I don't like Music.
 

Hi Everyone,

My name is (for the purposes of this forum) HAL9000, I'm a new member, but didn't want to have an introductory thread in the other section, I thought I'd just jump straight into the reason I joined.

I, for all intents and purposes do not like Music. It doesn't speak to me, I see little to no value in it (with the exception of it adding something to movies / films) there are truly no bands / groups / artists that I like, that I would consider spending money on going to see or purchasing an album. I thought this would be a good place to discuss it, after finding the forum.

I'd really appreciate a reasonable conversation, rather than any abuse. I'm a reasonable person and I'm here not just because I'd like to discuss this with music fans, but that I thought maybe some of you would like to talk to me.

I'm trying to find if there is some music that I would like, I've found that I very much appreciate the technical skill that goes into playing a music instrument or in construction a piece of music without it sounding disjointed. I don't hate music, it doesn't offend or irritate me, rather it's just nothing, just some sound, if it were removed from the world it wouldn't effect me.

The main reason I'd like to find some music is that I hate silence, I listen to the radio every time I'm in the car, I listen to whatever's in the charts, I know the words to a lot of them, because I hear them over and over again, but I don't think the stuff is good or bad, it's just music.

Recently I've started to listen to classical music, that way I don't end up with a head full of useless lyrics and (as I said before) I can appreciate the technical skill of the performers / composers.

Before anyone asks if I'm an emotion-less robot, that's not the case, I adore painting and architecture (my two favourite art forms) and I got to galleries on the odd occasion, I'm a huge film fan, cinema is one of the biggest joys in my life and I imagine that without music it wouldn't be what it is, so I suppose I'd keep art in the world for that reason.

All the music I have on my iPhone are film themes, purely because they remind me of the films, not because they are good songs / music.

So.... Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

HAL

Have you ever seen the movie Mary and Max? Your writing reminds me of it.

As for suggestions. Try music from around the world. See if any of it makes you feel good. You won't be able to understand the lyrics, so the lyrics won't bother you.

enjoy

I would suggest a different forum to be honest.

Yep, that makes sense. I'll give it a go, I live in Europe (UK) the music from continental europe that I've heard doesn't seem to work for me, but I'll give it a go, thanks.

Haven't seen Mary and Max, I'll look it up.

:)

I think this is the forum to go for, as it's specifically music related.

Hmm... I'm not sure what to say. It's very hard for me to imagine what it's like to not feel music at all. Not only do I love music, but there's really no form of art that leaves me cold like that. I guess if you don't feel it, it may be that it's just not for you. The only suggestion I can think of is to check out a wide variety of styles beyond just pop and classical. Try some jazz, some experimental noise, some afrobeat, some extreme metal, some chinese classical, some tango, some klezmer, etc.—whatever different things you can find, both old and new. Push the boundaries. And if music still does nothing for you, it probably never will.

Also, if you don't like music but hate silence, maybe you should consider listening to talk radio, podcasts, or audio books.

This.

Quite frankly everything about your post reeks of yet another attempt at trolling the community, like a polar opposite of JayShreddz.

You say you don't want to be called a robot but you choose HAL9000 as a username. You assume you'll be the recipient of abuse for being different. You flat out state you do not like music or recognize it's value aside from being an aural additive to an (implied) superior visual art style. Serious question - have you ever gotten your hearing checked?

Having said that, I don't think you're a lost cause, but I think you have a poor attitude towards music and you might not necessarily end up feeling very satisfied with this place. Whatever. You say you've recently started enjoying Classical music as well as film soundtracks (even if it is 'secondary' enjoyment upon the reminiscence of some visual). At that point I'd suggest more Ambient Electronic stuff. In particular these 3 albums to get your started:

Brian Eno - Music for Airports
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 (Vol. 1 is also good but 2 fits your description better).
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

good suggestions!

I love klezmer music! It's so happy.

At the risk of sounding insulting you're probably either Tone deaf, (this article should help Tone Deaf People Subconsciously Recognize Incorrect Notes) or you have very little imagination.

OK great thank you. I'll listen to your suggestions and report back.

P.S. I chose HAL9000 purely because it happens to be my name on other forums.

First of all, I need to ask you, when you hear music, can you identify some sort of mood that it conveys? I'm not asking if you can feel that mood. I can see you can't, but do you know what mood its trying to convey? Feeling the message of the music can only come after knowing the message of the music, which can both change throughout a song, be conveyed by rapidly changing moods in the song (the stuff that comes to my mind for this one isn't for a noobie, but still) or slowly be painted by a song.

