My cousin came over today, and brought her laptop, which meant my brother and I sat over her shoulder for an hour telling her music to steal from our computers via the magic of iTunes homesharing. Inevitably, she'd come across a band she'd never heard of, and say, "would I like this band?"
While this is a completely reasonable question, it's also one I have no idea how to answer. Her music collection had Radiohead, and BBMak, Beastie Boys and Backstreet Boys. I'm hard pressed to describe those tastes (although college girl with a computer that still reflects she was once fifteen comes close).
The problem is, I don't like music by genre, and so I have a hard time recommending music by genre. I try: another cousin who likes country music found me recommending the Band, Neil Young, and Wilco. She didn't like any of them, and I'm at a loss as to what I did wrong.
So I did what I always do - I just recommended my favorite music, regardless of tastes or genre. I recommend by awesomeness - so I said, you should try out Iron and Wine, even if you don't typically like haunting acoustic ballads; you should listen to Vampire Weekend, even if you're not a fan of chamber pop; and you should definitely take Aretha Franklin, even though she's a little before your dad's time.
I really lack the ability to listen through other people's ears; I listen to "A-Punk" and I literally can't understand why people don't think it's the catchiest song they've ever heard. My boss gets annoyed if I put on too much "weird stuff" which I interpret as Radiohead and anything loud (definitely not Queens of the Stone Age, and last time I put on Smashing Pumpkins (!) I got a lecture asking me why I'm so angry, and what I have to be angry about.) So I put on Mates of State. I love Mates of State, and to me, they are pure indie pop; singable melodies, catchy eighties keyboards, etc. But his reaction was "they've got a ways to go before they'll make it" which is his way of saying they don't sound mainstream, i.e. good.
This is the weird contradiction: all he hears is polish, all I hear is melody. And we get to have this argument all the time.
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Knowing your boss's tastes in music, I really can't describe them either. I would say that he only likes the mainstream stuff and songs by the big bands and performers, but I have heard him listen to more obscure things.
ReplyDeleteCertainly, his lack of any kind of formal musical training shows through. Those that don't understand how music is put together, have a hard time hearing what makes it good. I suppose that is the challenge of writing good music. Finding something that is appealing to those that don't understand the structure. If you think trying to get him to understand your obscure tastes, trying explaining the intricate details of a Bach Fugue to him. It's much worse, and yes I have tried.