I Don't Like Music

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

Slightly misleading thread title is slightly misleading, but catchier than the multiple-sentence explanation I'm about to give.

Music, I gather, is a big part of many people's lives. Music is a huge industry, and one of the biggest genres of entertainment in the world. Professional musicians can make tens of millions of dollars a year, even the really bad ones without any talent. Non-professionals devote large portions of their time and money on experiencing the music they like, and it can be one of the greatest joys in life. For some people.

Not so much for me. At work, I'm known as the guy who doesn't like music. I don't care about the music scene, I don't know most of your favorite songs, I've never heard of some of your favorite artists. I have never been to a concert in my life. I have never purchased an album, cd, or even a single track of music from itunes.

This isn't to say that I actually dislike listening to music. I do have some stuff I like quite a lot, in fact. The Beatles, The Who, AC/DC... Eminem, Gorillaz... Tenacious D... That's about it, really. I rarely take people's suggestions on what music I "have to listen to." I roll my eyes at my friends' enthusiasm when singing along to their favorite bland, uninteresting songs. And I'm the only person I've ever met who has such apathy towards music in general.

But here's the most interesting part: I really, really love theme music. Tracks written for movies and video games can often blow my mind. All the way back to my first favorite game ever, Heretic, I remember getting immense enjoyment out of simply listening to the level themes. Video game music can move me emotionally in ways that "professional musicians" and bands almost never can. Most of the music I look up on youtube for my own aural pleasure comes from games, movies, and anime.

So, what about you Escapers? Does anyone else here prefer OSTs to studio-recorded albums? Or am I really alone in the universe? Also, just for discussion's sake, what is your favorite music, whether it's from a video game or a famous artist?

 

[Pink Gregory]

Professional just means that you earn money in a profession. Some guy who gets paid $20 every week for playing a competent set in different venues around one town is just as much a professional as someone who's playing arenas.

It's called 'having different tastes'. You aren't expected to like anything but what you like. That doesn't devalue things that you don't like either.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

If it sounds good, I like it. I'm not really interested in the scene itself, just the song itself. I guess we're kind of similar in that regard. I like OSTS, regular CD music, everything really. Though my iPod does have quite a lot of anime openings... >_>

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

I definitely can't relate to your dislike of music. Music is my life. My music collection is massive because I started building it in 1987. At this point it's nearly 1600 CDs; 300 LPs, EPs, and 7" singles; and lots of memorabilia. The only genres I really don't like are rap, hip hop, country, metal, dance, and dubstep. I may have forgotten some but those are the big ones. Important note: bluegrass is NOT country, and I absolutely love bluegrass.

Music is so important that I'm a self-taught drummer, guitarist, bassist, and pianist.

Spoiler: An incredibly dorky picture of me with my fav guitar

While I can't say that I like OSTs more than bands' studio albums, some OSTs are absolutely brilliant. The two that come to mind instantly are A Clockwork Orange and Four Rooms (the latter because I'm a huge Combustible Edison fan).

 

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

It sounds like you might actually enjoy classical music if you like theme music which tend to be orchestrator. I know how you feel completely about theme music. I myself really enjoy listening to theme songs from TV shows despite how camp or corny they are! Just the other day I was on the bus listening to Rawhide and the woman next to me must have heard it through my earphones because she kept smirking and looking out the window.

It is interesting to hear someone not think music is a big deal. I don't practice an instrument or have any knowledge of the craft but I would be lost without it. Walking through town without an I-Pod? I might actually have to communicate with people!

 

[Elfgore]

I'm a pretty avid listener to music. I listen to it in the car, walking to class, and when I game, read, or write. I just enjoy the background noise. OSTs are always nice, but besides one song I don't listen to them randomly.

My music collection has gotten pretty large of late. Since I got a job, I could actually buy CDs online. My collection is close to breaking 150 albums, mostly metalcore, post-hardcore, and some power metal along with... whatever Amon Amarth is. I'm pretty proud of my collection though. I even remember my hundredth CD. This is How the Wind Shifts by Silverstein.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

OP, look up a music genre called minimalism. It's about very static, kind of repetitive music themes. Generally used to score operas or movies, but it can stand up on its own. I myself have been on a bit of minimalism binge, mostly with Philip Glass or John Adams.

