Music you know everybody seems to like except you

All I know is that I can't bear to be in the room if my wife or kids put a Damien Rice CD on. They feel the same about my jazz collection.

quote:

The assertion is I like music that is safe

And what is wrong with that? There is a world of difference between safe and dull. Coldplay are just dull. You enjoy a lot of prog rock - is that "safe"?

I play music that I like, be that safe, unsafe or whatever. As soon as I start to play music to impress other people I am veering towards the pretentious. I enjoy reading your threads because you are a music enthusiast and not some pseud seeking to impress us with his intellectual acuity. And by the way since when did Kevin Coyne become safe?

I like some of what Dean likes (Hendrix etc) but the more out there modern stuff isn't for me. But all that matters is that he likes it. It's funny, when people like the same stuff as ourselves we always think they have great taste don't we?

Am I open to new music? Absolutely, be it new to me or actually new. I had never really heard Yello til a recent get together at a fellow forumites house. Julian H brought a Yello vinyl album and I have since bough the cd. I bought it for me and for no other reason.

ROTF,


I feel a bit bad for the bucket comment () and I was not referring to your musical taste in particular (you do like "underground" Prog Rock bands) to be safe but a general comment to the many singer songwriter types of music easy on the ears with a nice tune and unoffensive/unimaginative lyrics so beloved of Radio2.

This subject does interest me as I try to give certain music a chance before I dismiss it and I am surprised by what I like when I venture out to try new genre's at the moment its Yes, Beethoven's Piano Sonata's and Opera (La Traviata).



Oh! and this is fantastic voice you might like Fleet Foxes.

But then I need to rinse my mind out with this Squarepusher you should hear it through a Naim system.

I hope I am not being too critical of peoples taste, each to their own, I just find it fascinating that I really like to challenge the perception of what constitutes music and sometimes I wonder why others don't as well.



Dean..

ROTF

I don't think that Frank Zappa, or many of the others you mention can be considered safe. Some are easier to listen to, but I would not image that you would want to listen to challenging music all the time, or vice-ser-versa.

I found with two of the bands that you mention, Coldplay and Radiohead, that I did like them for a while, but then seeing them live turned me off to their music.

Radiohead I will keep trying to enjoy, as when I saw them in 2003 they were very good. In 2006 I did not enjoy the performance I saw, and also disliked the atmosphere at the concert. I have found them hard to listen to since.

With Coldplay I had enjoyed the first two studio albums, and then saw them with a group of friends who were mainly musicians. We were all really looking forward to the concert, but all came out with the same opinion. We found their playing formulaic, we felt that the use of backing tracks/sequencers did not fit with their image of honesty. I have not been able to listen to them at all since.

The concert was not helped by having many of the kind of fan who go to shout/sing along to the hits, then phone people when the bands play tracks that were not singles.

I have also found that seeing some bands live has opened them up to me, and also made me understand pieces of music that just listening to the studio version did not.

Anyway I think the point you make at the top is the important one, and one that many people do not understand (not people on this forum I would add). If you do not like something, it does not mean that you think it is bad, it simply does not give you pleasure.

Jamie

quote:

The assertion is I like music that is safe

quote:

And what is wrong with that?

Hi Chris

I don't think Dean meant this as criticism, it was merely an observation.

BTW I do like a great deal of the music that you post on the What are you listening to right now? thread. Do you like Kevin Coyne too?

Yello - I've never heard anything by them, but I've often seen very positive comments on the forum - so it is now on my list to check out.

quote:

I feel a bit bad for the bucket comment () and I was not referring to your musical taste in particular

quote:

I hope I am not being too critical of peoples taste, each to their own, I just find it fascinating that I really like to challenge the perception of what constitutes music and sometimes I wonder why others don't as well.

Hi Dean

Don't feel bad, I never took your comments in anything other than a constructive way. I certainly do not feel you're saying I'm wrong to like what I like. Anymore than I am saying that anybody else is wrong for liking the music they like. I, too, wonder why others don't like some of the music I love.

The lyrical content of songs is important to me. I've always thought if an artist is writing a song with words then he or she should take the time to write decent words. Paul Simon, for example, changes the words he has originally written for a song if their sound doesn't fit the music. I saw a programme about the way he made the Graceland album and it was so meticulous that it came as no surprised that he ended up with such a good/great record (or product as he insisted on calling it - why does he refer to live gigs as product peddling/promotion? I've seen him live and it is far far more than that - he was terrific).

