I'm no expert. I've never studied music, apart from a few years studying the piano/violin, a summer learning drums and then, for all Irish students, the inevitable tin whistle. Not that I can remember how to work half of those. But my point is, I haven't studied music. I don't know how to play long beautiful sonatas on the piano - ha, I find it hard to play with two hands! But that doesn't mean I don't love music.
That's the beauty of music. It's for everyone. You don't need to learn how to understand it, or get a PhD in "Music - Listening and Learning" before buying yourself a stereo. It's all out there.
People often ask me "What's your favorite genre of music?" and I always answer something like "Rock" or "Rock, but I also like hip hop or pop" or "Classical".
But to be completely honest, for me it feels like saying "What's your favorite race of people?" or "Who's your favorite politician?" - if you can even have one of those! No matter how much I like rock, there will, and have been, plenty of times when someone put on a rock song and I shuddered and blocked my ears.
At the same time, there's that horrible classical music which we all must riot against, and I can listen to that for ages.
Music is different, music is versatile, music is unique.
So we should stop lumping it all together under one big box! I actually love all types of music - as diverse as hardcore Flyleaf, to indie Local Natives, to soft Beethoven to rock Paramore, to cheerful pop Britt Nicole to gloomy, end of world, P.O.D.
It's all different, but it's all amazing. So don't be an idiot when your friend tells you "Check out that song - it's rap" and you think 'Ugh, rap. I hate rap'. Don't stick yourself into one box - because then everything else will glide by, you'll never notice, and some beauty will be left out of your life. And you can always have some more beauty in your life.
So take a risk. If it's that scary, maybe read the lyrics or a review first. But don't just throw it out because it's different.
Here's a good example, from my own life. My friend showed me a great song - "Fences" by Paramore. I was skeptic. Then she showed me "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by the same band (a U2 cover) and I became even more skeptic. But I was skeptic before I even heard the two songs. Just because she showed them to me, and I didn't always like her music, meant it was another year before I properly appreciated Paramore. Now I'm in love, and I've even been to one of their concerts (which is a very big deal when you're Irish...).
So that's my little rant/speech/preach(?) for today. My conclusion - listen
"What's your favorite genre of music?"
ReplyDeleteHeh, I understand why would you have trouble answering that one. Personally, I never could. But people ask it so often! And it's especially annoying when you know they are going to judge you based on your answer: 'ooh, you love classical music, you must be so-o smart!'. I mean, even if it's flattering, it's annoying.
And to say that you aren't that much into music is like commiting social suicide, it seems.