As a bona fide music geek who grew up (in the 80s) on indie/“alternative” rock, I’ve tried hard to enjoy Pavement and, to a far lesser extent, Weezer, but I find both bands extremely mediocre and end up completely baffled by their towering reps. Not horrible (well, I don’t know about Weezer - I don’t know if I’ve heard anything beyond the first 2 albums), but not doing anything dozens of other bands haven’t done better.
With literature, it’s Murakami. I love Kobo Abe, which should make Murakami a natural fit for me, but I find him tedious and superficial, with pretentions in place of actual depth.
Husker Du. Everything in my musical collection says this band should be one of my favorites, but I could just never get into them. I even like Mould’s work with Sugar tremendously, but Husker Du is nearly unlistenable to me. There’s no doubt in my mind that they were a great and groundbreaking band, one of the best and most important and most influential from American post-punk. I just don’t like their music, for whatever reason.
Pecan pie. Everyone around me loves it. My family in IL worships it. My in-laws here in MO can’t have a holiday without it. I love pecans. Why can’t I stand pecan pie? WHYYYYY!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!
Another one, along those lines: Nirvana. I’d been listening to that exact type of music for almost a decade, and there were countless bands that came before that did it better, IMO.
For TV: Better Off Ted and Raising Hope. The elements are/were in place for me to like them, but for whatever reason, neither elicited so much as a chuckle from me.
Yep. This happens to me all the time. I really don’t get it. People whose musical tastes are very similar to mine otherwise, except for Husker Du. Maybe one day it’ll all click with me.
Nah, I don’t think so - it’s like me with Pavement. No point in trying to force yourself to appreciate something you’ve honestly tried and haven’t been able to. It’s just a matter of taste. Doesn’t mean you’re missing out on some great insight only others are capable of grasping.
I know it’s heresy but I just don’t like … bacon. I love the smell of cooking bacon and the taste is OK. The problem is that the texture of all but the leanest and most expensive bacon is so unpleasant that I just can’t eat it. I’ll use it as a flavoring in other dishes but if you put a plate of bacon and eggs in front of me, I won’t touch the bacon.
Word for word, I completely agree with everything you said. I love the smell, I like the flavor, but I just can’t get past the texture. Sadly, bacon is so freaking trendy these days! It is in everything!!
It’s happened to me with bands and albums before, so I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I pick up Zen Arcade and go “why in the hell did I not hear the genius before?” I’ve had this experience with Pet Sounds and Loveless (my number one and two albums of all time), so I’m still holding out for a revelationary moment.
And the scary thing for me is that I often have a lot of cooked bacon around my house. Bacon drippings are the best thing a good home made salad dressing ever found!
Jazz. To the point where I can’t even be in the same room as it.
Strangely I love funky stuff like Prince, adore soul, blues and rock such as Pink Floyd and The Who.
Punk, electronica, rap, Wagner, Elgar, Mozart…I could go on.
But Jazz? no, never. I find it physically uncomfortable to listen to.
Books - I’m another in the Terry Pratchett-does-nothing-for-me club. I’ve tried and I genuinely like Good Omens ( which everyone claims is more Pratchett than Gaiman ) and it seems like I should like him. But to date, I don’t. Last attempt was Guards, Guards. I didn’t get far.
Musically - Alex Chilton’s prodigious solo output. Like Big Star, keep trying to like Chilton by himself. Keep failing.
Junk food - Little Smokies in BBQ sauce. See, if you know me, you’d think that sort of lowbrow, suspiciously uncertain meat product would be right down my alley. I love sausages of all kings, I like BBQ, I like all sorts of lowest common denominator snack food like velveeta/rotel dip. But man, I just do not like those. It perplexes even me.
Apparently, Terry Pratchett’s books. All my nerdy friends love them. I read like FIVE before I finally gave up. They’re all short and light and in theory it should have taken me a few hours to get through one, but instead it was a week of slogging for each one. I wasn’t captivated in the slightest, and although each book made me laugh aloud once, it wasn’t anywhere near the hilarity I had been led to expect.
Considering my love of indie music, I’m supposed to love the following bands: The Mountain Goats, She & Him, Taken by Trees, Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, Frightened Rabbits, Brazilian Girls, M. Ward, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Dr. Dog, The Go! Team, Passion Pit, The Weepies, The Twilght Sad, Neon Indian, The Black Keys, Scissor Sisters, My Morning Jacket, Grandaddy, Lanterns on the Lake, Los Campesinos!, Owl City, Robyn Hitchcock, and Monsters of Folk…but I hate all of them.
I’m also not too keen on Andrew Bird, Athlete, Of Montreal, The Arcade Fire, Belle and Sebastian, The Flaming Lips, or Fleet Foxes. But all the music blogs and magazines think we should love them all. Just no.