Why can't I not like a form of music?

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Dante DiVongola

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Jul 1, 2011
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I'm generally a type of person that likes a lot of music styles and genres. My favorite happens to be most (if no all) variations of metal. It's been a constant in my life, it's gotten me through the sad, the happy, and the in-between times, and the metal-head subculture is one that I'm proud to be part of.

However, my tastes go beyond that of just metal. I love acoustic, jazz (of all kinds), latin music (anything from salsa to bossa nova), classical, blues, rap, hip-hop, older r&b, electronica, techno, pop, punk, rock n' roll, country, bluegrass, classic rock, and all other forms of rock you could shake a stick at.

But I'm not into some of today's R&B, Dubstep, Screamo, Country, and Pop artists, who so many others say are really good. I respectfully disagree and say that I really can't buy into some of these artists for a vast amount of reasons that I could probably go into depth about with each artist, though I'll start out with the easier one for me to express.

My general feelings on dubstep is that it's not layered enough and I tend to get too much of one constant thing. For me, dubstep seems like the bastard child of Nu-Metal and Drone Metal that also fused some techno elements in there as well. I don't mind some dubstep if there is other musical instrumentation going on as well, but for it to solely have just the dubstep element as the actual song seems a bit too dry for my palette.

I get that it's supposed to be this immersive music that you're supposed to experience in more of a euphoric, "free your mind" kind of way. But regular techno, nu-metal, and other genres do just that 10 times better for me than dubstep does on its own.

Another thing that's a little bit easier for me to explain my general distaste for is for the country I've heard in the past decade. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with your typical Garth Brooks country boy or your Jimmy Buffet, but there is a general theme that I do hate about Country.

That thing is that it's generally turned into some horrible transformation of the Carter-style country that has almost a 'pop music theme' sheen to it. By that, I mean most of the music is just about relationships and relationship problems. Now, every genre has this to an extent, but when your basic lyrical content becomes how a boy caused you problems and the music in the background just becomes a series of sad, slow chord progressions, that's when it's become an abomination in my eyes.

But I couldn't express all of this without someone trying to say that I was just overly biased or that I wasn't "open-minded" enough to appreciate the music. To which I give a quick, curt flit of my middle finger and kindly express how they should kiss my ass.

I'm a musician and someone who has always had many genres of music prevalent in my life. For someone to imply that I'm not open-minded enough to enjoy a certain type of music or that my opinion is worthless because I don't happen to agree with the other person is just insulting and infuriating to me.

I could go on with multiple examples, genres/subgenres, and arguments, but am I in the wrong and I'm just a little too closed-minded to really appreciate certain artists/genres of today? Or is it them being overly defensive about their music and assuming I'm personally trying to dismantle it as a form of music.
 

Fieldy409_v1legacy

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Oct 9, 2008
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See, the thing is. Eventually you will stop liking modern music. It happened to our mothers and fathers and it will happen to us.

Just enjoy the music you like, and dont worry because these days we have the internet, where any niche of music can be found.
 

The Last Nomad

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Oct 28, 2009
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Who says you can't dislike a certain type of music? those people should just shut up and learn about opinions.
 

DrgoFx

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Aug 30, 2011
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As I've stated to one of my friends, Dubstep is the easiest form of music to make but the hardest to make appealing, let alone amazing. Once you realize that most of dubstep is done by talentless kids in their basements, you can look for much better forms of it. But as I said, it's difficult to make it sound good. Many people don't have the talent. I've only heard roughly 2 or 3 really AMAZING dubstep songs.
 

Amethyst Wind

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Apr 1, 2009
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The Last Nomad said:
Who says you can't dislike a certain type of music? those people should just shut up and learn about opinions.
I'd say someone who dislikes a music style because it's trendy to do so or without having listened to any first doesn't have an opinion worth a damn.

If you listen to the music and find it simply not to your tastes then that's fine.
 

