The wife and I are sitting around tonight flipping around Music Choice, and amazing how we differ so much in what really makes us get up and dance....

She likes old rock and roll, the same stuff I grew up with, but I would rather listen to electronicia or techno.. but she says it's boring because it's the same thing over and over.. which it isn't if you listen...

What do you think it is is that makes a person PREFER their music preferance? Rock and roll, or jazz, or classical, or drum and bass, or disco, or what ever their main preference is?

No venture to guess? No right or wrong answer.. this is one of those OPINION threads :D

I've thought about this many times before also. At work, there are about 4 of us all about the same age group (21-26), and it amazes me how much we differ in musical tastes. I like a mix of almost everything (except rap). One guy like raps, one guy likes pop/light rock, and the other hard rock/metal. Just another personality trait you could call it.:music:

past drug abuse.

gang bangin', or climbing off the john deere.: be my guess

past drug abuse.

I'm sure this could be an influence...

past drug abuse.

:thmbsp:

gang bangin', or climbing off the john deere.: be my guess

I understand the Deere aspect, but I've never had any music that I related to a bang...

Seriously.. I've always wandered is it something in the upbringing and times, or is it the way the brain is wired... Kinda like when I listen to DEVO doing SIB (swelling itching brain) It really reminds me of the way the neurons fire in my brain,...

A bit ago me and the wife were trying to dance to swing.. but even though I like it, I can't relate to it...

No right or wrong answer.. this is one of those OPINION threads



Well, in that case...



...She likes old rock and roll, the same stuff I grew up with, but I would rather listen to electronicia or techno.. but she says it's boring because it's the same thing over and over...



...I agree with your wife. :D

Mystic.. you aint helping.. she said thank you.. So what is it that makes you like what you do?

If you listen to techno, the beat may not change, but the melody does.. I guess you might say it's more of a finite listening.

We are all wired differnt,why would someone love cats?
or eat tofoo? Ware Berkenstocks? Drive a prius or ware there pants falling off there ass?
Because people are odd as hell...

We are all wired differnt,why would someone love cats?
or eat tofoo? Ware Berkenstocks? Drive a prius or ware there pants falling off there ass?
Because people are odd as hell...

Realisit people suck :p:

God

If you listen to techno, the beat may not change, but the melody does.. I guess you might say it's more of a finite listening.

I have had bouts of listening to Brian Eno. Ambinet-Techno. A fair amount of Bauhaus and Ministry, too. Does that count?

PS: Aslo the Silver Apples, but that's more old rock & roll, IMO. That goes for Guru Guru, Tangerine Dream and Brainticket, too.

Mystic.. You are a true hippy.. you can't help but love silver apples if you are...

yeah.. I can understand the car comparison... Just trying to understand what makes us all tick musically

Simple, really. The ear-gremlins decide. They interact with the gremlins in the stereo gear and in the recording itself, and if THEY all want to dance the gremlin boogaloo together, the person thinks the music sounds wonderful. But if the gremlins decide they don't get along too well, then the person won't like the music very much. If it's time for gang, tribal or clan warfare between them, then the person wants to turn it off, and if he/she doesn't, they get bad listener fatigue. The listener fatigue is actually caused by the ear gremlins, when their feelings aren't being listened to/respected. You see, if the person shuts off the music or walks away from it, they can declare victory and dance the victory dance (gremlins love dancing, although of course only when no one sees them do it).


Actually, I think it is a very complex admixture of nature AND nurture, so to speak. Partly, it is the result of hormones and brain chemistry, which is why teenagers more often prefer head-banging loud and full of bass stuff, whereas older people tend towards softer, easier listening.

It is also partly past listening experiences and musical learning. If you've listened to a lot of techno stuff, for example, you will focus on and notice the differences, whereas if your wife avoids listening to it, she will feel it is "all the same". A bit like "all Chinese look alike" to Westerners, or vice-versa, until they've spent more time together. Similarly, jazz is better appreciated if you are musically trained and can really understand what someone is doing when they improvise. Of course, knowledge and intellectual understanding does not always equate to emotional LIKING, but it can have an influence. Familiarity may breed contempt, but more often it breeds affection.

Emotional ties from past (esp. childhood) listening experiences may be a factor. You are more likely to like a song that stirs up deep memories of pleasant past experiences, even if you don't remember the actual experiences. The association of that (or very similar) music with the good feelings may remain, even when the conscious memory of what association started it, may fade. Similar to how when you have eaten something that made you sick, smelling that same food again years later may induce unpleasant feelings, even though you might have forgotten the illness itself.

