# Classical music haters: Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957 "2019-08-20T20:19:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/221 "2019-08-25T17:17:37Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > It’s wonderful you feel this way. I don’t think it holds a candle to Stevie Ray Vaugn’s [Riviera Paradise.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x70G-NhyUPI). A far more powerful piece with great subtle interludes. The guitar work could not be reproduced by simply reading the notes. There is no way to annotate it on paper. I didn’t have to learn to like it or understand the depth behind it. It was a grand slam home run on the first listen. > > if someone doesn’t think it’s the best damn thing ever played I’m not bothered in the least because I know what it does for me. I don’t need my opinion validated. I just hope there is music out there that does the same for those who don’t like it so they can experience the joy of music on the same level I do. > > If the music I like needs to be explained to someone or they need to listen to it over and over to appreciate it then my suggestion is to move on to something else. Life is a limited engagement. > > I think that’s different than saying you can gain a greater appreciation for something by focusing on what is is you like about it and then seeking out music that scratches that itch. So your taste does not, and can not, evolve or change? In your life experience it has never happened? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/222 "2019-08-25T17:24:13Z")
You can’t dance to it. Unless your idea of “shaking ur booty” is doing the minuet in petticoats. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/223 "2019-08-25T17:50:50Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > Why, oh why does talking about one’s favourite music and the way one enjoys it has turn into a pissing contest :rolleyes: ? > > :rolleyes: > > Nice piece, by the way. It’s not a pissing contest. It was meant to be tongue in cheek. There’s no such thing as “the best damn thing every played”. That was the whole point of the post. There is no winner or loser in choice of music. You should not feel good or bad if I love or don’t love your favorite music. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/224 "2019-08-25T18:16:43Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > So your taste does not, and can not, evolve or change? In your life experience it has never happened? Evolve or change? I might use a different word or two to convey my point. If you insist on an up or down single word answer I would say my taste “can” evolve or change. I would say each new piece of music is a function of refinement. I like a variety of music and whatever I like in each genre will be refined in new bands in that genre. I’m not going to change my mind on opera. It’s incredibly irritating to me and that increases as the pitch goes up. I don’t particularly like singers to begin with. If I like a singer it’s because their voice is melodic and not just carrying a tune. I’m also not interested in lyrics. That doesn’t mean I won’t listen to them or can’t enjoy them it means they don’t rate high overall in a song. That varies by artist and there are no absolutes. So what does this mean? How do I quantify music? I think a good song has a personality to it. I listen to a lot of live music which means I listen to a lot of cover bands. If they play songs I like and they capture the personality of the song then I think they’ve done a good job. At the end of the day my opinion only matters to me and those with similar taste if I’m going out socially to listen to music. If nobody I know likes what I want to listen to then I go alone and meet new people. It’s a win/win for me. I’ve had the most interesting conversations with complete strangers and we came together out of a common music interest. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/225 "2019-08-25T18:45:54Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > Case in point, about a year ago I was listening to **Debussy** ’s [Pour Remercier la Pluie au Matin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEWzcpFFVsk) from _6 Épigraphes Antiques_ and wondering how he had managed to capture that fuzzy, rainy morning vibe so perfectly in the first 3-4 seconds. I rushed to IMSLP to have a look at the [score (p. 23)](http://hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/f/fd/IMSLP256268-PMLP02402-Debussy,_Claude-Klavierwerke_Peters_Klemm_Band_VIII_03_Six_Epigraphes_antiques_scan.pdf) and reading it _did_ increase my enjoyment because I was able to _see_ the movement of the different voices, which I was unable to _hear_ clearly. Moreover, it opens up the possibility of playing it one day (ahem…), which is another joy in itself. BTW, I picked Riviera Paradise because it linked up in my mind to your example of Debussy’s Pour Remercier la Pluie au Matin. It was no accident. No idea why I linked the two. I suppose someone with a PHD in music and math could tell me why and write an algorithm to select music for me to sample. I sort of understand your point about learning more about the music. I didn’t realize WHY I liked Led Zeppelin so much. It turns out it was John Bonham’s influence on the songs and how well the band played together. I’ve watched videos explaining his drumming. Maybe I secretly like the fact my opinion was validated by people who know more about the structure of music. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/226 "2019-08-26T09:15:06Z")
