Music: Who doesn't like it? No, really.....

[-Matt-]

I don’t listen to or enjoy music. Does anyone else share the same feeling?

I dislike music because:

• It’s auditorily complex. There are instruments and voices at the same time and that is messy. A cappella is fine, and an instrument alone is fine, just not mixed.
• The words are hard to understand. They are blobs of sound unless they are super clear or I concentrate very hard on listening.
• When I finally understand the words, it takes a long time to interpret the meaning.

Perhaps I am just super lazy, but I can’t be the only one with these same feelings. I’m not bothered by this at all, just curious.

 

[Jumpinbare]

⁷

I don’t listen to or enjoy music. Does anyone else share the same feeling?

I dislike music because:

• It’s auditorily complex. There are instruments and voices at the same time and that is messy. A cappella is fine, and an instrument alone is fine, just not mixed.
• The words are hard to understand. They are blobs of sound unless they are super clear or I concentrate very hard on listening.
• When I finally understand the words, it takes a long time to interpret the meaning.

Perhaps I am just super lazy, but I can’t be the only one with these same feelings. I’m not bothered by this at all, just curious.

I agree on hard to understand lyrics. If there are words, I need to know them. I love full orchestral symphonies, instrumental bluegrass, and a lot of other instrumental music though.

 

[Misty Avich]

I like music but it isn't an interest of mine or anything, and I'm not into attending concerts or gigs. I just like to listen to music sometimes, on YouTube or my phone MP3 player.
And I can play the keyboard.

I'm more into audiobooks.

 

[Misery]

I like music, but... not with lyrics.

Instruments only, thanks.

As soon as the singing is added, I'm done.

 

[Judge]

Interesting considering how many of us do have difficulty perceiving multiple voices at the same time. Where they all become unintelligible. That trying to follow a melody with multiple instruments playing at the same time could be equally disturbing for some. I don't recall anyone mentioning this before here.

Conversely I can appreciate multiple instruments played at the same time for the same piece of music. However in a conversation if more than two persons are talking at the same time I can easily lose track of the entire conversation. A big reason why I hate parties. Too many conversations in close proximity all happening at once.

As for lyrics, I think most people have issues with trying to understand them depending on how dynamic the music may or may not be. Where despite the efforts of a songwriter, that most of us don't pay a lot of attention to the lyrics. I still bust up laughing thinking about songs and lyrics as a kid, only to eventually discover how far off I understood those lyrics to be.

I do have an affinity for movie soundtracks and classical music. Mostly without lyrics altogether. Hearing melodies without having to deal with words.

It does make me realize how we can all be potentially quite diverse in how we process sound. I know I've posted many times about my sensitivity to both very high and very low frequency abrupt, uninvited sounds.

 

[Sherlock77]

I think lots of people (ND or NT) are a little ambivalent about music, most people only focus on Top 40 music charts, or classic rock they remember, etc...

I personally enjoy exploring and finding lesser known musicians, I don't try that hard mind you... But sometimes you'll find at a songwriter circle at a local cafe, I'll just show up even if I don't know the musicians playing, and just decide as I go what I think of the music...

I've also spent lots of time at music open mics, that are basically local musicians who will never become famous...

 

[Levitat0r]

I don’t listen to or enjoy music. Does anyone else share the same feeling?

I dislike music because:

• It’s auditorily complex. There are instruments and voices at the same time and that is messy. A cappella is fine, and an instrument alone is fine, just not mixed.
• The words are hard to understand. They are blobs of sound unless they are super clear or I concentrate very hard on listening.
• When I finally understand the words, it takes a long time to interpret the meaning.

Perhaps I am just super lazy, but I can’t be the only one with these same feelings. I’m not bothered by this at all, just curious.

Hrm. I don't deal with that issue, but I can kind of imagine what it would be like. I think a common, more general tendency, is to overanalyze and decompose things, so if you have an automatic tendency to try to disassemble the music and you can't appreciate it otherwise, then I can see how you'd be kind of stuck for music appreciation.

