Ditto anime. It’s the drawing style. I just don’t find it aesthetically pleasing.
99% of romantic comedies.
Most popular country music. It just grates on me.
Reality TV shows. Boring. I have a bunch of friends who watch The Amazing Race and insist that it’s the reality show for smart people, but I cannot make myself be interested in it. (Although I think it would be fun to be a competitor.)
For books: anything that looks like a bodice ripper. That whole genre appeals to a part of my hindbrain that must have missed some seriously funny book burnings. Self-help books; I’ll get “woodworking for dummies” but spare me the cheese. I once took a peek at a book called something like “the seven kinds of people you find in Heaven” thinking it would be humorous: it was serious! It was about the people you find in american churches (no idea why it had been translated and was being sold in Spain, our church structures are just completely different) and their power fights and how to deal with and bond with them so we’ll all be a happy churchie family. Stuff like that should be marked biohazard, yuck!
For movies: I don’t pay for romantic comedies. If seen at home, it must be with someone who can also treat them as popcorn movies. I don’t pay for drama. I’d pay for Les Miserables or Carmen, but please, unless the music is that good, spare me. If I want drama all I have to do is call my mother, she does drama much better than most screenwriters.
For music, with some notable exceptions where the music itself is so good I don’t care, I much prefer being able to understand what the heck is it they’re talking about. Not necessarily every word, but at least have a notion whether it’s about the cost of life, walking in on their girlfriend when she was in bed with two other guys, or the joys of cocaine. With some people, all I can tell is that they’re angry, but no idea about what.
Music - it’s got to be r’n’b and rap that turns me off. I just can’t get to grips with the style, I suppose it’s mostly because I do most of my music listening while I’m in the gym so I want stuff that’s good to exercise to. Rap most definitely isn’t, and I just get wound up by Eminem to the point where I want to do him physical violence.
I definitely prefer some genres–but keep my options open.
Western movies? Nah. Except for Stagecoach. And Tombstone. (Does Quigley Down Under count? Tom Selleck makes a great old fashioned hero & Alan Rickman is an excellent villain. An excellent anything, in fact.)
Gory horror movies? Nope. But Existenz & Legend of Sleepy Hollow are favorites that definitely have their icky moments. The Wicker Man is not gory–but definitely a horror movie.
Hey–I may have found a genre to avoid: Unnecessary remakes! From the moment I heard that Nicholas Cage was starring in a new The Wicker Man, I knew I’d stay away. The reviews did not dissuade me.
Chick flicks! Anything with Julie or Reese or Meg or another Cutie of the Moment can induce projective vomiting. But the Jane Austen stories–including* Clueless*–are for smart chicks. And the classics of yesteryear–The Women, Philadelphia Story, All This & Heaven Too, Now Voyager & All About Eve all deal with “feminine” topics. Witty, razor sharp dialog or 4-hankie specials, I love them all.
Life in High School TV shows? Not for me. But that’s why I avoided Buffy. (I have since repented.)
Reality TV? I’ve avoided the big ones with tropical isles or singers. But many of the decorating shows do fall into that category. And I want Trini & Susannah to go through my wardrobe. (And give me a fat check, of course.)
Hip Hop is not my cup of tea, but I’m not the target demographic. I can understand its roots & want to avoid the “modern music is all trash” trap. (In Punk days, I hung out at the bar with the other oldsters, not down in the mosh pit. But I liked some of what I heard. Yeah, & I like folk rock, too. So sue me.)
Neither is Heavy Metal a fave–but I attended a fair number of really loud shows in my youth. Thirteenth Floor Elevators? The lyrics were “psychedelic”–but their music was mostly hard-driving rock. Tinnitis–learn to love it!
Country or other folksy stuff like polkas (but I do like zydeco)
New country pop: It’'s pretty much bad 80’s rock with a fake country accent.
Kenny G style “jazz”: I put that in quotes because I don’'t consider it jazz.
New pop/soul: If some chick is doing urban yodeling over cheesey drum beats, I’ll pass.
