Your musical "blind spots"

my blind spot would be U.K. dance music in general. but i don't really wish that i knew more about it. i like "voodoo ray" and "theme from s-express" anyway. that should last me.

(obviously not counting 70's/80's new wave/post-punk singles that serve as dance singles. obviously. i am all about those.)

*restrains self from flooding thread with hundreds of Oldskool Hardcore tunes in attempt to convert Scott*

Everyone hates the drum and bass twat at house parties, that barely even counts as a blind spot.

haha, true. I just don't understand how people can still be excited by d'n'b these days. it really feels like a relic, but yeah I guess fanship never dies. D'n'B-heads are like the thrash metallers of yesteryear, still touting Moving Shadow and wearing Metalheadz bomber jackets

Outside of like REM, '80s college rock is almost completely unknown to me.

Everything is a blind spot and righty slow. Can't daydream with your eyes open

Obviously you can daydream with your eyes open but this isn't the time for being overly literal!

haha, true. I just don't understand how people can still be excited by d'n'b these days

well, in last few months i have picked up platinum breakz volumes 1-5 compilations (amongst other stuff) and love'em.
hated d-n-b at the time, but this year its become a playlist fave.

I agree with DL. dnb has been dead for years and years, can't think of another genre that is just endlessly repeating itself right now. but I still get excited about the stuff from the ninetees. and those Platinum Breakz are excellent.

'Blind spots' as in stuff you've explored but still don't quite get or stuff you know next to nothing about?

ninetees smdh xp

my 12 year old's fave song right now is what turns out to be a fake grime song by a british comedian. i never would have known it was a fake grime song if i hadn't read about it. i kinda liked it though so that should have been my first clue. i think grime and d&b are "you had to be there" kinda things. like you have to actually go to a phish concert to understand why they're good.

That song is ridiculously popular in the UK right now. My friend was doing a commercial set at a wedding and it was requested 3 times. He had to download it off YouTube in real time and each time it got played it got more people dancing.

I am left totally cold by mumbly American indie. The deliberately lo-fi aesthetic in rock does not do it for me at all (maybe because my first love was metal?).

mumbly lo-fi indie INFINITELY better from the u.k. at least in the old days.

felt like i should say something nice...

I prefer it to US stuff, but it's still not my favourite.

Bit of a broad one but I'd say non-English language popular music in general and especially things from the '00s/'10s. Like I'd love to know more about Chilean dance pop beyond Javiera Mena and Alex Anwandter.

Any songs that weren't big hits from now back to two years ago as that was circa the time I stopped listening to Radio 1.

This is a blind spot - anyone got a copy? The one person who has it only gave it one star, not a good omen!

https://www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-SPLA/release/6929605

almost every bollywood hoedown i've ever heard has blown my mind, yet i never get around to investigating it much

Lots of classic rock. I didn't have a period in my life where I got into it, and I've not been interested in taking time to consume much of any of it since (with few exceptions).

Kind of like how I'm pretty proficient on guitar but I'm self taught so I don't know fundamentals like scales.

the only classic rock you really need to check out:

status quo - dog of two head

bread - manna

new york dolls -s/t

the climax chicago blues band - plays on

three man army - a third of a lifetime

chicken shack - imagination lady

groundhogs - hogwash

bullangus - s/t

thunderclap newman - hollywood dream

randy pie - fast/forward

chilliwack - dreams, dreams, dreams

tucky buzzard - s/t

lodi - s/t

the trashmen - surfin' bird

status quo - on the level

christopher cloud - blown away

the misunderstood - before the dream faded

Thanks!

I googled a few that I thought you threw in there as jokes.

actually, just listen to this song and then you are done and you will know everything:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkwNhUuTBKc

bullangus - s/t

You made this one up, didn't you?

haha no that's real i've heard it! middling thud

wake me up when The National write a song as good as this one. I'M SO SURE I WILL NEVER BE WOKEN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYfQ1RWdQ5c

Can

Can rule and you drool! like a big drooling flappy bird!

no, but seriously, listen some more.

