Branching out Your Music Taste

[Toadofsky]

I usually don't like starting threads, mostly because I think everyone else has better topics than I do. But now that I finally have the internet (and my own place to boot!), I've been lurking through sites, as well as my usual ones, and I stumbled on Pandora, this is an old site for probably 80 % of you guys. But I can't believe how many artists I've come across now because of it.

I've probably got at least 10 or more channels on it. But what I really want to ask here is this...

Was there ever a point when you finally branched off and started listening to formats of music you never heard or had stumbled on? I know when I was at least 15-18, that I wouldn't listen to country or hip hop at all. Mostly because I didn't think any of it was any good (I'm not saying much of it is, but that's because of broadcast radio I guess), but after listening to some of it, I can't say I hate it anymore.

Or maybe a better question, what kind of music had really struck a chord with you? What had made a defining point for you? Has music ever done that for you?

The "Explosions in the Sky" Channel on Pandora has been getting a lot of play through on my Pandora account, instrumental like this I've only heard in great films...

[cobaltstarfire]

I dunno, I try to think about it, and it seems my music tastes were pretty branched out from the start. I grew up listening to funk, jazz (of all sorts), symphonic/orchestral (my fav tape when I was little was a bunch of mozart songs D: ), blues, R&B, various stuff from electronica family, rock, country, various forms of pop, reggae, even video game and cartoon music.. I'm sure there's more that I can't name in there too. Part of it may be because my dad is a musician, so he likes most kinds of music, and is always looking for new ways to do stuff with it.

I think the only thing they didn't listen to or expose me to at least a little in some way or another was punk, ska and metal. I never really liked mostpunk, but I was introduced to metal at some point in Highschool, some of which I like (power, and symphonic metal mostly) some of which I dislike (because it's too harsh or boring/painful to my ears). I like Ska, as long as it isn't too generic (I just love the instrumentation)

That said, I'll give most stuff a listen through regardless of genre, cause I know there's something good in everything I just need to find it. Granted I might not finish listening to it if it bothers me somehow, or bores me. Then again, I very rarely find myself prejudging stuff, except cartoons when I was little. And I've learned not to do that, because I'll often like something once I sit down and actually watch it.

[benprunty]

When I was a teenager, I mostly only listened to electronic music and game soundtracks. When I went to college I stumbled onto latin jazz and loved it. Now I actively seek out new genres of music every six months or so. Recently I've been getting into modern funk, but I've added bluegrass, classic rock, old-timey folks and modern classical to my list of interests. I even wrote an article on the subject.

[DrumUltimA]

In all my early years, all I'd listen to was whatever was popular.

In high school, all I'd listen to was jazz.

Here, in college, all I'll listen to is anything.

[SLyGeN]

It wasn't until recently that I figured out exactly what it is about a certain piece of music that I like.

For the most part, something in minor key will appeal to me. That can be Beethoven, symphonic black metal from norway, or dark electronica. That's pretty damn spread out.

Around the California Bay Area, everyone likes Hip-hop that lacks real melodies, pop music that also has little to no melody, and rock music that is primarily in major key. There's also nothing to speak of in my favorite mode, Harmonic Minor. Therefore, even though I have Bach, Dimmu Borgir, Psyclon Nine, and some soft atmospheric pieces, people still call me closed-minded.

So, you have to figure out what it is about music that you like. Where I live, I can only gather that they like listening to poetry, and couldn't care less about the music composition itself.

[Imagist]

The "Explosions in the Sky" Channel on Pandora has been getting a lot of play through on my Pandora account, instrumental like this I've only heard in great films...

Sounds like you and I could be friends. Also, sounds like you need to be listening to Do Make Say Think, Mono, This Will Destroy You, and quite a few other bands of that post-rock ilk if you aren't already.