Yes **Bonham** was one of the key ingredients - to keep the culinary metaphor - that made **Led Zeppelin** great. I don’t think being interested in how music works is about validation at all (not for you and me anyways). It’s genuine curiosity which is satisfying in itself. And as pointed out earlier, you _hear_ things differently when you know and understand more about them. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/227 "2019-08-26T21:46:34Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > I think you are wrong about it, and yes, I do think I know your mind better than you do on this subject, simply because I know a little bit about the psychology of understanding art, specifically music. And you know what they say about a little knowledge. > [@](#): > > The most arrogant thing here is your assumption that you are somehow special, that your mind is somehow different from everyone else’s, and that you can somehow understand all art at the first impression. So here it seems to me is the nub of your problem. These issues are obviously grinding your gears, you have stated them clearly and yet you are demonstrably wrong. I have never claimed to be special. Not at all. I get maximal enjoymement from music without any deeper intellectual enquiry. That is just how it works for me. In the same way that I held my head up, as a child, to a heavy snowfall and joyfully _felt_ it on my face. As an adult my understanding of sensory perception, physiology, physcis and meteorology all increased and yet none of that means that I can surpass that initial sensory and emotional “hit”. I am not different from other people. I believe that lots of people have a field of human experience that they are personally quite happy to experience in a purely a sensory and emotional way, something for which additional intellectual enquiry does not increase their enjoyment. Clearly that is not music\* for you\*, it is _for me_. And finally, and the biggest incorrect assumption you make, is that I make any claim to _understanding_. I didn’t, I haven’t and I don’t. I talk about my personal enjoyment of art and on that I am more of an expert than you can ever comprehend. > [@](#): > > There are a couple of questions that other people have asked you that you have not yet answered that will get to the heart of this. Do you think that you can get as much enjoyment from poetry in a languge you don’t understand as from one you do? The reason I haven’t responded in full is because I’ve been away on holiday with crappy access and I can’t type for shit on a touchscreen. Plus cricket has been by far the most important thing in my life for the past few days. To answer. Yes. Absolutely. I adore The Cocteau Twins. My childern tease me about my Amazon Prime playlist containing a high proportion of foriegn language songs or gibberish. Roykssopp. Sigur Ros, Pretty much anything Elizabeth Fraser does. When I came to love them I did not have a clue what they were singing about nor even if they meant anything at all. In the near 40 years since I first heard them I have been able to know more about the Cocteau Twins and their “lyrics”. I can honestly say that knowing the actual words has not increased my enjoyment one jot. Like seeing a favourite book committed to screen, my imagination created a world that the reality can’t compete with. I prefer to listen to opera in the original language. The music of Madam Butterly was not enhanced by having a blow-by-blow telling of the tale. another one for you. Yan, tan, tether, mether, pip. Hether, sether, hother, dother, dick. yan-dick, tan-dick. tether-dick, mether-dick, bumfit. yan-bumfit, tan-bumfit, tether-bumfit, mether-bumfit, jiggit. A nonsense rhyme that my grandad used to sing to me as we walked the lanes of of the Durham dales. I had the fancy that they were magic words, only years later did I find out that it is an ancient way of counting sheep. Celtic in origin apparently. Learning that has not increased my enjoyment of the rhyme. > [@](#): > > And do you understand that hearing, whether music, speech or just noise, is an activity that happens in the brain and not just the ears? The point of the latter question is to make it very clear that not everyone hears the same thing when they listen to the same sounds, and that learning to hear is something that you will, necessarily, have done if you are able to hear and understand music at all. I admit that a brain is required in order to process sounds and in order to have an emotional response. I have made no claim about “understanding” music. I’m not even sure what that means. I’m happy to accept that for some people, repeated close, analytical listening to music might reveal further details to them that give them pleasure. I do not accept that it is a universal truth that must necessarily be true for everyone. > [@](#): > > Plus, something of mine that you have not yet responded to. Do you understand that responding to art, including music, is not simply an emotional response, but one that involves thought? It doesn’t require conscious thought, but unconcscious thoughts are learned behaviour and learned responses just as much as conscious ones are. Conscious thought and unconscious thought are what a brain