I know. I've literally never heard a note by Can. i'm just gonna buy those 3 classic LP's next time im at the record store im sure i'll love them

the only classic rock you really need to check out:

No Croce, no credibility.

I feel like I've considered house/techno a musical blind spot of mine that I've been trying to fill up for years now. I thiiink I'm making progress - the new avalon emerson ep is cool! - but I still feel super green to it all

i don't mess with jim croce

Can was a blind spot for years, and took quite a few tries for me to get started, tbh. Got into other krautrock first (Neu!, AR and Machines). Some days they're my favorite band ever now. Even the late stuff!

they are the best band. black sabbath, can, and funkadelic the only classic rock anyone needs.

How soon we forget Bullangus.

Bullangus, we hardly knew ye

I think that was the root of the problem for Bullangus.

languishing in the "where are they now" file, are Bullangus

languishing in the "you made them up, didn't you" file,

It used to be soul but I am slowly mending that. Same with funk, is Gil Scott-Heron funk? I love his music. Rap is a big white square on my musical landscape. Digital electronic music as well. But I do not really want to change that. I have much more blind spots than known places.

My blind spot is this really obscure thing I’d never normally come across anyway.

But real answer = country, metal, classical, dubstep, opera, old rock n roll, blues, folk... fucking shitloads.

Many. I've always openly acknowledged them. A few of the biggest:

Elvis, electric blues, Van Morrison, the Band, funk, Otis Redding, Randy Newman, Gang of Four, PJ Harvey. They're not complete--there are songs here and there I like--and occasionally I'll have a breakthrough (I was listening to and enjoying a lot of Van Morrison a few summers ago for something I was working on). But generally speaking, I wish I could hear what other people hear.

(I won't list stuff that I don't like and have no desire to ever like.)

Can is another one for me. I think when i tried them out in the past they end up sounding rather different to how I expected so I'm generally quite thrown by it all

The Grateful Dead
The Doors
Zappa

Oh wait

i really want to get to know middle eastern pop music more. i just kind of plow through spotify playlists and cherry pick the tracks i like. sort of know some of the big names, i think.

There were some great articles a while back by John Doran and Yousif Nur at the Quietus all about that. They were very in-depth and I must confess I ended up being daunted by the task of tackling them, despite being really interested

Opera and metal (perhaps it's the bombast) - Dylan and Springsteen - Ocean and Swift - UK indie from the second half of the 80s, particularly Gen C86 - chillwave.

I'm hoping that Lonely Child turns out to be the piece that will convert the world to classical vocal music.

LOads of metal stuff, though do like Slayer and stoner stuff.
A lotof electronic dance music, though certain parts o9f it I might get into if I was introduced to it.
BUt Techno, d&b, and whatever other nightclub/rave stuff has largely escaped me. I do like a bit of Acid House and Arthur russell and things.
& do love dub, r'n'b and soul and things so may just be unfamiliarity.

commercial country, countrypolitan and things that distance country from being a white blues.

Not really getting to hear too much new commercial pop so not sure about that. I know taht there have been people I've known over the last 10 or 15 years who were very into current stuff. But I don't listen to the radio much even though I'm currently working in a college/community radio station. But most of what I hear is stuff that is being played in the office i do most of my work in.

Classical I should get a lot more familiar with too. But there is only so much time and a lot of music out there.

I'm mainly into psychedelia, other 60s & 70s stuff, bits of jazz, early blues and other roots music, pre-50s country, African stuff, Krautrock and various other bits and pieces so not sure I'd have time to be into everything in my blindspot anyway.

whenever I go to pub trivia the music questions are invariably about 90s pop which is pretty much the only musical domain where I know less than the average person

Definitely UK dance scene for me. Drum and Bass, Footwork, Garage, Wonky, 2step, grime... it’s not that I don’t like them, but that I don’t really understand them. I don’t know if it’s because I come from a latin background but the UK Bass sound is a bit stiff and awkward to my ears, I’ve no idea how to even attempt to dance to any of those genres and music-wise they’re not particularly interesting to me to listen to it without dancing.

