Are people generally too close minded when it comes to music?

mayukachan said:
yea not enough people listen to classical ;A;

Protaku94 said:
Yup. I'm willing to try just about any genre, but most people refuse to listen to anything else.

It really makes me feel like I'm the only person in the word who adores Dubstep and 40's vintage music. They go well together, ok?

DragonQuest3 said:
Does Pierre Schaeffer and Stockhausen count?

mayukachan said:
yea not enough people listen to classical ;A;

slovak125 said:
It's undeniable fact that creating classical music is much harder than producing pop or rap, however it doesn't mean that people can't enjoy both genres.

As for close minded people... I don't really care what others listen to, nor I'm forcing them my taste. Just think of it that they're losing one of the most beautiful thing in this world and that's their damn problem.

As for me I think that I'm rather open minded when it comes to music. I liisten to everything that sounds good be it classical, piano music through metal,punk,rock,rap K-Pop, J-Rock to dubstep,d'n'b and recently chillstep and indie.

Well, there is a one genre that I can't stand and that's pop. Whatever, I'm close minded too...

DragonQuest3 said:


But didn't you just mention you listened to K pop? Also not liking certain styles doesn't make you close minded. Herding something your not used to and immediately putting it off as not being real music without first giving it a fair chance does.

Kyzix said:
I definitely think so. I grew up listening to a lot of progressive rock, and then around middle school/high school, I discovered noise music (Melt-Banana, Merzbow, Arab on Radar, Lightning Bolt, Hanatarashi, Bordeoms, The Flying Luttenbachers, The White Mice, etc. to name a few of my favorites). Of course, noise music isn't a particularly popular genre, but the a good percentage of people I met not only didn't like the music (I didn't really expect them to), but they went on to deny that it even was music. Being told by most people that the music you love and listen to everyday is so bad that it doesn't even qualify as music is rather harsh.

The most annoying closed-mindedness that I come across though is that of people who exclusively like classic rock and such and believe that no listenable music has come out for the past 20-30 years. I knew quite a few people like that in high school.

I try to make a point to be as open minded as possible towards music. I am constantly looking for new music, and I'll give anything a listen. I've come to realize over the years that my taste in music doesn't quite mesh with that of many other people, but I at least try even if it's not something I like.

Due to my persistence, I've been able to find music from almost every genre that I like even ones like hip-hop and pop that I hated for the longest time. I just had to look harder.

slovak125 said:


Alright but K-Pop is something vastly different from your typical western Pop you hear in radio. for reference google BigBang, G-Dragon, 2ne1, Bangtan boys.

I try to give every song a shot, so in that case you can say I'm open minded.

Paulo27 said:
Replace music with any form of entertainment, and it's basically the same thing, some people just don't want to get out of their comfort zone and deny everything around them, some people take it to extreme levels and hate other things that aren't the things they like without even giving them a try sometimes.

DragonQuest3 said:

I like a lot of noise music as well though I'm more into Les Ralizes Denudes and Ramleh than the ones you mentioned and I've gotten to the point where I find peoples reaction to it pretty hysterical. That said though it does piss me off how no matter how hard you try to explain to them about textures they still pretend not to get it.

As far as the people who only listen to Classic rock and think no listenable music has been produced since I used to be one of them and I think this is an issue of only knowing the mainstream side of music because I stand by that modern radio is like deja vu from hell I swear I'm hearing the same songs over and over. I used to think that how popular or iconic a music artist is the better they probably were and while some artists have earned their status their are plenty of music artists who severely got overlooked despite being top quality stuff. I must say I really get annoyed with people who are so attached to what they grew up with and are used to they refuse to give other things a fair chance.

NudeBear said:


I feel ya. Went to carnegie hall a few weeks back to listen to one of the greatest young talents of our generation and the hall wasn't even half full lol. One of the cashiers was like, "since you're young, I'll give you front row seats for 12 bucks". He said it wouldn't matter because hardly anyone was there lmao.

In case you're curious, Daniil Trifonov was playing.

Paulo27 said:
Replace music with anime and it's basically the same thing, some people just don't want to get out of their comfort zone and deny everything around them, some people take it to extreme levels and hate other things that aren't the things they like without even giving them a try sometimes.

Oni_Link said:


Fixed that for you buddy :D

Kyzix said:

I quite like Les Ralizes Denudes as well. The No Wave scene was great too.

The main problem I think that those kind of people (most people actually) have is that they don't really actively look for music, while I spend a lot of time doing so. It's one of the reasons why I stopped being a music production major. The entire major was full of people who thought nothing but classic rock and newer bands that imitate it are listenable, and people who wanted to become DJs. We had a little project at the beginning where we had to present about a person we admired, and everyone was along those lines, and then I came forward with my presentation about John Zorn and Tzadik Records, and I could tell immediately that I didn't quite fit in.

mayukachan said:
I'm actually watching Kaiba right now and I can see why people stay away from it. It is hard to get into unless you're really into sci-fi and different types of art styles.

mayukachan said:
I'm actually watching Kaiba right now and I can see why people stay away from it. It is hard to get into unless you're really into sci-fi and different types of art styles.

slovak125 said:


I don't want to judge book by the cover but that art looks really awful. As visuals are one of the most important things in animation I doubt Kaiba would be my cup of coffe.