For me, it wasn't really a question of when I started branching out, but more when I started paying attention to music and actively seeking it out. Before 2005 or so, I never really listened to anything by choice except OCRemixes; my only other musical experience was whatever happened to be in the car, riding with my parents or friends. Then I was introduced to some alternative music on another forum I was visiting at the time. Those guys took me all the way from Franz Ferdinand ("Take Me Out" was probably the first song I fell in love with), Modest Mouse and the Pixies to the likes of British Sea Power, Broken Social Scene, and The Unicorns. About that time I also discovered that a few of my friends were listening to some (at the time, it seemed to me) weird music, including Air, The Flaming Lips, and various vocal-oriented post-rock outfits such as Sigur Rós and Stereolab. Everything I listen to now is just a result of taking those foundations and investigating their contemporaries, who they've influenced, who influenced them, etc.

At some point in the beginning of 2007 I randomly picked up LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver, not even realizing it was a brand-new sophomore release, and I got a music-boner for James Murphy that's never gone away. This opened me to a whole new world of non-generic dance music and electronica I never explored before, and is probably the only real branching point I have to speak of. Now my tastes are a pretty thorough amalgam of that sort of dance-oriented rock/electropop, various indie pop-rock outfits like Voxtrot, and Okkervil fuckin' River oh my God I am so obsessed with Will Sheff. I still listen to quite a bit of post-rock, post-punk (both old school and the '00s revival eras) and '80s/'90s alternative rock, not to mention the occasional smattering of everything else, but my tastes lean most strongly toward dance-punk and "teh indie pops."

[Sindra]

I tend to not like anything pertaining to rap, except for a few key pieces or instances. However I just recently got into the Hollywood Undead, which are a mix of rap, hip-hop and metal with a splash of electronica. Cursing up a shitstorm is common, and while usually I advoid excessive cussing because it tends to take away from a song for me....I can easily ignore it here because the sound is good.

[OverCoat]

A friend of my grandma's got me a CD of Astor Piazzolla's music - suddenly it's like "wow tango is cool"

Though I checked other tango out and it's kind of boring compared to Piazzolla's work but that's because he's too awesome to compare to the rest of tango I think.

I will listen to anything though - I don't really give a shit about genre, just if the artist has talent or not - more often not

[cobaltstarfire]

people still call me closed-minded.

It's not really closed minded if you don't happen to like what you hear, those people are being silly if they think you should like or hate something just because they do.

[DrumUltimA]

A friend of my grandma's got me a CD of Astor Piazzolla's music - suddenly it's like "wow tango is cool"

Though I checked other tango out and it's kind of boring compared to Piazzolla's work but that's because he's too awesome to compare to the rest of tango I think.

I will listen to anything though - I don't really give a shit about genre, just if the artist has talent or not - more often not

I think that's just a case of Piazzolla being amazing.

[Knives]

I don't think in terms of genre, but in terms of characteristics, similarly to how pandora categorizes music. I love breakbeats, whatever the genre, for example.

[PhiJayy]

I dunno, I try to think about it, and it seems my music tastes were pretty branched out from the start. I grew up listening to funk, jazz (of all sorts), symphonic/orchestral (my fav tape when I was little was a bunch of mozart songs D: ), blues, R&B, various stuff from electronica family, rock, country, various forms of pop, reggae, even video game and cartoon music.. I'm sure there's more that I can't name in there too. Part of it may be because my dad is a musician, so he likes most kinds of music, and is always looking for new ways to do stuff with it.

Same here, I pretty much grew up around different types of music. Except rock, as of recent though, now I love rock music.

Mainly because my sister blasts it all the time.

If I'm locked up in a small room chained to the wall and latin music is playing.

Soon enough, I'll start bouncing my head to it.

[WillRock]

i'll pretty much listen to anything. Granted that there will be pieces of music in a given style that I will dislike (some more than others, dependent on genre) but I do like music from all styles to an extent.

I am trying more than ever to listen to different styles of music so I can incorporate elements of different styles in my music and fuse it with my own to try and make it unique.

If I was to choose I style I would rather listen to, that would be classic rock/classic metal.

That is my passion in music as far as listening is concerned

[JH Sounds]

I think I'm fortunate to have grown up in a time when hip hop was making its way into pop hits. Hip hop pretty much covers every style of music ever -- in that sense, it's less like a genre and more like a container format.

