Unpopular music opinions

[Kahuna]

Or even worse, forming our tastes based on what has the appropriate academic/cultural imprimatur -- and being afraid to admit to enjoying anything that falls outside what The Right Kind Of People listen to.

I find it extremely annoying to have to conform my musical taste to what some "blues mafia" or "jazz mafia" says I should like. I think it's generally true that people's musical tastes are formed early in their life and reflect the type of music they are exposed to at that time. Much of our musical appreciation has to do with association with a pleasant, less complicated time in our lives. Which is why, I guess, even though most of the music I listen to these days comes from the 20s and 30s, I still get goosebumps of delight when I hear Janis Joplin rip into "Combination of the Two" (your mileage may vary).

 

[LizzieMaine]

No, sorry. That's incorrect. The key to how we react to music has a neurological basis - there is research that more than suggests that it's good for you, so it's far from being a mere whim. More about it here.

You could say the same thing about chocolate, though -- and just as with music, people find it necessary to make rationalizations and excuses and come up with explanations for why a ten-dollar Belgian praline is "better" than a Hershey bar. We cloak all this stuff in such a mass of sociological/intellectual pretense that it completely obscures the reality of whatever it is that we're talking about. As a culture, we've lost the ability to simply *enjoy* whatever it is that we like without feeling the need to justify it or to display it as evidence of our own Advanced Tastes.

 

[S_M_Cumberworth]

You could say the same thing about chocolate, though -- and just as with music, people find it necessary to make rationalizations and excuses and come up with explanations for why a ten-dollar Belgian praline is "better" than a Hershey bar. We cloak all this stuff in such a mass of sociological/intellectual pretense that it completely obscures the reality of whatever it is that we're talking about. As a culture, we've lost the ability to simply *enjoy* whatever it is that we like without feeling the need to justify it or to display it as evidence of our own Advanced Tastes.

But when you reduce music to a purely reactionary or visceral entity, you denigrate the intellectual processes involved in its production and appreciation. Good are is not creation by emotion. It is above all a technical and intellectual undertaking, and any emotional force a piece of art might have is incidental and secondary. There's a reason poetry written by high schoolers is generally lousy: it's all emotion and no technique.

I would argue the opposite of you: As a culture, we now tend to appreciate and create art superficially, not intellectually. I'd attribute this mostly to a misunderstanding of 20th century experimentation. Because so much modern art seems formless to the populace, there's been this proliferation of thought that form, tradition, and technique are meaningless and useless. Now even the creation of art is often times an intellectless enterprise, and I think this phenomenon reinforces the idea that art is an extension of emotion.

 

[hatophile]

Yeah, well, I like these guys . Strap in and keep up.

[video=youtube;FaLc2PyKEG8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaLc2PyKEG8[/video]

I like it , the hippie girl singer is cute, too.

 

[Pompidou]

Or even worse, forming our tastes based on what has the appropriate academic/cultural imprimatur -- and being afraid to admit to enjoying anything that falls outside what The Right Kind Of People listen to.

This sums up my opinion on almost everything. Just because society says X is better than Y, doesn't make it true. Everything is arbitrary.

 

[Fletch]

But there is a cost to going against the arbitrary. The music I love has weakened more connections with others than it's strengthened - because it appeals so strongly to loners and the socially isolated.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's the fault of the culture, not the fault of the music. And the culture only has that power if one allows it to.

I play Golden Era pop music on the pre-show sound system at work as a matter of course. And in the five years I've been doing that, I've had several of our concession kids develop a taste for it -- one of them would perk right up and run in to listen whenever Crosby and Mercer's "Small Fry" came on, another is a bug for anything by Fats Waller, and I caught another one singing along the other night to an Alice Faye record. These kids don't *know* they "aren't supposed to like this music" or that it's "only for loners and cellar-dwellers." They like it because it's fun, pleasant, and bouncy. Which is why people liked it in 1938, too. And why people ought not to feel embarassed about liking it today -- if they can just get over themselves long enough to listen.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Yes, people are afraid to enjoy what the enjoy. I am a big time polka fan, and even in Wisconsin farm country, where Polka is popular, my friends are always ashamed to admit they like it when it's playing in my truck or on my record player at home. If you enjoy it, enjoy it. Not because someone tells you to, but because it's what makes you happy.

 

[hatophile]

Having varied musical tastes is much like having varied taste in foods. This allows you to have more availability of music (or foods) to and enjoy, as well as expanding the types of people you can enjoy them with. I try to keep my mind and ears open for new and unusual music, apart from the normal clatter we hear on convential radio. By the same token, if you have unpopular tastes, you can always listen by yourself.

 

[Kahuna]

Having varied musical tastes is much like having varied taste in foods. This allows you to have more availability of music (or foods) to and enjoy, as well as expanding the types of people you can enjoy them with. I try to keep my mind and ears open for new and unusual music, apart from the normal clatter we hear on convential radio. By the same token, if you have unpopular tastes, you can always listen by yourself.

I have very broad tastes in music and over 3,000 CDs. I don't enjoy all the music I have all the time. You have to be in a certain mood to listen to Charlie Patton or Jenks "Tex" Carman. But when that mood strikes nothing else will do. I still hold fast to the old fashioned notion that music is for enjoyment not for some arbitrary ranking.

 

[martinsantos]

This is probably the most "unpopular" (or foolish) music opinion I've readed last times. Mr Hsio Wen Shih, "The Spread of Jazz and the Big Bands", quoted by Mr LeRoy Jones, "Blues People". (I'm translating the translation, so the text isn't exactly the original).