I've never been a fan of hugely complicated music. Stuff like the Moonlight Sonata, and classical, and so forth, I appreciate that it's pretty but it's not the kind of stuff that pulls me in because it's indeed too busy. I've always been a fan of rock music, which tends to be simple, and most of the impact is derived from the passion and commitment in the performance rather than the complexity.

I think for simplest pop/rock music, my obvious go-to will have to be Green Day. It consists of two vocal parts, rhythm guitar, bass, and drums. It's very simple, but I think of it as a local maximum for what it is. Simpler than that, I don't know what you will find. Acapella is simple in the sense that it's just vocals, but it can be complex in the sense that it's often a big crowd of people singing harmony. Maybe complex harmonies don't bother you.

I'm a fan of musical devices like rounds, and cyclical stuff where complexity emerges from the interaction of simple parts. For rounds, you can listen to "Feeling This" and "First Date" by Blink 182, and that band is actually very similar to Green Day. The Wrens also did "Everyone Choose Sides" and "Hopeless", which exemplify the really imaginative use of monotony as a device with emergent complexity. Rounds are very common in music, but I don't know anybody but The Wrens to do what they do. Maybe it will tickle your brain.

Another example is "When I Come Around" by Green Day. That song is dead-simple for the structure, but the way the vocals and the rhythm interact is lifelong catchy to me. They seem to "rhyme" in an interesting way.

Sometimes I wonder if Billie lifted that melody from some old Irish drinking song.

 

[Levitat0r]

I don’t listen to or enjoy music. Does anyone else share the same feeling?

I dislike music because:

• It’s auditorily complex. There are instruments and voices at the same time and that is messy. A cappella is fine, and an instrument alone is fine, just not mixed.
• The words are hard to understand. They are blobs of sound unless they are super clear or I concentrate very hard on listening.
• When I finally understand the words, it takes a long time to interpret the meaning.

Perhaps I am just super lazy, but I can’t be the only one with these same feelings. I’m not bothered by this at all, just curious.

And incidentally, I don't know if you've ever attempted to listen to music without decomposing it. Or maybe you just need to find a kind of music that you hear all together, which is what I was telling you about before.

To me, music has always been mostly the melody, then the harmony, and then the rhythm. I tend to hear it as mostly the melody, embellished with essentially optional stuff. I think that most people would agree that the heart of the song is in the melody (assuming it has a melody). So, you can try to focus on that, primarily and see if it helps.

I originally did not disassemble music at all, and perceived it entirely as the melody alongside the rhythm, and then other stuff I didn't understand, but which reinforced the sound. Later, when I got into performing music, I spent a lot of time learning to play a song back in order to tease out a single part at a time, because you have to focus to separate it from the rest of the piece in your head. Now, that I've been playing with music for the longest time, I dedicate a lot of brain power to singing either the discernible harmony, or making one up if I can't. I'm disappointingly bad at discerning harmony parts no matter how hard I've practiced, and oftentimes, if I were going to do a rendition, I would probably wind up having to just make something up, and I like to think it would sound acceptable, if not exactly like the original.

 

[kriss72]

In general I don't like classical music or music without lyrics - I don't have to understand the lyrics thou, they can be in a language I don't understand and still sound nice

I find it relaxing to listen to the same song on repeat, it's kind of a stim to me, after I have listened a couple of times the music becomes predictable and calming, many songs become annoying thou, it has to be the right ones. (I'm talking about sometimes days with the same song on repeat)

 

[Levitat0r]

In general I don't like classical music or music without lyrics - I don't have to understand the lyrics thou, they can be in a language I don't understand and still sound nice

I find it relaxing to listen to the same song on repeat, it's kind of a stim to me, after I have listened a couple of times the music becomes predictable and calming, many songs become annoying thou, it has to be the right ones. (I'm talking about sometimes days with the same song on repeat)

I tend to get stuck on individual songs. Sometimes a group of three or so in a loop. And ultimately I only like about 300 songs, but I like them inordinately and intensely. It seems purposeful somehow.

