Close minded music fans

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

I don't know where to put this. If it doesn't belong here, move it. 

 

Music is a form that everyone can enjoy, but sometimes, people just don't try new things.

 

From my experience, there are two types of close minded music fans:

 

1. The Lazy Ones

These are the ones who either listen to the same three artists or just listen to the same Top 40 hits the radio plays all day. I'm okay with people having certain artists they enjoy and that's fine, but I find that people who just stick with one or two genres of music aren't really that open. Sure, you can like and dislike certain genre's and that's totally cool, but the ones that refuse to listen to any other artist instead of the ones they only listen to I find are not necessarily boring people, but they're just lazy I suppose lol. 

 

2. The "Wrong Generation"

Now these guys are the ones you see on the YouTube comments section of every classic rock video. You know them very well. They act like all modern music sucks nowadays and that their music is superior. They constantly remind you how much of today's music is just garbage rap and that there is no good music. They lie in their own bubble of ignorance and bitterness. These are the ones that constantly praise bands like Black Sabbath or Queen and tell you about how they are the greatest bands of all time and that they write "meaningful" lyrics instead of G U C C I  G A N G.

 

I'll admit I used to be like the second one, albeit with metal instead of classic rock. However, I eventually opened up to all sorts of music with Visual Kei expanding my tastes further.

 

Does anyone have any experiences with people like the ones I mentioned?  What would you say to close minded fans of music if you ever met one?

[Bear 1817]

The worst type of close minded fans in my experience are the ones who only listen to music from a certain country or continent. More often than not these are people who only listens to asian music.

[secret_no_03 959]

1 minute ago, Bear said:

The worst type of close minded fans in my experience are the ones who only listen to music from a certain country or continent. More often than not these are people who only listens to asian music.

Only because Asian music is the best, obviously. 😄

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

2 minutes ago, Bear said:

The worst type of close minded fans in my experience are the ones who only listen to music from a certain country or continent. More often than not these are people who only listens to asian music.

K-Pop fans are guilty of that. Most of my K-Pop friends are open to western music and that's cool. The hardcore ones on the other hand literally think Western Music is the spawn of satan and that K-Pop is superior. 

[Bear 1817]

3 hours ago, psychonnect_rozen said:

K-Pop fans are guilty of that. Most of my K-Pop friends are open to western music and that's cool. The hardcore ones on the other hand literally think Western Music is the spawn of satan and that K-Pop is superior. 

 

I don't feel like kpop fans are any worse than jpop/jrock/visual kei fans as far as this goes. They're more or less equal in my experience.

[ShTon 268]

I find the "wrong generation" ones more annoying than the lazy ones. Mostly because any era, genre, country of origin and so on has it's own load of crappy music that doesn't reach most people or gets forgotten. There's no era that's truly the best.

[colorful人生 2777]

• Open-mindedness comes with exposure, and it's necessary to know what you're looking for, musically, to grow those sensibilities.
• Music is interpreted differently from person-to-person.
  • Melody, texture, rhythm, lyricism, etc. or any combination of the musical elements contribute to one's enjoyment, and they all exist on a really wide spectrum.
  • Upbringing and culture + How your enjoyment could stem from different memories, places, etc. 
  • There are so many variables to consider, but those same qualities I've mentioned could be extrapolated to other aspects of life. "Music is not so different to life", as Herbie Hancock puts it.
• The same problem you have with people lacking open-mindedness is not asimilar to categorizing or compartmentalizing those who aren't open-minded. Binary thinking runs rampant on the internet and irl, but if you approach topics gingerly you'd be surprised how many people want to listen. Just don't try to push it with those unwilling.
• For us on a music forum, it might be hard for some to think this way, but music is just like every other artistic medium. My fine art "repertoire" is not very large as paintings don't really retain my interest atm. Someone's interest in music is the same. It could be in its infancy and might grow in the future, or they let it be because that's not what inspires/intrigues them.

Many people have music "tunnel vision", and I've gone through it myself. I think the internet which plays the largest role in "The Shrinking World", has been pivotal in increasing open-mindedness regarding diff. cultures and by extension, music.

 

So, I think it'll get better, but for now I just let people like whatever they want ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Both parties should be respectful about it, obv. The internet will always have stuck up people b/c it reflects life (w/ some added anonymity.)

