mean that they find enough good new shit to keep them occupied, rather than a stance or w/e - not endorsing that but it's easy enough to do

look its not that you listen to metal its that youre a bellend ok (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:20 (thirteen years ago) link

i don't think anyone says that, not even me! i prioritise new music, which isn't the same thing. i've spent most of this week listening to old (and new) pj harvey.

lextasy refix (lex pretend), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:21 (thirteen years ago) link

lex, just out of interest and i'm not challenging anything here, but how often are you tempted to delve into older music that came out "before your time" i.e. Sure you could go back and listen to the PJ Harvey back catalogue, but I'm assuming you were previously familiar with some of her stuff?

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:24 (thirteen years ago) link

haha and now i am listening to "let the dollar circulate" by billy paul which was like 1975 or something.

lextasy refix (lex pretend), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:26 (thirteen years ago) link

Good title for a song that

Tom D (Lenin's his feir and Liebknecht's his mate) (Tom D.), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:27 (thirteen years ago) link

I will sometimes buy music because the artwork is pleasant or the artist looks hot in the music video.

Moka, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:27 (thirteen years ago) link

And that sucks. Music shouldn't be about models or museum exhibits.

Moka, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:28 (thirteen years ago) link

i mean, we've gone over this before though - i can and often do listen to music "before my time" but like 90% of the time i find it's impossible to have ownership of them, really find my way into them like i can for music i'm around for (or - like i could had i been around for them). it's, like, someone else's zeitgeist.

lextasy refix (lex pretend), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:29 (thirteen years ago) link

That makes sense. It's interesting that being a part of a current zeitgeist is important to people, and I can appreciate that.

I guess coming from a dormitory town with no real culture of its own to speak of, I always used music to escape the monotony of middle England and to inhabit other worlds time travel being a part of that. So e.g. if I listen to the Beach Boys, that's as close to East Coast '60s America as I'm likely to get. And to an extent, '60s LA is as foreign and exotic to me as a basement in Peckham, so be it grime or surf-pop, it's all an escapade.

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:35 (thirteen years ago) link

xpost: When I actively followed and enjoyed hip hop, I responded most to the elements that made it work as club music. I can't discern those elements so readily in contemporary hip hop. It feels, to me, in my admittedly reduced experience (not helped by feeling that I lack vast swathes of useful context), less funky, more abrasive, hence less personally appealing. But then again, I can totally appreciate that the rhythmic and linguistic dexterity of the best contemporary rappers tends to be, in general, streets ahead of the old school. I listened to some old Tribe Called Quest the other day, and the rapping just sounded so tame, lame and formally constrained. On the other hand, I heard Young MC's "Know How" played before a gig a couple of weeks ago - very much a club track, of course - and was blown away by it all over again. As for newer stuff, I enjoyed some Bun B recently but was put off by the gangsta-isms, and I'm all over "Coming Home" - but it's slim pickings, and I don't feel motivated to try harder and delve deeper.

mike t-diva, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:42 (thirteen years ago) link

i should clarify, i've checked out a few of the newer artists, just find it all annoying. And basically what mike says above, just not motivated by any of it. To me it sounds like grunts, growls, autotunes...i just dont get the feeling with this newer stuff that i would with EPMD or Eric B. It just doesn't compare to me.

The Round Mound of Sound (chrisv2010), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:53 (thirteen years ago) link

is it because its more dancey now than in the past...i don't know. it just doesn't grab me like older stuff did and does.

The Round Mound of Sound (chrisv2010), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 15:55 (thirteen years ago) link

you old fart

scott seward, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:02 (thirteen years ago) link

i mean educate me people, is there stuff thats isn't so auto-tuney and more classic sounding? Like dog latin said, i dont care for the shout-along aspect of it.

The Round Mound of Sound (chrisv2010), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:02 (thirteen years ago) link

educate yourself fool! get on it!

scott seward, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:05 (thirteen years ago) link

get on the tip!

scott seward, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:06 (thirteen years ago) link

people get more conservative as they age. its a fact.

and lex is in his 20's, right? he should be listening to new music. he should kill old music with a stick. don't listen to them, lexy!

scott seward, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:09 (thirteen years ago) link

Let your freak flag fly!

T.V.O.D. Party (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:11 (thirteen years ago) link

to some extent I do kind of understand chris's POV - a lot of rappers in the last few years sound like they're going out of their ways to be obnoxious: arrogance, commodity fetishism and dunderheaded gangsta mentally all play a part in this. While this is obviously the point and the attraction for a lot of modern rap fans, I can see how older fans might have trouble with Flocka's steez, as opposed to, say, Chuck D's brand of call-to-arms rap, or Q-Tip's fluffy quirkiness. Flocka and Gucci are grotesque cartoon anti-heroes who are not necessarily likable in a buddy kind of way. They probably don't give a fuck if you don't agree with whatever it is they're saying. So this is really something one has to buy into, otherwise I can see how it would be totally annoying.

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:12 (thirteen years ago) link

i don't listen to current top 40 at all, and probably haven't for close to 8 years (since the last time I had a car and listened to the radio regularly.) i only keep up with a few contemporary artists.

not everything is a campfire (ian), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:14 (thirteen years ago) link

waka flocka flame and gucci mane are not the only archetypes in contemporary rap

lextasy refix (lex pretend), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:15 (thirteen years ago) link

i tried to post on ilx about contemporary rap but got made fun of for being 6 months behind the times :(

not everything is a campfire (ian), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:15 (thirteen years ago) link

autotune, love it or hate it, doesn't seem to be going away any time soon and has become as much a part of this era of music as the flange guitar in the 60s, or slap bass and saxophone in the 80s or the amen break in the 90s. It's just another instrument really, all too often confused as a substitute for "real singing", which it shouldn't be.

xpost lex - no i realise this, but I use gucci and flocka as examples.

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:16 (thirteen years ago) link

chrisv - why not take a look around some of the entries in the EOY lists. This is how I opened up to new hiphop and r'n'b.

Maybe try Currensy?

Bernard V. O'Hare (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:17 (thirteen years ago) link

The vast majority of rap today is neither autotuney or shouty and a fair amount of it is very classicist. If anything, Waka's success has been in part because there was an empty niche for loud, aggressive rap.

banjee trillness (The Reverend), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:17 (thirteen years ago) link

yeah, waka sounded refreshing to me!

scott seward, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:19 (thirteen years ago) link


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