At any rate there are times where I feel like I’m missing out and wish I understood what’s it all about so yeah they’re a blind spot for me.

Also Metal in general but I’m trying and finding stuff I love. There are variations I hate like grindcore but I don’t think those count as blind spots since I’m willfully ignoring them.

There’s a lot of modern classical which I’d love to get into but it seems like too much work. You can’t just dip in by listening to one single song and choosing to keep on listening or nlt like in other genres, you have to listen to the full composition and I don’t think I have the time to even start.

Genre specifical year-end lists are my favorite part of the year because that’s how I find those blind spots without listening to 100 jazz records or 100 modern classical.

It's weird because Drum & Bass is *the* most immediate music afaic, especially some of the more heavy or euphoric strains. Blind spot is still modern country, sensitive us indie too, just find these boring, nothing to connect to.

Just remembered one this morning: I am way into Faust, have gone down many forking paths of Cluster side projects, adore the Neu! discography, am pretty well-acquainted with the classic Can albums, am somewhat less familiar with but have dipped into the works of Tangerine Dream, Amon Düül, Popol Vuh, etc.

OTOH, I kinda know that one song by that one band where they say 'Trans-Europe Express' over and over.

I probably have some work to do, huh.

yeah the señor coconut catalogue contains wonders

Yellow Magic Orchestra, except for a few Ryuichi Sakamoto things.

Most modern pop and R&B, with a few exceptions.

Yeah, that was amply demonstrated when I was invited to add music to the Spotify playlist at a NYE party and realized I didn't recognize a single one of the contemporary pop songs on display (I went with the 1980 Yarbrough & Peoples smash 'Don't Stop the Music', a favorite of today's youth).

hah, I always assume everyone on ILM knows more about contemporary pop and RnB than me as a sort-of default.

classic soul that isn't Stax or Motown. Never got the "digging for obscure 45s that sound like the Delfonics and cost $600" bug I guess. I like many of the Numero comps covering this ground when I hear them, though, and may someday decide to follow some of those threads all the way to debtor's prison

metal, and I plan on keeping it that way

Kraftwerk doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the other bands you mentioned. Same scene but there's not really much in common musically. unless you're just talking the first 3 records which have been more or less written out of their history

Yellow Magic Orchestra, except for a few Ryuichi Sakamoto things.

this on the other hand is just unforgivable!!!

Chris L is in luck, because this board has some great YMO threads to get rid of that blind spot and see the yellow light. Like this one, for starters.

metal, and I plan on keeping it that way

I was going to say metal, but the OP contains the phrase "wish you knew more about." And I really don't. I have friends who followed hardcore into thrash and got way into early Metallica and Slayer, and then whatever followed. They were (and are) super into it, and I admire their rock spirit, but it'll never be my thing.

Kraftwerk doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the other bands you mentioned. Same scene but there's not really much in common musically. unless you're just talking the first 3 records which have been more or less written out of their history

I don't know about that, Cluster, Neu! + their respective offshoots have some things in common.

I always want to get to know country music from the 80s through the present and never put in the time -- I guess I like what I hear just enough to be curious about but not enough to devote significant effort to.

i quite like pre-70s country music but don't know enough about it

xxxp ah, missed that. in that case scratch metal and sub in classical, which I really do wish I knew more about. it's been fun to follow along with the "1800s" polls.

I like country too but never listen to it. Such good songwriting.

I don't think I've ever heard YMO either--is BGM the best place to start?

probably Solid State Survivor, its their most well known and accessible

BGM is their best album IMO but it took me a while to warm up to it - very murky and strange.

