Your Taste in Music Isn’t as Diverse As You Might Think It Is (And Neither Is Mine)
And Other Musings
Back in 2018 while visiting Iceland, I stopped into a record store in Reykjavik to browse. I asked the clerk if he had any recommendations of Icelandic musicians he thought I should check out. (Side note - the stereotype of the snobby music store clerk – i.e., the guys in High Fidelity - is not limited just to the US; it is a worldwide phenomenon.) He asked me what kind of music I listen to and I think I responded something like “mostly rock, indie, and some folk and country”. He said most people reply that they listen to "everything," which was really unhelpful for him and also made me think: it's probably very untrue that your average person listens to “everything” (with a few exceptions, like the guys from All Songs Considered who really DO probably listen to all kinds of music). Just because you have both Aretha Franklin and Nirvana in regular rotation does not mean your listening habits are super wide ranging. Do you listen to classical (a genre that spans hundreds of years and musicians from a multitude of countries)? And bachata? Salsa? Samba? Do you listen to Top 40 country? House? Just Johnny Cash and the other outlaws of country music with maybe a little Gillian Welch and Avett Brothers thrown in? How about Norwegian heavy metal? And Christian pop? Atonal music? Gregorian chants? American standards? Big Band? The Bee Gees? The Sugarhill Gang?
There's certainly nothing wrong with having a more limited taste in the genres of music one listens to, but it would be nice if people could acknowledge this instead of saying they listen to "everything" and not actually be able to define, in a sentence or two, what kinds of music they really listen to.
So here it goes…
If I had to define my listening tendencies more thoroughly, I'd say I primarily listen to rock, maybe half current (from the last 10 years—a window that becomes wider the older I get), and half from the 1950s - early aughts). I like a band that plays instruments - usually guitar (electric and acoustic are both good), drums, bass, keys, and some vocalists. A banjo can be fine, but I’m not much into flute music. I typically don't like electronic music (though of course there are some exceptions). I like some Top 40 (though most Top 40 these days doesn't look much like the band structure I just described), but usually prefer bands from more independent labels that often don’t crack the Top 100 (this isn’t me trying to be alternative, it genuinely is my preference). I also see no need to club music being blasted at the beach.
So really, what kind of music do you listen to?
Current Complaints
Unless you have a really good reason, people who use speakerphone in public should have their phone-owning rights revoked. Owning technology should be a privilege, not a right. Recently I was in a doctor’s waiting room when another patient was on speakerphone, making her way through a massive phone tree. Pure hell for everyone in that room.
Since when did an average sandwich wrap become $17? A smoothie $12? A box of cereal for $10?
I really hate it when fashion experts call them “trousers” instead of “pants.” Or, even worse, “a pant.” Call it what it is – a piece of a fabric you’ll wear a few times before it ends up in a landfill. (Too dark?)
The Greatest Night in Pop
If there’s one music documentary you watch this year (a big claim, being that it’s only February), it should be The Greatest Night in Pop on Netflix. I watched it a week or two ago and literally cannot stop thinking about it.
It focuses on the single evening in 1985 when a couple dozen of the biggest pop music stars of the time—Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Willy Nelson, Tina Turner, Lionel Riche (who produced this doc), and many more—gathered together at an LA studio to record the song “We Are the World”. Though it was Harry Belafonte’s idea to record a “Do They Know It’s Christmas”-like song to raise money for famine relief in Africa, it was Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson who teamed up to write the song and have Quincy Jones produce it.
I think what makes this documentary so fascinating (and funny) is having all those musicians with all their quirks and egos together in one recording studio. There’s almost a parodic element to it all. Then there’s Quincy Jones, a true cat herder if ever there was one, trying to combine so many unique voices and styles (and attention spans) together in a single song and have it sound good. I honestly don’t know how he didn’t have a nervous breakdown midway through the night. And then there’s Dylan’s now classic zoned-out look during the recording and the story behind that. Such a hoot.
Just, trust me on this one.