Why do you like what you like?

Here's a thinker:

Why do you like the music you like?

Is it simply because you grew up with it and it helps you reminisce about good times you had? Is it because it provides inspiration for your guitar playing? Could it be that certain chord progressions tickle your fancy? Or is it the songs themselves?

At work today, I was pondering what everyone had said in the Alice in Chains is better than Nirvana thread, and it struck me that a lot of the bands I like are quite different from one another. How can someone like both the Beatles and AC/DC? Led Zeppelin and Sonic Youth? Nirvana and the Jimi Hendrix Experience? In my opinion, those bands are all quite different from one another. And yet I enjoy them all very much.

And my tastes are pretty much entirely in the rock genre. What's to be said for those of you who enjoy jazz and rock, or classical and rap?

Any theories? I'm totally stumped.

good one......i am all over the place with tastes.......Beethoven-----Beatles ----Yes -------Slayer---Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass---i know i did not like new wave in the 80's but now when i hear a song by,say... Berlin, it makes me feel good ....weird huh...i think it has to do with being young then and it takes me back like Tijuana Brass does.....or i just listened rather than judging first...or am i turning gay :eek:

Good question and I suspect that you've answered it in the asking -

The reasons you cite are all valid and all equally possible, for me anyway. Music tends to provide a soundtrack to our lives. You remember songs from your youth that have special meaning. I mean, I still smack a beat on the steering wheel when a rare Foghat song comes on the radio. Why? I mean, I'm not a 15 year old kid in high school being pushed on by that beat that was just soooo cool then. Neil Young was there in the park at night when were partying up, drinking and chatting up the girls. The B-52's and such drove us, a bunch of non-rythmic, up-tight suburban kids onto the dance floor...Zep was blaring from the radio when were sitting in a friends basement plotting on putting a band together....

And some music does inspire- I find it more and more true every day. I hear things now that I may have dismissed before and listen in a way I never listened to before. Country music, funk, old R&B, swing, jazz...there's always something in everything that can inspire.

Heck, I bought a Django Reinhardt collection a few months back. Before I became interested in learning to play guitar, I would have never listened to it and if I had, God forbid, would not have enjoyed it. Now I listen to it and I'm stunned at how the man could play!

Plus, you gotta remember, some peoples tastes narrow as they age but I've found from my musician friends, that their tastes seem to expand as they age. I suspect that even when I hit my 80's, I will still sneak away to the community room at the Sunny Hill Retirement Home and pop on 'Little Wing' and still feel the chills listening to Jimi hit notes that seem to wrap around the soul. Or maybe I'll turn down the lights, pop my medication and crank up Metallica on whatever portable music system we're listening to at that time.

Point is, music, like art, is very personal and what you like or don't really like has no real rhyme or reason.

It's whatever speaks to your soul.

Originally Posted by: hunter60



It's whatever speaks to your soul.

short, eloquent, precise=rep point

Hmmm. Good topic.

Most of what I like I've been told to like. We all started just by listening to what was cool in grade 6 (ha, for us Big Shiny Tunes or NOW!). From there, you have a choice. You can follow MTV like a sloberbrained moron .....or you can do some research and find out what music has lasted through the ages and you realize that these songs have been popular for decades while you can't remember the fallout boy song from last year.

We guitarists have an advantage as we generally acess media such as magazines that offer tons of great bands and musical ideas leading to our choices in music. As we find bands we learn their influences and find similar bands shaping our music repetoire into what it is now.

At least for me.
Don't know about all you.

And about music reminding you of old times...it's strange. With some music that i listened to heavily at some signifigant points in my life, i become so nostalgic i get sick. That kind of thing has ruined alot of music for me and i need to find some way to get over it all... :cool:

I agree with a lot of ericthecableguy's statements. I think for the large part, especially but not exclusively when we are very young, we like what we are told to like. After that, it's individual. Everybody is different, and has different experiences, and is affected differently by different things. A song that sends chills up my spine, you might think is crap. Basically we like what we like because of who we are.

I like what I like because it's what I like... and I like that.

Bloody good question!!! :eek: :eek:
I never even thought about it but my music tastes are so diverse its incredible.

I like classical cuz of the complexity. It makes me actually think about things, even simple pieces like Erik Satie's Trois GYmnopedies. Everyone knows that piece but noone bothers to know its name.

I like jazz, esp African Jazz cuz of the beat. What those african jazz musicians do with the bass is just awesome. Artists like Salif Keita (what that guy does on guitar is simply...awesome) and Fela Kuti (plays sax and piano, freaking amazing!!!).

I like rock, esp teen bands like Relient K and Jimmy Eat World cuz of the great stories these guys tell. I can relate to a lot of stuff they talk about.
(might as well mention i dont like "hippety-hop" very much).

I love Gospel/R&B for the same reasons i like classical and rock.


But in the end its like what someone in a previous post said, i listen to what my soul relates to.

I too have a very eclectic taste in music.. and when I think about what I like about all the diffrent genres that I listen to.. I guess it all boils down to... Rhythm..

There are certain styles of rhythm that I find myself more attracted to that is found in all types of genres.. So I guess for me... timing is everything.