New pop/rap: Remember when rap vocals used to be timed to the beat? What’s with this new style? They can’t even be bothered to be clever about it.
Anything like Puff Daddy - where you take an old song, nix the lyrics, rearrange a bit here and there, and then rap over it - or swipe the chorus or catchy hook and use it. Come on. Now you’re just being lazy. If you can’t write your own music, hire someone else to do it. If you can’t do that, get out of the business.
That brings us to Covers
If you’re going to do a cover, make it your own. Don’t just try and redo the same song. We’ve heard that version.
I guess that last bit isn’t a genre but more of a pet peeve.
Movies: Sci-fi, action (of the Jean-Claude variety), animation, westerns, horror that tries to be the goriest limb-chopping movie ever.
Music: Most country, easy listening, bluegrass.
TV: Game shows, 48 Hours-type news programs, trashy talk shows.
Books: Romance novels, sci-fi.
I also avoid anime and redneck-style comedy.
It might not, depending on what you mean by “like Nickleback”. If you mean the faux-angsty yelling that still sounds like the singer is too cool to express his feelings, then fortunately the Creed/Nickleback/Puddle of Mudd stuff isn’t around as much as it was a few years ago. I avoid that genre too.
Now, there are bands that have better musicianship and aren’t 3rd wave grunge, and have honest singing, that still might superficially sound like warmed-over alternarock. The difference is they’re good and Nickleback isn’t 
Movies: Biographical. I just can’t make myself care.
Books: Autobiographies and Biographies. See above.
Music: I’ll listen to pretty much anything
TV: soaps
Shrek was made by Dreamworks, not Pixar. If you’re avoiding Pixar pictures because of Shrek then you’re missing out.
My list:
Movies: Musicals, Historical Romance (romance in general, I guess).
Music: New age “jazz”, Michael Bolton and anything even remotely similar. I’ll listen to most anything else.
TV: Most reality shows (okay, all of em).
Books: Romance
On further reflection, it’s not just Japanese animation. I also really, *really * don’t like animation where I find the artwork ugly and repulsive. For example, Gabor Csupo’s stuff–Duckman, Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats.
Curiously, there were a few Japanese imports around when I was yong that I watched and even enjoyed–Gigantor, Marine Boy, Simba.
I will say that I like what little I have seen by Miyazaki (basically just the end of Porco Rosso and the Beginning of Island in the Sky on TCM last year) enough to want to see more, someday.
Movies: I avoid war movies, but will see one occasionally, if my husband really wants to see it. I will not watch torture-horror movies like Saw & Hostel under any circumstances. If someone in my house is watching that type of thing, I leave.
Books: I don’t usually read fantasy or science fiction. I don’t usually read romance. And I don’t usually read fictionalized biography. There are occasional exceptions to the above. I never read glurgey self help books and I never read ‘psychic’ crap like Sylvia Browne and her ilk. No exceptions.
Books: Romance novels. I hates 'em. Anime. I can’t get into Tom Clancy or John Grisham style stuff either. Everything else is fair game.
Music: Boy Band fluff, rap, some R&B and some hip-hop, what they call “country” these days, and false angst style music. See, Creed and their ilk.
Movies: Superhyper chickflicks (usually these star Meg Ryan or Jennifer Anistion) ugh. These are not to be confused with a Diane Keatonesque chick flick . Action movies (especially if they contain Tom I’velostmymind Cruise) horror movies that are really slasher flicks trying to disquise themselves as psychological thrillers. (The only mindfuck in these types is trying to figure out where my $10 and 90 minutes of my life just disappeared to) Anime, college frat boy type movies are avoided too. Nothing will top Animal House. Nothing I say. They need to give up.
