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

2) I have a bit of a hair trigger about people who insist on dissing hip-hop. Even though I don't listen to nearly as much rap as I used to, it's been an undeniable influence on my personal musical aesthetic, and I get very frustrated with people who roll out the same anti-rap arguments again & again. I always end up thinking: "It's been nearly 30 years since 'Rapper's Delight' and you're still whining about hip-hop? Either accept that it's not going away (and, maybe, find something to like about it), or kindly shut the fuck up."

3) Sometimes I can't tell when people are enjoying things ironically or in earnest, and it has the potential to completely fuck up my vibe for the night. I was at a bar a few nights ago, waiting for an acqaintance's band to go on, when the resident DJ dropped Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam's "I Wonder If I Take You Home" (classic), much to the delight of the early-twentysomething crowd. And I was too busy trying to figure out if people were dancing because they liked the song, or because "HA HA, OMG THE EIGHTIES" to have a good time myself.

Then again, maybe you're annoyed because they have all the training but can't do a damn memorable thing with it, much. (A stance I fully appreciate.)

I still have a few faults though:

- I've been pretty knee-jerk anti-indie over the past few years.
- I'm prone to dismiss anything with hype surrounding it.
- I don't follow Hip-Hop or R&B, even though I know there is plenty of stuff I would like.
- I don't spend time the time getting to intimately know a record like I used to. Too much surface level listening of a wide variety of records, when I should be reaping the rewards contained in the gems that truly "hit" me.
- I'm an opinionated bastard when it comes to music, so I have to be careful discussing music with the majority of people I know. I mostly enjoy discussing music with other opinionated bastards who can quantify their opinions.

-- deej.. (clublonel...), September 7th, 2006.

No Catholic upbringing.

hi dere i hate my tastes dey are borne out of fear
-- Tim Ellison (thefriendlyfriendlybubbl...), September 7th, 2006.

Catholic upbringing.

I overthink music - I can't just relax and enjoy a piece of music, the mind's always on overdrive analyzing it. I historically contextualize music (dud?) - imagining its relationship to the time it was made, the artist's discography, impact on others.

Everything you need to know about authenticity comes out of the speakers. But when I was a teenager Tim Cronin taught me the sacred art of being able to tell whether a record sucks or not by looking at its cover, and some small part of me still belives in such arcane witchcraft.

I'm indie-schizo. I find M Ward, Elliott Smith, Iron & Wine, Devendra Banheart, and Bright Eyes boring. I've tried and failed several times to listen to a Wilco album all the way through. But I'm a sucker for oddballs and wackos like Marc Eitzel, Cat Power, Antony, Joanna Newsom, Faun Fables, Daniel Johnston. I like Neko Case, Arcade Fire, and Destroyer, but not The New Pornographers. I don't like Pavement but thought the first Strokes was a good listen. Huh?

I think in terms of "ultimate expressions" e.g. Iron Maiden's Killers was the ultimate expression of the NWOBHM.

I'm hung up on the concept of music as ecstatic and rebellious Dionysian abandon (but I can't stand The Doors).

I dislike music that tries too hard, or not hard enough.

I'm suspicious of fun and earnestness.

I don't mind pretentiousness, except when you haven't earned it.

I can't listen to mainstream radio.

Here's a comp I put together recently. My jukebox is rebellious.

Be Your Own Pet - "Adventure"
Pink Fairies - "Do It"
Public Image Ltd. - "Public Image"
Pink Floyd - "See Emily Play (mono)"
Nas - "One Mic"
Suburban Lawns - "Janitor"
David Shire - "Main Title" from The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3
Big Daddy Kane - "Raw"
Dog of Mystery - "Willoughby (The Insect God)"
Pretenders - "Night In My Veins"
Ultramagnetic MCs - "Critical Beatdown"
Napoleon XIV - "They're Coming To Take Me Away Ha Ha"
King Crimson - "Larks Tongue In Aspic Pt 2 (live)"
Kas Product - "Man of Time"
Loop - "Ghost Rider"

haha I am catholic! I was confirmed and everything. I save my self-loathing and guilt for shit that matters, like s3x.

OTM. Except I don't know any "other opinionated bastards" IRL.

When it comes to more obscure acts, I like to see who's getting the best critical notices and biggest cult following. I worship power and always like to be on the winning side. (Maybe it's because I DON'T understand pop and trust that collective wisdom must have some implicit worth.)

― tarden, Thursday, June 21, 2001 7:00 PM (9 years ago)

"When it comes to more obscure acts, I like acts that have lots of fans and critical accolades, and are not all that obscure."

Ladies and gentlemen, Dave Q.