[WillRock]

I think I'm fortunate to have grown up in a time when hip hop was making its way into pop hits. Hip hop pretty much covers every style of music ever -- in that sense, it's less like a genre and more like a container format.

I was going to debate with you about that, but now I think about it...

[OverCoat]

I think that's just a case of Piazzolla being amazing.

BANDONEON FUCK YEAH

[Audity]

Pandora is a nice way to branch out. I've found a lot of stuff there. But I wish there was a better site out there, to speak the truth. ...One that directly compared, percentage-wise, one person's tastes with another's. I think it would be a sure-fire way to find tons of new material and even meet others. But alas, there would need to be a web-development team equal to or greater in skill than Pandora for this to happen. I see scattered music communities attempt to do just that (that is, seek music from one another), but I think there could be a more efficient way, than even Pandora/last.fm, to do it.

As one's life progresses, certain songs depreciate in value, I've found. Those with active minds ("musically passionate") eventually discover new, similarly meticulated genres to be... well, "better", even compared to previously highly-esteemed tunes. So there's this constant migration to higher forms of meaning in music that people desire, rather than letting oneself be subjugated to repetitive patterns that make humans realize, "Hey, I've already heard this before. And, now that I think about it, I hate it." Pandora is actually a great way to realize this, because on the site people hear one song after another, all similarly structured, and (most importantly) greater in quality than what other stations provide (allegedly).

tl;dr: some songs are better than others and music lovers seek them out lol and web people roq.

[VCR Channel]

When I was much younger, I didn't like hip-hop at all. Probably because when I first heard about it, it came along with the notion that hip-hop is inherently bad and listening to it corrupts you. And, of course, I eventually learned why people held these beliefs: because of all the stereotypes about the music that comes, probably in a major part, from what is played in the mainstream. So basically, I had a vague understanding of what it sounds like, and a prejudice against it... Without ever having really listened to it.

Eventually, once I actually heard some, probably from what was in some video games, I thought it sounded cool. I didn't really get into it at first, though. I just sorta thought it was cool background music or something. Now, I'm heavily into the music. I'll listen to anything, as long as it sounds good to me. I still don't like songs that overdo it on the cursing, but my reason is different now. At first, it was because I just thought cursing was bad. Now, I can understand that cursing a lot kinda hurts the integrity and creativity of the song. A few curses don't bother me, though.

[jmr]

Most of my 'branching out' occurred in my later high school years. A few new friends with varied music tastes combined with the availability of "high-speed" internet helped me discover a lot of new genres and styles I hadn't really listened to before.

Funny you should mention Explosions in the Sky; that was one of the bands I 'discovered' in my last year of high school. Actually, our class used (an 18-minute edit of) 'Your Hand In Mine' at our Graduation ceremony. Guess who suggested it.

[BeleagueredandBeset]

I haven't posted in a while, I'm normally a lurker, but I saw this thread and thought I'd throw in my two cents.

I used to listen to primarily "scene" bands. My favorite music has always been rock, but I didn't really realize how cut-out the music I listened to was: it was manufactured for people who never thought about the music they listened to, and I decided I wasn't cool with that.

I started to branch out from there. I think one of the things that helped me was iTunes- "Listeners Also Bought" is a handy feature.

But I think the band that has inspired me most, and I encourage all of you to check out, is Thrice. Their last release was a four-disc concept album themed around the four classical elements (fire/water/earth/air). It's innovative, it's artistic, and its lyrics are hands-down the best I've ever come across.

It's also very cool that Explosions in the Sky was mentioned here. I was pleasantly surprised to find them mentioned on a site like this one.

[Z3120]

I wasn't exposed to much mainstream music, but I got my music tastes from watching a bunch of AMVs (Anime Music Videos) when I was young, which featured I think (not sure of the correct genre) a lot of rock, so I grew up on listening to bands like Metallica, Linkin Park, Blink 182, P.O.D., Tantric, Creed and so forth. Unsurprisingly, I suppose by watching those AMVs I grew attach to anime and I still like it today.