[ul]
[li]Rap (music)- there are not enough ways to describe how much this (ahem) “music” sucks. I’d rather listen to a tape loop of fingernails on a chalkboard.[/li][li]Country (music)- I’ll at least acknowledge that it’s music, just that it’s boring and, well, it just annoys me to the point of wanting to destroy the radio or whatever source it’s coming from.[/li][li]Bugglegum pop (music)- Proof that anyone, regardless of talent or education, can put out CDs.[/li][li]Musicals (movies)- A group of people breaking into song and dancing just isn’t my kind of thing.[/li][li]Romantic comedies and anything else that is categorically a “chick flick” (movies)- I suppose if I had more girlfriends I’d be more appreciative of these movies.[/li][li]Talk shows (TV)- For every second of exposure to Jerry Springer, it makes my IQ feel like it drops another ten points.[/li][li]“Game shows” (TV) that aren’t really game shows. If it’s not in a studio with flashing lights and bells/buzzers, etc., cheering from the audience and a smiling host, it’s not a game show. End of story.[/li][/ul]
Horror/Slasher Films- I refuse. I don’t get the point. Go and get scared - Ugh.
Lifetime Movies - I hate 'em. “Courageous mom… blah, blah, blah.”
Polka Songs (but I did watch the Lawrence Welk Show with my grandma in the 60’s and I enjoyed it then) - strange for an AfricanAmerican chick huh?
“Self Help” Books - No! The person who wrote the book would be helping me.
Religious TV - Boring.*
edit: *except for Joel Osteen - I like his show.
There are plenty of genres that, while I don’t avoid them completely, I’m not interested in the 95% of them that’s crap (a la Sturgeon’s Law).
I’ve never heard any rap that I find personally worth listening to (and I’m not motivated to seek it out), probably because I’m just too damn white and nerdy.
I’m not a fan of reality shows.
I’m not interested in movies/TV shows that focus on or glorify organized crime (so I’ve never seen The Godfather and don’t particularly want to).
Oh, and gay porn. That’s a genre I avoid. No offense to any gay porn stars out there.
Chick flicks in general, with few exceptions.
Musicals.
Brain-dead comedies, incliuding “teen” comedies.
Most horror movies, particularly the latest torture-chic horror movies.
Okay, here’s another one: "The Novel"
Defined, at least by literary critics and professors, as fiction based on everyday life. From 18th century novels of manners to 20th century realism and such. Jane Austen and who’s going to marry who. John Updike and who’s sleeping with which colleagues’s wife. Adultery and alcholism in the suburbs. Hemingway’s idle, shell-shocked burnouts.
Yawn. Give me adventure, horror, fantasy, and romance (in the old sense). As far as I’m concerned, Realism and Naturalism were two giant steps backward for literature.
Except for the occasional tragic love story like The Great Gatsby, I have very little interest the mundanities of real life. I’d rather read Frankenstein or The Shining or LOTR for the umpteenth time then Faulkner or Eliot or Philip Roth for the first time. Unless it’s assigned for a class, I read mainly for escapism–and as Tolkien pointed out, that’s not a bad thing.
Art that tries to be ‘relevant’ is crap because most artists can’t think. Political art is inane posturing wrapped up in pure hackwork. This is a cross-cutting concern: All genres can be touched by this poison.
Gospel ‘music’ – nobody who qualifies as human could describe it as true music – is overproduced crap that beats you upside the head with utter nonsense. It’s annoyingly naïve or so smug the only rational response would involve ice picks, a car battery, and chlorine gas. There is absolutely no hope for anyone who produces it.
Modern Country, at least regarding mainstream acts, is currently in a real cultural low, not least because of the problem I mentioned in the first paragraph. The fact the politics involved are reprehensible to any thinking human makes it that much worse. Aside from that, it is totally saturated with people who have no idea how to make an album relying on artistry as opposed to equipment.
Religious works are uniformly inane ramblings occasionally punctuated by seizure activity in the brain of the illiterate drunk relating the story. They are also works by committee (both official in the form of religious governments and unofficial in the form of bards relaying much-modified oral accounts) and so reflect the worst, least human impulses of the times that formed and reformed them. The only place they belong is psychiatric case histories.
A good deal of poetry does nothing to convince the world its author deserves to live.