General personality differences may affect listening tastes. A slow, romantic piece won't appeal so much to a borderline-ADD, post-MTV kid with an attention span measured in milliseconds, whereas it might be just the thing for an elderly philosopher living isolated in the mountains. The techno-trance stuff the kid might like would be anathema to the philosopher-hermit.

One's immediate mood and physiology will also have a HUGE impact. The same peppy, upbeat toe-tapping tune that you enjoy on a bright summer vacation day might irritate you terribly on the night when you are grieving for a lost loved one, whereas the slow blues number you'd prefer on that night might be equally unwelcome on that bright summer afternoon. This is similar to having songs that are great "late night/wee hours" music, but which we don't want to listen to during the day. At different points in our circadian cycles, we will respond better to different types of music.

To some extent, the reasons are inexplicable. Just as some of us are tall and others short, some fat, some thin, and some dark and others light, we are all very different "on the inside", in our brains. Our different listening choices reflect that. Perhaps one day we'll be able to explain in detail how we become what we are. Definitely it is an interaction of genetics ('nature') and the environment(s) and experience(s) we live through ('nurture'). Our musical tastes reflect this inner diversity, and it is almost impossible to pin the causes of our preferences down to just one thing, or even to fully explain them in terms of many things.

Why does one person like blue, and another pink? Why does one prefer DaVinci, and another Rembrandt (let alone Picasso or Klee!)? We have partial explanations for some aspects of human preferences, but I don't think anyone knows a definitive answer to such questions.

I'm VERY glad, though, that music of some sort is almost universally appreciated by people, right across space and time, and that we all ARE so different in our musical tastes (within certain parameters). I'm glad that Beethoven had his tastes, and that Bob Dylan had different tastes, and the same for everyone else who ever wrote, performed, produced or bought a performance or recording of music. Otherwise, none of us could build our collections of favorite and varied music that we love, all created by other people! [Nor enjoy creating and performing music ourselves, for those of us who do that.]

WHEW... let me get my breath!!!!

Arkay.. you're a freak :p:

Upbringing and the state of mind you are/were in when you were exposed to a certain artist, or even a genre. I am FAR more diverse in what I like these days than I was 20 years ago, and I was fairly diverse given my upbringing and the area in which I live back then. The more places and people you are exposed to, the more opportunities for diversity in what you like and don't like.

abusive parents...

I can tell you some of the music I listened to in the 70's has been neatly swept under the carpet. :D

Music preferences do change as you get older thank God. Why do I like Jazz? It just clicked. I was listening to some Miles Davis one day and found myself really enjoying what I was hearing. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was hooked on jazz. Love the energy, the instrumentation, and the history. Fascinating music and endlessly gratifying.

WHEW... let me get my breath!!!!

Arkay.. you're a freak :p:

:lmao:

Carl

Simple, really. The ear-gremlins decide. They interact with the gremlins in the stereo gear and in the recording itself, and if THEY all want to dance the gremlin boogaloo together, the person thinks the music sounds wonderful. But if the gremlins decide they don't get along too well, then the person won't like the music very much. If it's time for gang, tribal or clan warfare between them, then the person wants to turn it off, and if he/she doesn't, they get bad listener fatigue. The listener fatigue is actually caused by the ear gremlins, when their feelings aren't being listened to/respected. You see, if the person shuts off the music or walks away from it, they can declare victory and dance the victory dance (gremlins love dancing, although of course only when no one sees them do it).


Actually, I think it is a very complex admixture of nature AND nurture, so to speak. Partly, it is the result of hormones and brain chemistry, which is why teenagers more often prefer head-banging loud and full of bass stuff, whereas older people tend towards softer, easier listening.

It is also partly past listening experiences and musical learning. If you've listened to a lot of techno stuff, for example, you will focus on and notice the differences, whereas if your wife avoids listening to it, she will feel it is "all the same". A bit like "all Chinese look alike" to Westerners, or vice-versa, until they've spent more time together. Similarly, jazz is better appreciated if you are musically trained and can really understand what someone is doing when they improvise. Of course, knowledge and intellectual understanding does not always equate to emotional LIKING, but it can have an influence. Familiarity may breed contempt, but more often it breeds affection.