HMHB lyrics are my favourite lyrics of any group I have heard. The lyrics are to some extent safe and relatively inoffensive, but very clever - I know that may turn some away. The music is fairly simple in the folk tradition with an indie-rock slant (simply because the band grew up with that background).

I listened to the two links you posted and I'll use the words unusual and interesting to describe what I heard. It is not the style that usually hits my TT or CDP.

quote:

I have also found that seeing some bands live has opened them up to me, and also made me understand pieces of music that just listening to the studio version did not.

Hi Jamie

I must get out more. I rarely see live bands these days and my music listening is restricted to CDs and vinyl. I do go to some classical music performances. I agree with you that seeing and hearing something live does give you a very different perspective to hearing the studio version.

Many thanks for all the comments.

ATB Rotf.

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:

This subject does interest me as I try to give certain music a chance before I dismiss it and I am surprised by what I like when I venture out to try new genre's at the moment its Yes, Beethoven's Piano Sonata's and Opera (La Traviata)...I hope I am not being too critical of peoples taste, each to their own, I just find it fascinating that I really like to challenge the perception of what constitutes music and sometimes I wonder why others don't as well.Dean..

At worst, it is an adverse criticism of others' taste; at best it is the the slightly arrogant "You lot are really a bit dull and unadventurous, whereas I am really into the cutting edge of music" etc. I mean Beethoven is not safe?

ROTF

I can't get away with the floppy hatted one though i've tried. Does that make me a bad person?

What I find strange is that for instance take women singers with ROTF I love a lot of the same artists as he, so you would think we would like all the same artists, but no when it comes to BB the hatted one and VB the not many albumed one we can't agree they don't "grab" me as I find them a strain to listen too.
This happens across the spectra, I don't get Miles Davies,Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell to name few but other people who I respect for their similar musical tastes to me do like those artists as well.

This is a good thread well done ROTF.

quote:

Originally posted by Nigel Cavendish:

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:

This subject does interest me as I try to give certain music a chance before I dismiss it and I am surprised by what I like when I venture out to try new genre's at the moment its Yes, Beethoven's Piano Sonata's and Opera (La Traviata)...I hope I am not being too critical of peoples taste, each to their own, I just find it fascinating that I really like to challenge the perception of what constitutes music and sometimes I wonder why others don't as well.Dean..

At worst, it is an adverse criticism of others' taste; at best it is the the slightly arrogant "You lot are really a bit dull and unadventurous, whereas I am really into the cutting edge of music" etc. I mean Beethoven is not safe?

Nigel,


I'm sorry you feel it is arrogant to call some music safe but I have to take the reverse criticism that what I listen to is not even music. It is safe to me and I am honest with my views but I can take the criticism of my choices without feeling hard done by I am confident in my taste and its not for show and others have not taken it that way. I am interested in why I react to it in a such a fashion and find it dull and others find it riviting. As I alluded to in my first post its maybe because I was rebellious in my early teens and while everyone was listening to Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and other ToTP fair I was was listening to early Hip Hop and Electro Funk.

To me Beethovens Piano Sonata's are defintely not safe and this is borne out by Classical music's lack of any real popularity there is no immediate tune and no verse, chorus, verse, chorus type of structure they take many plays to flow as piece of music as they are complex in their structure something the mainstream music lover would not put the time in to understand.


I used to think that everybody loved House, Techno and Electronic music and since I have taken my head out of the sand I realise that I am in a very small minority of music lovers.



Dean..

Probably the most widely admired album that I just don't get is Radiohead's 'OK Computer' - if anyone wants my CD drop me an email and it's yours! (addy in profile).

Bjork is another barren space for me - I can appreciate for a few minutes many of the original things she does but is never gels into music for me - more like performance art.

I also can't get on with the hatted BB for some reason.

Fortunately that still leaves me plenty wonderful ear fodder.

Ian

To the general debate.


