Your musical "blind spots"

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.

The ones I created for myself yeah.

Late 50s-early 60s jazz - I've heard quite a lot of forward-thinking jazz albums, but I lack the backbone behind that. Same with soul for that matter, I have some highlights but not a broad picture.
Some of the more straightforward pop. Again, same logic, you are attracted or shown to the more elaborate albums, and you miss the elephant.
There are days I wish I knew everything about the dancehall / pop rap / r&b and everything that falls in-between.
Brazilian music classics. More generally the world songbook.
A lot more from those genres that produce long spiritual pieces (from soul-jazz to rock to carnatic music).
And many others where I could dig way further (punk, new wave / synthpop, power pop).
Etc

So 'musical blind spots' is a more diplomatic way of saying you don't really care for a given artist/album/genre.

Opera and metal (perhaps it's the bombast)...UK indie from the second half of the 80s, particularly Gen C86

I could see not being into one or the other of these categories, but both/all? Leaves me with the question, what exactly do you listen to? Or, what qualities do you seek out in music? "I don't like all that bombastic shouting, but I don't like mumbly diffidence either..."

Yeah I mean, if it isn't either of those specific things then what's left... sports talk radio?

So 'musical blind spots' is a more diplomatic way of saying you don't really care for a given artist/album/genre.

― pomenitul, Thursday, November 9, 2017 7:13 AM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Are there any styles or groups that you wish you knew more about, but for whatever reason you don't ?
Are there any styles or groups that you wish you knew more about, but for whatever reason you don't ?
Are there any styles or groups that you wish you knew more about, but for whatever reason you don't ?
Are there any styles or groups that you wish you knew more about, but for whatever reason you don't ?
Are there any styles or groups that you wish you knew more about, but for whatever reason you don't ?
Are there any styles or groups that you wish you knew more about, but for whatever reason you don't ?

Haha, now I feel like an idiot. Alright, I'll go put on my dunce cap.

"I don't like all that bombastic shouting, but I don't like mumbly diffidence either..."

This is not all music

To those who are allergic to operatic singing, is this also unpalatable to you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3l61P8j9rg

Come to think of it, 'allergic' and 'unpalatable' are inappropriate adjectives in the context of this thread so let me rephrase my question: does this make you want to overcome your 'blind spot' for operatic vocals?

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.