Music preferences: Wide or Narrrow?

Howsabout William Shatner and Sigur Ros?

Wide, and it would be wider if I had more money! About the only 'genres' that I don't have much of would be opera/classical and country.

 

I think it is important to find a balance between open-mindedness and selectivity; too much open-mindedness just becomes arbitrarity. There are some musical styles I just don't feel at home with, which I call "Arschwackelmusik" (a term which is hard to translate; the best attempt I can come up with is "move-yer-ass music"). This is a term for all kind of music which is just mildly rhythmic without any complicated structure, like for example reggae (though I like the kind of dub-reggae the Ozric Tentacles occasionally play). When I dance I want to dance orgiastically, the whole body shaking, and I need the whole dance floor for it because I am prone to run from one corner of the room to the other while dancing. But for this I need something with a real drive. A good example for what I really like to dance to are the last 3 minutes of "Dance on a Volcano" by Genesis; after the words "Let the dance begin". With reggae I just can't do that, and I never understood how people can dance to reggae. It absolute bores me to death and certainly does not create any need to dance in me. But certain riffs just get me and make me want to go really mad on the dance-floor.
Ok, I'm weird.


Edited by BaldFriede

BaldFriede wrote: I think it is important to find a balance between open-mindedness and selectivity; too much open-mindedness just becomes arbitrarity. There are some musical styles I just don't feel at home with, which I call "Arschwackelmusik" (a term which is hard to translate; the best attempt I can come up with is "move-yer-ass music"). This is a term for all kind of music which is just mildly rhythmic without any complicated structure, like for example reggae (though I like the kind of dub-reggae the Ozric Tentacles occasionally play). When I dance I want to dance orgiastically, the whole body shaking, and I need the whole dance floor for it because I am prone to run from one corner of the room to the other while dancing. But for this I need something with a real drive. A good example for what I really like to dance to are the last 3 minutes of "Dance on a Volcano" by Genesis; after the words "Let the dance begin". With reggae I just can't do that, and I never understood how people can dance to reggae. It absolute bores me to death and certainly does not create any need to dance in me. But certain riffs just get me and make me want to go really mad on the dance-floor. Ok, I'm weird.

You're perfectly normal. It is perfectly normal to move to music, whether one calls this movement dancing or not. I too usually can't sit still when I listen to music I like, I have to move around, often in a 'violent' or 'ritualistic' manner. It's a natural response to music. I am reminded of the time when the avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor met the neo-classical jazz trumpet player Wynton Marsalis for the first time and asked him whether he could dance to James Brown. 'Sure,' Marsalis answered. Taylor then asked him whether he could also dance to Albert Ayler. Marsalis could only stagger back, completely astonished. Guess whose music I enjoy more.

However, sometimes I don't move when I listen to music - I 'meditate' instead. Funnily enough, I can 'meditate' to any music I enjoy, and this includes a selection of artists from such genres as prog, jazz, rock, metal, blues, classical (in the broad sense, including XX c. and medieval), some pop, folk etc. etc. etc.  Basically I try to let the music itself lead me, and if it leads me somewhere interesting, I don't care about the genre.

 

Edited by Manunkind

I lived in Antarctica once. I can tell you, you don't speak there. There isn't anyone to speak to, and it's too cold to waste energy on speaking to yourself. Besides, the penguins understand sign language perfectly.

Edited by avestin