Would You Say You Had A Wide Taste In Music?

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AlexCAlexC Frets: 2396
Inspired by some comments in another recent thread where someone dismissed an entire ‘genre’ of music outright, I just wondered how diverse you’d consider your tastes? I’ve got about 2000 albums on CD and I think I’m quite eclectic. For example - the top row of my cd collection looks like this - 

4 Non Blondes, 10cc, 22-20s, The 88, 801, 10,000 Maniacs, AC/DC, Adam & The Ants, Air, Alisha’s Attic, All About Eve, All Seeing I, Tori Amos, The Anchoress, Angelfish, The Animals, Fiona Apple, Appleton, Arcadia, Tamsin Archer, Joan Armatrading, Louis Armstrong, Ash, Athlete, The Auteurs, Emilie Autumn, Kevin Ayers, Baader Meinhof, Babe Ruth, Badfinger, Badly Drawn Boy, The Band...

I just like what I like. I couldn’t care less whether it’s considered retro, now, classic, popular, obscure or what some list in a book or magazine says. And I don’t think my taste is locked into any era or notion of ‘my day’ (never understood that expression.)
I feel it’s made me a better guitarist. Over the last few decades I’ve played in pop and rock bands, a blues band, a punky ska band and even, for a while, played nylon string acoustic in a jazz/torch song style band. May be an element that I’m a jack of all trades and master of none, but I’m happy with that. I just love music and love making music. Whatever form that takes. (Probably why I favour fat Strats- very versatile.)
What say you people?
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Comments

  • VimFuegoVimFuego Frets: 15477
    I like both kinds, country and western, 

    I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.

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  • munckeemunckee Frets: 12255
    I would say I like most types of music, my ipad has classical, country, dance, rap, most genres of rock, folk, bluegrass etc.  Its true to say the bulk of my music collection is from either the late 60s or early 90s though!
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    I also have about 2000 albums on CD. I like everything from mediaeval religious music to classical to jazz to blues to folk to rock to modern pop and beyond. I'm not really a fan of metal (especially with shouty/screamy vocals) nor most hip-hop (although I have some, at the more mainstream end), but more or less anything else I'll give a chance.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    edited August 2019
    AlexC said:
    Inspired by some comments in another recent thread where someone dismissed an entire ‘genre’ of music outright, I just wondered how diverse you’d consider your tastes? I’ve got about 2000 albums on CD and I think I’m quite eclectic. For example - the top row of my cd collection looks like this - 

    4 Non Blondes, 10cc, 22-20s, The 88, 801, 10,000 Maniacs, AC/DC, Adam & The Ants, Air, Alisha’s Attic, All About Eve, All Seeing I, Tori Amos, The Anchoress, Angelfish, The Animals, Fiona Apple, Appleton, Arcadia, Tamsin Archer, Joan Armatrading, Louis Armstrong, Ash, Athlete, The Auteurs, Emilie Autumn, Kevin Ayers, Baader Meinhof, Babe Ruth, Badfinger, Badly Drawn Boy, The Band...

    I just like what I like. I couldn’t care less whether it’s considered retro, now, classic, popular, obscure or what some list in a book or magazine says. And I don’t think my taste is locked into any era or notion of ‘my day’ (never understood that expression.)
    I feel it’s made me a better guitarist. Over the last few decades I’ve played in pop and rock bands, a blues band, a punky ska band and even, for a while, played nylon string acoustic in a jazz/torch song style band. May be an element that I’m a jack of all trades and master of none, but I’m happy with that. I just love music and love making music. Whatever form that takes. (Probably why I favour fat Strats- very versatile.)
    What say you people?
    So mostly contemporary pop music?

    No Medieval, Renaissance, Classical, Baroque, Romantic, 20th Century, Avant-garde, Latin, African, Aboriginal, Inuit, Mongolian, Hip Hop, Grime, Trap, Drill, Metal (and all its subgenre's)?
    No electronic music?
    Nothing from China, Japan, Korea or the rest of Asia?

    The artists you list don't convey someone with a broad interest in different styles of music to me.
    YMMV.
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  • No, I would not way I have a wide taste in Music. The "A" section of my collection looks more like: AC/DC, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Alice in Chains, Allman Brothers, Anthrax, Audioslave. and that's about the same with the rest of the alphabet. I llike what I like. I can appreciate the quality of other type of stuff, but I do not enjoy it.
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16255
    edited August 2019
    Wide is a matter of perspective. A long list of Anglo American pop and rock artists is still quite narrow in some ways. 

    What I listen to day to day is pretty narrow, I guess it's taking comfort in the familiar to some extent. However, I have listened to a fairly wide choice, I find it interesting. Within that are things that aren't English language, that aren't to Western musical tastes ( I have fond memories of going to an evening of Tibetan throat singing for example). I have a lot of inverse snobbery about classical music but if it sneaks up on me that's fine. I listen to current music to some extent and what gets into the charts/ airplay now is pretty narrow and I find that annoying. 


