Bands or music that had a great reputation that you really tried to get into but didn’t get.
I know music is so subjective.
2 of mine
Opera.I so stuggle with it .Maybe its because I havent a clue what their singing about and even the music I find avearage at best.I adore classical but opera has never done it.
I have been told that seeing it live is the real environment to enjoy it.
But ticket prices are extremely expensive like Glyndebourne were a cheap ticket is about £200.
A band that loads of music friends put right up there is Radiohead.
They are great muscians and Jonny Greenwood is supposed to be extermely talented.
I played Kid A and OK Computer everyday for a week really trying to get into it.
I have always found that bands I really love first plays can be a bit underwealming and often with bands like REM as an example it takes about 5 plays for me to take all the songs in.
So a sign of a great album with plenty of meat on the bone.
But OK computer I just found so miserable and depressing and Kid A.
As I say its subjective and I am not knocking Radiohead as a band at all.
So bands or styles that you really tried but left you cold
I was fascinated by the reviews for Murmur by R.E.M. Bought it on vinyl and didn’t really get it at all. It took 3 months; 29 plays and a couple of hilarious evenings with my best mate and I parked in front of the speakers trying to decipher anything Stipe was singing.
Woke up one morning and it just clicked.
The key for me is persistence and choosing the right door in. For Radiohead I would start with The Bends. Never start with Kid A. OK Computer is a dense, huge achievement but it’s a hard listen unless you focus on individual shards of beauty. Start with The Bends.
Why persevere with something you don’t like? Tolkien is revered, I tried reading it, couldn’t stand it, and never bothered again. To try to like something just because others say it’s good suggests someone doesn’t have faith in their own choices. We all like our own things and don’t need to worry what others think.
If people whose taste I respect and (largely) share consistently tell me something is really good, I feel I owe it to them and whatever they’re recommending to give it a proper chance to grow on me.
That’s what I’ve done with Brahms over many years - both listening and performing - but I still can’t get any enjoyment out of it!
Overall I agree, especially with regard to Tolkein and Pynchon :). The other side of it though is that whole genres and artists have opened up to me because I persisted.
Not always - much as I like Blue by Joni the rest sounds like the very worst folk/jazz wibbling and Ihave tried for literally decades - but enough for me to have realised that I would have lost so much wonderful art had I not persisted.
Ebor you really nailed it with your comments on peoples tastes you respect.
I have really got into classical the last 3 years and friends said you have got to listen to Mahler.
Initially I found it quite hard work but stayed with the Symphonies then saw Symphony number 2 on the Proms and Simon Rattle being interviewed about it and what it ment to him as it was his first classical concert at 13 he went to.So watching it and having played it a good 5 times in the past I really got the delicacy with the contrasting bombast of the piece.Love Mahler now.But only occasionally. But so get it.
So what I am saying stay with music that is Initially hard and with education and more understanding and being more open it can sometimes reap rewards.
I’ve never had an unflappable conviction of what I like and don’t like., sometimes I dont even know my left from my right.
But I agree if something is universally thought to be great and I happen to think rubbish. I am always open minded to think otherwise in another time and another place…
Indeed, and some of the best stuff takes a while to really get to like. But it’s the perseverance at something that you feel you should like, because of its reputation, that makes no sense to me.
It’s not (for me) a feeling that I should like it that makes me persevere.
Given my music taste, I should like opera and have tried a fair few. Apart from Mozart’s Big Four (Figaro, Cosí, Don G and Zauberflöte… and even those I would only describe as ‘fine’), though, it resolutely refuses to push my buttons. My loss, I’m sure.
For anyone to say ‘I don’t like ……’ without also being able to add ‘…and it’s not like I haven’t tried!’ is, to my mind, wrong.
I have never persevered because I felt I ought to like something. I persevere because I want to at least understand why others like it. There’s lots of stuff I’ve ended up loving as a result but likely just as much where I understand why others like it but also understand why it’s not for me.
Not sure why anyone would persevere if they don’t like a band’s music, especially after trying several tracks? It’s not a matter of personal achievement like climbing a mountain or learning how to play a musical instrument, nor a life benefit like learning how to swim or how to drive.
I don’t like jazz. Cursory hearing told me that, but because some people rave about it I had a bit more of a listen, and still not. Some people suggested ic I keep trying I may learn to like it (very doubtful), or discover there is some jazz I like (entirely possible) - but why subject myself to the unpleasantness? There is already so much music that I like or am likely to like that to me there is abdoluteky no point.
Perfectly okay to not like something regardless of the level of perseverence.
What bewilders me is why it bothers othets so much that perseverence does sometimes pay off.
My life is full of art, books, films, theatre, music and indeed people I persevered with and I’m so glad I did. Just as much fell by the wayside and that’s okay but why be bewildeted bythat? The reality is that if you persevere and gain nothing you have still gained because perseverance is a transferable life skill and your knowledge of why something does nothing for you never goes to waste. It’s not necessarily accurate to say there is no achievement or gain. Life is about learning and that should always involve goimg outside our comfort zone; learning where our boundaries lie; learning the limit of our tastes.
I can’t imagine anythimg more dull or offputting than not trying stuff or making a cursory, half-hearted or perfunctory effort to see what the world outside looks lile.
We are talking about persevering with trying to like music by a band that others like but we don’t… Individual artists, or conceivably, as I raised, genres. Not persevering with that does not mean someone doesn’t persevere with all manner of other things in life!
What specifically is the problem with persevering and getting something positve out of it some of the time? What specifically is bewildering or problenatic about that? A couple of people on this thread have said they don’t understand it. I genuinely can’t understand why it would matter enough to even comment on.