Edited July 28, 2019 by colorful人生

[JRD 5156]

I just dislike the general I don't like X music, because Y music is superior and you just don't understand because you're a pleb. Or the constant bashing on pop music in any kind by "Rock/Metal" fans. If people opened up their mind to other music whole heartedly, they'd find more enjoyment than just listening to a genre a music. Constantly listening to only a certain genre after a while grates my nerves. Hell, I didnt think I'd like Nu-Metal, and then I found my current favorite band, and their sound in the beginning was Nu-Metal oriented(they since ventured off into different directions), and if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have open the possibility of trying more bands affiliated with that genre or gave them a chance. 

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

20 minutes ago, JRD said:

Or the constant bashing on pop music in any kind by "Rock/Metal" fans.

That alone is just annoying. Your not special for hating a certain type of music. I mean, I love pop and metal lol

 

21 minutes ago, JRD said:

Hell, I didnt think I'd like Nu-Metal, 

Same. I thought every Nu Metal band sounded like Limp Bizkit. 

 

I didn’t start liking Nu Metal till I listened to Stacked Rubbish now it’s one of my favourite genres 

[deedlitmurata 86]

I think there's also a time factor, in my case I only listen to Japanese music nowadays, any genre within Japanese music (pop, edm, rock, visual kei), newer western music has disappointed, and it's not like I have a lot of free time to listen more of it, i am busy with work and family,  therefore japanese music is that has proven to be the best for me, so I only listen to that and don't waste my time with music from other countries xD even if people hate me for that or think i'm close minded or whatever, that's their problem, i am happy the way i am and if the other people have a lot of free time to worry about what I listen or not listen to, then they should be very happy to have enough free time for that LOL.  Just to give an example.

[LIDL 692]

I always find people who listen to only certain genres, and don't give chance to another genres before saying they don't like it, really annoys me. 

 

I understand if someone don't listen to certain artists, but to shun the whole genre associated with that artist are absurd. There are dozens more artists that doing their own thing in the same genre, and I find it impossible not one of them they may find interesting.

 

I could never understand the way these people think. Options are there to enrich you. I find many talented artists are actually having such eclectic taste, but the irony is that some of their fans are not like that. And that's dumb to me.

 

So that is my issue, the genre elitists and purist.

[pluviophile 0]

I belong to lazy ones that is for sure, but I don't really mind new bands, it just searching for them seems too complicated for me.

[heresytrash 250]

I never had an issue with Lazy ones as I think some people are just casual listeners to music anyways and like what they like.  Hell I found a guy who didn't even listen to music at all, at least on his own accord.

I think the one I had an issue with is the Vkei/jrock fans who are much like the kpop fans who refuse to acknowledge western music. Which is sad because most of the bands they like are inspired by bands from the west. Also I had a friend whose only complaint on one album of a Japanese band is that it sounded 'too western' and I honestly don't know what she meant by that or why it was a problem. I know she won't listen to coldrain because of that reason, like does Masato have to sing in Japanese for you to be interested? 

Must be boring to live like that.

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

20 minutes ago, heresytrash said:

Also I had a friend whose only complaint on one album of a Japanese band is that it sounded 'too western'

I never understood what that means? Plus it’s such a dumb thing to say.

 

Like I’ve seen it with many bands before. It’s called inspiration not outright copying. Hell, a lot of VK bands say that they listen to Western groups as inspiration 

[hopefully_benign 56]

It depends on the band. I've said it about DeG, but in that case it's a shorthand way for me to say "they're too influenced by modern metal now for my taste, and modern metal is mostly awful because it tends toward the gimmicky and overproduced." I'm not saying western influences are intrinsically bad, just those particular western influences.

 

Rock wasn't invented in Japan, of course all vk is western influenced. But-despite the received wisdom that vk "isn't a sound"-it has certain musical signifiers running through its history that are unique to it. Like, you could erase a Madeth Gray'll song from everyone's collective memory, re-write it in English, and you could immediately tell just by listening to it that it doesn't sound like some American or British band wrote it. I guess maybe it could be mistaken for some unusually metallic-yet-poppy, ultra-theatrical goth rock, but even that's a stretch.

 

From my experience, in music and media in general, what looks like the most stalwart gatekeeping usually has experience and some well thought out thought processes behind it. At the end of the day, it's bad form to attach motives to other people's taste. "Elitists" could just as easily label you as being a "raving poptimist," having no discernment, or yadda yadda.

Edited October 19, 2019 by hopefully_benign