Second of all, you said music can add to a movie, but why can it? Can it paint an image in your mind that's strikingly close to what you see on screen? I definitely see pictures in my mind when I listen to music.

Third
which could be your problem. Charts literally make music for people like you execpt in denial who think they both like music AND can dance. They have their place, it isn't helping a guy discover music.

I don't really know where to go from here execpt post a bunch of music I think is awesome that hopefully you might too. Other MB'ers will laugh at me because my knowledge of music is minimal compared to theirs, but nonetheless, here I am visiting the top part of this post after the rest of it done wondering if I'm insane for taking the time to compile all this (basically my entire taste) for someone who probably won't care at all. Oh well, as much as I'm twitching my eye angry at myself that I was... in a way, cocky enough to do this, thinking my taste was so awesome, I just did it, so I'm gonna post it. I'd be surprised if you didn't find something anyways, and if nothing else, I have a nice little Bullet compilation now... Here goes...


Rock/Metal
Metallica- Fade to Black

Guns 'N Roses- November Rain

Jimi Hendrix-Voodoo Chile

Bang Camaro- Push Push Lady Lightning

Dream Theater- 6:00

Muse- Exogenesis, Pt.1

Blind Faith- Can't Find My Way Home

Ozzy Osbourne- Bark At The Moon

Buckethead- Soothsayer

Sixx A.M.- Life is Beautiful

Radiohead- 15 Step

The Police- Synchronicity (Live) (Two parts)


Nirvana- Something in the Way

Queen- Somebody To Love

AC/DC- Ride On

Crush 40- Song of Hope

Messhuggah- ObZen

Led Zepplin- Achillies Last Stand

The Beatles- I Want You (She's So Heavy)

Jazz
Miles Davis- Blue in Green

Bill Frisell- Disfarmer Theme


ElectronicN
Note: These songs really depend on sub-bass, and I'm not entirely sure earbuds support frequencies low enough to play these fairly. Ipod earbuds and laptop speakers def won't. At the very least, the Skream would be as butchered as a violin concierto without the violin. If your speakers can FAIRLY play the bass in thing, as in, you can clearly hear the notes sustain, you're fine.

If not, I understand that you won't go out and buy even a cheap pair of headphones because its worthless to you (though hopefully by the end of this post it will be worth something,) so, I don't know, skip this section until you can borrow them from a friend or something? You could probably play these in your car or something.


Excision and Savvy- Sleepless

Skrillex- With You, Friends

Skream- Dutch Flowerz

Deadmau5- Unspecial Effects


Hip-hop
2pac- Brenda's Got A Baby

Spose- God Damn

Nas and Damian Marley- Patience

Eminem- Lose Yourself

Beastie Boys- Lee Majors Come Again



Classical
Holst- Neptune

Elgar- Nimrod

And also, Mendolsohn. I'd post his piano concierto, but it'd be too long for something like this.

Blues (This I'm really not an expert on, but I have a couple guys I like)
Leadbelly- Salty Dog

Robert Johnson- Crossroad Blues


And because this doesn't really fit anywhere, this wouldn't be complete without MJ.
Michael Jackson- Stranger in Moscow

@Dave, my respect for you just doubled.
@Hal, just to let you know, I really won't be offended if you don't listen to everything I just posted in my... thing that I wrote when I was stilll trying to wake up, having had insomnia last night.

Haha, I know the feeling. Don't worry I will take a stroll through some of it at least. :)

I believe I can, having not conferred with others on this, I can't guarantee that I'm getting the inferring the right emotion from the music, but I believe that I can.

That makes sense.

The prime example I would give here, is the Jaws soundtrack, on it's own it doesn't illicit thoughts of sharks, but it does build suspense, when combined with the imagery it makes for a more suspenseful scene than the images alone or the music alone.

That makes perfect sense, but as I don't really know where to go to find music, without having some pre-existing frame of reference, I'm at a loss about where to start.

I actually do have a good (In my opinion) pair of Sennheiser headphones, which I use for watching films occasionally, so I'll break them out

I'll give some of this stuff a listen, later on this evening and get back to you :)

-Pandora. If you like any of the songs that The Bullet posted, just type it in, and Pandora will create a station filled with songs that have similar musical qualities.
-last.fm. Another site with online radio stations. Once you have a music collection and add it to your library, you can go listen to your Recommended station, which is comprised of artists similar to what you listen to (although it's not always accurate. I don't think that Sigur Rós are similar to Radiohead).
-RateYourMusic. The custom charts can be useful if you're looking for specific genres, albums released in a certain year/decade, etc.