I don't believe in guilty pleasures. I believe in pleasures without guilt. Some people have a problem with this.

lol I am so embarrassed by my early post on this thread

I have no idea when it was posted because it clearly was not actually 2000

Gosh, reading this thread back, I really was angry five years ago.

The two things that I feel are weaknesses in my taste these days are pretty minor concerns to me, because neither of them stops me enjoying music at all, which is when they would become problematic.

Anyway, those two things are thus:

1. I feel like a dilettante. I always have to some extent. I've never delved deeply into any one particular genre, never become an expert or specialist about one kind of music, be that jazz or techno or indierock or anything else. All the genres and styles and almost all the artists I like, I like really superficially, and sometimes I feel like this means I'm missing out on some kind of depth of experience. Then again, that depth of knowledge also strikes me as being really boring. Which. Guess is why I never bothered to acquire it about anything.

2. I have increasingly less time for hip hop, possibly because I'm increasingly less bothered about lyrics, and I've never really been bothered by wordplay skillzor. Fascinations with Timbaland, Missy, Outkast and a few others besides I pretty much only like old canonical boring stuff like Tribe and De La and PE that I've liked forever. Kate says upthread that she doesn't find much of sonic appeal in a lot of hip hop and I think that's a big part of it; I don't listen to music for lyrics, as a rule, so a form that's based on lyrics is always going to be difficult for me, especially when the lyrics are generally about lifestyles very very alien to my own and at I have pretty much zero interest in.

Other minor considerations are genre black holes - pop country, metal, opera. I've not investigated classical much yet but I'm waiting until I'm old for that, perhaps.

don't wait, dive in

so many regrets:

1) like SM, i'm a dilettante. i lack the curiosity and dedication that might drive me to deeply explore the artists and genres that interest me. instead, i flit from one shiny object from the next.

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.

3) i'm attracted to obscurity and the idea that i'm "with it," that i'm aware of and into secretly cool music. this makes me feel that my tastes are dishonest, that i'm trying to define myself through music rather than simply enjoying it on its own terms.

4) my tastes have become ossified. the indie punk aesthetics and musical values of my youth still dominate my taste and thinking. unfortunately, i never actually want to listen to 80s indie punk, unless i'm drunk. it's become boring to me.

I like a lot of music which simply cannot be enjoyed in group. I'm also always late to the game: I will start taking interest in a couple of yesteryear's biggest pop hits when everybody is already tired of hearing them.

The good thing is every now and then I'll hit just the right spot and give my friends their new favorite songs so they still think I've got a good, varied taste despite my obsession with playing the boring, obscure stuff at parties.

3) Sometimes I can't tell when people are enjoying things ironically or in earnest, and it has the potential to completely fuck up my vibe for the night. I was at a bar a few nights ago, waiting for an acqaintance's band to go on, when the resident DJ dropped Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam's "I Wonder If I Take You Home" (classic), much to the delight of the early-twentysomething crowd. And I was too busy trying to figure out if people were dancing because they liked the song, or because "HA HA, OMG THE EIGHTIES" to have a good time myself.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), sábado 9 de septiembre de 2006 20:07 (4 years ago)

Maybe it's popularity had something to do with the Black Eyed Peas paraphrasing it?

i listen to too many white people who don't really deserve my time.

Yeah I kinda hate when white people appropriate a black rooted genre just to make it dorky and easy. Ironically, maybe due to racism in the 20th century they always seemed to fare better than the usually more tasteful black pioneers.

eg: reggae, blue eyed soul, hip hop, blues...

so many white people fair better at hip-hop and reggae than black people

o_O

Ok I actually meant that usually it was the white people who helped the genre break through. Eric Clapton was heavily responsible for reggae's incursion in the pop charts and the beastie boys' Licensed to Ill was the first rap album to hit ·1 on the charts. I don't mean nowadays, hopefully we're already way past musical racism.

Eric Clapton recorded a cover version that was included on his album, 461 Ocean Boulevard. It is the most successful version of the song, peaking at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Clapton's only chart-topping hit in the U.S.

"Ice Ice Baby" was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts. Topping the Australian, Dutch, Irish, Italian and UK charts, the song helped diversify hip hop by introducing it to a mainstream audience.

crut i think ur post at the top is p self-aware and funny btw

so many white people fair better at hip-hop and reggae than black people

o_O

well, commercially, this is often true. the white pop artists who adapt black-rooted genres (in moka's language) have often seemed to win attention and commercial success more easily than the black artists that inspired them. this seems to have been very true in the mid 20th century, up through the early hip hop era. perhaps it's less of a factor nowadays? dunno...

