Music you sort of get but can't get get into

[Fog Door]

trying to get into new artists now is almost a chore

The amount of new music available to an individual is overwhelming, and by new I mean things that we haven't heard before, rather than things that are newly recorded. Having an amount of dedication to exploring new material can be hard work, particularly if you are not utilising any kind of curated lists or such like. I think the reality is that a lot of people would rather spend the limited hours they have available, listening to something they know that they like and is guaranteed to give them pleasure. Exploring new material can lead to many hours spent sifting through and listening to music that ultimately, you do not like and in some cases may passionately despise.

Personally, I'm in the latter camp and you will find me panning for a crumb of gold, downstream from Sodom and Gomorrah every day of the week. I have good friends who are "into music" who pretty much stopped listening to new music at 30 and possibly they have even regressed further since. To each their own, there is no medal for how much different music you know/like. A person who has 5,000 albums in their library is in no way superior to a person who has 50, although a lot of people might want to suggest otherwise. Its what the music means to the individual, that is where the value lies. There is no shame in rotating the 10 albums you loved best when you were 18 and there is no inherent value in music just because it is newly recorded or because you haven't heard it before. Just my own opinion of course.

Looking at the linked article dooj88 posted, I'm not sure I agree with the whole younger brains are more receptive point of view. I can accept that in a general way younger brains are probably more receptive biologically, but I think assimilating new music is more to do with a state of mind than anything else. I'm basing that on my own flaws as a youth/blinkered idiot, who was oh so eager in my helicopter gunship of angst and hipness to shoot down any "shit new music" I encountered, in a ball of flame. In those dark days I considered it a crime against music if a track featured such appalling outrages as piano, brass or woodwind

[Buttons ARE toys]

There's plenty of music that I just straight up don't like. But as far as music that I kind of get, but can't get into, Sonic Youth comes to mind. I like the vibe of the band, some of their songs are awesome, I love how they would switch off singers between songs, and overall feel like I get what they were going for, but I just don't want to listen to them. I can hardly get through a full album of theirs, it just falls short for me in some way that I can't get over.

Also Burial. A few of his tracks end up on my regular playlists but mostly I find it extremely boring but with an excellent overall vibe.

Oh, and Thom Yorke's solo stuff. Radiohead is my favorite band of all time but I cannot get into Yorke's solo projects. I like the rhythmic aspect of a lot of it, but it feels so emotionally flat. Gives me the impression that Jonny Greenwood is the real soul of the band since I can listen to his solo stuff all day and it creates the same emotional reactions for me that Radiohead's stuff does.

[naturligfunktion]

I am into Steely Dan though—absurdly controlled studio recordings to the point of sounding artificial. Lyrically whatever, but from a productive and timbral POV, I get a lot of their recordings. If you're into them, it might be worth hunting down the Bernard Purdie outtakes recorded for Royal Scam.

Binging Bernard Purdie on youtube is one of my favourite things to do!

[bemushroomed]

Boards of Canada.

I no longer have any interest in non electronic music, it's music i get since i've listened to it years ago, i'm just not into it, at all. I've always leaned towards electronic music but its gotten more and more extreme over the years and now its the only thing i'm into.

Noise. I get it, but i think i need to be at least 30 years younger to be into it. It's kind of the same with much of the EBM music, i used to love it but its a little too "edgy" or whatever, something you like when young and angsty.

I struggled with Autechre to be honest but now i like them, though it's a very mixed bag.

[gruebleengourd]

Bowie made albums in the Phil Spector vein; 2 hits and 8 pieces of crap.

That's this thing with Bowie right? His hits are amazing, but the albums are kinda rubbish right? His last album is pretty nice though - but it is very dark.

Tastes vary, but I do think that Bowie does have a few classic and solid albums -- Ziggy Stardust, Diamond Dogs, and especially Station to Station. I can easily listen to all three of those all the way through while driving. Sitting around at home... probably not. 3 classic proper albums is about as good as anybody does in a career.

[dooj88]

Oh, and Thom Yorke's solo stuff. Radiohead is my favorite band of all time but I cannot get into Yorke's solo projects. I like the rhythmic aspect of a lot of it, but it feels so emotionally flat. Gives me the impression that Jonny Greenwood is the real soul of the band since I can listen to his solo stuff all day and it creates the same emotional reactions for me that Radiohead's stuff does.

heh, this is my experience as well. just can't get into it, there's no real hook in thom's solo stuff. but radiohead was my gateway to music outside the radio early in high school. i'm pretty sure it was Optimistic that opened my eyes to them. i compulsively collected cds back then, and went out and bought Kid A and OKC. OKC stuck, but Kid A was a whole new world. what was this strange band who made haunting and beautiful electronic music, and hid cryptic art booklets behind their cd trays? then Amnesiac came along and blew me away. (there's so much detail buried in that music i still hear new things when i listen to it, and while tough to call, is one of my favorite albums of all time.) and then they had this endless website you could get lost in with all of donwood and tchock's art and words that fit the vibe of the music so well. haven't really been blown away by their stuff since HTTT (i know, i'm one of the rare freaks who isn't moved by IR), but they will always have a special place in my heart.

going back to my previous post, does anyone actualy like jandek? i wonder what the representative would think of such a question..