Actually, I think the fact that you appreciate music when it's in films and shows and everything shows a little more than just "it being there."

Music is there for a reason.
They don't just pick a random song and go with it.
They search of one, try to get one that has a good feel to it, one that fits the situation.
Start there, maybe you'll appreciate music once you realize how much work goes into it and goes into using it.

On that note, I think going to a different forum is a bad idea.
The people who said that are being rude.
I would love to think that we're the reason you began to appreciate music.
Any type of music.

I was asking if you felt any emotion was implied by music, not necessarily a "right" emotion, because any art form is suggestive. You're talking about the intended emotion. I almost believed based on your post that you didn't even see music as a volume of expression.


I can confidently say from this that you're clearly not completely numb to music even if you think you are. You let it effect you when you watch these movies, why can't it effect you anywhere else? Don't get me wrong, music and image can combine to create something greater than either one alone, and if you're simply not a music person as much as you are some other type of artist that's cool with me. I'm just saying that you might have a sour attitude toward it that might not really be helping you. I find myself using music as backing noise sometimes, too, usually when I search the web. I'm not exactly proud of it, as I feel like as someone who will probably end up a musician myself I should give it more respect, but I still find myself doing it occasionally. There are other times where I can really pay attention to the same music, let it throw through me, and wonder how I ever could've ignored it and had it as background noise. Attitude effects everything.

The music used in films is often atmospheric, helping to convey a message and accentuating the visual medium so. The popular music on the charts, while occasionally containing undeniable emotion and messages, is for its primary purpose meant to appeal to a wide audience. As such, it's not going to resonate with most as deeply as some other sorts of music, but it's still going to affect most in the form of foot tapping, head bobbing, or some other similar acknowledgment.

You say that you like the music from films, acknowledging that they seem to add something to the films. With that knowledge, I'm trying to find some songs that could potentially appeal to you.

Atmospheric / Depressive Black Metal:
Some of these have some screaming, but the ones selected are musically atmospheric and competent, and really do evoke strong emotions via the music itself.

Woods of Desolation - Somehow...


Midnight Odyssey - Never To Return


Petrychor - Of Grandest Majesties


Photophobia - If My World Ends Without You


Heretoir - To Follow the Sun


Shoegaze / Post-Rock / Dream Pop
Several genres, just a few to represent their vibe

My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes


Ride - Seagull


Seefeel - Spangle


World's End Girlfriend - Garden In the Ceiling


Mono - Moonlight


Mazzy Star - Fade Into You


Pale Saints - Shell


Prog / Prog-ish
Just a few of these.

Porcupine Tree - Gravity Eyelids


Dream Theater - As I Am


Assorted Stuff
Other things which came to mind

David Lynch feat. Karen O - Pinky's Dream


Tuxedomoon - The Cascade

I've not come across many people that don't like music.

If you don’t like music, please don’t call yourself a human..

I would have thought making him sit through about 6 hours of youtube videos would put him off even more.

Can I ask what age you are?

Good enough. Let me know what you think in regards to those albums, what particular elements, if not full songs, stood out the most and we'll go from there.

What's your current favourite film soundtrack?

What Urban said has a valid point, throwing tons of music vids at someone who has a hard time understanding music and how it makes them feel is not going to change their way of thinking so maybe throw something like this at you:



Does the film resonate more with you with the music? Does the marriage of audio and visual mediums bother you or do you welcome it?

You state you are a film fan and I am not disputing that but many modern films (at least 1970 onwards) use contemporary music to accentuate the images presented and are often action/dialogue free so if you can still enjoy a film that employs this method then music does work for you even if it is subconsciously. Please bear in mind that I mean CONTEMPORARY music (that is music pre recorded and not scored for a movie) and therefore if you watch a movie and it excites your senses even if it's just on a visual level you are taking in the audio element whether conscious or not and you are a music fan but just don't know it yet ;)

Perhaps you should try some more minimalist music. I'm thinking ambient, drone or post-rock/post-metal would be ideal.



How does this strike you?

These were great. Do you have a link by any chance?

I'll add to this by saying that Tunnel Blanket is an incredible album. Definitely worth checking out.

Dude, these were awesome. I hate to be the second guy in a row to ask for links, but it took me until now to listen through that.

Try classical music or (this won't impress music snobs) new age music.

There's really no polite way to ask this, but I've read that people who suffer from asperger's or other forms of autism don't appreciate music emotionally. They admire its technical components and may find it structurally beautiful, but are unable to build an emotional connection with a piece because they do not empathize as most people do.