Thaa'ir

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Feb 10, 2011
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Music taste just...is. I personally do not like metal. That's just how it is. Who cares? A lot of people do, and that's fine by me. No need to give people crap for it.

You can bring the same argument against them too.
 

Sp3ratus

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Apr 11, 2009
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Fieldy409 said:
See, the thing is. Eventually you will stop liking modern music. It happened to our mothers and fathers and it will happen to us.

Just enjoy the music you like, and dont worry because these days we have the internet, where any niche of music can be found.
Well, in a sense you're right about the "stop liking modern music" bit and what I mean by that, is that the music stops being modern at one point. My parents still listen to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker etc., you know, music that was popular and modern in their time. They didn't stop liking the music, it just stopped being modern. If you mean it in the sense of people stop listening to whatever music they're listening to right now, that's quite a generalization and not something I agree with, since it's just not true in a lot of cases.

And to the OP, don't worry about it. People like different things, there's nothing wrong with that, at all. If we were all the same and the liked the same stuff, the world would be a pretty boring place to live. Just enjoy what you like and don't give a damn about what other people think you should like. You're the one who has to enjoy the music you listen to, not them.
 

AnarchistFish

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Jul 25, 2011
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By dubstep and screamo do you mean this


or this

?

Anyhow, it's perfectly fine to not like some types of music. Some types of music just don't, click with some people. In other cases, I've often felt that I don't like a type of music until I find out that that was only because I was hearing the mainstream, overproduced crap version and that in reality, theres tons of wonderful and creative music in those genres, but hidden away.
 
Dec 14, 2009
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Sturgeon's Revelation

90% of everything is shit. This counts for music. I've listened to plenty of shitty metal, shitty dubstep, shitty everything.

So instead of limiting myself to certain genres, I just look for that 10% that doesn't suck arse.

Enter Shikari is in that 10%. My favourite band ever.

 

EvilMaggot

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Sep 18, 2008
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AnarchistFish said:
By dubstep and screamo do you mean this


or this

?

Anyhow, it's perfectly fine to not like some types of music. Some types of music just don't, click with some people. In other cases, I've often felt that I don't like a type of music until I find out that that was only because I was hearing the mainstream, overproduced crap version and that in reality, theres tons of wonderful and creative music in those genres, but hidden away.
i really liked the Skrillex/Escape the fate tag.. the other... noooot so much :)

but yeah i also listen to all kinds of genre's of music and are alot like OP so i can defo understand it. But like another one wrote its the internet you can defo find your modern music just to your liking :)
 

StriderShinryu

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Dec 8, 2009
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Music is such a personal thing that I don't think it's fair to comment when someone doesn't like something. Of course, that's quite different for someone who actually goes out of their way to say that something is actually bad. For me, for example, I can't stand reggae or a lot of ska. It just drives me up the wall and is probably the one style I will actively get up and change the channel on (well, that and some old school country music). I wouldn't, however, actually say that it's bad music.
 

GrandmaFunk

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Oct 19, 2009
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I can appreciate things in almost all genres...but metal, hardcore punk and dubstep are the ones that I find impossible to enjoy.

not because all the songs are objectively bad, but because their defining qualities are things I strongly dislike.

edit: also, some genres actually strive to sound bad on purpose. they make objectively bad music.

I'll be the first to admit it can be pretty hard to judge what's music and what's noise...but if it being noise is the point, then it's not really enjoyable as music.
 

DionysusSnoopy

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May 9, 2009
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Your allowed to not like certain music.

I tend to listen to most music I'm quite eclectic in my choices, as the OP is, but for me I don't like classical music, I just don't enjoy listening to it.
 

Torrasque

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Aug 6, 2010
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*gonna read your post in a bit, but I cannot right now cuz I am in class and have to pay attention at this current moment*

As much poo I fling at music I don't like, it is more of a "this is why I don't like this kind of music and why I suggest no one listen to this music" than a "IF YOU LISTEN TO THIS THEN YOU DON'T KNOW GOOD MUSIC" thing.
I have given up trying to understand why some people like some kinds of music that I do not. Technically speaking, no one can tell you what kind of music sounds good to you.