is. I cannot help but have a brain pre-loaded with the sum total of my experiences thus far. That I prefer to experience music on a purely emotional level \*as much as is humanly possible \* is based on my experience of trying it both ways and finding which gave me the greatest pleasure…_for me._ I struggle to see why I would actively choose to avoid increasing my pleasure, especially when (as I’ve said before) other spheres of my life have shown that intellectual enquiry and understanding can increase my enjoyment. I know what both states feel like. I come back to a magic tricks. I love magic. Sleight of hand particularly. I have studied the methods used and I know so much more now than I used to and the enjoyment I get now stems from the technical aspect of the craft. Ask me to weigh it up though and I can honestly state that watching magic tricks gives me less enjoyment overall than it used to. I will now purposefully avoid learning how tricks are done. I choose to live in a state of knowledge that allows me to maximise my enjoyment. Hope that explanation helps. If you can see any hint of a similarity with some areas of you own life then you perhaps may see how I can honestly extend that approach to music. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/228 "2019-08-26T22:45:24Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > Why, oh why does talking about one’s favourite music and the way one enjoys it has turn into a pissing contest :rolleyes: ? > > :rolleyes: > > Nice piece, by the way. I don’t know why the “why do you hate classical music” thread is so full of people saying how much they love classical music (not picking specifically on you here). It’s practically thread-shitting. Imagine the reaction if it was the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![str8cashhomie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@str8cashhomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/str8cashhomie)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/229 "2019-08-27T01:59:23Z")
I think the problem here is that the thing that makes people really love any art is the feeling of discovery it gives them. For some reason human nature than leaves almost everyone to try to force other people to see what they saw, which gives their victim the nearly opposite experience of being told they are supposed to have an emotional reaction they aren’t having. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/230 "2019-08-27T02:20:42Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I get maximal enjoymement from music without any deeper intellectual enquiry. No, you don’t, and just repeating that won’t change it not being true. > [@](#): > > To answer. Yes. Absolutely. I adore The Cocteau Twins. My childern tease me about my Amazon Prime playlist containing a high proportion of foriegn language songs or gibberish. The question was about poetry, and your choice to (again) not answer it is telling. Tell me, do you have the same sort of response to this > [@](#): > > 李白《静夜思》 > > 床前明月光， > > 疑是地上霜。 > > 举头望明月， > > 低头思故乡。 as to this > [@](#): > > Some say the world will end in fire, > Some say in ice. > From what I’ve tasted of desire > I hold with those who favor fire. > But if it had to perish twice, > I think I know enough of hate > To say that for destruction ice > Is also great > And would suffice. > [@](#): > > I have made no claim about “understanding” music. I’m not even sure what that means. And yet you feel able to say that doing so whould not increase your enjoyment of it. Hopefully you can see the contradiction there. > [@](#): > > I struggle to see why I would actively choose to avoid increasing my pleasure, especially when (as I’ve said before) other spheres of my life have shown that intellectual enquiry and understanding can increase my enjoyment. I know what both states feel like. I struggle to see it too, and yet you seem to resist and attempt to do so. > [@](#): > > Ask me to weigh it up though and I can honestly state that watching magic tricks gives me less enjoyment overall than it used to. “Ignorance is bliss” is not supposed to be a life goal. > [@](#): > > Hope that explanation helps. If you can see any hint of a similarity with some areas of you own life then you perhaps may see how I can honestly extend that approach to music. One can be honest and wrong. As for whether it applies to my life, I don’t think so, at least not in the way you mean. I suspect I’d be happier if I knew less about politics, for example, and could have simple, sure but uninformed opinions about those matters. As for art though, no. It happens sometimes that I discover that a work I love is flawed, or even actually bad. Then, I have two options - enjoy it anyway, which is what I most commonly do - I don’t listen to Motley Crue, for example, for the complexity of their compositions or subtlety of their lyrics. What learning about art (or anything) does is open up whole new worlds of things to enjoy, and whole new ways of enjoying them. If you are satisfied with pure sensory enjoyment that’s fine. But I find the idea that a magician can still fool you _even though_ you know how the trick is done to be vastly more enjoyable than if I didn’t, to the extent that I struggle to see how anyone wouldn’t. And if they’re not fooling you then, they are a bad magician. Find and enjoy a better one. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/231 "2019-08-27T03:06:59Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I get maximal enjoymement from music without any deeper intellectual enquiry. > … > I have made no claim about “understanding” music. I’m not even sure what that means. > … > I come back to a magic tricks. I love magic. Sleight of hand particularly. I have studied the methods used and I know so much more now than I used to and the enjoyment I get now stems from the technical aspect of the craft. Ask me to weigh it up though and I can honestly state that watching magic tricks gives me less enjoyment overall than it used to. I will now purposefully avoid learning how tricks are done. I choose to live in a state of knowledge that allows me to maximise my enjoyment. **Novelty Bobble** , I appreciate your continued efforts to engage, argue, and explain your point of view. And I apologize to anyone who thinks that this discussion has become tedious or taken over the thread. Since you bring up the magic analogy, let me use it to try to explain what I mean by understanding vs. not understanding music: Enjoying music on a purely emotional level, without understanding it, isn’t so much like someone enjoying a magic show without having any idea how the magician does his tricks. It’s more like someone enjoying a magic show without even realizing that the magician is _doing_ tricks. Maybe you are enjoying the spectacle: the elaborate sets and costumes, the colors, the choreography—but if you never notice that something is happening which is seemingly impossible, you’re not really understanding the show. ---
**Author:** ![ralfy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ralfy/32/600_2.png) [@ralfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralfy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/232 "2019-08-27T05:29:22Z")
I recall Frederick Turner explaining that human beings are attracted to regular beats and short songs, among other things. This might explain why pop songs resemble various folk music. In contrast, classical music can be incredibly diverse, and thus much more difficult to appreciate. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/233 "2019-08-27T09:48:31Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > No, you don’t, and just repeating that won’t change it not being true. Seeing as “maximal enjoyment” is dependent on my own preferences. Your insistence that I am wrong seems monumentally arrogant. In effect you are saying that I am unable to distinguish between different levels of personal enjoyment. You are incredulous that because it wouldn’t be true for you it cannot be true for anyone else. That’s a bizarre argument. > [@](#): > > The question was about poetry, and your choice to (again) not answer it is telling. This is getting surreal now. The answer I gave to you quoted…IN FULL…a poem in another language. One that I found out later had a specific meaning. I enjoyed it no more when I learned that meaning. I believe your claim was that I must _necessarily_ enjoy it more when I have more understanding. I gave you a direct example where that doesn’t hold. > [@](#): > > And yet you feel able to say that doing so whould not increase your enjoyment of it. Hopefully you can see the contradiction there. No contradiction. Just an observation. As I live in the real world I cannot avoid learning more about music and musicians. Though I have no talent for it I can play various instruments (badly) read music (badly). None of this…and you really do have to trust me on this one…none of this has increased my enjoyment of the music I choose to listen to. I’m not saying that it _would not_, I saying that it _has not_. From that real-life experience I have come to understand my own preferences for gaining maximal enjoyment. > [@](#): > > I struggle to see it too, and yet you seem to resist and attempt to do so. That failure to accept it is your problem not mine. The fact that I experience music in the way that I do has absolutely no bearing on how you yourself experience it. We are different, that’s all and we can both be right. I can see both sides of the coin. I have experienced areas of my life where knowledge and understanding has enhanced my enjoyment and others where it is irrelevant or even detrimental. Now, either you trust my self-perception or not. Am I fooling myself about increasing my enjoyment of those other areas when I increased my understanding of them? > [@](#): > > “Ignorance is bliss” is not supposed to be a life goal. Sure, but neither it corollary and completely wrong either. I freely admit that the greater part of my life is a quest for deeper understanding and education and to be able to pass that on to others. > [@](#): > > One can be honest and wrong. Absolutely true, but why do I get the impression that you are only applying that on one direction? > [@](#): > > As for art though, no. It happens sometimes that I discover that a work I love is flawed, or even actually bad. Then, I have two options - enjoy it anyway, which is what I most commonly do but hang on, did you not say… > [@](#): > > learning more about it will necessarily enhance that enjoyment Do you still hold to that? If so shouldn’t your enjoyment of that work be increasing anyway? > [@](#): > > If you are satisfied with pure sensory enjoyment that’s fine. For music, absolutely. That’s entirely my point. > [@](#): > > But