So when did I grow out of only listening to a genre? Probably during my Junior and Senior year high school. It was after I finished watching an anime called, "Air", and then I became totally engrossed with everything from the captivating visuals to the beautiful music, which contained many piano pieces. Especially the music was very endearing to me. I began to wander around musically, learned to appreciate instrumental pieces, grew tired of songs (still am) and became very addicted to video game and anime music. Perhaps it isn't correct to refer to video game or anime music as a separate genre, but what I do know is because of this lack of distinction, I like a variety of music like from Trance to Classical.

[The Biznut]

For the most part, something in minor key will appeal to me. That can be Beethoven, symphonic black metal from norway, or dark electronica. That's pretty damn spread out.

\

I also like the minor key

Ever since I was young, when music has grabbed me, it takes a long time for the fingers to loose. Mid 90's dance tracks were my obsession in elementary school, stole Dance mix 95 from a friend and pretty much worshipped it for a while. Also liked good techno/trance. junior high was the additoin of rock/punk stuff. Didn't appreciate the oldies, country, or rap too much, though there is always the exception. In High school a friend introduced me to Metallica, for a while that was the only band I cared existed. I then discovered the amazing, if not cheezy, Blind Guardian, which was my first step down the power metal path, leading on to Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, In Flames after I got over the vocals, and others. There was a period where I took a leave of absence from music for a while too, and when I got back into it, Things were much the same.

I have always seemed to have different tastes than the average person, average where I live means redneck I naturally never really bought into that scene musically, and have found myself I have found that for all of my branching out, I have never discarded a musical preference, it has just settled into place after a while I find.

Currently, I find myself enjoying country a lot more than ever, thanks to my hick of a younger brother I have listened to a lot of radio at my work and have heard some mainstream pop radio songs to bring a smile to my face and a bob to my head, which is something I once swore would never happen.

Pop is so fickle though. One song is a happy and fun song, but then the next 3 make me want to puke...

[Zombie]

I guess you could say i could listen to any music out there and tolerate it. Lately, however, i have been LOVING trance and other EDM. Music that, a few years ago, I'd never have imagined listening to.

Does anyone here have a favorite band/artist that they have been in love with for like... ever? Pink Floyd is among one of my favorites that i have been listening to since... well as long as I have been alive (my mom and dad met at a Pink Floyd concert!).

[Toadofsky]

I guess you could say i could listen to any music out there and tolerate it. Lately, however, i have been LOVING trance and other EDM. Music that, a few years ago, I'd never have imagined listening to.

Does anyone here have a favorite band/artist that they have been in love with for like... ever? Pink Floyd is among one of my favorites that i have been listening to since... well as long as I have been alive (my mom and dad met at a Pink Floyd concert!).

Generally, most mainstream I try to avoid, basically I want to avoid hearing a song 80 million times, three times in a day for 10 days you get the idea.

But an artists I've grown up with? Weezer, Aerosmith, and the Smashing Pumpkins. Yeah, some people here may not like Weezer, but I think they've been a good band so far. Granted, I didn't really like the Make Believe album, mostly because it felt like a, "Hey, we wanna be popular!" kind of feel to it. But the Red Album was great, minus the songs that the other members sang (Though the song "King" was far better than the others on the disc). Why they didn't include the song "Pig" into the actual album, is beyond me.

Aerosmith? I've stopped liking anything new from them (Thanks Guitar Hero Aerosmith). But the songs from the 80's, and some of the blues songs, were excellent.

Smashing Pumpkins I've still been delving into. I grew up with Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, which was a peak album I guess for them. But I have yet to listen to all of Siamese Dream, which is regarded as their finest, and with good reason.

[I-n-j-i-n]

I wonder if anyone else ever had the experience of going straight from Country to Classical to Contemporary to almost everything. I once even used to listen exclusively to Country music. It's almost hard to believe. And I guess that was in teenage years. If there's any kind of a shift, it's a lot of mainstream pop that has too much fake attitude imbued in them. I'd take J-pop or Swiss-pop or any other foreign pop music that isn't so instilled with the horrid attitude adjustment to them.