Spoiler

(Those bassoons and low brass know what's up.)

 

[Eamar]

The composers who write and the musicians who perform soundtracks are every bit as much "professional musicians" as someone in a band. It doesn't sound like you don't like music, you just have different tastes than your friends. As someone's already pointed out, it sounds like you'd probably like some classical music too - film/game soundtracks are basically the modern continuation of that.

Personally, I describe myself as a metalhead, but I also love soundtracks, classical, some rock and a smattering of bits and pieces from other genres.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

The composers who write and the musicians who perform soundtracks are every bit as much "professional musicians" as someone in a band. It doesn't sound like you don't like music, you just have different tastes than your friends. As someone's already pointed out, it sounds like you'd probably like some classical music too - film/game soundtracks are basically the modern continuation of that.

This.

Plus, I feel cheated by your click-baiting title. How dare you do this to me?

..What? I'm fuelling the fire by bumping the thread with my post??? Ridiculous assertion, self-monologue Duck.

OT: Aren't there plenty of people who just do their own thing with music and tend to just hold onto what they know? I'm quite a minority in the people I know with my active interest to seek out new music all the time and introduce other people to new bands and the like. Plenty of my friends and family are more passive when it comes to music and stick with what they've got, so, from my experience, I'd say you're in the more common grouping!

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Eh, to each their own.

Like with me, I have a friend who obsesses over Eminem and Ed Sheeran, and I don't listen to either of them.

I mean, I respect rap and there are some examples that I truly like, but its not a genre I listen to because I feel that it sacrifices too much for excellence in lyrics.

As for Ed Sheeran, it's because I feel like his "thing" has been done before by other musicians, and mostly, done better than how he does it.

I kind of flip between a lot of genres(classical, jazz, speed metal, heavy metal, electro/synth, a lot of them that I cannot say at the top of my head), but rock, or rather, alternative rock would be my constant.

Currently, I am really into Kasabian, and I particularly love their "Man of Simple Pleasures".

 

[Bertylicious]

It's rather difficult to talk about this without coming across as some sort of soulless automaton but I share your feelings, Vampi. I think this view started when I was a teenager and a bit of a Goth. I really liked Radiohead at the time but liked any music which sang about self-loathing and killing yourself. Many friends were into heavy metal and I had many fun nights jumping around, listening to Slayer, even to the point of buying the odd album here or there, but whenever we would talk about music it would always be about trivia, like when such a track was written and what the lead singer was having for breakfast at the time and so on.

I never had the same connection to the music as that and I ended up feeling like an outsider amongst outsiders. It was all quite depressing.

Ever since I have always enjoyed music in a superficial sense but never been able to engage with it in the way others do.

 

[ViridianV6]

I don't find OSTs and studio albums to be liked mutually exclusively. For instance, when I was young I loved (and still love) the music from the Spyro series and when I found out the composer was the drummer for the Police, I found myself enjoying the Police.

As for favourite music, I don't really dislike any genre and never really felt apathetic about music.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

I'm not to picky, I listen to a lot of anime and game OSTs and I balance that with music before 2005 (my general cut-off period, pop is overflowing awful and the underground is too vast). I don't really differentiate as both suits my taste.
I think the first OST I ever actively listened to was the guilty gear games it was distracting to the point of awesome! Well I don't count the TLoZ games because it's known for it.
But I ever only bought arranged studio albums of soundtracks Like LIFE

I like jazz and Grunge music mainly but I like everything else to a lesser extent

 

[Phlogiston]

I completely understand OP. For me the whole verse, chorus, verse of commercial music is boring as sin.

Personally I'm very much into progressive electronica like Autechre [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wraDrKHP0tE], Squarepusher [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mjoV2BT1WQ] and Shpongle [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a83Z1d1_ERo] to name just a few.

I feel like good electronica that's not just written as a repetitive dancefloor foot stomper is almost in the same vein as classical music in the way it progresses and evolves throughout its duration. That said, a good DJ will transform multiple repetitive foot stompers into a completely unique progression of their own for a few hours.

