# Pretentious or just plain stupid reasons to dislike musical things, and general music turn-offs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 15, 2012, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121 "2012-12-15T17:53:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/21 "2012-12-16T12:36:53Z")
Where’s the hate for auto tune? ---
**Author:** ![Nom\_de\_Plume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85f322/32.png) [@Nom\_de\_Plume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nom_de_Plume)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/22 "2012-12-16T12:46:17Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I can’t stand the recording quality of '60s music. This bugs me so much that I can’t even listen to the Beatles without cringing. It’s stupid, but I just can’t make myself enjoy music through that odd sound quality that I can’t put my fingers on. For me it was the early 70’s as well. It was like the producers and engineers just didn’t know how to record rock, and studio albums all had a ‘chip monk’-y, pop sound. I think that’s why live albums sold so well. That had that raw power that was missing in the studios. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/23 "2012-12-16T13:56:41Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > Mariah Carey. Totally agree. Why use one note when ten will do? :rolleyes: We call that “singer in search of a note” ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/24 "2012-12-16T15:30:36Z")
If I find out an artist beats up his wife/gf, or has sex with an minor I can’t listen anymore. Cheating is a turn off too but if I stopped listening to musicians who cheat I might not have anything left to listen to. Agree with the Mariah Carey comments, just because you can hit all those notes doesn’t mean you should. Singers who scream instead of sing. Cover songs. I hate cover songs. If I liked the original then no matter how well the cover it done I will think the song has been butchered. If I didn’t like the original then I probably won’t like the cover either. The only exception is that I like the Cowboy Junkies version of _Sweet Jane_ better than the original. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/25 "2012-12-16T15:45:53Z")
After playing the game Crusader King 2 for a while I developed an irrational dislike for the Kings of Leon. I guess that falls right under “stupid”. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/26 "2012-12-16T15:48:20Z")
When they fake an accent, or a sound. What’s that new English kid? Is it Jake Bugg? He pretends he’s Dylan & American. Why? I want to hear what YOU sound like. Might even be kinda nice, if Dylan is your inspiration, who knows… ---
**Author:** ![half-elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@half-elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/half-elf)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/27 "2012-12-16T17:05:21Z")
> [@Viridiana](#): > > I think I might have the same issue (well, among other issues) Among those are the ‘cutesy folksy white woman with an odd accent to some words’ voice, like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_-qbbCsAeM) (although I do hate that song anyway). Is that it? This, and also: Originally Posted by **Jackmannii** View Post There currently seems to be a popular style of female singing that someone thinks is wistful and appealing (it is featured in a lot of TV ads) but inspires me to quickly hit the mute button. if not to throw objects at the screen). Is there a name for it? It’s not so much an accent though, it’s more a way of vocalizing. Wistful partly describes it, but I would add that it also adds a “childish” (for want of a better word) quality to the voice. Another thing which makes me hit mute is (related to the Mariah Karey/ 1001 notes phenomenon mentioned above) the fakey - emotional melisma (vocal decorations?) common in RnB - I think that’s where I first heard it - which now seems to be quite widespread. ---
**Author:** ![andrew\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@andrew\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrew_1)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/28 "2012-12-16T17:29:45Z")
Toss my name into the hat for being a bit sick of precious, twee, accordionish kinds of songs, and (forgive me) particularly when sung by women, who seem to have that musing, dreamy voice down pat almost as much as they have the standard look of bangs and goofy dresses. “Adorkable” is not a word you should be basing your image on. I find I lose a bit of respect for people, even though I don’t want to, whenever they treat the idea of cover songs hypocritically. You don’t need any reason or justification to like or dislike a song, if you feel one way or the other that’s fine and all there is to it. But every so often you’ll find someone hating on a song for differing too much from the original and then later on you’ll be talking music with that same person and they’ll be telling you how great a cover they just found is because the new artist really made it their own. Well, which is it? You want them to sound like the originals or you want them to be made new? You can’t have a go at one cover of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald for sounding too much like the original and then later on hate a different cover for sounding _too_ different. I don’t think there’s any rules to cover songs, they’re either good or bad just like originals. Arbitrary criterion is never a good idea when it comes to music. And I don’t think anything is “untouchable” either, another bunch of pretentious shit. Are there songs so iconic it would be unwise for any artist to attempt cover them? Yes. Is it perfectly reasonable to say you can’t imagine any other band or artist doing such a good job? Of course it is. But to just blandly state that none of the millions of artists out there could possibly do as magical a job as the one artist your thinking of is nonsense. How many people apart from actual Nine Inch Nails fans remember the original of “Hurt”? Versus how many people didn’t know for the longest time that wasn’t a Johnny Cash original anyway? It comes to the same end, anyway, since generally the same sorts of people confidently assuring each other no one else could ever dare to cover Sweet Child of Mine are also the kinds of people who have an iPod with 30 songs on it and their musical opinion is of questionable thoroughness anyway. As much as that sounds like something a 14-year old Rage Against the Machine fan might say in 1992, anyway. I more hate myself for caring about any of these things that any I even dislike other people for actually doing them, but that’s what this thread’s about! ---