Emotional ties from past (esp. childhood) listening experiences may be a factor. You are more likely to like a song that stirs up deep memories of pleasant past experiences, even if you don't remember the actual experiences. The association of that (or very similar) music with the good feelings may remain, even when the conscious memory of what association started it, may fade. Similar to how when you have eaten something that made you sick, smelling that same food again years later may induce unpleasant feelings, even though you might have forgotten the illness itself.

General personality differences may affect listening tastes. A slow, romantic piece won't appeal so much to a borderline-ADD, post-MTV kid with an attention span measured in milliseconds, whereas it might be just the thing for an elderly philosopher living isolated in the mountains. The techno-trance stuff the kid might like would be anathema to the philosopher-hermit.

One's immediate mood and physiology will also have a HUGE impact. The same peppy, upbeat toe-tapping tune that you enjoy on a bright summer vacation day might irritate you terribly on the night when you are grieving for a lost loved one, whereas the slow blues number you'd prefer on that night might be equally unwelcome on that bright summer afternoon. This is similar to having songs that are great "late night/wee hours" music, but which we don't want to listen to during the day. At different points in our circadian cycles, we will respond better to different types of music.

To some extent, the reasons are inexplicable. Just as some of us are tall and others short, some fat, some thin, and some dark and others light, we are all very different "on the inside", in our brains. Our different listening choices reflect that. Perhaps one day we'll be able to explain in detail how we become what we are. Definitely it is an interaction of genetics ('nature') and the environment(s) and experience(s) we live through ('nurture'). Our musical tastes reflect this inner diversity, and it is almost impossible to pin the causes of our preferences down to just one thing, or even to fully explain them in terms of many things.

Why does one person like blue, and another pink? Why does one prefer DaVinci, and another Rembrandt (let alone Picasso or Klee!)? We have partial explanations for some aspects of human preferences, but I don't think anyone knows a definitive answer to such questions.

I'm VERY glad, though, that music of some sort is almost universally appreciated by people, right across space and time, and that we all ARE so different in our musical tastes (within certain parameters). I'm glad that Beethoven had his tastes, and that Bob Dylan had different tastes, and the same for everyone else who ever wrote, performed, produced or bought a performance or recording of music. Otherwise, none of us could build our collections of favorite and varied music that we love, all created by other people! [Nor enjoy creating and performing music ourselves, for those of us who do that.]

There it is the answer to the question that should never have been asked.
Sigmand Froyd,Nichi,Playto and Arkay.

Geography, ethnicity, personality, economic status, travel, genetics, family, religion, education, curiousity, health, romanticism, interpersonal relationships, politics, gender, athleticism, sexual roles, food preferences, vocation/profession, and age or era.

WHEW... let me get my breath!!!!

Arkay.. you're a freak :p:

Thank you. That's quite possibly the nicest thing anyone has said about me all day.
:D


There it is the answer to the question that should never have been asked.
Sigmand Froyd,Nichi,Playto and Arkay.

Oooh, did someone mention playdough?
:D

Geography, ethnicity, personality, economic status, travel, genetics, family, religion, education, curiousity, health, romanticism, interpersonal relationships, politics, gender, athleticism, sexual roles, food preferences, vocation/profession, and age or era.

Oh, to be so succinct! Kudos, sir! :thmbsp:

...but you left out the gremlins!
:D

Geography, ethnicity, personality, economic status, travel, genetics, family, religion, education, curiousity, health, romanticism, interpersonal relationships, politics, gender, athleticism, sexual roles, food preferences, vocation/profession, and age or era.

All of that and more which supports Arkay's theory that there really is no one size fits all explanation.

It is fascinating to observe what different groups or cultures like.

Go to Germany and turn on the radio. I guarantee within an hour or so, you will hear a song by Albert Hammond. Guaranteed. Why? I do not know. He has largely disappeared from North American radio, but still reigns supreme there.


Go to the thrifts and look at the used records. As well all frequently joke, its mostly corny stuff from the 50s and early 60s. We are glancing at the WWII generation's taste in a microcosm.

Musical tastes exemplify the vast array that is the world's existence (my lame attempt to top Arkay).

I forget the specifics but l listenened to a radio program on the CBC that had an author of a book on music.
His theory was most people mainly like the music that they enjoyed and experienced from age 18 - 23 moving from child to independent adult.

In my case this would mean 1968 - 72 which happens to fit in. Even newer stuff l enjoy for example blues, rock in roll, big band jazz came from this period.

Of course l never really made it to adult hood according to my wife and am stuck in being a child most of the time. Heh l resemble that remark.