DragonQuest3 said:
In those lines its pretty tame compared to Kuuchuu Buranko. I thought it was a little hard to follow at times but it was fascinating enough and emotional enough to suck me in.

mayukachan said:

Yeah, if you can't handle cartoonish/alien like characters, it'll be hard to sit through.

I'm okay with it though.


So far, Ping Pong is the best Yuasa work I've come across with Mind Game and Kick Heart being the worse. Kaiba's not too hard to get into but seeing as a lot of people don't even like Ping Pong, they probably can't watch Kaiba either.

slovak125 said:


I don't want to judge book by the cover but that art looks really awful. As visuals are one of the most important things in animation I doubt Kaiba would be my cup of coffe.

hulksWAGON said:
Yo people have their niche. Chill out.

-Skyleo- said:
DragonQuest3, I don't understand why you seem so offended by those so-called "close-minded" people.
And I don't even really understand what you mean by "people". You, me, and everyone are people, no ?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not mad or upset or anything, but I think this thread is quite depressing. Honestly, "circlejerk" is one of the first word who comes to my mind by reading this thread.

I think I know where you're coming from though, but I just disagree with your conclusion. And I don't like in general when someone says "people are like this, like that...", it kind of sound wrong, imo.

I've never liked those 'radio-friendly' music either, and because of it, what I listened the most when I was a kid was video game music, especially some OST from japanese games. I was also a fan of Yoko Kanno's work (mainly Cowboy Bebop and Escaflowne). Compared to ALL the music people I know were into, the vgm and anime tunes I listened had a lot of melodies, chords, different types of sound and at that time, I have to ask myself : "Why people are listening to these shitty generic songs ? The songs they are listening are so boring, it's always the same things !".
I was so passionate about the music I listened to, that I then decided to take music lessons, in conservatory but not only. I studied (and still study) classical, jazz and what we call "popular music". And thanks to the theory and harmony classes, I've finally understood precisely what I like the most in music. All the music I adore contains a lot of rich harmonies (i.e "extended chords"), from Ravel to Coltrane, from Gentle Giant to Incognito, from Yellow Magic Orchestra to Soft Machine, From Prokofiev to Herbie Hancock, etc...
This is the thing I value the most in music, and this is also why I'm naturally better to the writing process of music more than the sound for himself, I don't really want originality if there are not rich harmonies.
Once I've found this, I was like :"man, rich harmonies with good melodies is the most beautiful thing ever, people need to understand this. QQ"
Then, in high-school, I've met some kind people (they are my best friends today, we regularly play music together) and they were a lot into funk, disco music, classic rock, blues or modern but funky songs. Not going to lie, I, at first, didn't understand why they loved this so much (some of these songs contains just four chords throughout the song for example).

But after, by speaking with them about this, about what they like and stuff, I understood something else : they're definitely as passionate as me about music, about the music they like, more specifically. It's this way I've finally understood that people don't always value the same thing as you in music (or art in general). You can listen the exact same song as some people and yet, end up by liking this song for a lot of different reason than those people, even if they also like it. It's the same with many other things. For example, I have some "artsy" friends who are like "Wow, this painting of Rembrandt is so great because blablabla", and then I'm like "hey, I like this Rembrandt painting too, but it's not because of that, but because of this".
In the same vein, Robert Glasper said something similar : "One song can make someone extremely happy and at the same time can make someone extremely sad, or that same song could make someone extremely violent. It all depends on where they are in their life."

So yeah, what I was trying to say is people live different lives, in a different environment, they all live a "unique" life in a way. So don't expect people to see things with the same eyes as you. Especially when it comes to art, because art is a very personal thing.

By the way, I listened to some of the songs you consider as "godly, creative or innovative", and even if I think they're interesting, I didn't really like them, mainly because of the lack of rich or jazzy chords. Maybe I will love some of them later, or never, I don't know. But I don't think I absolutely HAVE to like what you consider as significant because what I like makes who I am, but what I don't like also makes who I am.

Also, I'd say that instead of complaining about how people are too closed-minded when it comes to music, maybe you should try to understand them, no ? Perhaps they don't want to be open about what you find interesting because you don't seem open about what they find interesting.
If you try and it still doesn't work, it can mean they are definitely closed-minded about it, but it can also mean they are just not yet ready for this. In this case, let times take its course, otherwise people can feel under pressure and will try to be in your "so unique" stuff at all cost in order to be seen as "open-minded", and finally ended up by never truly like what you share, even if they don't want to admit it.

TL;DR I think it's nice to be open about music. But it's also nice to be open about people.


Yeah, they are not really considered as classical.
However, they actually can be linked with some classical composers of the 20th century, like Pierre Boulez. And sometimes, some composers may comes from classical and then move to something more avant-garde like Steve Reich, Luigi Russolo or Marc-André Dalbavie. Sometimes, the contrary happens too, if I remember well, Frank Zappa did a classical music for example... I guess classical is pretty vast and I do think this word can be applied to some avant-garde composer actually.
And even if composers like Schaeffer, Stockhausen or Xenakis are definitely more avant-garde then classical, this is why we study some of their work in music conservatories.

tstitch33 said:
A lot of people like to deny that they enjoy mainstream music in order to feel elitist. I've been guilty of this from time to time, as I like to think that I'm different from the masses.

That said, there's something wonderful about discovering a genre of music. I never thought I'd enjoy music from anime, whether its the opening or ending themes or something else, and that has truly made me a more open person when coming to musical preference.