How eclectic is your taste in music?


Most, if not all, of my best friends in life have embraced different forms/styles/types of music.  

The music ranged from Jazz to Classical to some Rock and others...even some more classic, early country. 

Do you enjoy various music styles or are you more focused on a type or two?....And how/where does the 
music of this season fit in?  I find Nat Cole doing Mel Torme's  "The Christmas Song" comes very close to nearly everything I love about music. 

And I have gotten over people thinking the title to that song is "Chestnuts Roasting"....I no longer have the urge to burn down their tree...mostly. 



whatjd

Showing 2 responses by simonmoon

I must say that these studies illustrate well the general tendency to stop all interior evolution by the age of 30....

Many people are already "dead" or fixated in their evolution by 30 years of age....

This is why music is almost all a "nostalgia" business...

Yep, taste in movies, visual art, tend to be set by about the same age, with a bit more flexibility.

And since I have almost zero nostalgia connected to music, I remain open to new music. Music I listened to during my youth, either lives or dies in my mind, based entirely on its musical merit. I don't care how great the times were for me when I listened to specific recordings, if they don't hold up with regards to those attributes I mentioned in my previous post. 

I constantly see on other music forums (stevehofflman), people claiming there is no good music made anymore. When the fact is, I have trouble keeping up with all the new, great music being released. I guess that is a first world problem.

Not to mention, the constant new threads there, about The Beatles, Stones, Dylan, CSNY, etc, etc. 
This is an interesting subject for me.

To begin with, there have been several good studies that show, that the vast majority of people’s tastes in music are set by the time they are 30. People listen to the music that was their favorite when they were between the age of about 14 and their mid 20’s, with a bit more new music for a few more years.

I have been told by some, that I have eclectic tastes, and by others, that I am closed minded. I am in my early 60’s, to give some context. And I am always in the hunt for new music.

My issue is, I only enjoy music that has most of the following attributes: very high level of musicianship, complexity, broad range of emotional content, (usually) long form structure, does not follow verse>chorus>bridge>repeat format.

Music that does not have the above, tends to bore me. I can’t force myself to enjoy music that does not fit the parameters I like in music.

Music genres and subgenres that fit my parameters, are:

Jazz (fusion, post-bop, jazz-metal, chamber-jazz, M-Base, avant-garde)
Classical (mostly post mid 20th century, avant-garde, contemporary, some minimalism, spectralism, serialism)
Prog (avant-prog, technical-metal, Zeuhl, classic era, prog-metal)

I can easily go from listening to Mahavishnu Orchestra (fusion), to Arnold Schoenberg (12 tone classical), to The Contortionist (technical-metal), to Univers Zero (avant-garde prog) in the same listening session.

I also have a bit of a growing interest in blue grass, and Indian classical music.

I am willing to listen to pretty much any genre of music with an open mind, but if it doesn’t have the above listed attributes, chances are I won’t enjoy it.

I have pretty much no interest in: pop, mainstream rock, rap, hip-hop, country, blues.