Why do some people only listen to drum and bass, and others only to metal? Why do some only have time for middle of the road pap, and others hardcore punks?



I have a fairly wide-ranging taste(I wont say I listen to a bit of everything though, because its jolly hard to find a good cd of African tribal music in HMV these days) which covers punk, prog, house, techno, dance, trance, metal, gothic, industrial, post-modern and many other things which off the top of my head make me sound a lot more pretentious than I hope I am.



I have friends who will only listen to one type of music, and one type only, dismissing everything else as "Sh*t", which is not only eloquent, but also wrong.



Its hard having a party where a friend will turn up, dismiss someone elses choice in an instant and leave the room, without things getting tense. 

For example, my iTunes has just gone from a Franz Ferdinand B-Side to Ackercocke's charming "Summon the Antichrist". Skipping ahead, its gone now to Thin Lizzy and after that Van Morrison and ended up on Pendulum.

Those 5 songs would easily alienate half of friends, and the other half would be too busy laughing at me having a Franz B-Side on my iTunes. Buggers. 

I cannot for the life of me understand why people cant have more ecclectic tastes. 

As a young'un, I lived with my mum. She was(and possibly still is) a great lover of Reggae, and she used to listen to pop radio stations all the time in the car. My dad, on the other hand, is an aging punk, with more than a splash of New Wave in there. When my sibling and I used to visit him on our holidays, he'd have us listening to things as diverse as rare Stiff Little Fingers ep's on white label, to the darker Cure albums, and finishing off with a bit of Ten Pole Tudor. My dad's best friend would try to get us to listen to Motorhead, and Black Sabbath, but not having a huge amount of contact with him, they didnt impact as much. 

My sister, being a year and half older than me, listened to boybands(mid-90's, she has no excuses) and I would normally be given some compilation cd at christmas which would last me ages until I found songs I really liked enough to buy them. 

Are parental and peer influences really that big that some people just absorb their immediate friends and families choices with no personality for themselves? I know my parents had a big influence on getting me to enjoy music, but I'm not a big fan of the same things as them. I appreciate, certainly, but I dont worship. Although, I have my sister to thank for my catalogue of knowledge of Take That lyrics, at least 10 years after she last played one of their songs. Thanks, Sam.

Dear reader, I'll end as I did my last offering, with questions to ask yourself;

Who introduced you to music? Why do you like your favourite band? How varied are your tastes? Would your friends laugh at you for a Franz B-Side?

Posted In Features, Sep 16 2009. Words - Garry