This is probably way out there but it might be possible you could be born with a certain amount of preference in music too.
Certain traits are handed down to you from both parents so why couldn't things like preferences in music or even memories be handed down the same way. I know I had definite preferences in music even when I was 4 years old.
And I'm sure I saw some kind of documentary or something that showed even babies can have a preference for certain music.

lyrics, rythm, creativity,lyrics...more rythm, different styles, lyrics... :)

What I even find more thought provoking, is that the bands you mentioned above, are loved by Millions of people. It makes me think that if there is such a thing as "superior music" or does almost every person the world have the same taste in everything and the people who dont like them are trying not to like them. :confused:

Sames goes with taste, smell, and sight...
Why do we all like pizza?
Why are we all attracted to skinny people?
...Why does Alucard smell so good??? :p

I think music tastes are constantly in a state of change but there is a ribbon of commonality that runs down the center like a highway. I will go off on a side road to see whats out there but i never stray to far from the highway. And for me that highway seems to be 12 bars. (not the kind that serve beer) :)
I always come back to the blues. And when i think about it the first music i listened to on a radio (AM) is blasting Hank Williams (Sr) and early rockabilly which is just one step away from the blues.

The style doesn't really matter, I just listen for a good choice of notes.

Excellent topic!

My taste in music has changed a lot over the years, and has definitely broadened from when I was very young. I like music that has feeling and emotion in it. All styles of music can have this, but it takes a special musician to be able to make you feel what the song is about, and not just hear what it's about. I love how music can drastically change your mood as well.

This is indeed a good, thought-provoking topic... like many of you, my tastes are very eclectic, but if there's one thing that unites them, I think it's articulacy. Almost all of the music I listen to is multi-layered in some way, lyrically, musically, or emotionally (a combination of both, in some ways); and what I really like about that is that you can choose to interpret it at the most superficial level possible (a popular choice for me :D), or the most profound, or anywhere in between, or all of them at once. So that's why I like prog and jazz fusion so much, I guess - because they have layers. Onions have layers. Music is like an onion... :rolleyes: :D

A great topic indeed. As well as a lots of you others, I too listen to a broad
spectrum of music. Classic, country, blues, ska, reggae... even rap, up to the point... But that is not how I divide music. To me, it is either good or lousy.
And I am trying to listen to the first one... (At least I hope so!) :eek:
And what makes one song good and the other lousy? Dunno. Sometimes lyrics.
Sometimes chords. The beat. The bass line. Guitar solo. Trumpet solo.
Sometimes it just has that special thing that sounds good. And you can"t define it. But it is there. Bottom line; I like what I like cause I am what I am.
I hope no one will quote the last sentence and put a few nouns after the full stop... :)

> I like what I like cause I am what I am.

You're Popeye!!

For me, music has to have a whole crapload of layers to it.
It starts with the beat and the general feel of the song. But then you look deeper and there's hidden sounds in there that you never noticed before.
They you look at the lyrics and they actually make sense and say something without being obvious or using words like 'love' or 'baby'.
Each member of the band is really talented on their instrument or at least there's one or two that really stand out from the rest.
Then 5 years later you listen to the album again and realize there's a whole bunch of stuff you never noticed before because you didn't have the knowledge you have now... stuff like how it was mixed, where instruments were places in the stereo spectrum.. how well the reverb works and if it's been mixed really well and recorded in really high quality.
.. like the kinds of music you'd play in a high end stereo shop to show off your systems.

Originally Posted by: schmange> I like what I like cause I am what I am.

You're Popeye!!

For me, music has to have a whole crapload of layers to it.
It starts with the beat and the general feel of the song. But then you look deeper and there's hidden sounds in there that you never noticed before.
They you look at the lyrics and they actually make sense and say something without being obvious or using words like 'love' or 'baby'.
Each member of the band is really talented on their instrument or at least there's one or two that really stand out from the rest.
Then 5 years later you listen to the album again and realize there's a whole bunch of stuff you never noticed before because you didn't have the knowledge you have now... stuff like how it was mixed, where instruments were places in the stereo spectrum.. how well the reverb works and if it's been mixed really well and recorded in really high quality.
.. like the kinds of music you'd play in a high end stereo shop to show off your systems.

A popeye? Don"t think I get you... Is that like a insult or something?
As for your thread, I kind of disagree. Why should each member of the band be really talented? There are bands where all members are average and they still make good songs... And they use words like love and stuff ;) I find Love hurts by Nazareth to be a great song. And it is nothing speciall. But I like it a lot. But than again, that is just my point of view. Beauty is in the eye (ear) of the beholder. Maybe you are right, and I am wrong.

Originally Posted by: KrunekA popeye? Don"t think I get you... Is that like a insult or something?
As for your thread, I kind of disagree. Why should each member of the band be really talented? There are bands where all members are average and they still make good songs... And they use words like love and stuff ;) I find Love hurts by Nazareth to be a great song. And it is nothing speciall. But I like it a lot. But than again, that is just my point of view. Beauty is in the eye (ear) of the beholder. Maybe you are right, and I am wrong.

Jeez.. I thought that joke was so obvious. Popeye is a cartoon character who's famous line was "I am what I am".
So anytime somebody says "I am what I am" around you, you look at them really weird and reply "You're Popeye??".
I thought that's what you meant by adding to the end of your sentence.
Just an old joke.

Anyhoo.... the only reason I'm against using the words 'love' or 'baby' in top 40 songs is because it's been overdone so much that it's a become a joke.
I'm not a big fan of a.m. radio type music and it just seems sometimes like every song on those 'clearchannel' stations is either about love or has the word baby in it.
And a baby to me is one of those little loud crying things that cost you a coupla hundred thousand dollars over 20 years.... so everytime I hear a guy singing stuff like 'ooh baby I love you', I think of a grown man saying stuff like that to a little kid.