1. Overly sweet tooth when it comes to inane, bouncy chart pop. Gimme gimme gimme that Guettabeat!

2. Have lost the ability to appreciate hip-hop. I came to a grinding halt with it about 6 years ago. Whereas in the mid-to-late 80s, it formed a huge part of my listening diet.

3. Cannot form even the slightest connection with metal or opera. (What's the link there? Is it some sort of aversion to bombast?)

4. I give too easy a ride to pleasant background music.

5. Over-reliance on various 1970s comfort zones.

classic post chain upthread:

Thing is, most of my fears of suckage about my musical tastes are not about *musical* tastes at all (in which I am perfectly secure. I like what I like, I feel no pressure to like what I don't like.) but about more political things.

Because my parents were born in South Africa, I have this perpetual fear that I am a racist (because I was told so many times by PC American liberals that all South Africans are racist, therefore we must be racists by extension). And I fear that I cannot get into hip-hop or rap *because* I am a racist. I can actually get into white indie-boy (and girl) rap like the Beastie Boys, or Luscious Jackson, or Beck, but I can't get any further.

I suspect that it is more to do with the *texture* of rap and hip-hop, because I listen to music for texture and harmony, rather than than lyrics or melody. (Lyrics are probably *the* least important thing for me in the enjoyment of music, while they are probably *the* most important element, in fact that defining element, in rap.) When I heaar rap or hip hop that *is* "psychedelic" or textural or "stoner rap", (early De La Soul and Cypress Hill spring to mind as examples) it *does* stick to my ear and make me happy.

But still, I worry. Isn't it the most white, middle class, racist thing in the world, to *worry* about being a racist?

― masonic boom, Thursday, June 21, 2001 7:00 PM (9 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That was a brave admission, Kate. This board could use more of that kind of thing.

― Mark, Thursday, June 21, 2001 7:00 PM (9 years ago)

I fuck chickens.

― Nick, Thursday, June 21, 2001 7:00 PM (9 years ago)

loool

i get pissed when bands that were obscure or not hip suddenly get insanely popular and everyone likes them. I always feel like they were my little secret that i shared with a select few and now everyone knows about them.

I really like some artists that get seemingly zero appreciation here or from any other sources I respect and it makes me wonder if I'm crazy. Elliott Smith is an example.

seems odd. elliott smith is popular and gets (got) tons of critical respect. you mean only from the wrong sources?

My incuriosity.

my frequent laziness to follow up stuff I really like the sound of, a habit which Spotify has helped me shake :)

my occasional habit of leaping to judgement a teeeeeeeny bit too quickly and also biasing myself against certain musical acts

I'm pretty impatient with stuff that doesn't grab me immediately.

I have to *know* everything

getting over this

i tend to like a lot of stuff, but as a result i don't get deep enough into a lot of things, like i have shitloads of albums but with some exceptions not super deep collections of a lot of artists

I sometimes fail to listen to things because all the reviews are bad.

i'm just lazy. i have scattered lists of shit to get, things saved in emusic, notes stuck in my wallet, even stuff downloaded that i haven't played yet. and i never get around to it. i listen to music all the time, idgi

• I get intimidated by artists with huge discographies, especially when there's no critical consensus on which of their releases are strongest/most representative/most accessible. it's a lot more immediately satisfying to buy or download an artist's entire back catalogue when it consists of just a few albums than it is to ease into a prolific artist's oevre bit by bit, knowing that it will take a long time to digest.

• when I do try to get into an artist with a huge discography, I often seek out all of their critically acclaimed works but avoid works that are less highly rated or further removed chronologically from their artistic peak. I'm sure I miss out on some colorful, unjustly derided music because of this.

• I have a way of falling in love with certain artists, albums, or songs for a matter of months (or less) but abandoning them once I move on to other things. I still return to a lot of music I discovered five years ago (when my listening habits were less fickle), but there's a surprising amount of music I adored a year ago but have essentially forgotten.

• i like too much.

• it's only been over the past few years that i've begun to trust my own ears and taste enough.

I feel like a dilettante. I always have to some extent. I've never delved deeply into any one particular genre, never become an expert or specialist about one kind of music, be that jazz or techno or indierock or anything else. All the genres and styles and almost all the artists I like, I like really superficially, and sometimes I feel like this means I'm missing out on some kind of depth of experience. Then again, that depth of knowledge also strikes me as being really boring. Which. Guess is why I never bothered to acquire it about anything.

I don't see what's wrong with this attitude...? Listen -- and write well -- about what you like. Don't feel guilty.

one word: clueless.

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

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.

you need to listen to Spike Jones. stat.

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.