Why do we hate music we hate?

[Trollheart]

Or in other words, why does it annoy us so much that certain music we hate happens to exist? I'm asking this after reading the excellent and funny http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...out-music.html from our late friend Urban, and I of course realise that much of what he wrote is to be taken tongue-in-cheek, but it did set me to thinking.

Why does it annoy us that say bands like Dragonforce or Tool or [insert hated band here] exist? Or that a certain genre or subgenre we hate is liked by others ? Obviously, nobody is ever going to like ALL music, but why put down that which we don't like? Nobody here - no individual, and no group - can be the ultimate arbiter of taste, so while I might hate hip-hop or jazz, and you might hate prog rock, why does its existence offend so?

It's not the same in other arenas. Sport, to some extent, yes, but that's more a case of rivalries between teams, states or counties. But if you hate horror movies, you don't watch them. If you like science-fiction books but hate trashy romance, you don't read the latter. If medical dramas get up your nose you don't look at them. But we don't complain about the existence of any of these things: we accept they're there, but don't try to put them down. They simply don't matter to us. We have no interest in them. If others like them, fine, but we don't. And that's the end of it.

So why do we tend to froth at the mouth about music we hate? Why is it so important? Radio? Well nobody's forcing us to listen, and there are surely thousands of stations we can choose from. Fans of these bands or genres? Quite possibly. But if we don't like certain music, why do we feel the need to put it down? Why can't we just accept it's not for us and move on? What is it about music that polarises opinion in a way few if any other subjects do?