Their earlier stuff is more, I don't know, proggy? I agree about BGM. I also really like the actual songs on x∞Multiplies.

it might be interesting to do a similar thread but about music you consider yourself to have true expertise over.

sometimes I feel like every genre is a blind spot to me. 90s and 2000s IDM, which I feel I know a lot about, still has a huge amount of artists I've never heard.
New wave, well I know the big players and the classic cuts, but I'd be lost if someone were to ask me to deep dive into the more obscure acts..

cool thanks, I'm going to try Solid State right now.

dl, I also never feel like an expert even in genres I have spent years listening to. on the plus side, I have also never felt burdened by completism

I've always been fascinated by people who have a very specific knowledge of one style of music. like people who collect Northern soul or dj a certain style of tech-house.
my friends who run a soca night and radio show, I would say are experts on the genre and go deep on Dennery from St Lucia and know their power soca from their I don't know what.. They do listen to other stuff and I love that music but man, talking to them you realise you're just skimming the surface

classic soul that isn't Stax or Motown. Never got the "digging for obscure 45s that sound like the Delfonics and cost $600" bug I guess. I like many of the Numero comps covering this ground when I hear them, though, and may someday decide to follow some of those threads all the way to debtor's prison

If you're not hung up on the whole 45 thing, there are loads of great non-Numero CD comps out there collecting the rare and not-so rare non Motown & Stax stuff that won't break the bank. Start with Brit labels like Kent and their parent Are.

*"Are" = Ace, yes? - https://acerecords.co.uk/soul-1/14?various=1

Yeah ACE. Stupid phone.

Probably Berlin School electronic, which just seems to me like the shovelware of genres. I find a record I kind of like and immediately find out the person behind it has done 100 that sound the same but different that week. I _like_ "the same but different" but I just throw up my hands at that point and say "fuck it".

I kind of wish I was more familiar with the Great American Songbook. It really belongs to an earlier generation.

Post-70s Jazz

y'all they're not blind spots if you don't want to correct them, that's just you not liking something

Per my revive, I take 'blind spot' in this context to mean 'something that, given my general musical inclinations, I should really have checked out by now but have been unaccountably circumventing to an extent which some might call perverse'.

I don’t have blind spots. I just don’t feel I have much musical knowledge. I tend to skip from one thing to the next. No really extensive mastering of the history. I know a lot of names/genres but rarely delve into a genre deep enough. :-((( And especially these days I obsess over a few songs. Atm Ann Peebles’ Playhouse.

Pat Metheny's catalog is a huge blind spot for me. I own Zero Tolerance For Silence, of course, but have never really listened to more than a few minutes of anything else. Might try to fix that this year.

If you have never heard Song X, that might be a place to start. I love some of the mellower stuff like New Chautaqua and As Wichita Falls ... myself but I'm not sure about your taste wrt that sort of thing.

my big one is Rush, I'm a huge prog head and I like a lot of Rush's singles but just never really felt like listening to a full LP

You might wanna just write off Rush. In my experience Rush live > Rush on record, and it's not close. I was always OK with whatever songs got radio airplay but didn't need to hear more, but then I saw them live in 2011 and 2013 and was stunned by how much I enjoyed it. But I still never listen to their albums.

At least listen to Moving Pictures and A Farewell to Kings before making that call. (If you're going further, maybe try Hemispheres if you want them at their proggiest.)

Oh, another one for me: Harry Nilsson. Almost every music fan I know can speak knowledgeably about the man's entire discogarphy, but all I know are the obvious big songs ("Without You," "Coconut," "Everybody's Talkin") "Me and my Arrow," and Pussy Cats (the latter of which I bought because someone told me it was "his Like Flies on Sherbert")

well shit, hope he didn't take it personally

frogbs, hemispheres is up there with close to the edge, relayer, and thick as a brick

alright, y'all have convinced me. especially given what just happened :/

re: Pat Metheny - I don't know that much of his stuff but the Offramp album is seriously great

If you like that, try the other 'mellow' ones I mentioned.