 

[GrownupGirl]

Hate it.
Oh, wait, I thought you meant that movie Music. No, I like many kinds of music. Although when I do hate a song, I usually REALLY hate it, and have to plug my ears because it's like icicles shooting through my body.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

You think the way you think. Lazy is probably not the right word.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I love music, but I dislike most music I hear.

Ed

 

[UFO]

I like music as long as it is:

a) Familiar - Music is great background noise to hide all disturbing random noises around. But if a song is something I haven't learn to know, meaning I haven't already heard hundred times, there is no way I could concentrate on anything else. Doesn't stop me from finding new song favorites, but I can't use them as background noise if I need to do some work while listening.

b) Steady - I dislike guitar solos. I dislike sudden changes of tempo, style, pitch, whatever. I dislike sudden stops and bursts of noise. I really, really hate System of Down, I have little to no problems with Marilyn Manson using his full voice range, but any three chord music without any great artistic ambition or talent is a best choice for me.

Lyrics have never been a problem. As a foreigner it is easier me to just not listen English language and just treat it as one musical instrument among others. Music in my native language tends to be distracting. But when it is familiar song, it does not matter.

 

[Levitat0r]

I like music as long as it is:

a) Familiar - Music is great background noise to hide all disturbing random noises around. But if a song is something I haven't learn to know, meaning I haven't already heard hundred times, there is no way I could concentrate on anything else. Doesn't stop me from finding new song favorites, but I can't use them as background noise if I need to do some work while listening.

b) Steady - I dislike guitar solos. I dislike sudden changes of tempo, style, pitch, whatever. I dislike sudden stops and bursts of noise. I really, really hate System of Down, I have little to no problems with Marilyn Manson using his full voice range, but any three chord music without any great artistic ambition or talent is a best choice for me.

Lyrics have never been a problem. As a foreigner it is easier me to just not listen English language and just treat it as one musical instrument among others. Music in my native language tends to be distracting. But when it is familiar song, it does not matter.

It sounds like you are into what I would consider ambient music. It's kind of passive, and there to set a mood, without a lot of directionality. Furthermore, most music fails to catch my interest, and even though I can tell it's not written in the same style or intent as the ambient genre, I end up perceiving it about equally passively because I just don't connect with it.

The music I really love has something active in it that grabs me, and I couldn't describe what it is technically. It tends to be combined with a powerful lyrical message, and sometimes it only becomes deeply personal years later, as if prophetic.

Technically speaking, I listed some devices earlier that fascinate me, but they're just examples which are especially obvious to me, and there are plenty of other things that pull me in, which are harder to describe or pick out.

 

[UFO]

It sounds like you are into what I would consider ambient music. It's kind of passive, and there to set a mood, without a lot of directionality.

I do like that but usually too quiet for suppressing the world around me.

I have been raised with 80s music (both rock and synth pop), so that is more close to my musical tastes. What is nice in punk is that often there are no guitar solos - old joke is that this is because punks didn't know how to play a guitar

 

[Levitat0r]

I do like that but usually too quiet for suppressing the world around me.

I have been raised with 80s music (both rock and synth pop), so that is more close to my musical tastes. What is nice in punk is that often there are no guitar solos - old joke is that this is because punks didn't know how to play a guitar

Well, actually, in his early stuff, Billie did a lot of elaborate guitar solos, and he had a distinctive style which involved a lot of chords and dyads, somewhat country music influenced. He probably got told it wouldn't sell, and he switched to doing stuff like in "When I Come Around" which is mostly just two alternating notes.

When he was a kid, he was just an angry brat. When he got into truth-telling, I thought he'd stepped out of his depth, but then when I saw the level of actual corruption in the world, I realized he belongs alongside the likes of John Fogerty and Neil Young for his message.