I thought I’d share a mundane and pointless thing. Something I’ve noticed about myself a lot lately, and which appears to be markedly unusual.
I don’t really care much for music.
Almost everyone else I know likes to listen to the radio and CDs. They have a cool and powerful stereo system. They vehemently stand by their favourite bands. They passionately extol on ‘the classics’. They religiously attend concerts. Their car stereo is permanently set on ‘deafening’. They even buy DVD movies solely for the surround sound, and have a Dolby 5.1 system set up in their living room.
Well, me, I don’t give a shit.
Sound doesn’t interest me at all. Music I can usually give or take. A number of CDs I own appear to be based on how pretty the lead singer chick is (or has the words ‘Disney Classic Soundtrack’ in the title). I buy DVDs for the commentary tracks. The headphones on my computer are tinny, cheap, broken, and old. I do not own a stereo system at all, and never have. My radio is on a sad dull station that plays the same top 20 hits over and over. I haven’t listened to my walkman in about five years.
Are there other folk out there like me? Or am I a freak?
Guano, your response to the sports thread, and your starting this one got me wondering:
What are your hobbies?
What do you get a kick out of?
I mean I am a crazy jazz fan, I love watching many kinds of sports, and besides those I like watching movies, reading humor, net-surfing, travelling, chatting, beer, other alcoholic beverages(!), good dining, …
Well, if you have things you love, and are passionate about, that’s all that counts. I’m pretty geeky about webmastering (and Photoshop/Illustrator) so I understsand how rewarding and FUN it can be. You don’t have to be passionate about the same things that your friends are passionate about. If you are not a big music fan, you aren’t.
Though, a little bird inside me tells me that perhaps you haven’t found the music genre that really sends you. Maybe I’m way off base here, I dunno. But perhaps the type of music that you really like might not be in the “mainstream”, and therefore you haven’t been exposed to it yet.
For instance, I grew up with a Classical music-loving family, (and I still primarily listen to Classical) but all my friends (ALL my friends) listened to pop/rock. Had it not been born in a Classical family, I doubt I’d ever be exposed to Classical music. And heaven knows, judging from the reaction my pop/rock-loving friends had towards my Classical music, I KNOW I would have gotten hell had I branched out to listen to something “different”, (like Classical) on my own. It was a daily and constant struggle to just retain my own musical tastes, against their constant nagging and “concerns” that I was “missing out” on the joys of their kind of music. I am not suggesting that you might be a closet Classical fan, or closeted “anything” music fan, but perhaps you haven’t been exposed to all the different types of music? And even if you were exposed to some “alternative” (read: oddball to all your friends) music, would you have been inclined to pursue this different type of music?
Or maybe you just don’t give a shit about music! I dunno!
I can relate, Guano. I like music, I guess, I’ve just never been a fanatic about it. I’ve been to 3 concerts in my life (and all were because I was invited to go with someone else), I’ve never owned a stereo system, and I prefer to listen to talk radio rather than music. I can appreciate music, there are some performers that I like, and I have a few favorite songs; I’m just not so interested that I go out of my way to hear music. This is even more odd because I play music - I’m a pianist. I’ve never really been that interested in the music I play, as far as composer and title go, though. There are a lot of pieces that I enjoy playing, but I have no idea who wrote them or what they’re called.
You’re not a freak - you’re just interested in other things.
The kind of music I like is usually Irish based, which is kind of a branch out from my interest in Fantasy (which usually has an Olde English/Celtic era to it). I also like some Classical, but usually in the form of Movie Soundtracks, as the images are already supplied, and the passion is usually much more relatable than listening to Holst or Bach.
But I’m just not very passionate about music - it really has never interested me. (I bought a ticket for my first ever concert this year - and then they cancelled. Doggone.)
I never really went out of my way to listen to music before…(this is about, oh, three years ago), i liked it but wasn’t passionate. Then when i was in 8th grade, i started listening to the radio…and have listened to many genres (well not THAT many, but enough). And now I have a stereo, discman, and a room overflowing with CDs. Maybe you just need to find something that interests you…like yosemitebabe was saying. Be it classic, rock and or roll, pop, whatever…
But if you’re happy the way you are, then don’t bother…
I love music.I must have music playing when I’m working, playing, and sleeping. my CD case, at the moment, consists of
The House Connection2
AC/DC live
Office Space soundtrack (gangsta rap)
Gone in 60 Seconds Soundtrack
The Best of 70s supergroups
The Matrix Soundtrack
Papa Roach
Powerman5000
Austin Powers II soundtrack
Matchbox20 (yourself or someone like you)
Mission Impossible2 soundtrack
Gran Turismo2, the album
Queen’s greatist Hits, Vol 1 and 2
Pop Selects (the Doobie Brothers, Iron Butterfly etc)
End of Days Sountrack
Hard Rock Essentials (CD’s 1, 2, and 3)
The Foo Fighters (there’s nothing left to lose)
marcy Playground
Rammstein (Live aus Berlin)
and Enigma (the Screen behind the mirror)
I’ve got music for every mood, happy, energetic, or something to just bide my time. to me, music isn’t a passion, it’s an obsession, and I’m always either singing, or listening to music.
