Snerk. Did you like the taxi scene from The Big Lebowski?
I’ve lied to people before regarding my opinion of Princess Bride. In reality, I, quite honestly, cannot see why anybody likes that movie even a little, much less account for its cult status and its constantly being quoted…
I usually just wind up telling people that I haven’t seen it so that I can avoid that conversation.
Same deal with A Christmas Story, actually.
Living in Chicago, I can’t tell you how many times I have bitten my tongue when someone goes on and on about how Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins are sooooooo great :rolleyes:
“You need to hear their earlier stuff” No, I saw SP in 1989 at Metro and thought they were pretentious hacks then too.
Well, I knew that, which is two reasons I can’t stand him right off the bat!
I don’t take it as a personal insult when people don’t appreciate whatever I’m into - if I did, I would have gone on a killing spree years ago - but people have gone apeshit when I told them I wasn’t a fan of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin or the Dead or Hendrix or whatever. Not much of a Dylan fan, either, though he’s got enough decent stuff that I own some albums, but his lyrics are wildly uneven, especially his earliest stuff, which I find mostly godawful.
On this board, particularly, I think the fact that I’m unmoved by the Buffy, Star Trek/Wars, LOTR and Harry Potter franchises tends to get me labeled as a dismissive hipster.
Never seen it. :o
Please stop - you’re being far too reasonable. 
That’s exactly what I have spent *years *trying to ingrain into myself, with only limited success. But sometimes, folks are just wrong, you know? :rolleyes:
I don’t get Rush. At all. I also don’t get Dream Theater or Yes or any other form or prog rock. I also don’t get “Jazz” bands like Weather Report, and while I can can appreciate the talent that goes into the bands, the music that is made from that talent…saying it doesn’t do anything for me would be an understatement.
But, I am a musician. A hobbiest these days mostly, but I play a few instruments and used to be fairly serious about it. When I talk to other Bass players and tell them that I don’t actually like Geddy Lee or Jaco they look at me like I have three heads. I get the same look when I tell other guitar players that I can’t stand Van Halen.
I recently went through a bad break-up, in which I was greatly comforted by the mantra, “Yeah, but, he doesn’t even like Bob Dylan.” I can totally respect that people don’t necessarily like him, but I can’t see myself having another serious relationship in which the other person can’t even tolerate Dylan, or pass up an opportunity to mock his singing.
I’ve never met anyone who said they hated Pink Floyd, but I believe I would probably react quite melodramatically, with much heart-clutching.
ETA: NAF1138 reminded me of my deep and unabiding distaste for all things Van Halen. Ugh. They are my most-hated band.
I cannot find any musical merit in 95% of country and 99% of rap music. I also find R&B boring and bland. And just because metal is difficult to play does not, IMO, make it good. I can see the appeal of metal to some people, however. I distinctly remember Chop Suey coming up on the radio when I was with some friends and saying “man, I can’t stand this song”, and about 10 people turned and looked at me like I had 3 heads.
Earlier Chicagoan generations have the same thing with Styx.
Smashing Pumpkins are one of those bands I absolutely loathed until about 1997, when something just clicked and I did a critical reassessment of their music (basically, got used to Billy’s voice), and now they’re probably my favorite popular rock act of the 90s. Billy was a riff-writing monster. Too bad he’s become a caricature of his former self.
Anyhow, my musical tastes are usually very different from most of the people I hang out with nowadays, so I try to be careful about saying “X music sucks.” Although, I must say, I have a great aversion to most pop country. I don’t know what the hell happened, but I remember growing up and my folks listened to country music quite a bit, and I liked it. Then country music got this polished sheen of production on it that seemed to strip all the soul from the music. The fair point would be to say that all pop music got that overproduced sound, but it’s somehow more noticeable to me in the country genre.
I also don’t get prog rock, except perhaps maybe for King Crimson and some early Genesis. Rush is neither here nor there for me, usually more annoying than not, but I can tolerate it. I have a guitarist friend (we used to play in a band in high school) who is into that sort of stuff. I’m more into the Pixies and Wire and bands like that (which he dislikes), so it’s interesting trying to find common ground when we play. Usually, it means delving into blue and 70s rock (we can agree on Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, etc.) Oh, and Radiohead.
