Why do people like the music they like?

[Horsa]

I've just been thinking. Why do people like the music they like? Why are everyone's tastes so different? Everyone listens to the same song but there are so many different views on it. It's not just how the singer & instruments sound on the equipment used for listening to it. Is it to do with different people's hearing & how they're hearing it & the way their brains process the audial stimuli or is it to do with their musical training & experience from the past? I know that people who have been trained to sing from an early age normally concentrate on where a singer comes in, the words & the voice of the singer when listening to music while also singing themselves. You would think that because they can sing they would appreciate it less but they don't. They appreciate the voice control used & how long a person practiced in order to get to the stage they're at. They recognise vocal talent. On the other hand, people who have been trained to play guitar focus on the guitar most & people trained to play drums focus on the drums most. Therefore our musical training & experience influence how we listen to music. Some singers who can't play an instrument appreciate instrumentalists more because they can't play. The instrumentalists help the singers out a lot by providing instrumental breaks in which singers can take a long, deep diaphragmatic breath which is important in singing especially if the line-lengths in the song are unequal & long word/key/note-holds are needed. If people are singing acapella & the songs don't have equal line-lengths long word/key/note-holds are needed which can be hard work vocally. Does getting used to a particular type of music make you like it? I think the answer to my questions is it's a mix of all these reasons which influence our musical tastes.

What do you think?

 

[Vince Evert]

Speaking for myself, I definitely fall into the rut of only listening and viewing the genre I know I'm going to like (mostly 1950's and 1960's). That rings true for most music purists and only they choose to hear/play the music that they already know they're going to like or be familiar with. Interesting topic, thanks!

 

[Horsa]

Speaking for myself, I definitely fall into the rut of only listening and viewing the genre I know I'm going to like (mostly 1950's and 1960's). That rings true for most music purists and only they choose to hear/play the music that they already know they're going to like or be familiar with. Interesting topic, thanks!

Thank you very much for your answer.

I'm glad you find the topic interesting. You're welcome.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

I am bumping the thread.

I think it has to do with a lot of factors like lyrics, cultural origins, the brand of music, cultural preferences, and personal biases (like memories, ideologies).

But I will be able to tell you why I like a song I told you I like.

 

[Horsa]

I am bumping the thread.

I think it has to do with a lot of factors like lyrics, cultural origins, the brand of music, cultural preferences, and personal biases (like memories, ideologies).

But I will be able to tell you why I like a song I told you I like.

Thank you very much.

I would guess so.

That would be interesting.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

I listen to mainstream Hindi music.

I like it because the themes are relevant and the filmography is great. There are great lyrics, and melodies and I can sing some of these songs.

I listen to a variety of music as well. But it's all mostly Hindi. If not, I listen to some American bands and artistes.

 

[Federberg]

I pretty much like most genre's. I've been fortunate enough to have grown up with people from a wide variety of cultures and at different times in my life I've been inspired by different types of styles. These become associated with significant emotional situations at specific times in my life and thus I've developed an affinity. I should also add that I'm a voracious book reader and the music I'm listening to while I'm reading often links as well. Classical, jazz, hard rock, rap, hip hop, soul, country, afro beats, high life and on and on... When people look at my music collection (over 5,000 albums) they often look at me strangely because it's not what they expect. I love it! I don't like to be defined

 

[Horsa]

I pretty much like most genre's. I've been fortunate enough to have grown up with people from a wide variety of cultures and at different times in my life I've been inspired by different types of styles. These become associated with significant emotional situations at specific times in my life and thus I've developed an affinity. I should also add that I'm a voracious book reader and the music I'm listening to while I'm reading often links as well. Classical, jazz, hard rock, rap, hip hop, soul, country, afro beats, high life and on and on... When people look at my music collection (over 5,000 albums) they often look at me strangely because it's not what they expect. I love it! I don't like to be defined

I like most genres of music too & will often listen to music which is related to what I'm reading too when I get a chance to read what I like. I have to read a lot & get sent on courses from work so don't often get a chance to read what I want now. (I have an interesting & rewarding job now though & learn a lot.) I also listen to music when working at times as it makes me work more quickly & efficiently.