"The popularity of swing arrangements by Fletcher Henderson made all those big bands, black and white, sound the same. Goodman, Shaw. Dorseys, Barnet, Hines, Calloway, Teddy Hill, Webb, all had the same standards of efficiency. There is a appaling record, "The Great Swing Bands" where we can find all these orchestras. When you heard them, without consulting the notes of the LP, it's impossible to distinguish any from the others".

Conclusion: both (Mrs Hsio and Jones) didn't have ears - and tragically wanted to write about music.

 

[hatophile]

Good point, Kahuna. My tastes vary depending on my mood, weather, what clothes I'm wearing, etc. Much in the same way I love spaghetti, but couldn't eat it for every meal.

 

[Fletch]

That's the fault of the culture, not the fault of the music. And the culture only has that power if one allows it to.

True. Your experience argues strongly that we don't have to allow that. But my experience among more mature people is that if you don't allow the dominant culture that kind of power over your life, at least some of the time, you're very likely to become one of those lonely cellar-dwellers. Sometimes without even knowing it.

It's like an analogy I saw posted on a film forum recently: Of course you don't have to be a gay man to like musical comedy. And you don't have to be a history professor or reclusive wacko to appreciate silent movies. Obvious, yes. But what the poster didn't mention is that it's a lot easier if you are. It will probably allow you to live at least a little more fully and in balance between your passions and your world.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I still hold fast to the old fashioned notion that music is for enjoyment not for some arbitrary ranking.

That's the point I'm trying to make. Music shouldn't be used as a club with which to beat your less-rarefied friends, nor should it be something that you use like a fashion accessory to tell the world Who You Are. Forcing yourself to listen to music you don't actually enjoy is like choking down an overpriced meal and pretending to like it for the sake of impressions. Either way, it's ridiculous.

 

[LizzieMaine]

True. Your experience argues strongly that we don't have to allow that. But my experience among more mature people is that if you don't allow the dominant culture that kind of power over your life, at least some of the time, you're very likely to become one of those lonely cellar-dwellers. Sometimes without even knowing it.

It's like an analogy I saw on a film forum recently. Of course you don't have to be a gay man to like musical comedy. And you don't have to be a history professor or batty collector to appreciate silent movies. But it's a lot easier if you are...and it will probably allow you to live more fully and in more harmony with both people and passions.

Well, I haven't seen that to be the case myself. I don't feel any need to pretend to like things I don't for the sake of cultural harmony. Friends don't have to agree on everything to be friends, except perhaps in this ultra-Balkanized modern culture where everybody has a subcultural niche they have to fit into. I outgrew that way of looking at the world about the eighth grade.

 

[Viper Man]

That's a "what if" question. Lang isn't necessarily on the same level of influence as, say, Louis Armstrong. If not Lang, then someone else would have come along eventually. It's not like he was the only guitarist of the era.

True, how about some love for Carl Kress or Lonnie Johnson?

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Music is Who I Am. My first memories involve music and certain songs will instantly take me back to certain points in my life. It's always been there for me. It's my obsessive hobby.

I did use it as a "club" when I ws younger, but I've outgrown that. I like so many genres now I *can't* be "exclusive" about it. I'm VERY open-minded when it comes to music and that is one thing I'm proud of. The genre I dislike most would have to be Death Metal. Nothing about constantly kicking a drum and singing like Cookie Monster appeals to me. BUT! I *did* go through a Death Metal phase in late high school, but it was very brief. I tried it on and didn't like it.

I thought I'd really dislike 50s female crooners (and for the most part I do), but I gave Beverly Kenny a chance recently and I found that I actually like her. On the other end of the spectrum, I always disliked "hardcore" music, but recently discovered a few hardcore songs that I actually like. They are from the 90s, but still. I turned away from it completely and missed out on some good tunes.

I'm not saying everyone should be like me, but music is Who I Am. I love it passionately. If we can connect musically it is a huge plus! And maybe I am still a little "club"-y when I say this, but if we can connect through The Boswell Sisters, The Priscillas, or obscure 80s pop tunes then I will never shutup and we'll be BFFs! Music is a big part of my identity. People come to me first when they want to know who sang what and when! lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm not saying everyone should be like me, but music is Who I Am. I love it passionately. If we can connect musically it is a huge plus! And maybe I am still a little "club"-y when I say this, but if we can connect through The Boswell Sisters, The Priscillas, or obscure 80s pop tunes then I will never shutup and we'll be BFFs! Music is a big part of my identity.

I think when someone sincerely loves the music they listen to, it shows. It doesn't mattter what anyone else thinks, or what the fashion of the moment is, or what all the cool people listen to -- if you like it, it's good. That's how it ought to be for everyone -- there shouldn't be this constant cultural need for people to say "yeah, I know, but..." when someone else says "you listen to THAT?"

Which ties back to what Fletch was saying -- the culture he was talking about is the culture that imposes that need to justify one's musical taste. It comes around disguised as the inner circle of every subculture, but it always looks down over its nose and sneers "you listen to THAT?" The healthiest thing any of us can do is learn to say, with no apology whatsover, "YEAH, buddy, I listen to THAT. And what's it to ya?"

And now, I'm going to listen to an Ish Kabibble record.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Haha! Oh dear -- we did that in high school. The whole "You listen to that?!" thing. Or even better (worse?): "You DON'T listen to that?" (me with the Greatful Dead). If you liked metal, that was it. If you liked alternative, that was it. If you liked both you were considered a "poser" who couldn't make up his or her mind. I knew people who forced themselves to like a certain type of music because of a guy or a girl (GUILTY!!!) lol I hope that only teenagers do this. I can't imagine anyone over 25 behaving like this.

Now I'm off to listen to some Hoosier Hotshots that I got my hands on....

 

[LizzieMaine]

Now I'm off to listen to some Hoosier Hotshots that I got my hands on....

Ah! I have a pile of their records -- that Hezzie was the one true father of the slide whistle.