seel wrote:
It's crazy to me how many genres of music I enjoy. I went all through Middle School without really getting into music, and I feel like Middle School was sort of the defining time to get into music. My Chemical Romance was super popular, MySpace was popping off, and MP3 players were becoming more commonplace. Hell I had one and I didn't even really listen to music, I had two songs: AFI - Love Like Winter and Eiffel 65 - I'm Blue on it. Fast forward to High School and I still wasn't big on music, but smartphones and iPod touches were starting to become commonplace. A buddy introduced me to metal via In Flames and a fire was lit inside me. This shit was bangin' I loved it. I remember a conversation I had with him and he's like you really can tell the difference between New and Old In Flames, and I recall thinking "Hell no you can't!" But, at that time I was still adjusting to the rough vocals, I couldn't make out a damn thing they were saying. In any case I became a metalhead over night, I was listening to all sorts of Death, Power, Black, Heavy, and Nu metal. He told me to never listen to "metalcore" or anything "-core" it's garbage, it's for "posers". That was such an elitist point of view, and shortly after graduating I listened to metalcore bands and it quickly became my favorite genre. I always felt like it was a guilty pleasure, but I came across a comment by a guy in a debate about metalcore and metal, and he said something along the lines of "Don't let people tell you what you can and cannot listen to, there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure when you're enjoying the things that bring you joy. Nobody can tell me I shouldn't listen to Burzum just cause I listen to Taylor Swift, I enjoy them both and they both their place in my library." And that shit changed how I viewed my musical tastes, I stopped caring and listened to what I wanted to listen to - not fearing social backlash just because I enjoyed something that wasn't to their tastes. It's great.
That turned out significantly lengthier than I had imagined, but I was just thinking about it when I went from Metalcore to EDM to Rap to Country to Black Metal in the span of like half an hour. There are so many great bands, artists and musicians out there and I feel like it would be a pity to narrow your tastes or lock yourself into a genre like some "elitists" I knew. Enjoy the things that bring you joy or get you to groove! 🙂
Man, where's the "Love" button when ya need it? Well said, hun! ^~^
Me, I was drafted into the music world with the late 2000's pop and stadium anthems we'd hear at those huge robotics competitions. I reckon it must've been a welcome change from the oldies and classic rock that typified my middle school years. Once I started college, my memories are incomplete, but I loved all kinds of Electronica and eventually developed a longstanding affection for Electro Swing.
The real joy of music, however, is using it to regulate my moods. Ultimately, I'd come to use certain songs and genres as auditory cues for my subconscious; like a bright and cheerful anime OP on my morning walks, or a nice, slow piece over dinner, as I envisioned my college dining hall as some super-fancy Italian bistro. Nowadays I've fallen out of the habit, but I'm sure I'll get back to it someday. Hopefully someday soon. c:
malmon wrote:
seel wrote:
It's crazy to me how many genres of music I enjoy. I went all through Middle School without really getting into music, and I feel like Middle School was sort of the defining time to get into music. My Chemical Romance was super popular, MySpace was popping off, and MP3 players were becoming more commonplace. Hell I had one and I didn't even really listen to music, I had two songs: AFI - Love Like Winter and Eiffel 65 - I'm Blue on it. Fast forward to High School and I still wasn't big on music, but smartphones and iPod touches were starting to become commonplace. A buddy introduced me to metal via In Flames and a fire was lit inside me. This shit was bangin' I loved it. I remember a conversation I had with him and he's like you really can tell the difference between New and Old In Flames, and I recall thinking "Hell no you can't!" But, at that time I was still adjusting to the rough vocals, I couldn't make out a damn thing they were saying. In any case I became a metalhead over night, I was listening to all sorts of Death, Power, Black, Heavy, and Nu metal. He told me to never listen to "metalcore" or anything "-core" it's garbage, it's for "posers". That was such an elitist point of view, and shortly after graduating I listened to metalcore bands and it quickly became my favorite genre. I always felt like it was a guilty pleasure, but I came across a comment by a guy in a debate about metalcore and metal, and he said something along the lines of "Don't let people tell you what you can and cannot listen to, there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure when you're enjoying the things that bring you joy. Nobody can tell me I shouldn't listen to Burzum just cause I listen to Taylor Swift, I enjoy them both and they both their place in my library." And that shit changed how I viewed my musical tastes, I stopped caring and listened to what I wanted to listen to - not fearing social backlash just because I enjoyed something that wasn't to their tastes. It's great.
That turned out significantly lengthier than I had imagined, but I was just thinking about it when I went from Metalcore to EDM to Rap to Country to Black Metal in the span of like half an hour. There are so many great bands, artists and musicians out there and I feel like it would be a pity to narrow your tastes or lock yourself into a genre like some "elitists" I knew. Enjoy the things that bring you joy or get you to groove! 🙂
Hmm, I always quite enjoyed music, but I never really listened to anything that wasn't my parents' until i started secondary school. Then, even though I enjoyed music, I wouldn't say I had much taste in it, since I mostly just listened to the top 40 stuff radios kept pumping out. After a few years of spending too much time with weirdos on the internet (C&C Renegade communities), I ended up falling in love with hardstyle. I mostly started out only really enjoying the euphoric side, but i feel like nowadays, the raw/euphoric sides have sort of come together, so I enjoy both quite a lot now, including some hardcore/frenchcore.
Due to spending too much time with another internet weirdo, I later ended up getting in to vocaloid/denpa/post hardcore.
In conclusion, internet weirdos are the best way to discover music.
Though nowadays I feel like I'm in a bit of a rut; I don't really have time to listen to music at all, let alone actively work to expand my library :/
One neat little lifehack I've found is to download an app called NewPipe from the F-Droid app collection. It's an amazing app in its own right - a full-featured FOSS YouTube client - but the trick is how it chooses suggested videos for you. Rather than storing a profile on you (And suggesting the same completely unrelated videos, half of which you've watched before, ahem. >_>'), it just reads whatever video you're watching and suggests something similar. This, combined with an audio-only mode, the autoplay feature, and the ability to queue up and rearrange playlists on the fly, makes it a pretty good music discovery engine if you're listening at work. I've found a tonna OPs and EDs of shows I've never even seen, and I listen to 'em every day. ^^
