Me, too. When I was growing up, in the 1950s and '60s, my mother brainwashed me to believe that classical music and jazz were the only musical art forms worth listening to. I wasn’t very well received by my young peers when I told them that rock ‘n’ roll was crap.
The first inkling I ever had that my mom was wrong was the night the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. Suddenly, for the first time, I was a part of my generation. I shared the opinion of every girl in the dorm: WOW.
Shaking off one’s parents’ cultural tastes isn’t an easy thing. It saddens me when I hear parents dictating cultural preferences to their kids as if it’s the Word of God. Come on, folks, you don’t have to tell 'em what you think of their stupid music. Eventually they will hear it with the ears of maturity, and they’ll make up their own minds.
Absolutely. For me, sharing new finds in books, musics, films with my friends – and having them share their finds with me – is one of the great delights in life. (That said, I do have to say that my best friend has the worst freakin’ taste in music – we intersect in only two places, Mark Knopfler and Liz Phair. 
)
It’s all about the attitude. I enjoy talking with people who have broad tastes. First, we look for common threads to establish a baseline, and then share books, music, movies that the other might like. That’s enjoyable and it’s positive.
I abhor sitting around looking for things to hate and reasons to dislike or look down on people. Sure, there’s stuff I dislike. I think “South Park” is juvenile and stupid, but I have friends who like it and I don’t think any less of them for it.
My tastes? In books, I like “literature,” but I also enjoy fantasy, science fiction, mysteries, nature writing, science writing, and obscure nonfiction (if it’s well written). In music, I like instrumental classical (not too keen on the heavy vibrato in many operatic voices), classic rock, Celtic rock, Scottish folk, bluegrass, jazz fusion, country, surf rock, some pop and a wide variety of unclassifiable stuff. On TV, I go for Jeopardy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, CSI, MAS*H, Star Trek TOS & NG, Jay Leno’s monologues, and Northern Exposure.
I try not to let it decide for me, but I have yet to find a Slipknot or Insane Clown Posse fan that I could stand for more than a few minutes at a stretch. On the flipside, I’ve yet to meet a Delerium fan I didn’t like.
The Battle of the Batmen (West vs. Keaton vs. Clooney vs. Kilmer) used to be a Religious Issue for me, but I haven’t seen Bale’s take on it, so I’m slipping a little bit. Clooney and Kilmer still get the old smile-and-nod reaction though.
I can count on one hand the Vampire:The Masquerade players I’ve met that don’t annoy me endlessly. The rest of the White Wolf players don’t bother me much, but most Vampire players make me want to stake something. Once again, I try to avoid prejudging, but it does tend to make me brace myself.
People should have preferred zombie-killing weapons.
Outside of that, like something and be able to talk about it intelligently, and we’ll get along just fine. Guilty pleasures (stuff that is shamelessly uncool but much-loved anyways) are awesome. Might have to agree to disagree, but we’ll get along.