I grew up in a musical house where my brothers played Bowie, Blondie, Stevie Wonder, Human League, Jean Michel Jarre with my mother playing the radio and listening to Abba and The Carpenters sorts of music when I was 12 I was given a tape done by a work friend of my Mother which had Jazz Funk, Electro Funk and early Hip Hop on it and even though I was used to music in the house this thing blew my socks off it was so different from anything I'd ever heard in my short life and that has been the catalyst for me being interested in underground/non-popular music to this day (I had the same experience at 16 hearing ny first House record). Why did I react to that tape in such a way I'm a white guy from South London getting off on Black/Hispanic/White New York Music. For me I think as with Rotf's love of lyrical/Storytelling music I love on the whole raw music that has an edge or complexity to it.



Dean..

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:


To me Beethovens Piano Sonata's are defintely not safe and this is borne out by Classical music's lack of any real popularity ....
Dean..

To quote a once famous tennis player: you cannot be serious! Depends what you mean by popularity of course - never played on Radio 1 I suppose?

probably quite shocking this but the rolling stones bore me to tears. Hate REM too. blando

REM, Radiohead, Coldplay, Oasis, Bruce Springsteen and The Stone Roses spring immediately to mind...

Very interesting thread ROTF.

Are our musical tastes are driven by our introduction/developing interest in music, our peers at any given time, by our use of music?

There was little music in our house when I was small. I remember starting to watch TOTP when I was 8-sh. This led on to radio & buying odd 2nd hand records at fetes & charity shops.

At age 11 a big effect on my musical tastes was my crap music teacher. He made classical music sooooo boring it completely turned me off, & I've only recently had this form of music opened up to me (Thanks GFFJ! ). After a few years he also play us Frank Zappa, but by that point I wasn't paying any attention.

I think my deep interest in music started in my early teens. When I was 14 I went to see Buzzcocks & Joy Division with a friends big bro' at Brum Uni. That was a true epiphany for me.

My interest in music grew massively after this - that is the tail end of punk, followed by indie & finally electronic/dance. I think my youthful tastes at the time were partly motivated by rebellion, so I was mainly interested in fresh musical ideas & bands/muso's who where challenging the status quo in one or more ways.

I also started listening to John Peel after seeing Buzzcocks & JD. I can't count the number of bands & music generally JP opened my ears to. How much thanks do we as music lovers owe to dear uncle John? He certainly had as a big an influence on my musical tastes as anything else. If there's one person the likes will not be seen again it's JP.





At 19 I went to my 1st WOMAD festival, & that opened up a whole new area of music for me. Apart from that big wonderful world of music out there things like folk & blues.

As I got to higher education & work I found I used music more & more as an aid to relaxation.
This certainly affected my listening choices.
I also worked with music - lighting live acts in my late teens, & using music as an editor.
This certainly affected my musical tastes significantly.

I've always had a block with certain bands.
For example during the days of punk the last thing I'd ever consider listening to would be hippy music - Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Wings, etc. As my youthful arrogance faded I realised the genius of Jimi, Janis, CCR, etc. But to my ears PF, Wings & others are so unenjoyable & just sound dull, formulated & predictable.



There are only two kinds of music - good and bad.

Now I think this observation attributed to Count Basie, Richard Strauss, Duke Ellington & others is the ultimate truth when it comes to musical taste. I guess what I'm saying is good music is that you enjoy, bad is the rest. I think it's good we all have different tastes, however subtle or significant. It's part of what makes us human. The alternative is ...

quote:

I can't get away with the floppy hatted one though i've tried.

Blasphemer! Stone the heretic!

The Who. I just don't get them. And yet I love so many of the other big groups of the same era. I'm also not really that moved by the Stones, U2, Bruce Springsteen or Bucks Fizz.

Mark

Hi 555

I have to agree about JP. I used to listen to his show all the time in my younger days - I used to record it on cassette on Saturday afternoon (what a stupid time to put it on when there was a match at Portman Road) so I got about 1 hour's worth, and was relieved when it moved to the evening slot.

I, too, had a strange music teacher at school. We had to sit silently and listen to classical music and if we didn't seem to enjoy it, got hit over the knuckles with a violin bow. Fortunately, he left the school quite suddenly and his replacement was far more tolerant. We were allowed to play music during lunch breaks.

There were definitely two tribes - those who liked R n B, soul and pop were one and there were a few of us who preferred folk and rock. Strangely neither would make any concessions to the others. We hated their stuff and they hated ours - very childish really, but they started it.

