Why do some people mock others' taste in music and dismiss groups that they don't like as being crap and having no talent, etc, as if they were some great authority or arbiter on musical excellence?
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26 Comments
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1
whiskeysour
BECAUSE - if the music is terrible the music is terrible. after a few years the person liking the music will come to their senses and realize the music was and still is terrible. Memebers of the terrible list
Arashi, Akb48,Sean Kingston, Akon, Britney Spears, Screechy overextended long notes Christina Aguliera DON'T WATCH BURLESQUE, unless you like watching a 2hour music video/movie about Christina Screechuliera, and etc.
If the music is terrible the music sucks
1
Mark_McCracken
Some people actually are able to distinguish musical excellence.
1
girlinjapan
Absolutely - there is good music, by talented musicians, and then there is music driven by the masses, and produced en masse. I find people don't generally mock others' tastes, unless it runs towards the typical, run-of-the-mill, soulless music, which whiskeysour mentions above!
2
tideofiron
I think, as you get older, music matters a lot less and you just see it more as background noise. I used to be really passionate about music and I would judge people a bit based on their musical taste. Now that seems really shallow and stupid. Now, though, I don't care that much and I can even occasionally enjoy the music I once turned my nose up to. Lastly, playing a musical instrument gives you an appreciation for music that a lot of people see as out of fashion (Queen or David Bowie, for example, which are actually pretty amazing when you understand the craft better). Keeping an open mind towards all music is definitely a good thing. Just remember that it's all extremely subjective.
2
Newsman
Well, McDonald's food is popular, yet no one has any trouble understanding why people dismiss it as being awful. Dancing with the Stars may have great ratings, but nobody would claim it to be better than MASH, for example. So why is it so hard for some people to understand that their music is horsebleep? There are standards for music as much as there are for food and television.
-8
hoserfella
Women are excused, but men ( and I use that term loosely) who listen to wussy pop music or whatever passes for club music these days NEED to be scolded. Much like those poor, hopeless souls who wear socks and sandals at the same time. It's for their own good.
0
Foxie
In music, the same as with other things, there is good and bad. Unfortunatley many people don't know anymore what good music is.
When you put the accent on the wrong beat, it is dance music, and it appeals to your flesh; and somebody can sell more records to you because your flesh likes it! The rhythms appeal to your flesh, and the people that make the records know that.
Of the three aspects of music, it is the rhythm that should be the least important. It is the spirit which is the most important. Dance music is primarily for the body. It's not something that appeals to the thoughts and spirit. It's not something, really, that appeals to the feelings.
If one has ever listened to an African drum group play, he will understand that American rock musicians are just catching up to the African rhythms.
In Africa, the heathen are able to play "poly rhythms." Poly, of course, means many. They have all these drums and other percussion instruments, rhythm instruments, that all make different sounds, and they can hear them. They can make one rhythm with their feet, another with their torso, some more with their arms, and some more with their fingers and wrists, some more in their heads; and they can dance six or seven different rhythms at one time. It is an amazing thing; however, it is all sensual; it's all for the body; and it's all created by their ability to hear and put into their bodies those dance rhythms that were created specifically to make their bodies move in ways that are not polite. They make the body move to draw attention to parts of the body in a way that is improper.
That is all that is happening in the rock scene today. They are catching up to some of these African rhythms. And, of course, the worshipers have just turned the amplifiers up to the fullest degree, and many of them do not know, musically, what they are doing anymore. They are just making a lot of noise. Some of them are not even really playing chords; there is not even any harmony or melody there, just a lot of noise. There is nothing for the spirit, nothing for the soul; it is all for the body. Now we have Rap music. What happened to the melody? It is gone. What you don't know is that they have been doing this type of thing in Africa for thousands of years, and there are recordings of that.
What we have nowadays is a bunch of young people that are so controlled by that music that when you try to talk with them, they can't hear or understand you because of the music which is raging within them. They are so controlled by an evil music that they can't think about their soul and their spirit.
When the music constantly swings and puts the accent off the beat, it is sensual. Elvis Presley used to do this in all his songs.It is the eight-to-the- bar, boogie rhythm. It appeals to people because it is sensual. The west- coast surfing groups in the sixties used the same rhythms, only they played them louder and faster. It was the same type of syncopated dance music, and it enhanced the sexual appeal of the music. As the years have passed, the music has gotten louder, faster, and more complex in some instances; but it is the same basic type of beat.
0
gogogo
Because it takes talent to sound that crappy :)
0
concentratedsin
personally, i like all kinds of music. however, i tend to steer towards unique kinds of music. i just don't like the regurgitated sound that some groups/singers produce. example given: akb48. (sorry fans!)
