How diverse is your musical taste?


I will listen to absolutely any style of music, from Heavy Metal to Opera to Jazz to Acoustical Folk. If it is good music to me, and is well recorded, it is game. How about you?
mike60
Ditto. I am all over the place in the interest of hearing something new and different regularly in addition to my proven favorites. I am probably more forgiving of recording quality than many "audiophiles" though I always appreciate a nicely done recording. I can even enjoy many old 78 recordings for what they are, ie a monument to what recorded music sounded like years ago but now played back on a nice modern rig.

I have thousands of songs/tracks on my music server of all genres from the 20's through today. I spend many hours listening to these cued up randomly by my Squezzebox Touch. Motorhead may follow a vintage 78 from the 1920s followed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir followed by Eminem or Janis Ian or The Black Eyed Peas. I'm a yin/yang kinda person and love to hear a wide variety and balance of different kinds of music.
I like certain types of music more than others, and there is sooo much good music that I have yet to discover within those music types. So I don't feel the need to discover music within types I don't prefer. There's not enough time to discover and listen to all of it, so I stay with a few different types.
Having said that, when anyone outside of this hobby sees my music collection they almost always comment on its diversity. It's all relative.
Too many folks would say that I possess THE MOST diverse one they've ever known for.
Perhaps end of this thread will probably combine some small fraction of my musical tastes you will describe.
I don't even care how well it's recorded as long as it's creative and well performed.
I may say that I would subtract most of pop music out of my music library but that's just a small fraction out of the whole music that will be described bellow.
I'm also a fan of stylistic diversity in music. It seems more common here on Audiogon than in most places, which is one of the joys of this community. While the world seems to be moving inexorably toward catering to narrow tastes, many of the members here seem more likely to embrace the new and different.

As radio and internet station programming has generally (tho not always) gotten narrower over time to accommodate more efficient advertising economics, it's getting harder to find satisfying outlets that wander around genres. The diversety of the material is probably the main reason that I really like American Idol. Even if the performances are sometimes lacking, it's one of the few mass outlets that promotes stylistic diversity in music. In this age of narrowcasting, anything that features stylistic breadth is IMHO a good thing.

On another front, I'm a guitar student and my instructor laughs at some of the ground I've asked him to cover in the 4-5 years we've been doing this. We've touched on rock, blues, jazz, classical, fingerstyle, bluegrass, mainstream country, funk, rockabilly, western swing, etc. He came recommended by a friend who had also taken up the guitar at just about the same time. That student has rarely strayed from Metallica.

OTOH, that guy is a wildly successful hedge fund manager who has just built an insane 18,000 sq. ft. house that includes a performance stage w/PA and lighting in the back yard, a huge ornate theater room, a dedicated guitar room, a dedicated listening room, a video game-pinball room, and an amazing indoor/outdoor pool to go along with the full-blown observatory for computer tracked star-gazing. Hmmm, maybe I should re-focus exclusively on Metallica going forward. Upon reflection, I'm not so sure about this diversity thing after all....