[luchog]

I "get" but musically can't stand to listen to Steely Dan, Zappa, most Rush, Phish, most Prog in general, screamy Metal, and more I'm sure. I want absolutely no part of it.

Yuck.

Yeah I don't get Zappa at all. Find his music bad even. Funny character though. Great musicians in his band.

The only Zappa fans I know personally are musician nerds who are also into Phish and jambands and are nutty about virtuosity in terms of playing technique. I think they just get bored with the same old same old, and there aren't many "highly regarded" alternatives so they turn to Zappa and Anastasio and Claypool and Vai and Guthrie G and King Crimson, and Rush, and the rest.

Zappa is really hit or miss for me, and I have to be in the mood for him; but otherwise, this describes me fairly well. Also love Captain Beefheart, but again, need to be in the mood, especially for stuff like Trout Mask Replica. Not into Phish at all; but definitely a big Grateful Dead fan, and can listen to their stuff for hours. Can't get into Claypool/Primus, even though I can appreciate the virtuosity. Love Rush a lot (some albums more than others, of course, not as big a fan of their late synth period), like some of King Crimson, and quite a bit of Yes. I've also gotten into Animals As Leaders more recently. Anyone who enjoys really complex and crunchy prog metal interleaved with acoustic/Spanish influences, would do well to check out their album The Madness of Many.

Also like Genesis P-Orridge's various projects, but like Zappa, I have to be in the mood for them. Same with the cult avant-garde weirdness of Edward Ka-Spel's Legendary Pink Dots and Teargarden. To me, they're much easier to get into live, than they are to just sit and listen to. The live concerts have a kind of crazy hypnotic energy to them you rarely see elsewhere. The closest well-known band I can think of that hits me the same way is Pink Floyd; but their shows are way too big to have the same kind of intimacy.

I'm also one of about a dozen people who likes Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music; and have a fondness for Japanoise, as well as industrial stuff like Dead Voices On Air and cEvin Key's download (The Eyes of Stanley Pain in particular).

And, as previously noted, I love the more complex forms of Jazz -- bebop, hard/post bop, free jazz, etc. I love Dixieland and swing as well, but I can't get lost in them the way I can the the "harder" stuff.

That said, I can still definitely get into classic blues and celtic music; particularly when I'm stressed and don't feel like I need the excessive brain stimulation of the other stuff.

David Bowie: At one point I downloaded virtually all of his output and put it on one of my MP3 players (I'm old-school). I listened to quite a bit of it, and decided that there was only a small proportion of it that I wanted to listen to again. I really love "Life on Mars?" and "Fame" just to name two.
Bowie's earlier stuff I can listen to on repeat, up to his Berlin period;

I'm the same way. Love everything just up to the Berlin era. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars is one of those albums I can listen to endlessly on repeat, and I love the entire early, Ziggy Stardust, and Thin White Duke periods; but it's pretty hit or miss after that. The less said about Tin Machine the better. That said, I'm also one of only 8 or 9 people in the whole world who actually liked Outside, and wish he had finished the trilogy.

When I go back and review what I like and dislike in music (or, not even dislike, but more how I grade the degree of how much I like this or that music), it turns out that the music I like the most has to have some sort of emotional hook. It has to grab me emotionally in some way. This is usually accomplished via harmonic means. This is why I find virtually all of today's top-40 music to be so uninspired and boring -- there is essentially no harmony in it. Just to take one random example, here is a piece of music that was a big hit that just blows me away every time I hear it. This song pushes every one of my musical buttons.

CSN/CSNY is one of my absolute favorite bands for their vocal harmonies. Just incredible. The Eagles during the Bernie Leadon period does close to the same for me (not as big a fan of the Joe Walsh period, 'cause it went more hard rock and lost some of the vocal complexity). And, of course Queen. Freddie is one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time.

I can listen to any post-Invasion-period Beatles album on repeat as well, pretty much everything from Revolver onward. Love their earlier albums as well, but not as consistently, and some of it it just "meh" for me. Same with Steely Dan's Aja; although with the rest of their albums there are songs I really like, and songs that leave me indifferent.

[Knights Who Say Neve]

Music that exists as a vehicle for virtuosity.

I get it; hearing someone pulling off something difficult on an instrument is impressive. But it's not a vibe I can enjoy for more than a few minutes. Paganini, Malmsteen, Dream Theatre- no thanks.

One of the things that attracts me to electronic music is the disconnection of the music from the physical act of playing it in real time, which blunts this "virtuoso effect".

[Martebar]

I believe there is a very much virtuoso effect in electronic music too, it just manifests itself in different ways. Crazy sound design, extremely complex rhytm programming or even modular patching past a certain level of complexity does this kind of effect on me when it's in detriment of emotions. I totally get why some people would love this 15 layer bass sound involving crazy cross modulation and millimetric parallel multiband compression, but I prefer a strong groove or melody with simpler sounds.
When people show their 200 tracks DAW projects, it makes me think of those 200 notes a minute guitarists.