I was getting towards the end of university when punk hit like a breath of fresh air to the music scene. However, I wasn't totally convinced because of Malcolm McLaren as it seemed to be mixing fashion with music. I had no interest in dressing in strange clothes and trying to be noticed or stand out from the cloud or was it become one of a new crowd. I soon became a bit disillusioned with it: although I still like the Buzzcocks and the Clash and a whole bunch of singles from that era. I didn't really like the New York Dolls and all that stuff, they were meaningless to me; nothing original about anything they did, they simply looked unsavoury (personal view, of course). I did like Talking Heads and Jonathan Richmann which probably wasn't very punk in retrospect.

So I started comparing the New Wave with my traditional music taste. However, before I knew where I was, the Bee Gees had caught falsetto and it was all about discos, night-clubs and it was the onset of the 80s - fashion and dancing (yuk). Then a whole host of bands that just seemed about fashion with some incidental music: ABC, Culture Club, Spandex Ballet, Visage and ...

However, music started to recover towards the end of the decade and now I feel I'm fully in tune with a multitude of new artists such as Basia Bulat. It does seem that a lot of folk just don't get the magic of this young and unique Canadian artist. Her music is different and it is hammered out at pace, but it stands out for me as being different without seeking to be extreme. The other aspect of Basia I like is that songs are not personal tales of misfortune or protest songs or trying to teach or tell me anything; they all seem to be made up stories set to this amazingly fresh music.

Perhaps the most challenging records I have bought recently are The Bairns by Rachel Unthank and The Winterset and The Drift by Scott Walker.

I guess rap and hip-hop are things I just don't understand and the few bits I've listened to seem like somebody moaning about something or other - it all sounds a bit last century, if I'm honest. Perhaps because it doesn't have its roots in folk music, which is probably the trait that runs through all my favourite music. Perhaps it is because it is too introspective for me, by which I mean the person is singing for themselves not for others like me, or even that they are trying to shock or offend me, which never works. My assessment of this genre is probably just ill-informed - so apologise in advance and am off to listen to Kevin Ayres and Syd Barrett.

ATB Rotf

quote:

'm also not really that moved by the ... Bucks Fizz.

I agree and never could see the point of mixing orange juice with Moët et Chandon Brut Impérial, I think this concoction was first conceived in Pete Sinfield's land of make believe.

ATB Rotf

There is a lot of music I love that seems not to be known or especially enjoyed by others! I am always working to change that!

There is even more music that others love and remains a bit beyond me. I always listen, and really enjoy listening to other people's choices, but it is fairly rare for me to be hooked by it after the event. I have a sad thought that Geoff P has, over the years, tried very hard to get me into Jazz, and not really succeeded. I adore some of it, but not all, or even very much. I suppose among Jazz, I enjoy best the vocal numbers more than the purely instrumental, which is the other way round to other styles.

Of the popular music, I find the biggest obstacle is that so much of the singing is actually out of tune, and nothing is ever going to get round that till I go tone deaf in old age …

I even find there is some music that I once really liked that I no longer do! I am getting to a smaller core of music that I love ever more deeply! More accurately I am growing to appreciate the works of a fairly small number of composers, and the real growth for me is discovering their lesser-known works, rather than trying to know the major works of every famously known composer.

On the other hand I think that core of favourite is rather challenging in some parts. I am careful how I try to hook others onto Bach for example. And once they are hooked I don't interfere. It is more a case of making a good introduction, and possibly getting into detailed discussion with the tiny minority who are very close to my wavelength ...

George

Does your childhood music affect your later musical choices?
I suppose for me yes,I knew I didn't want to listen to my parents music. Nina and Frederick type stuff, show tunes and Opera.
What did I like ? Buddy Holly,Shadows DC5, Rolling Stones (not the Beatles). We started listening to Buffy Saint Marie,Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. I became a mod and The Who Faces (large and Small) where derigeur.
At the back of my mind was the wish to be guitar player(which I failed to become) and my began to concentrate more and more on guitar based music so rock reared it's pretty head. Purple,LZ on into Rush(quite a lot later). I always liked organ/synth in amongst these genres and listened to more and what was to become prog.
I suppose my folk interest must have followed on from Dylan etc especially when he went electric.
Sally (Mrs) love of Irish dance lead us in to Celtic music and on to more traditional folk music.
My guitarist friend has introduced me to "soft/smooth" Jazz Rippingtons and Fourplay as examples.
I also like African and African influenced music.
This place has and continues to offer more and more choices and so my musicial horizons expand.

quote:

At the back of my mind was the wish to be guitar player(which I failed to become)

It's never too late and you never know what might happen at the crossroads

On a project a few years ago, I worked with a very prim and proper looking dude, who always came to meetings in a three piece suite, white shirts and tie. He had short well styled hair. He was a first class computer programmer too.