Marty
I am like Marakanetz in that I admire originality more than anything. I tend to go through phases whether it be bluegrass, hard rock, reggae, classical,blues, jazz, or the various sub genres. The joy of having a large diverse physical collection is that you occasionally experience serendipity by playing an old piece you hadn't heard in awhile. It is kind of like revisiting on old friend. Last weekend I played "Seven" by the British group James. They never really took off in the U.S., but what a great band. Sometimes, the simple pleasures in life are the most rewarding.
Over the years I find work (songs) in almost every genre that I like. Does not mean that I have music by the artist however. For example I simply love "I Want you to Want Me" by Cheap Trick Live at Budokan, but I have no music by them. It's their only song I like. I'm primarily a Jazz head (Hard Bop, Modal jazz etc). I love Miles, Trane, Monk etc. I like Grooveshark for example, where I can take out samples from many different artists and genres and save them as a playlist; (like the song by Cheap Trick) also Youtube is great for that. But as far as what I buy, it will be Jazz. My 9 year exposes me to Top 40 music that I would never normally hear. For example, I'm crazy about the FLO rida song that's out now "Wild Ones;" That girl featured in the song, Sia, has a smoldering sound that oozes sexuality as much as any woman can do on a song. Sia is undiscovered by many. Then I used to have something by Patsy Cline; then I have something by Pavaratti or music by Yes, and much music by James Brown. So I too am all over the place with my musical taste. If it touches me, the genre does not matter.
just listened to some peruvian flute ensemble and now back to drive=by truckers. all music is great. er???still trying to figure out the residents and sun ra though....
i discovered radioparadise.com last yr- when i got a magnum internet tuner- just a wonderfully diverse playlist
There is almost nothing aside from certain "ethnic" music I won't listen to. The question though is what do I mean by ethnic? I will keep it to myself for now. I should add that I am not a really knowledgable musicologist but always willing to learn.
just listened to some peruvian flute ensemble and now back to drive=by truckers. all music is great. er???still trying to figure out the residents and sun ra though....
Hotmailjbc

Listened to The Residents last night and made it all the way through! I enjoy them, the musical parts more than the spoken.
As to how varied my taste is, I think I am much less open than most around here. For instance, I don't listen to heavy metal, prog rock, rap, country pop and a few others.
Well I suppose that I'm not as diverse as many here. I can't listen to Country or Rap at all....and I can take very little Opera or Gospel.

Outside of that, I'm pretty flexible with Rock, Folk, Jazz, Blues, Classical, New Age, etc.
Pop - Check

Rock - Check

Hard Rock - Check

Jazz (all types) - Check

Heavy Metal - Check

Classical - Check

Broadway - Check

Soft Rock - Check

Rockabilly - Check

Punk - Check

R & B - Check

Prog Rock - NOPE

Spiritual - NOPE

Country - Nope (exception of some Dwight Yoakum and Dixie Chicks)

Hip Hop/Rap - Nope
Everything (A-Z Acoustic to Zydeco). Like others have said if it is well recorded and produced I will give it a shot. I have found many new artists by opening accounts at Last FM, Pandora, you-tube. It has become very easy to seek out new talent. The fine members here have also enlightened me with great exchanges over the last few years. I read and respond to many of the queries here.

The forums are the best part of AudiogoN for me anymore.
Not a fan of the new layout, however.
This is a very interesting question. I'd have to say that my taste is much more diverse than most...or really bad:) I was thinking about how to measure this beyond just evaluating my catalog and what I came up with was the reaction of others to what I play. I have to be very cognizant of what comes up if I am playing music for other people because in most cases I get strange looks or comments. Random is usually not an option. I have to select things I think fit closer between the boundaries of popular composition....lots of my stuff does not even though I do very much enjoy mainstream styles. Over the past few years my taste has really extended to the fringes including experimental, noise, ambient, minimal, techno etc.

Here's an example of recent additions by artist to my catalog:

Vatican Shadows
Prurient
Dirty Three + Low
Perc
Vadislav Delay
Bendon Moeller
Tall Firs
Bonnie Raitt
MayMay
Soultek
Marko Furstnenberg
Clark Terry
Shifted
Horizontal Ground/Frozen Border/Shed
Norah Jones
Welcome Wagon
Mordant Music (seriously, this is wicked! Want to test your tolerance for extremes? Search out his recent release Post-MorteM/ModeM...but turn it up)
Azealia Banks
Spaceghostpurp
Miles Davis
Richmond Fontaine

Usually there is some classical too but none added lately. Those are just from the last few weeks.
Timhru, I'm big fan of Residents too! I like their version of "Man's World" much better than James Brown:-)
Can't even discard hiphop from my diversity since I enjoy watching ABDC TV show.
My listening habits are all over the map.
I listen to everything from Phish to The Grateful Dead. ;-)
I would say pretty much everything is fair game with the exception of heavy metal, avantgarde jazz and avantgarde classical and country.