    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • JezWyndJezWynd Frets: 6021
    edited August 2019
    Used to be a generic rock music listener, Bowie and Dylan forming the core of my music likes with soul, reggae and English folk featuring but nowadays, getting most of my music via YouTube has opened up my musical landscape enormously.  Modern classical, acapella and Gil Evans are some recent faves. In fact, the only thing I don’t listen to these days is guitar based rock - most of it sounds like tired retreads. Shouty/screamy metal is still a total turn-off.
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  • AlexCAlexC Frets: 2396
    edited August 2019
    octatonic said:
    AlexC said:
    Inspired by some comments in another recent thread where someone dismissed an entire ‘genre’ of music outright, I just wondered how diverse you’d consider your tastes? I’ve got about 2000 albums on CD and I think I’m quite eclectic. For example - the top row of my cd collection looks like this - 

    4 Non Blondes, 10cc, 22-20s, The 88, 801, 10,000 Maniacs, AC/DC, Adam & The Ants, Air, Alisha’s Attic, All About Eve, All Seeing I, Tori Amos, The Anchoress, Angelfish, The Animals, Fiona Apple, Appleton, Arcadia, Tamsin Archer, Joan Armatrading, Louis Armstrong, Ash, Athlete, The Auteurs, Emilie Autumn, Kevin Ayers, Baader Meinhof, Babe Ruth, Badfinger, Badly Drawn Boy, The Band...

    I just like what I like. I couldn’t care less whether it’s considered retro, now, classic, popular, obscure or what some list in a book or magazine says. And I don’t think my taste is locked into any era or notion of ‘my day’ (never understood that expression.)
    I feel it’s made me a better guitarist. Over the last few decades I’ve played in pop and rock bands, a blues band, a punky ska band and even, for a while, played nylon string acoustic in a jazz/torch song style band. May be an element that I’m a jack of all trades and master of none, but I’m happy with that. I just love music and love making music. Whatever form that takes. (Probably why I favour fat Strats- very versatile.)
    What say you people?
    So mostly contemporary pop music?

    No Medieval, Renaissance, Classical, Baroque, Romantic, 20th Century, Avant-garde, Latin, African, Aboriginal, Inuit, Mongolian, Hip Hop, Grime, Trap, Drill, Metal (and all its subgenre's)?
    No electronic music?
    Nothing from China, Japan, Korea or the rest of Asia?

    The artists you list don't convey someone with a broad interest in different styles of music to me.
    YMMV.
    Well, yes - I do have jazz, classical (a broad term for about 200 yrs of music), Mali music, quite a lot of electronic, a lot of folk - from all over the World and ambient and soul, funk, trip hop, a lot of hard rock and metal... perhaps listing the top shelf of my collection wasn’t a very good example. But this wasn’t about me per se - I was interested in other forum members tastes.
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  • earwighoneyearwighoney Frets: 3491
    My tastes in music are incredibly diverse, I like

    1) Blues
    2) Electric Blues
    3) Acoustic Blues
    4) Bluesy Music
    5) Blues

    If the guitarist can play a solo in a minor pentatonic then IMO they can't guitar....
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    AlexC said:
    octatonic said:
    AlexC said:
    Inspired by some comments in another recent thread where someone dismissed an entire ‘genre’ of music outright, I just wondered how diverse you’d consider your tastes? I’ve got about 2000 albums on CD and I think I’m quite eclectic. For example - the top row of my cd collection looks like this - 

    4 Non Blondes, 10cc, 22-20s, The 88, 801, 10,000 Maniacs, AC/DC, Adam & The Ants, Air, Alisha’s Attic, All About Eve, All Seeing I, Tori Amos, The Anchoress, Angelfish, The Animals, Fiona Apple, Appleton, Arcadia, Tamsin Archer, Joan Armatrading, Louis Armstrong, Ash, Athlete, The Auteurs, Emilie Autumn, Kevin Ayers, Baader Meinhof, Babe Ruth, Badfinger, Badly Drawn Boy, The Band...

    I just like what I like. I couldn’t care less whether it’s considered retro, now, classic, popular, obscure or what some list in a book or magazine says. And I don’t think my taste is locked into any era or notion of ‘my day’ (never understood that expression.)
    I feel it’s made me a better guitarist. Over the last few decades I’ve played in pop and rock bands, a blues band, a punky ska band and even, for a while, played nylon string acoustic in a jazz/torch song style band. May be an element that I’m a jack of all trades and master of none, but I’m happy with that. I just love music and love making music. Whatever form that takes. (Probably why I favour fat Strats- very versatile.)
    What say you people?
    So mostly contemporary pop music?

    No Medieval, Renaissance, Classical, Baroque, Romantic, 20th Century, Avant-garde, Latin, African, Aboriginal, Inuit, Mongolian, Hip Hop, Grime, Trap, Drill, Metal (and all its subgenre's)?
    No electronic music?
    Nothing from China, Japan, Korea or the rest of Asia?

    The artists you list don't convey someone with a broad interest in different styles of music to me.
    YMMV.
    Well, yes - I do have jazz, classical (a broad term for about 200 yrs of music), Mali music, quite a lot of electronic, a lot of folk - from all over the World and ambient and soul, funk, trip hop, a lot of hard rock and metal... perhaps listing the top shelf of my collection wasn’t a very good example. But this wasn’t about me per se - I was interested in other forum members tastes.
    I wasn't having a go at you- I think most people stick to a few genres most of the time.

