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Has education expanded your listening tastes?

This point recently came up in another thread: a member was of the opinion (if I am paraphrasing them correctly) that critical thinking plays little role in what our tastes in music might be. We like what we like and that's it. So that begs the question for me, how many of us feel that our reaction to music is primarily rooted in the emotional centers of the brain and that rational analysis of musical structure and language doesn't potentially expand our range of musical enjoyment? I ask because I am not a professional musician, but I did take a few college level music history classes, learn to play guitar in my forties (now sixty,) learn to read music on a rudimentary level of competence, study a little music theory, and enjoy reading historical biographies about composers and musicians. I can honestly say that the in the last fifteen years or so, I have greatly expanded what types of music I enjoy and that I can appreciate music I might not "love" in the emotional sense that used to dictate what I listen to. Take Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern for example. Their music doesn't sweep you away with the emotional majesty of earlier composers, but I find their intellectual rigor and organization to be fascinating and very enjoyable. Same with studying the history of American roots music, I learned a lot about our cultural history and enjoy listening to old blues and country music now. How do other's feel about this emotion vs. learning to appreciate thing?
photon46

Showing 1 response by sfar

sfar's avatar
sfar
1,756 posts
 
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Photon46 - I absolutely agree with your premise that intellectual
curiosity can lead to an appreciation and even affection for music that
you've been either unfamiliar with or thought you would never like.

And for me there is an element to that process that I'm not clear
whether is emotional or intellectual, maybe both. Reminding myself to
consciously put aside preconceptions about what I might like has taken
me down musical paths I would never have discovered otherwise and
that have been worlds, or at least continents, away from the music I
grew up with.

Serendipity plays a big part, as well, and I'm grateful for that. I had a
long-time companion who was a walking encyclopedia of the music of
southern Europe, where she grew up, as well as all the music that
preceded it, across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and all the
way to India.

To have gone from the country music, fundamentalist hymns and early
rock and roll I grew up with to Paco De Lucia, Ali Farka Toure and Ali
Akbar Khan has been one of the great experiences of my life.
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