 

[Kieran]

I pretty much like most genre's. I've been fortunate enough to have grown up with people from a wide variety of cultures and at different times in my life I've been inspired by different types of styles. These become associated with significant emotional situations at specific times in my life and thus I've developed an affinity. I should also add that I'm a voracious book reader and the music I'm listening to while I'm reading often links as well. Classical, jazz, hard rock, rap, hip hop, soul, country, afro beats, high life and on and on... When people look at my music collection (over 5,000 albums) they often look at me strangely because it's not what they expect. I love it! I don't like to be defined

That’s really interesting, and I wonder if you have a go-to artist or musical form who’s like the ultimate fallback for you, if you’re dithering over what to play?

I think the emotional draw in music, especially at certain times in our lives, is fairly binding. We find ourselves in these songs, or pieces of music, transported almost through time, through ourselves, into an understanding of sorts.

I’m kind of eclectic like you (on a much smaller scale) in that I like more or less any form of music, and I keep tabs on this by listening nightly to John Kelly on Irish radio five nights a week from 7-9, where you never know what music he’ll play. But that’s as far it goes for me, and I think if I saw your collection, it would be difficult to drag me away from it!

But I’m very narrow in my obsessions, obsessing over two artists in particular, across all the decades of my story life, to a degree that would almost be unhealthy if it wasn’t the opposite. I have roughly 40GB of Bob Dylan on my laptop alone, comprising of about 5000 songs, which consists of innumerable bootlegs and official releases from over his career, where he rewrites his great songs restlessly, to the extent that It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (for example) is no longer a song, but many songs of many different tunes. And Tangled Up In Blue not only has so many great tunes, it’s also often rendered as something lyrically unrecognisable from the album it was released on.

Dylan is flexible, a very open-minded songwriter in the sense that to most songwriters, when they finish writing the first line of the song, it’s finished for all time, and when they finish writing the first verse likewise, and the same for the whole song, but he’s described the songs on the records as being merely blueprints, and when he tours he creatively assaults them to fit who he is at that time. He rewrites on a massive scale, and so in that sense he’s not unlike great jazz composers who move on once they’ve performed it, and in the next performances it’ll never be like the first one.

Often it can be messy, but I think I’m only an amateur when it comes to Dylan because I know people who have up to ten times what I have in gigabytes.

The other is Mozart, whose music covers all the musical forms he knew of. I could listen to his operas at any time of the day and not be bored. I find something new in there all the time. His symphonies, concertos, whatever musical form, I read books I’ll never understand to try to understand his music better.

Then I have satellite artists, Beethoven, Schubert, Leonard Cohen etc, who I obsess over but with a less heated up flame…

 

[Federberg]

I like most genres of music too & will often listen to music which is related to what I'm reading too when I get a chance to read what I like. I have to read a lot & get sent on courses from work so don't often get a chance to read what I want now. (I have an interesting & rewarding job now though & learn a lot.) I also listen to music when working at times as it makes me work more quickly & efficiently.

Yes exactly. Study friends always thought I was weird studying with my Walkman (showing my age). I find silence distracting!

 

[Horsa]

Yes exactly. Study friends always thought I was weird studying with my Walkman (showing my age). I find silence distracting!

(I had a walkman too.) I used to study in my room with my record player on & play trad. Scottish music. (I love the sound of bagpipes & find bagpipe & accordion music makes me work faster as does brass band music. *I love brass band music.*) I normally study alone so no-one judges me though my family sometimes disturb me asking me if I want tea, biscuits, cake & the like.

(I've got a gramophone after wanting one for ages though I'm not old enough to remember when everyone had them. I think that's one of the reasons why being a heritage preservationist suits me though I haven't had a chance to do the historical side of my job & job training recently. It's all been the shop, admin, book-keeping, accounts & arts/crafts side of my job as well as more book-keeping & accounts training recently.)

 

[tented]

I am bumping the thread.

I think it has to do with a lot of factors like lyrics, cultural origins, the brand of music, cultural preferences, and personal biases (like memories, ideologies).

But I will be able to tell you why I like a song I told you I like.

Like @Kieran & @Federberg, I’m all over the place with music. When asked what music I like, my go-to line for years was “My music collection ranges from the Sex Pistols to Stravinsky.” (I liked the alliteration.)

I have a ridiculous amount of music. Thousands of CDs, hundreds of LPs, and almost 2 TBs of digital music.