God, my wife hates Radiohead. Passionately and genuinely. There have been several times when a Radiohead song would come on the radio or the iPod and she would make a face and say “God, who is this, they suck!” And when I tell her it’s Radiohead she just shakes her head and wonders how I can listen to their music let alone count them as one of my favorite bands.
My ‘then’ new mother-in-law was a huge Neil Diamond fan. Huge. How was I to know a thirty-something ZZ Top/Led Zepplin/Beatles/Rolling Stones fan couldn’t make a mildly disparaging remark about an admittedly good song writer who nevertheless looked a bit foolish on stage with the silk and rhinestones basking in the glow of adoring, adulterous-minded, beehive-capped womens.
We’re cool now but that one took a couple of years to pass underneath the bridge.
Interesting topic, and something of a pet peeve of mine. The sort of reaction exhibited by the OP’s coworker in response to a disagreement over an opinion of an artist pisses me right the hell off. To illustrate, I’m going to once again dredge up my favorite example. (It’s been, like, four years, I can do this again now.)
When I say something like “I hate the Beatles”, it means that when I listen to their music, I do not like it, or, more specifically, that I hate it. It does NOT mean, despite the endless stream of arguments I inevitably receive in response that would indicate it does, that:
- I dislike or hold judgement against their fans,
- I do not respect the massive influence they had on the music in general,
- I do not understand the impact of their music and themes on the people and history of the time,
- I have not listened to enough of their music to gain an appreciation of it (I’ve actually now memorized a large portion of their catalogue just to shut these people up),
- I harbor a personal dislike for Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Pete Best, or any combination of the preceding, or
- Anything, really, other than that I do not enjoy listening to their music
…which, considering that I listen to music not as a means to fucking pontificate on shifting cultural mores while reflecting on developmental influences of artistry across history and their cause-effect relationships with countercutural mindsets of generations past, but to hear some fucking music that I like – melodies and harmonies and rhythms that are pleasing to my being as they pass through my auditory canal – leaves me fully capable of understanding and appreciating their contributions to music, while still being able to truthfully say that I hate the fucking Beatles. Which I do.
Seriously, be it the Beatles, or any other band, or any other artist, or any other thing in general that is not a person or direct aspect thereof, what in hell’s name is gained by taking offense at the fact that someone holds a different opinion of it than you?
You can hate, say, Tears For Fears all the live-long day, you can deconstruct their musical qualities to explain exactly why you can’t stand to hear a single note (hi, Hal ;)), and unless you go on to imply that I must be a moron for disagreeing, I won’t take any bit of it as a personal attack. Because it’s not. It’s an opinion about a thing, and it ought to be something that people can rationally discuss without giving or receiving insult. As it is, I (and others, I’m sure) must go around pretending to be one of the “I like everything!” crowd, for fear that a more restrictive opinion may offend. Why?
Valid for various values of “Write”.
There are very few performers I hate, but I often find that I really like A, and everybody else who likes A also likes B, but I don’t like B at all. So I encounter surprising disagreements pretty often.
Well, today’s your (un)lucky day. I will go on record as saying that I hate Pink Floyd. Although I am a Syd Barrett fan, so I can stomach Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
**Roland **- I hear what you’re saying. I completely, totally, utterly disagree with your opinion about the Beatles, but I applaud your POV. The key difference is that you have a fully invested and investigated thoughtful response. You know exactly *why *you hate the Beatles. I can hang with that - and I suspect we could have a fun discussion…
I don’t like using the word “hate,” but I don’t really like Pink Floyd, either. I can sort of respect where they’re coming from and what they did, but their music doesn’t do anything for me. In high school, I would have said I outright hated them.
Really? Man, Cats is exhibit number one in the Andrew Lloyd Webber Crimes Against Music tribunal I plan to hold once I seize control of the government.