**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:** [December 16, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/29 "2012-12-16T22:51:11Z")
I don’t know the technical terms (never been able to listen to it long enough to find out) but a lot of Jazz is utter torture to me. Nails down a blackboard. I find it physically repulsive and can’t be in the same room. Nothing to do with taste or pretension, purely a gut reaction. Of course I realise that “jazz” is a broad term and that some of my favourite artists (Pink Floyd particularly) are heavily jazz influenced but I suspect that a huge percentage of what I could pull from the "jazz"section in the record shop would have me climbing the walls in 30 seconds flat. Particularly bad are jazz versions of existing songs. Makes me stabby, the original was composed with a certain amount of notes for a reason. And Mariah Carey…too much Mariah, far too much. I want to sit her down with Cristina Aguilera et al, and stick on a Patsy Cline record and slap them with a fish repeatedly until they get it. More notes does not equal more emotion. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/30 "2012-12-16T22:53:49Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Where’s the hate for auto tune? The OP asked for stupid reasons for hating a particular piece of music. Auto tune is a perfectly good reason to hate a song/piece. Bad lyrics do it for me, as well. Stupid lines, lousy rhythm, repetitive lyrics all get me to to turn off the song. the part that makes it pretentious is that one bad line tends to ruin a song for me. I also hate songs with one well written verse and a good chorus that you hate by the end of the song because it’s been repeated 15 bajillion times in lieu of verse 2 and 3. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/31 "2012-12-16T23:24:39Z")
Ending every phrase with a five-bar vowel: “I love youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Forever my looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove When you kiss meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I can finally liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive” ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/32 "2012-12-17T00:23:32Z")
I’m a musician who used to be a songwriter, and one thing I avoided like the plague: _giving songs titles the words of which are nowhere in the lyrics._ I find this more annoying with pop artists, who (I assume) are trying to get people to remember and buy their music. I suspect it’s sometimes a pretention of pop performers who want to act like Serious Artists. Think it over, kids: when I was a kid, listeners could hum a song they’d heard on the radio to a record store clerk - try that with iTunes. There are of course exceptions: sometimes, a songwriter has reasons for wanting to call it, say, [“Danny’s Song”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny%27s_Song). This tactic caused another problem for me (which has largely gone away because I rarely play requests anymore): someone would pester me to play, “Hey Lady”, and refuse to accept that I didn’t know it (_“I’ve heard you play it!”_), only for me to eventually realize that they’re referring to, “Over the Hills and Far Away” (a Led Zeppelin song that starts out with those lyrics). ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/33 "2012-12-17T02:23:27Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > someone would pester me to play, “Hey Lady”, and refuse to accept that I didn’t know it (_“I’ve heard you play it!”_), only for me to eventually realize that they’re referring to, “Over the Hills and Far Away” (a Led Zeppelin song that starts out with those lyrics). Next time, play them a few bars of “I’ve Never Been to Me,” and they’ll run screaming–problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/34 "2012-12-17T17:36:55Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Mumford and Sons is more or less right up my alley except for the lead singer’s voice. It’s actually really good, but something about the tone of it makes me think he’s saying “My voice is amazing and you all need to hear it…listen to how awesome my awesome voice is, do you hear how awesome it is? Are you impressed by my awesome voice” Douche. I second this. There are some singers I just can’t stand to listen to because it feels like they’re trying way too hard to be cool. Like Lucinda Williams. And Jay Farrar. But there are other singers that could be criticized in the same way and it doesn’t bother me. So I’m being illogical. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/35 "2012-12-17T18:20:02Z")
– Any finalist of a musical show produced by that show’s millhouse (e.g. American Idol, The Voice, etc). I can’t count how many talented and creative folks I have been eagerly waiting to see develop, only to be sanitized into blandness by the writers/producers forced on them by their contract. – My obligatory country music bashing…the instant that I hear the effected country drawl in a performer’s voice, I ignore them. – Guitar-as-prop-for-indie-cred singers. If I can’t hear your guitar playing in the mix, you shouldn’t be playing it. Roger Daltry never pretended, he knew when the time was to step aside, shake a tambourine, and let the band play. – Cymbal-bashing drum players. I hate cymbals, especially their over usage in jazz. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/36 "2012-12-17T18:23:59Z")
3 minutes is my limit. There are some longer songs that are good, but I can’t take them all in in just one play. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/37 "2012-12-17T18:28:45Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > I’m a musician who used to be a songwriter, and one thing I avoided like the plague: _giving songs titles the words of which are nowhere in the lyrics._ As I read that sentence my first thought was “Oh, you mean like half of Led Zeppelin’s catalog.” After Hey Lady, play the viking song and then Hey Hey Mama. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/38 "2012-12-17T19:05:08Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Sophomoric lyrics, that sound like they were written by an angsty teen with not even a rudimentary grasp of poetry (like [Louie DePalma making up a poem](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VWc52mh40QA#t=82s)). There are a lot of songs that are really catchy and fun, and yet have such awful lyrics they make me angry. > [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > Bad lyrics do it for me, as well. Thirded. It’s why I really don’t like Bruno Mars. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/39 "2012-12-17T21:30:26Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > 3 minutes is my limit. There are some longer songs that are good, but I can’t take them all in in just one play. I, on the other hand, get kind of annoyed if a song doesn’t make it to around the two-minute mark. I mean, obviously there are certain songs that make their point pretty quickly and would start to get boring if they were any longer. But most of the time, when a song peters out after a minute or a minute and a half, I can’t help but wish that the songwriter had buckled down and thought up one more verse or thrown in an intro or something. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121/40 "2012-12-17T22:58:23Z")
1. Autotune, full stop. 2. Songs with part of the title in brackets. This is just something that pisses me off about titles, though - there are some songs I like that have part of the title in brackets. 3. Songs that are too simplistic or repetitive (this, combined with #1, is why I hate a lot of modern pop music.) 4. Too much synthesizer or other overly electronic instruments. 5. Overplayed songs (though this can’t really be said to be the fault of the song itself, I suppose.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretentious-or-just-plain-stupid-reasons-to-dislike-musical-things-and-general-music-turn-offs/644121.md?page=3)