Do you have asperger's syndrome? Do we have any members with it who would be willing to come forwards and relate their experience with music?

My younger brother has asperger's and is a musician. A really, really good musician. Like, amazing. Interestingly, he actually does seem to enjoy the technicality much more than the emotion of a song, as you said. He always appreciates more difficult complex music over simple, more emotional music. Thus, he listens to and plays mainly jazz, prog rock, and fast, technical metal. He talks all the time about how one of his favorite parts of music is actually the tone and sound of the individual instruments.

Don't know if that has anything to do with anything, but throwing it out there.

Bloody hells, what about one music suggestion per post and then you just make several posts with a proper introduction to each suggestion? That's just way too much youtube for one post in my opinion.

edit :

Ehr, referring to The Bullet's post on page 1.

I think saying people with aspergers/autism don't empathize as most people do is maybe a little simplistic. Well it is complicated by the fact that there is a wide range of behaviours that come under the 'spectrum' so what may be true for one doesn't apply to others. I think an important distinction is they do not empathize "as most people do". What I mean is that they are certainly capable of feeling empathy for others but they may struggle to make sense of these feelings and respond in a meaningful way. While it is often safer to approach a situation intellectually this doesn't mean that they aren't affected by other peoples suffering. I think music can actually be a safe way for someone with aspergers to explore emotion as there is no pressure to respond.

I was equally disappointed at myself upon seeing that post for the same reason, but I got carried away and once it was done, well... I had just taken all the time, you know?

I've noticed something about people who are incapable of appreciating music: they're usually obsessive gamers/basement dwellers.

My ex husband was one of those weirdos. Good riddance; I don't think I could have tolerated his tone-deaf nonsense for the rest of my life.

Interesting thread here, I've literally never heard anyone say they don't like music. I guess you should just try to listen to different genres and what not. I don't think there is some magical cure.

Try:
The Stone Roses- Stone Roses
Screamadelica- Primal Scream
Downward Spiral- Nine Inch Nails

I'd say you get three different, out of the ordinary tastes there. Start there and if you like ANY of it let me know.

Generalities are great when trying to prove how incredibly shallow you are :)

I see no need to apologize for how much the stereotypical basement dweller irritates me.

That's what I like to hear.

Without wanting to sound arrogant or uncaring, I do find it hard to believe there are people who do not appreciate music on any level. From our very earliest days we are subject to the lullabies our mother sings us, and we grow to become emotionally attached to that sound, its lulling, comfortable feeling of safety. As we grow up we often use music in very simplistic forms (dancing, shouting --- I say shouting, as most one or two year olds don't sing --- along to the radio, and so on) to communicate and to build our understanding of who we are.

As we get more rounded as humans, then, music is already part of our lives, an integral part. Whether it's hymns at mass (when we're young and can't decide not to go!) or humming tunes or even just whistling, we're so exposed to music at virtually every moment of every day that it's hard to ignore it, hard not to have it have an effect on us.

I personally cannot live without music, and that's no idle claim. If I'm out (very rarely these days) and have no music with me I'll usually hum (either in my head or out loud but low) some tunes I know, and if I go into a shop and music is playing I usually end up humming it as I go out. Music affects just about everything I do. If an onerous task is to be performed, I lighten it by having or making music. I can't play anything --- REALLY bad on the keyboards! --- nor can I sing, but I make music anyway, not for anyone else to hear but just for my own enjoyment.

I feel music is part of who I am and the person I have grown to be. Without it I would not be whole. As you claim to hate listening to/learning lyrics, I would say stick with the instrumental music (as that also closely ties in with your love of/tolerance of film themes) and would suggest Vangelis, Gandalf and perhaps Rondo Veneziano, as well as obviously classical music. For your persual, an example of each of the three below.





I fervently hope you do find some room in your life for music, because I certainly would not be complete without it, and living without it as you are I think you're missing one of the great human experiences that we all share.

Good luck in your search!
Trollheart

Well, if you like movies so much and want to get into music, maybe you should check out some concept albums that have deep stories you can get into and try to decipher how each song fits into the overall story.

Two Albums I'd highly recommend:

Band - Album

Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute

Look those up and check out their stories and listen to the soundtrack and play the movies in your head. Year Zero is actually being made into a mini-series.

Of course there's good music out there "these days", there's tons of it! The idea that somehow the entire human race has somehow lost the ability the ability to create good music seems pretty unlikely to me.

You have not received abuse, you have been warned to stop using our site to promote your music as it is a violation of our rules. Please stop.

You are "sharing" your own music for the purpose of self-promotion, that's spam.