Even within verse/chorus/verse music artists like Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, Radiohead, Hendrix all have more soul than just being written to get your foot tapping and singing along with it.

If anything OP, I think you probably have better musical sense than 99% of your peers, you just haven't found the stuff that's not on the radio, without going to gigs/concerts/raves you might never find out.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

I don't listen to music too often. I listen to it on my way to work, sometimes during my breaks, and sometimes on the way back. If I see a good song, I'll listen to it a couple times at home on the computer here and there, but otherwise I tend to forget it.

I do have bands and musicians I really like, but I do not have a long list like most other people do. People always ask "Have you heard...?" and tend to either act surprised or upset if I have not. People also tend to think I've lived under a rock if I can't remember names of songs from certain names of bands. I enjoy music, I just don't follow it.

I listen to my own music during rounds of Titanfall or something, but that's only because personally I find the music in Titanfall sort of falls flat. I'd much rather some metal music or some hardcore rap/hiphop I enjoy while I'm playing my twitch shooter.

I want to experience a concert at least once, but I'm not actively going out of my way to find one.

So overall, no, I don't think you're the only one with this sense of music tastes.

I don't let music define me or who I am. I wear almost all black, with sometimes tons of accessories (belts, chains, bracelets, leather), and have long hair. Because of this, most people tend to assume I listen to nothing but death metal or something. I even have people ask if I'm actually in a band. I just tell them no, I listen to whatever sounds good to me at the time. My music taste is rather eclectic.

 

[sanquin]

Can't say I can relate to you, OP. ^^;; Music is a huge part of my life, and not a day goes by without listening to at least a song or two. Some days I go through entire playlists. I don't listen to radio though, and what most people consider good music I don't care for at all.

I think it just comes down to your tastes. I won't pretend I do know good music for you and recommend something, but I do search for interesting and good sounding music. Nothing from the usual pop, soft rock or other 'mainstream' music you hear on the radio though...I've not listened to that kind of thing in...12 years or so? I'm more into metal and rock. A bare minimum of hardcore/bass-heavy music too.

All I can recommend is to keep on looking for something new you might like. Even though I think I've pretty much found out what my tastes are time and time again, I've found close to a dozen groups/bands I like through friends or just searching on the internet.

 

[jamail77]

It doesn't sound like you don't like music, you just have different tastes than your friends.

I think that's only part of what the OP is talking about. After all, he said he does like music. He never said he didn't. Keep in mind this as well:

Music, I gather, is a big part of many people's lives. [snip] Non-professionals devote large portions of their time and money on experiencing the music they like, and it can be one of the greatest joys in life. For some people.

Not so much for me. At work, I'm known as the guy who doesn't like music. I don't care about the music scene, I don't know most of your favorite songs, I've never heard of some of your favorite artists. I have never been to a concert in my life. I have never purchased an album, cd, or even a single track of music from itunes.

A lot of people have a source of music with them at all times and those who don't at least know details about their favorite music beyond the obvious ones. It sounds like he doesn't. It's the music scene and he's involved so little it's like he's not even on it, so people say he is the guy who doesn't like music. He doesn't think that about himself however.

I can relate. I don't make music a big part of my life either. I used to listen to a lot but not so much anymore. The only iPod I have is an iPod Shuffle my sister won in a contest and didn't want. It barely has any songs on it and I don't even remember where it is. I used to listen to stuff on Pandora, but now I barely go on the site. I probably don't even remember my password. Because I make video gaming a big part of my life I often continue to listen to video gaming tracks or Miracle of Sound to the point I don't listen to just "music music". Regardless, music is definitely lower on things I let take up my time. I can't tell you much about Lindsey Stirling or Kondo Koji or anybody whose music I listen to now and again.

When you're around someone who makes it a big part of their social interaction with people it can get awkward.

 

[shootthebandit]

I like most music, I wouldnt say I was a massive music fan but I like so much different shit that its nigh on impossible for me to actively purchase every song I like and go to every gig for every band I like. I like everything from the stones roses to metallica to tupac to justin timberlake and rudimental (im really liking rudimental at the minute)

You like what you like and its purely your choice and noone elses