1
JapanGal
My only gripe is against tone deaf people being made into singing talent. It sucks.
4
JapanGal
Professor Foxie:
I copied your dissertation and will forward it to the Harvard School of Music Business Department and ask them how we should proceed. Juliard too.
-1
hoserfella
JapanGal - kudos on having read the whole thing. I ignore all posts in which a nap is required to get to the conclusion.
2
Ah_so
Confession: I always had a thing for the pop tunes of Puffy. Look down on me all you like!
0
Konsta
Yes, I AM some great authority on musical excellence!!! Ask me! Pleeese... And don't even think that I try to boost my ego and look like I know everything and stuff..
2
pamelot
There's no accounting for taste, to each his own-
But not in my ride...
0
Laguna
It's less cruel than criticizing their inane fashion.
2
bicultural
Why? That's a question I'd like to ask too. However, I do know that if you listen to music you don't like long enough, sometimes it grows on you. When I was still living in the States, all they played on the radios were hip hop and r&b. I was a fan of rock so I couldn't stand it. After a while though (maybe I got brainwashed) I actually started to like it. Same with j-pop. I used to think all j-pop sucked but like another poster said, some groups like Puffy started to grow on me. Are they talented? Not really. I used to be a semi-professional singer so in that sense I am a more talented singer. But it's how the music makes you feel that's more important, in my opinion. If it makes you feel happy or mellow, even if the artist is not talented I wouldn't call it crap. I still can't stand Speed though. That group CANNOT sing to save their lives. Or a multitude of other j-pop singers.
2
smartacus
It's all relative. I know people who mock classical music or opera lovers as being snobbish, country music lovers as being bumpkins, and so on. Then these same people will state their own musical preferences, without realizing that other people would be just as dismissive of their taste in music.
Even on this discussion board, I notice that some readers always make fun of Japanese singers like SMAP, etc, but the fact is J-pop groups have millions of fans in Japan and other Asian countries. So, while I personally don't like SMAP or AKB48, I am not going to say they are crap and without talent.
My 21-year-old nephew asked me the other day who I thought was the greatest rock band of all time and I told him that for me, it was the Beatles. He had never listened to them. He thought that any band from the 1960s *"that far back," in his words) would sound corny today. I asked him who he liked. He said his favorite singer was Taylor Swift.
All I could say was: "Let's see if the music of Taylor Swift is still being listened to 45-50 years from now."
1
Zybster
Why? Because it gives them the sense of superiority. They can't understand that for each person music has a different meaning, so they need to compare and put down things that don't appeal to them.
1
pawatan
Well, it could be because they are in fact a great authority of musical taste, but more likely it's because so many just like being complete a$$es towards others tastes in everything.
Seems like young do this more than old - most older people I know couldn't care less about what others like and don't like, but younger people like to justify their taste as superior by denigrating others.
1
hatsoff
Why? Because we have entered an age of rudeness and arrogance, where being opinionated has replaced the giving of opinions, because many people see things only in black and white and right and wrong, and because some really do believe they are great authorities and arbiters of musical excellence.
0
hatsoff
@ hoserfella - or perhaps you don't understand irony?
1
Serrano
Because some people are morons?
Can't wait for the next question, lol.
0
hoserfella
@hatsoff - someone with too much time on his hands is not irony, it's just sad.
Sarrano- spoken like a true Michael Jackson fan, LOL! (again, is that a rule now?)
2
John Becker
Sometimes it's not enough to have these opinions, we feel we must evangelize. Getting someone else's agreement reaffirms our beliefs, disagreement erodes our self-esteem.
Because many people have an emotional connection to music, they are deeply invested in their opinions. They generally wouldn't get as worked up over a discussion about the best socks or toilet paper.
In the immortal words of Butt-head: "I like music that doesn't suck."
0
octopussy
This is a great question because I've thought about it often.
Once, as a teenager, I was visiting a brother in California and while entertaining one of his dinner guests, I offered to play a "Men At Work," album. The guest said nothing, so I said, "How about 'Men at Work"?" again, this time louder. Again, no reply from the guest. Finally, I asked him a third time, this time standing right in front of him. At last he said, "Note the stony silence."
In my late 20s, someone dismissed my CD selections with, "Why do some people like Top 40?" and "How come some people don't know how to buy music?"
In my late 30s, the stinging remark to my music selection was, "That's bubble gum."
The answer to the question is, people have a desire to demonstrate their superior taste and they do so with insults.
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