I pretty much understand where the OP is comming from. I just bought my first music (as opposed to software) CD last week. That’s right, I’m 20 years old and I own only one music CD.
(If you must know, it’s Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”, which I purchased so I could play it while watching “The Wizard of Oz”.)
I’ve never really understood why many of my peers are obsessed with music. Especially when riding in the car. My roommate, when we drive to get groceries at the store, always has to have his cd player pumping out some form of music the entire trip. This is like a 5 minute drive, not exactly a long journey. At first I was insulted because I thought he just didn’t want to talk to me, but now I’m not so sure. I think he just needs the music somehow, just like he needs his cigarettes. Not that I mind, since it’s his vehicle and he’s driving. I sometimes wish he didn’t have it so flippin’ loud though.
I know what you mean about your room mate, BK. I have to listen to at least one CD before going to bed each night, and i have the radio on almost always. It’s just nice…and at first, it was just a novelty but over time it just felt better with it on…its an addiction i guess.
And eventually you enter the world of the music obsessed- the types of people who watch VH1, cry during behind the music, and consider the Beatles as close as family friends. Alright i’m exaggerating, but it is a different world…it’s taken very seriously…if that makes sense. After awhile its not just something you listen to.
“I heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord,
But you don’t really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this, the fourth the fifth,
The minor falls and the major lifts.
The baffled king composed ‘hallelujah.’”
I, for one, can not relate. Music is magical, glorious, and necessary to me. It is wonder, mystery, and revelation.
I like music but I’m not totally obsessed… (I got over that after I got over the BSB which didn’t take me long to do) I buy cds when I really like the music and mainly they are compilations (ie Big Shiny Tunes, Movie Soundtracks or Best of CD’s) I like having music I can sing to but I also love having stuff I can just blast when I’m mad… generally I prefer music as background noise. If it gets too quite I get buggy and start hearing things.
I had a conversation with some friends a few months ago about how we just couldn’t understand how music could not be a central part of someone’s life. Not to knock those people at all; we just didn’t understand how a person could be that way.
For me, music is the most consistently good thing about life. It’s always been there for me. For example, I just got dumped tonight. So I’m playing ballads by cheezy rock bands like Journey and REO Speedwagon. It’s great therapy. There’s music for just about every mood I’m in.
I love VH1 and do consider The Beatles to be as close as family, but I’ve never cried during Behind The Music, but only because I know how it’s going to end: “But now they cast off those destructive vices and are working on a new album they say is their best ever.” Or some variation thereof
I grew up in a musical family. My Grandfather was a swing jazz band leader. Some of my fondest memories as a child are of watching him listen to a song on the radio then playing it back on the piano note for note. Then, just for kicks, he’d transpose it into a minor key.
Music simply builds and elaborates on the rhythms of life. Walking, talking, breathing, and even the beating of your heart are the building blocks of music. So, to me, music is a way of connecting with a deeper part of myself that I’m not normally attuned to. I suspect you feel the same way about the visual arts.
For me, music is a part of the fabric of life. For you, it seems, the visual arts are more meaningful. To each, his own. BTW, bring back Pigeonman!
Well, I was just talking about my friend Scott the other night who has made this exact same statement countless times whenever I talked to him about this or that other band/singer/musician/opera…
“You know, I don’t really like music.”
My first impulse is to scream, “BLASPHEMER!”, but the calm side always prevails and I just look at him… shrug my shoulders and think… “Okay…”
I happen to be with Ogre on this one. He said it very well, “Music is magical, glorious, and necessary to me. It is wonder, mystery, and revelation”. I wouldn’t know what to do without the soundtrack to my life.
At first I thought, “Man, that Guano’s a weird guy.” Then I realized that I almost never listen to music these days. My CDs are collecting dust. The only one who really uses the stereo at my house is my husband. I wear my walkman when I am walking long distances or working out to keep myself from being bored to tears, but that’s about it.
I really don’t get into music that much anymore. So, I guess you’re not that weird after all.
BTW, Guano, I think it’s ironic that your sig comes from a song.
Actually, my sig is a result of this thread - because I’ve been thinking about music all day, it was circling in my head.
Because don’t get me wrong here, I do like some music, and I do listen to it, but it’s just nowhere near the passion or significance that almost everyone else assigns to it. And that’s not even an exaggeration, I think. Most folks truly love music.
It’s quite fascinating really.
(And Hodge: PigeonMan will return eventually - I have to get a new scanner. But that’ll happen after I get a CD burner, a DVD system, and pay off my dental bill. sigh)