    I mostly listen to prog, metal, fusion, various electronic genres, 20th Century and bebop.
    I've got some friends who are not musicians who have a much broader music taste than I do- I put it down to music being enough work just to be decent in the genres I play in.

    If I was listening to music was my main involvement with music, rather than playing it, then I'd probably listen more broadly.
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  • BahHumbugBahHumbug Frets: 349
    I don’t particularly think that I have a wide taste in music.  My taste isn’t constrained to a particular period, but it is (mainly) constrained to music made by white people, from Britain or North America.  A little bit of my taste extends to music made by Black Americans and white Europeans.  I don’t seem to go far outside of those boundaries, geographically, culturally or racially.
    As others have said it’s a question of perspective and personal judgement.  I’ve come across a few folks who have claimed to have wide musical taste, but whose taste is constrained just like mine, with the added limitation that they only like music made by men.
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  • AlexCAlexC Frets: 2396
    @BahHumbug I’ve seen comments on this very forum of ‘I don’t like any women guitar players’, for example. Which I find a bit...er...narrow minded (to put it politely.)
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  • fields5069fields5069 Frets: 3826
    I guess I have a wide but very shallow taste in music. I like anything which I find to be good.
    Some folks like water, some folks like wine.
    My feedback thread is here.
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  • In terms of "modern" non-classical music, I'd have to say no, I wouldn't say I had a wide taste in music really. More depth than breadth maybe (oo err) in that I get somewhat obsessed with certain styles or movements or even individual acts and then listen to as much connected with that as possible, But those genres are not very ecletic. For eg I liked White Stripes, so I got into the really old delta blues and garage rock and Velvet Underground, then some of the bluesier rock n roll which led to Led Zep, which also led to me to traditional folk like Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and Woody Guthrie, then to Dylan & Donovan etc, and the hippy stuff. So several chains but stuff that's pretty common lineage if you like. I've tended to work backwards from what I like now rather than finding stuff that is recent that sounds like older stuff.

    I do like a few things you might consider unexpected, but it's not a hipster ironic thing, they just catch me - quite like (mostly 90s) rap, early soul and motown despite not liking cheerful music, early 70s female singer songwriters and what I believe is called "chiptune" which is just like lofi electro video game music

    There are vast swathes of stuff I cannot baer to listen to, even though I can appreciate it may be good for what it is - 80s rock, men in suits playing blues music, shred or widdly stuff, Coldplay specifically, or various others.

    In terms of "classical" minded music though. I'd say I was pretty broad in that really - happy listening to anything from medieval plainchant through the usual classical composers up to 20th century experimental stuff and what you might call "ethnic" classical traditions particularly Indian. I will happily listen to anything from a classical background. Except Handel or Mendelssohn, don't get me started on that.
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
    soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
    youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
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  • vizviz Frets: 10647
    edited August 2019
    Just looking at the first 140 records on my shelf they are exclusively Basement Jaxx, The Cult, The Damned, Deep Purple and Duran Duran. The 3rd shelf is 100% Russian C19th/20th piano music. So quite diverse. or quite specialised. Not sure which!

    https://i.imgur.com/jEAhOiT.jpg
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26754
    I’m guilty of believing myself to have broader tastes than I probably do. I realised this the other day when someone at work mentioned they loved music so we’re going on holiday somewhere with “amazing clubs and DJs”. 

    That’s NOT my thing, to say the least. I generally describe my tastes as involving “guitars and beards”, which I think is relatively clear, but covers most of what I listen to - typically alt/indie/rock, alt-country, country (proper country, not poppy nonsense), some pop, classic rock, and branching out into soul especially since picking up the drums.  I also loved the last Lorde and Janelle Monte records fairly massively, but don’t like LCD Soundsystem or Bach or Slayer.
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • LastMantraLastMantra Frets: 3822
    Some people will listen to any old waffle.
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  • punchesjudypunchesjudy Frets: 1020
    Yes, thanks for asking. 
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516

    It seems quite wide to me, but the vast majority of it could be classified as hard rock to metal.  Or what's now called classic rock.  And a bit of prog.  And a lot of Frank Zappa, whatever he is.

    Some of the metal is quite poppy.  There's a bit of jazz and a fair amount of blues, but mostly at the rockier end of those genres.  And there's even a bit of rap and funk, but only in a rap-metal and funk-metal kind of way.

    There's nothing that's 100% unadulterated soul or gospel or rap or dance or techno or folk or country or (shudder) Americana.  And very little pop, even.  I don't dislike classical music but I rarely listen to it and own almost none.

    So, probably not very wide.

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  • I find that outside of musicians or proper music fans, just liking stuff that isn't mainstream but also knowing what mainstream is can help you look much more eclectic than you actually are.

    For example I go to a quiz every week where I'm the youngest there. And because I occasionally get something "modern" right in the music rounds ( modern is anything post 1995) I'm effectively used as a reason for them not having any music from the last twenty years because they think I might know it. Chances are I don't, but they don't need to know that
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
    soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
    youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
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