[onthebandwagon]

I was once in a coffee shop very early on a Saturday like 10 years ago around the height of Brooklyn hipsterdom and recall this conversation between two dudes about how whatever T Rex album was better than any Bowie made. I was hungover and really didn't have an opinion aside from how it all seemed very ridiculous in a Portlandia way but not sure that show existed then.

[Fog Door]

whatever T Rex album was better than any Bowie made

If people consider Bowie to be a weak album artist, I'm really not sure where that leaves T Rex

[onthebandwagon]

whatever T Rex album was better than any Bowie made

If people consider Bowie to be a weak album artist, I'm really not sure where that leaves T Rex

Banging on some gong I guess....

[Knights Who Say Neve]

I believe there is a very much virtuoso effect in electronic music too, it just manifests itself in different ways. Crazy sound design, extremely complex rhytm programming or even modular patching past a certain level of complexity does this kind of effect on me when it's in detriment of emotions. I totally get why some people would love this 15 layer bass sound involving crazy cross modulation and millimetric parallel multiband compression, but I prefer a strong groove or melody with simpler sounds.
When people show their 200 tracks DAW projects, it makes me think of those 200 notes a minute guitarists.

Agreed. "Educated gnat notes" was Zappa's term.

[stk]

Prog, Grateful dead, Zappa, etc.
Most self-described "experimental/avant garde" music (although I like early tape music, and early avant-garde classical, reich etc)
Wendy Carlos (I'm sorry)
Aphex Twin (except his two big singles of the 90s, not sorry)
Boards of Canada (I love some of their tracks, others bore me senseless)
Autechre (actually I LOVE about 50% of their stuff, and the other 50% soundsl ike they are phoning it in on autopilot)

Tastes things change.. I loathed reggae up until about 8 years ago, at which point it clicked and is now probably my most played musical genre (the old stuff, that is)

[sparood]

Noise. I get it, but i think i need to be at least 30 years younger to be into it. It's kind of the same with much of the EBM music, i used to love it but its a little too "edgy" or whatever, something you like when young and angsty.

You are not wrong but especially nowadays there is so much noise or noise-related music that's more about subtleties and exploration rather than angst and danger, there really is beautiful stuff to be found here that does not scream.

[Bachelard]

Radiohead. Sorry. I must be one of maybe 3 people on the planet who can't stand Thom Yorke's voice. I think I would be a fan if they were an instrumental band. For some reason nothing they do strikes me as earnest; I just find their vibe incredibly pretentious.

Broadway musicals - kind of funny because my partner is a huge fan of musicals, Sondheim, and is also a theatre professional. I just find songs in musicals extremely, erm, unmusical, because a lot of the compositional focus revolves around the lyrics rather than the melody, so while I might be able to watch a musical and hear its music with visual and narrative context, I can't stand listening to a stage musical soundtrack in isolation. It annoys me to no end. I've enjoyed watching "Into the Woods" and "Company," but hearing the music on its own drives me crazy.

Rush. I get their virtuosity and interesting lyrics. I cannot relate whatsoever. I also find Neil Peart's drumming, while technically phenomenal, extremely mechanical and rigid and not groovy, at, all. I'll take the simplicity and pocket of Charlie Watts over the complexity and virtuosity of Neil Peart any day. I also think holding back is another kind of virtuosity.

[stk]

Radiohead. Sorry. I must be one of maybe 3 people on the planet who can't stand Thom Yorke's voice. I think I would be a fan if they were an instrumental band. For some reason nothing they do strikes me as earnest; I just find their vibe incredibly pretentious.

I'd be one of the three too. I get that they were something of a watershed in joining the "underground" with the mainstream in pop music. Some of their music I think is great, but Yorke's voice just irritates me, so I never listen to them.

[gruebleengourd]

Radiohead. Sorry. I must be one of maybe 3 people on the planet who can't stand Thom Yorke's voice. I think I would be a fan if they were an instrumental band. For some reason nothing they do strikes me as earnest; I just find their vibe incredibly pretentious.

I'd be one of the three too. I get that they were something of a watershed in joining the "underground" with the mainstream in pop music. Some of their music I think is great, but Yorke's voice just irritates me, so I never listen to them.

Their first album was on Capital. Their first single was a top ten hit. They've always been mainstream

[stk]

Radiohead. Sorry. I must be one of maybe 3 people on the planet who can't stand Thom Yorke's voice. I think I would be a fan if they were an instrumental band. For some reason nothing they do strikes me as earnest; I just find their vibe incredibly pretentious.

I'd be one of the three too. I get that they were something of a watershed in joining the "underground" with the mainstream in pop music. Some of their music I think is great, but Yorke's voice just irritates me, so I never listen to them.

Their first album was on Capital. Their first single was a top ten hit. They've always been mainstream

What I meant was that they introduced a whole generation of normies to non-mainstream music via their electronic etc influences.