I find the idea that a magician can still fool you _even though_ you know how the trick is done to be vastly more enjoyable than if I didn’t, to the extent that I struggle to see how anyone wouldn’t. I get that, it seems to be a common theme with you that you struggle to understand how people can enjoy things in a way that you don’t. > [@](#): > > And if they’re not fooling you then, they are a bad magician. Find and enjoy a better one. If a magician showed me a trick that I hadn’t seen before or performed it in a way so as to mask or subvert the typical techniques I would be massively impressed. My enquiring mind might well want to explore how it was done and indeed that has happened in the past and I have ended up unpicking it and understanding it. That knowledge brings some enjoyment of it’s own but on viewing the trick again I cannot recapture that visceral wonder of being completely bamboozled. In some cases I choose not to enquire further so that I can continue to experience it on a level that gives my the greatest pleasure. Heck, even with the music, films and art that I love I ration my exposure to them so as to maintain a level of freshness. I know that over-exposure will lead to a decrease in my pleasure even as it increases my knowledge and understanding. I know I’m not the only one to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/234 "2019-08-27T10:05:45Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Since you bring up the magic analogy, let me use it to try to explain what I mean by understanding vs. not understanding music: Enjoying music on a purely emotional level, without understanding it, isn’t so much like someone enjoying a magic show without having any idea how the magician does his tricks. It’s more like someone enjoying a magic show without even realizing that the magician is _doing_ tricks. Maybe you are enjoying the spectacle: the elaborate sets and costumes, the colors, the choreography—but if you never notice that something is happening which is seemingly impossible, you’re not really understanding the show. I see what you are saying but don’t quite agree as the base level of understanding I bring to music and to a magic show, the level that I cannot avoid because I exist in a real world, is that a magician performs illusions and a musician attempts to express emotions and meaning through sound. I already know and accept that both the musician and magician are attempting to play tricks on me and I can’t pretend otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/235 "2019-08-27T14:47:48Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I see what you are saying but don’t quite agree as the base level of understanding I bring to music and to a magic show, the level that I cannot avoid because I exist in a real world, is that a magician performs illusions and a musician attempts to express emotions and meaning through sound. > > I already know and accept that both the musician and magician are attempting to play tricks on me and I can’t pretend otherwise. Out of curiosity, if you were to take a book or a movie or a TV show, whatever it is that you like, and you take your best example of it, your favorite book or movie or TV show, do you think that you would enjoy that piece of media if you only watched the last 1/3 of it? Does it change the story, or your enjoyment of the story, to know more about the final scene of your favorite media, or would you have the same emotional enjoyment of it without intellectually knowing anything about the characters or what they are doing? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/236 "2019-08-27T16:56:13Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Out of curiosity, if you were to take a book or a movie or a TV show, whatever it is that you like, and you take your best example of it, your favorite book or movie or TV show, do you think that you would enjoy that piece of media if you only watched the last 1/3 of it? > > Does it change the story, or your enjoyment of the story, to know more about the final scene of your favorite media, or would you have the same emotional enjoyment of it without intellectually knowing anything about the characters or what they are doing? In general, I’d enjoy a work less if I experienced an incompleted version of it. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957/237 "2019-08-27T19:57:09Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > **EinsteinsHund** put it very well. And to repeat what others said, I find classical music to be tedious, plodding, and boring. I like jangling guitars and a good drum beat, and music that gets my toes tapping and my head nodding. There’s none of that in classical music. The closest thing to classical that I appreciate is [Roll Over, Beethoven](https://youtu.be/CxXl4oS9wss) by the Electric Light Orchestra. I find this revealing. I’ve heard many a person dislike classical for the reason of it not being “steady in rhythm”/ “not toetap inducing”. I’m the opposite: I dislike many pop songs because of the incessant unchanging rhythm. It’s almost like being hypnotized driving on a straight desert highway. There’s also a lot of hate for prog music and I suspect it’s rooted in the same reasoning of the person I’ve quoted; the rhythms change too much or change constantly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-haters-why/838957.md?page=11)