One day, he phoned me to say he was leaving the project. Turned out he had an audition as a support guitarist for Lemmy on tour.

I didn't know you didn't like Nina and Frederick.

ATB Rotf

quote:

Originally posted by 555:


I also started listening to John Peel after seeing Buzzcocks & JD. I can't count the number of bands & music generally JP opened my ears to. How much thanks do we as music lovers owe to dear uncle John? He certainly had as a big an influence on my musical tastes as anything else. If there's one person the likes will not be seen again it's JP.

I had the IPOD on shuffle when I was out for my constitutional the other evening when on came a John Peel show from September 2004. I found it a very poignant moment. We all felt we knew John, didn't we, that if we met him we could sit and talk about music all night. I miss him.



SJB

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
To the general debate.

I grew up in a musical house where my brothers played Bowie, Blondie, Stevie Wonder, Human League, Jean Michel Jarre with my mother playing the radio and listening to Abba and The Carpenters sorts of music when I was 12 I was given a tape done by a work friend of my Mother which had Jazz Funk, Electro Funk and early Hip Hop on it and even though I was used to music in the house this thing blew my socks off it was so different from anything I'd ever heard in my short life and that has been the catalyst for me being interested in underground/non-popular music to this day (I had the same experience at 16 hearing ny first House record). Why did I react to that tape in such a way I'm a white guy from South London getting off on Black/Hispanic/White New York Music. For me I think as with Rotf's love of lyrical/Storytelling music I love on the whole raw music that has an edge or complexity to it.

Dean..

Dean, have you heard the new Stereo MC's album "Double Bubble" - in my opinion, it's a master piece! Best album by them by far, interesting, fun, technically great, well produced, melodic, great beats, just a great album!!!

I got a pre-release CD but is available - sort of (you can buy it on-line from their web site).

I listen to all sorts of music, people like Coldplay, I "like" but they don't rock my socks off...... I prefer Keane, or even The Feeling (particularly live) who have something more to say and rock a bit........

I to must listen to OK Computer again, - I have never "got it"........... There must be something there as so many people reckon it's the dog's doo-daas, but me, left me cold... Perhaps it's like a previously unheard classical piece that needs to listened to several times more.......

quote:

Originally posted by Ian G.:
Probably the most widely admired album that I just don't get is Radiohead's 'OK Computer' - if anyone wants my CD drop me an email and it's yours! (addy in profile).

Bjork is another barren space for me - I can appreciate for a few minutes many of the original things she does but is never gels into music for me - more like performance art.

I also can't get on with the hatted BB for some reason.

Fortunately that still leaves me plenty wonderful ear fodder.

Ian

quote:

Originally posted by Chillkram:
The Who. I just don't get them. And yet I love so many of the other big groups of the same era. I'm also not really that moved by the Stones, U2, Bruce Springsteen or Bucks Fizz.

Mark

The Who are amazing! I only recently bought Whos Next - basically because one of my all time favourite songs is "Won't Get Fooled Again" and I realised I didn't have it.... I LOVE the whole album.
The Stones, again, I LOVED some of the their songs but only rcently actually bought one of their albums.
U2 I sort of got into after waking up every morning in the late 70's/early 80's to "New Years Day" on the radio alarm which I thought was the best thing ever, then when I saw U2 on a Midsummer Nights Tube on Channel 4 shortly followed by seeing them live, I really enjoyed them - they kicked my arse and I loved those gigs! I then "went off them" after the first 2 or 3 albums
Springsteen I have never "got" and I guess I never will.........

Bucks Fizz were one of those anoying Eurovision "bands" but I have to confess that when they released "New Beginning" towards the end of their career, I bought the re-mix 12" which was regularly played at the nightclubs I went to at that time and I still think is a classic dance/club track.

There is only one band that I have ever bought every LP they made and that was "City Boy" - the Birmingham band who had a big hit with 5-7-0-5. Sadly, they were never well known and remain relatively unknown............