Genres I’ve used to catalog my collection (in alphabetical order): Alternative, ambient, blues, children’s music, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, electronic, experimental, folk, gospel & religious, holiday, J-pop, jazz, musicals, nature, new age, new wave, opera, progressive rock, punk, R&B/soul, reggae, rock, sound effects, soundtracks, spoken word, swing, and world.

So, yeah, from the Sex Pistols to Stravinsky …

 

[Federberg]

Like @Kieran & @Federberg, I’m all over the place with music. When asked what music I like, my go-to line for years was “My music collection ranges from the Sex Pistols to Stravinsky.” (I liked the alliteration.)

I have a ridiculous amount of music. Thousands of CDs, hundreds of LPs, and almost 2 TBs of digital music.

Genres I’ve used to catalog my collection (in alphabetical order): Alternative, ambient, blues, children’s music, classical, comedy, country, dance, disco, electronic, experimental, folk, gospel & religious, holiday, J-pop, jazz, musicals, nature, new age, new wave, opera, progressive rock, punk, R&B/soul, reggae, rock, sound effects, soundtracks, spoken word, swing, and world.

So, yeah, from the Sex Pistols to Stravinsky …

Ditto! from Jonny Rotten to Johann Sebastian Bach..

 

[shawnbm]

Art, if it is good and moves you, to me is more of an emotional thing. There are certain artists, and definitely certain tunes, that trigger some deep emotional feeling or memory or, as I sometimes believe is more the truth, a cherished belief that something is memory because, if honest, I really can't recall any more what I felt or at least feel it anymore. There are poems I enjoy to this day because I enjoy the long ago when things to read poetry with a particular young lady who meant a lot to me then and still does today, although things are much fuzzier now. The same goes for certain artists and the songs they composed. I have distinct memories of certain people that I link to certain artists and songs from all different kinds of music. There are things I associated with grandparents and parents, typically with music from 20 to 40 or even 50 years before I was born. Why do I know so many songs by Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers who sang with Frank Sinatra when he was with Tommy Dorsey Orchestra? Bing Crosby and Tony Bennett? The jazz artists I got turned onto when I was in college have a special place as does the inevitable Al Jarreau. Why do I come back to old country tunes as often as I do, much of the chagrin of my wife and children? They bring back wonderful memories of good time to friends will be used to go camping around Lake Okeechobee in Central Florida. I enjoy the music of many Spanish-speaking artists from the time I lived in Spain over 30 years ago and travel around the Iberian Peninsula on excursions with my Basque girlfriend and her friends.

Some of the artists that I used to obsess over like Kieran has commented on no longer move me like they use to, which is something that I imagine is not uncommon. There are certain artists and there music that no longer move me. The one exception is possible music and Opera. I still of those and to me it is the most emotional of music as a genre. There are no words to follow in classical music, only a motion for the most part. I love that. The human voice is an amazing instrument and I love Opera regardless of language. It is still something a treasure and try to attend when able. But those who know me with immediately think of The Beatles and The Band in terms of my obsessions. I guess they have been for many years and for good reason. I assume there is no need to repeat those reasons here. Thanks for this post, Anne.

 

[Horsa]

Art, if it is good and moves you, to me is more of an emotional thing. There are certain artists, and definitely certain tunes, that trigger some deep emotional feeling or memory or, as I sometimes believe is more the truth, a cherished belief that something is memory because, if honest, I really can't recall any more what I felt or at least feel it anymore. There are poems I enjoy to this day because I enjoy the long ago when things to read poetry with a particular young lady who meant a lot to me then and still does today, although things are much fuzzier now. The same goes for certain artists and the songs they composed. I have distinct memories of certain people that I link to certain artists and songs from all different kinds of music. There are things I associated with grandparents and parents, typically with music from 20 to 40 or even 50 years before I was born. Why do I know so many songs by Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers who sang with Frank Sinatra when he was with Henry James Orchestra? Bing Crosby and Tony Bennett? The jazz artists I got turned onto when I was in college have a special place as does the inevitable Al Jarreau. Why do I come back to old country tunes as often as I do, much of the chagrin of my wife and children? They bring back wonderful memories of good time to friends will be used to go camping around Lake Okeechobee in Central Florida. I enjoy the music of many Spanish-speaking artists from the time I lived in Spain over 30 years ago and travel around the Iberian Peninsula on excursions with my Basque girlfriend and her friends.

