I’ve seen that quote by Grant, but referring to Yankee Doodle, not Yankee Doodle Dandy.
And one literary character who suffers from Amusia is Horatio Hornblower. There are several incidents where people sing or perform music and he can’t see how anyone gets pleasure from it.
I like music but have never heard of this person and don’t recognize that song.
Yes, thank you. I’m pretty sure that’s it; the source I checked apparently got it wrong and I didn’t notice.
How old are you? Where do you live?
You’re a solid 17 years younger than the subject I’m speaking of in the OP. Understandable that you wouldn’t have heard of such person.
But the entire point is she has no knowledge or interest in ANY music. Which is outside the majority of human beings.
This.
I mean, I’ve met people who dislike chocolate. So it’s entirely within the bounds of possibility that there are people who derive no enjoyment from music.
I’m one who, while I enjoy music, doesn’t get the same level of rapturous enjoyment that others I know do. It’s pleasant, but it’s not life-changing or anything like that for me. Which is different than some I’ve known who have gone absolutely batshit about a particular band and/or song.
So it’s possible, although I’d say that it’s probably somewhere in league with being autistic in some way, as music is one of those shared human experiences such that not being part of that is definitely abnormal in some way.
And, though Mangione was an American, his one hit song – “Feels So Good” – was released as a single in 1978, 6 or 7 years before @Snarky_Kong was born.
Though Mangione had a long career as a jazz musician, unless Snarky_Kong regularly listens to jazz, or 1970s oldies, or watched King of the Hill (on which Mangione appeared, as himself, in nine episodes), it doesn’t surprise me that he hadn’t heard of him.
That’s true, but I had around a decade where I listened to more 70s and 80s music than I did 90s or 2000s. I’m just saying your choice of demonstration for lack of knowledge wasn’t a good one. You pick a very mainstream act; it’s not odd for someone to not have heard of a more niche person.
If they had never heard of Fleetwood Mac or Neil Young I’d find that more surprising.
This is me. When I hear my most favorites pieces of music ever, it’s like finding a dollar on the ground, not winning the lottery. Some people seem to have an orgasm from hearing some random thing come on the radio that they’ve heard a thousand times.
And no, it’s not like autism.
Funny, that. Hearing something I’ve heard a thousand times. I’m prehistoric so my dinosaur of a car has a CD player and I have some burned CDs I play over, and over, and over again without ever getting tired of them. One is self-titled ‘Sal’s Fave Show Tunes’, another is ‘Sal’s Sad Songs’, and ‘Sal’s Bangers to Play Loud.’
My mom disliked music, and she thought that people getting dreamy over some song were affected and silly. She’d get very impatient with my dad if he listened to cowboy music on the radio, or with me or my sister when we’d listen to the Beatles and other bands.
My husband is at the other end of the spectrum. He has emotional meltdowns (tears and everything) when he hears music he likes, be it Buddy Holly or Beethoven.
I’m somewhere in the middle.
I often have the same reaction when I hear music that moves me in some way. It could be the words or it might be just the right combination of notes, or both. Perhaps it’s in a minor key. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve heard it. I’ll have the same reaction every time. I know it’s probably silly to people who have no such response to music, but in some way I feel privileged to have this quirky sensitivity.
I’ll give you one example. “The A Team” by Ed Sheeran. When I worked in radio I had to turn the monitor down when I played that song because I couldn’t listen to it without tearing-up.
My father doesn’t dislike music, as far as I can tell, but at least for the last few decades, he’s been entirely indifferent to it, and doesn’t seek it out.
I know that, when he was younger (i.e., late 20s / early 30s), and dating my mother, the two of them enjoyed folk music, and went to concerts, but i have the sense that that was more about my mother’s interest in it than his. In the many conversations I’ve had with him about his life (both his childhood and his adulthood), other than occasional mentions of those early '60s folk artists, he’s never mentioned music, particular artists, etc. as being important/relevant/memorable.
I don’t recall him ever being the one to turn on the radio to listen to music, choosing to have the radio on in the car, etc. I don’t have the sense that he dislikes or hates music – he never seems to be unhappy or angry if someone else turns on music – just that it’s not important to him.
I did not recognize the name of the song or the musician until I clicked on the link. I do recognize the song.
I adore music in all it’s many forms but don’t have the desire or opportunity to listen often. I frequently forget names of both songs and musicians.
Music has the ability to unleash unpredictable emotional responses so unless I am prepared to deal with that I prefer silence.
I gave up music in 1992. Longish story. Never listen anymore. I have not turned on the radio in any of my cars in 32 years. I don’t even know if they work.
I would not want to know such a person.
I’ve never known a person IRL that has stated they disliked all music or were indifferent to it, so I’m kind of surprised by the number of responses to this thread saying they are.
Oh well, same planet, different worlds. If I’m not actively paying attention to something (and sometimes even if I am), the jukebox in my head starts up with something I’ll have to mentally listen to, whether I like it or not. It’s actually pulled up “Feels So Good” a few times. If I actively didn’t like music, I’d probably be fucked (or more likely the jukebox wouldn’t start up).
I’m listening.
I used up most of my interest in music in college. I amassed a pretty significant and well-curated playlist of ripped CDs and MP3s, and I listened to it a lot. After that I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much because I’d listened to each song so many times and often associated them with less-than-pleasant memories of late nights studying or whatever. Then 10-15 years ago the over-the-air radio stations became intolerable, not only by pushing the amount and quality of advertisement past my acceptable threshold, but also by shifting and narrowing their playlists to where I’d hear the same song more than once in the same day. Today’s streaming services are even worse in that respect. I can’t handle that much repetition, even with stuff I do enjoy.
Songs I like or am ambivalent towards can be in the background and I’m ok with that. However songs I don’t like will come to the forefront of my attention, and they even get stuck in my head afterwards, which is no fun. Country is unacceptable in any form, and it’s everywhere. Pandora’s “Hipster Cocktail Party” playlist is insufferable, and it’s the same thing every…single…day. When that’s playing in the background in the office or store or wherever, it doesn’t take long to go from tolerable to unbearable. So for all these reasons I tend to avoid music now. I’ll still fire up my old playlist and listen to some of my 4-star and 5-star songs occasionally, but we’re talking only a couple of times a year. I listen to podcasts in the car or while biking now.