The only thing I will never stop doing, is looking at people who listen to X kind of music, yet dislike Classical or other music that is undeniably good. But then again, there are people in the world that don't like Monty Python, so /shrug
 

trooper6

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Jul 26, 2008
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You can dislike anything you want.

I'd like to point out something though. Music, besides just being a random thing, is also a powerful tool for identification and expression for both the musicians making it, but also the people who make up the fan base of that genre. (Note your statement that you are a proud member of the metal-head subculture).

So music very often isn't just itself, but also a stand in for the communities and people who are associated with a genre or who identify with that genre. So when you express dislike for a genre, sometimes that carries more weight (intentionally or not, subconsciously or not) than just you disliking a piece of music. Sometimes it reads as dislike for a people. The attack on the music becomes an attack on the people of that music. And quite often historically, people have attacked a music mainly because they actually wanted to attack the people of that music.

There is a difference between: "X genre isn't to my taste" and "X genre is bad music." The former is just a personal preference, the latter starts to make become an attack on the type of people associated with X genre. If you say that X genre is fundamentally crap, you are also saying the people who like X genre and who find value in that genre are...what? Something. Duped? Stupid? Have no taste? Worthy of derision?

So it isn't exactly that one dislikes a type of music, but how and why. In your post, you generally steered clear of attacking whatever music you dislike (and by extension the people who like that music). Your post contained phrases like "this doesn't work for me." So who'd get upset by that? But on the other hand, you also said thinks like modern country is an abomination...that goes beyond your personal taste and move into an attack that will fall onto people who like modern country. Also, your attack on modern country starts to slide into being too general...and points to a lack of engagement with the genre you are attacking, which makes your opinion seem not well informed. It is like when people back in the early 80s would attack metal and say things like "All metal basically deals with satanism" or "It is all just noise" or "No one sings they just scream."

If you are serious about wanting engage with this topic you bring up a bit more (rather than just posting to rant or to have people validate you uncritically), let me recommend Bethany Bryson's article "Anything But Heavy Metal: Symbolic Exclusion and Musical Dislikes" -- which you can download here: http://digilib.bc.edu/reserves/sc559/babb/sc55932.pdf

I like to assign this particular article in my Popular Music Seminars all the time.
 

thejackyl

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Apr 16, 2008
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I always like the whole: "You like X Song, you must love Y genre."
Or when I say "I don't like dubstep." and someone replies "but you like this song", Yeah the song is good, but I don't like an entire genre just because of one song. That'd be like saying you have to like Justin Beiber because you liked some Pop music in the 90's.

Another one of my favorites is when you say you like a certain band, apparently if you like a band, you aren't allowed to think some of their songs are bad or at least not as good as others. For example: Coheed and Cambria is one of my favorite bands. Me and a friend were listening to one of their CDs, and I said: "Well, I really don't like this one as much." and they said back: " I thought you liked this band."

There's nothing wrong with disliking a genre of music in general. I don't like rap, country, dubstep, techno, or foreign music(I like to understand what I'm listening to), but I do like a few songs in each of those genres.
 

TheDooD

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Dec 23, 2010
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I don't like a majority of Dubstep because in opinion Dubstep is just shitty Drum and Bass.
 

Bobic

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Nov 10, 2009
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Amethyst Wind said:
The Last Nomad said:
Who says you can't dislike a certain type of music? those people should just shut up and learn about opinions.
I'd say someone who dislikes a music style because it's trendy to do so or without having listened to any first doesn't have an opinion worth a damn.

If you listen to the music and find it simply not to your tastes then that's fine.
The problem is, though, that the latter is often dismissed as being the former. And I'd imagine that's what inspired the OP