Dylstew

I know the kind of stuff I tend to gravitate towards. But often when looking for new artists, 99% does jack **** for me, and then these handful of artists come along I like and I instantly know I will fall in love with those if listened more. Then there's often more which I only start to like if I force myself to listen to them more and remember the songs, but I don't know this prior. Then I always start to wonder, why are these artists doing something for me but others not? How can I recognize early on which new artists to skip and which I should hold around when there's so many bands and time is easy to waste?

Often when I come up with some kind of characteristic that makes me like them over the others, some kind of other artist comes up that contradicts that statement. In Video Games, I know exactly what kind of things I like and don't like, and can easily differentiate different kinds of execution and contexts. In them I can analyze them and describe what is going on and easily see differences between games. In Music, I understand jack ****. It clicks or it doesn't, but I rarely know what to invest time into so it clicks later. Most of the time things don't click right away and need to grow. But most bands are so meh that if I keep looking for more music I often turn overexposed and get mad when I hear any kind of music for a while.

Trying to find new music can be a pain in the ass at times.

Janszoon

Not really. There are a bazillion things that can make me like music and only one thing that can make me dislike it—and that one thing is blandness. I'm always on the lookout for new stuff. Sometimes it's something I hear in a movie or in an ad or playing in a store. Sometimes it's something someone tells me about. Sometimes it's something I read about—often an entire genre heretofore unexplored by me. There are so many decades of amazing recorded music out there and so much interesting new stuff coming out every year that my list of music I want to check out is pretty much never ending.

__________________
A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Dylstew

Hmm. There's some pretty bland and repetetive music I've liked. Banner Pilot basically has the same pop punk song over and over. And it seems like bland depends on what I have already heard before and how much.

There is a ton of different kinds of music out there but I 95% of the time don't feel like listening to them as they don't do it for me as much and instead want more that's like what I already like but not too much. So I stick to rock genres while occasionally stepping outside an album or two.

Janszoon

Surely it's not bland to you though, even if it's not especially groundbreaking or original. There must be something about it that grabs you if you like it.

That seems like a tall order—and one that would continuously get harder to fill the more music you're exposed to.

We definitely have very different approaches to music. For me, if there's a style of music that I haven't really given much of a chance, I'll try to find that one artist or album that clicks with me and use that as my gateway into the genre. Sometimes it doesn't take me very far, but sometimes it leads me into a whole new world of amazing music.

__________________
A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

MicShazam

I have to like the voice of the vocalist before a band has any chance with me.
The singer has to have a voice that I feel is very characteristic and if I feel like a singer is one dimensional in range and delivery, that will usually kill my interest in the band/artist right then and there.

Aside from that, I suppose that I'm a big fan of structured songs that really flow without feeling like parts have been forcibly stitched together. Prog usually bores me because I feel like very few prog artist are actually good songwriters, but instead just resort to throwing together a bunch of random ideas until they arbitrarily decide to end the song.

Another few things I seem to gravitate towards:

- solo artists, more than bands
- female vocalists
- guitar playing that doesn't just rely on strumming, palm muting or power chords
- I really like pianos, drums and bass
- instruments like mandolins, bagpipes, accordions, harps, violins, cellos and horns are more than welcome
- I like beautiful music with interesting use of melody and chords
- melodic singing, rather than traditional rock-style singing, growling or rapping
- I increasingly like music with an 'ethnic' feel to it
- I like music to feel lively and expressive. Like the artist really means it and is into it

I don't worry about what genre it is, it just has to speak to me on some level.

Dylstew

I'm not sure what it is that grabs me about banner pilot. I just logically feel like if it was any other band, I'd write off most of their material as mediocre.

My music approach kinda sucks I guess. There was a point I wanted to check out top artists of a buunch of genres but I got lazy. Did get to know a sweet bebop song tho.

Anyways, man.. I thought that prog rock would be THE genre to have more of what you're describing, but.. no? So, what's so progressive about prog then? I do know I dislike it when songs are complex but just feel like a ****load of ideas mashed together which makes it hard to let any of them sink in.

Speaking of expressive music, it's odd to me how when I hear more expressive artists people sometimes say they're cheesy.

I like how you like beauty, because I recently learnt I love weird dissonant distorted guitar parts (especially if contrasted with pretty parts), haha. I'd like them to be used in songs with actual nice songwriting tho, but most of them tend to just go for a more atmospheric /texture focused thing with repetetive rhythms . Your guitar strumming also goes completely against my love for punk guitars, and I've loved many vocalists that suck at singing.

MicShazam

Exploring for new music is something I seem to do more and more as time goes by. Not every month though. It comes in these big waves where I just go crazy and check out a hundred different things. It takes time and a willingness to stay a while around things that wont necessarily pay off, so I understand the temptation to stick to one's favorite styles. I think I'm more curious by nature than the average person, so that helps me, since I don't have to force myself to try new music.

I would have thought so too! The thing with prog is that there's usually some critical thing wrong with any given artist that turns me off their material. Commonly one of these things go wrong:

- dull, overly measured and dispassionate delivery
- aimless songwriting
- silly sounding vocalists
- ugly music that's less concerned with feeling than with being technical
- too much of a focus on typical rock or metal instrumentation
- when using classical music elements, they often aren't done well

So... you could say that I want to like a lot of prog bands, but can't.

I feel like it's pretty common among music nerds (not used as a derogatory term - I consider myself a big time music nerd) that more sincere or straight forward emotional expressions in vocal and lyrics isn't appreciated as much as more obtuse/opaque delivery and sentiments. Take that observation with a grain of salt though. It's a poorly worded attempt at explaining a thing I don't quite have a good grasp of.

I like a lot of ugly, dissonant music too. My favorite band is after all Dir En Grey



There are always exceptions to the things I said I like and dislike. PJ Harvey, for example, fits right in alongside a million different typical rock music characteristics that I don't like... but I like it when she does it for whatever reason.

An example of a song that ticks off several boxes of what I like, as I described it above, is this Cristina Branco song:

The Batlord

Can never be sure what I'll like, but for whatever reason I find that music made by people with some combination of subpar musical ability, low IQs, and a complete lack of class is like crack to me if they have some kind of unique aesthetic. From Manowar to Ke$ha to ICP to Nazi punk, it all calls to me to an extent that baffles me at times.

__________________

MicShazam

Maybe you just have a big heart - like the sort of person that when given a choice of which kitten to adopt, takes the cross eyed, retarded one with lumpy fur and three legs.

The Batlord

I think at least partly it's more that I'm pretty anti-social and enjoy poking polite society in the eye, so on some level I can relate to music with little connection to mainstream social norms and a (lack of) maturity level approaching my own. Sometimes I feel like I'm simply too smart to be the trailer trash wannabe that I am.

__________________