Some of the artists that I used to obsess over like Kieran has commented on no longer move me like they use to, which is something that I imagine is not uncommon. There are certain artists and there music that no longer move me. The one exception is possible music and Opera. I still of those and to me it is the most emotional of music as a genre. There are no words to follow in classical music, only a motion for the most part. I love that. The human voice is an amazing instrument and I love Opera regardless of language. It is still something a treasure and try to attend when able. But those who know me with immediately think of The Beatles and The Band in terms of my obsessions. I guess they have been for many years and for good reason. I assume there is no need to repeat those reasons here. Thanks for this post, Anne.

Thank you very much for your very contemplative post, Shawn.

You're right about nostalgia & memories being a reason why some people like certain music. I forgot about that. Certain music gives me that nostalgic feeling & brings back certain memories, some good & some bad.

Some songs I used to like I no longer do not because of quality or change in tastes but simply because they were played at the funeral/s of people I loved. I only have to hear those songs & I can't stop crying.

 

[shawnbm]

By the way, I confused the Harry James Orchestra. with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. We had both of them in the house, but it was Dorsey and his Orchestra that I most associate with Sinatra, Miss Stafford and the others. I should have proofread my post a little better. Music is a wonderful thing. I neglected to mention art, specifically the part of painters. Living and Madrid, I went to the Prado museum a number of times and it greatly moved to me to see these tremendous works of art in person and recognizing them from our history books I had perused when younger. There was a great feeling. I don't pretend to know everything about part and all the different movements that existed. I know what I like and I know what moves me. El Greco, Diego Velazquez, Joan Miro, Picasso, Whittier and others I greatly enjoyed. It is amazing to me that people have existed with such an enormous talent.

 

[Horsa]

By the way, I confused the Harry James Orchestra. with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. We had both of them in the house, but it was Dorsey and his Orchestra that I most associate with Sinatra, Miss Stafford and the others. I should have proofread my post a little better. Music is a wonderful thing. I neglected to mention art, specifically the part of painters. Living and Madrid, I went to the Prado museum a number of times and it greatly moved to me to see these tremendous works of art in person and recognizing them from our history books I had perused when younger. There was a great feeling. I don't pretend to know everything about part and all the different movements that existed. I know what I like and I know what moves me. El Greco, Diego Velazquez, Joan Miro, Picasso, Whittier and others I greatly enjoyed. It is amazing to me that people have existed with such an enormous talent.

It's o.k. We all make mistakes.

I agree. Life wouldn't be worth living without music, art, poetry & comedy. I took art history classes at work & teach arts/crafts topics at work but don't think I'm very good at art (I'm into the realistic forms rather than the impressionistic & abstract forms). I enjoy painting & find it relaxing. I love a lot of artistic works though.

 

[Kieran]

(I had a walkman too.) I used to study in my room with my record player on & play trad. Scottish music. (I love the sound of bagpipes & find bagpipe & accordion music makes me work faster as does brass band music. *I love brass band music.*) I normally study alone so no-one judges me though my family sometimes disturb me asking me if I want tea, biscuits, cake & the like.

(I've got a gramophone after wanting one for ages though I'm not old enough to remember when everyone had them. I think that's one of the reasons why being a heritage preservationist suits me though I haven't had a chance to do the historical side of my job & job training recently. It's all been the shop, admin, book-keeping, accounts & arts/crafts side of my job as well as more book-keeping & accounts training recently.)

The old Walkman! I remember mine, it had earphones that didn’t fit tightly against the ear, at all! To hear the music I needed to press them tightly to the ear, even while walking down the street. The leakage was infamous!

 

[Horsa]

The old Walkman! I remember mine, it had earphones that didn’t fit tightly against the ear, at all! To hear the music I needed to press them tightly to the ear, even while walking down the street. The leakage was infamous!

I had one like that but I had one with the original headphones which went over your head. Lol.

 

[shawnbm]

I never had a Walkman, but my little brother did. I just prefer to sit in my room and spin my long-playing records LPs). Then we get a cassette player and I was forced to buy cassettes. Of course, I also remember the 8-track cartridges weeks to put in cars and stereo systems. Those were a riot. To this day, when I hear certain songs my mind can still hear the song stop and switch from tract 3 to 4 LOL.