Yeah, aside from a late blooming appreciation of Bluegrass most of my musical tastes were pretty much set by the time I was 30. My grandmother and mother were both accomplished pianists/organists. I firmly believe that genetics plays a significant role, not only in our musical talents/skills, but in the type/complexity of music that we as individuals are able and willing to enjoy and comprehend.

But Musichal really nailed it.

Yeah, aside from a late blooming appreciation of Bluegrass most of my musical tastes were pretty much set by the time I was 30. My grandmother and mother were both accomplished pianists/organists. I firmly believe that genetics plays a significant role, not only in our musical talents/skills, but in the type/complexity of music that we as individuals are able and willing to enjoy and comprehend.

But Musichal really nailed it.


But I left out perhaps the most important: language.

But I left out perhaps the most important: language.

That's a whole new can of worms. Are we talking musical language or spoken language?

As others have alluded to in this thread, my theory is that people prefer to listen to the music that was playing during really enjoyable moments for them - things like house parties, cruising with friends etc. A positive frame of mind makes people more receptive and this seems to be especially true for the young. It's all about context.

I experienced a taste of this back in the early 90's. I was decidedly not a country music fan at the time but found myself working as a bartender at the hottest club in the city. After a few months exposure to the constant party and the rolicking good times I too became a fan of the music and started buying country CDs. This was fairly powerful stuff since I was in my late 20's and a hard/progressive rock fan. Even though that was almost 20 years ago, the effect hasn't completely worn off.

I read somewhere that people's taste in music doesn't change much beyond high school and I believe it. Before anybody here pounces on that statement - we AKers are a little different than the average listener and probably a little more flexible in what we listen too. Think about your friends and family and see if that doesn't mostly hold true.

Great question. I haven´t got a clue about the answer, though.

I do know our musical taste evolves, and one learns to like different styles of music.

What do you think it is is that makes a person PREFER their music preferance? Rock and roll, or jazz, or classical, or drum and bass, or disco, or what ever their main preference is?

Your brain...both what you came to the world with and what you've accumulated along the way.

The teen years are where we are most susceptible and influenced. A less than ideal upbringing makes some of us relate to music that is angry, depressed, defiant, or all of those things. Those emotions run strong and very deep, dulling only slightly with adulthood. Listening to that same music years later is a good way to vent and displace some of those thoughts in a constructive way.
Metal, while maligned by almost everyone else, has the most loyal fans because the best examples of the genre still hit a raw nerve with those who wrote it AND those who bought it. We understand the frustration, anger, and alienation that the words and notes express. No other genre has that same combination of power and prose.
Some examples of Punk, Rap, and even old-school country has a similar message. Some of Johnny Cash's lyrics are as dark as anything from Black Sabbath, but without the trademark wall of powerful sound that floors the first-time listener. That experience will stay with some people forever.

I started with Tchiakovsky in my late teens, swung toward the other Romantics (Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann). Later I began to appreciate Beethoven and Mozart. During the years I was programming in Assmbler languages I came to understand J. S. Bach as well as the Baroque composers. Now they are all old friends, except that I could never get used to the moderns and the twelve tone school.

At the same time I like more recent music - Lighfoot, Denver, Kingston Trio, Belafonte, etc. and the Big Band era was good. Even when my son was playing Fleetwood Mac, Bowie, Cooper I could go with most of it. But anything done since 1985 or so leaves me stone cold.

I think who you are,where you are,at what time and in what place determines alot.For me being a teen in the 70's and liking drugs played a big role in my musical sphere.Thats not to say it is like that now though.

That is such an amazingly complex question...

maybe you can narrow it down.

Can we even find a pattern in what ONE PERSON likes? Certain characteristics or patterns of percussion? Particular chord progressions? Vocal qualities of one type and not another? Level of complexity?

I know Pandora is doing this Music Genome Project but I'm not entirely convinced (based on looking at "song info" while playing) that it is enough to *really* find that pattern... Would be really fascinating to get 10 people to list their top 20 favorite songs and genres and see if any pattern can be found...

E.g., I think certain brains are wired as to not be bored with repetitive music with slight variations... like Trance, Pachelbel's Canon, Ravel's Bolero, and other music of that form (the technical term escapes me).

I tolerate other peoples taste in music, but in reality, they don't have any taste at all. :D

It's all about me me me me!

Kidding aside, we're all different, the only guy who knows rose from the dead today.