What "types" of music do you prefer?

I will add that, in some ways, I'm a bit jealous of those that are completely happy with only one or two favorite genres/subgenres since it's WAY cheaper to get all the good albums and you can really dig down to find the hidden golden nuggets that are below the better marketed, more well known results.

Rain
It'd be easier to tell what I don't like:
Hip Hop.
RnB (what they call that)
Pop music from after 2000 - because pop music needs to rot on a shelf for a while before it's good. Even disco was redeemed that way... :P
 
Obviously there are exceptions to every rule. There are some gems in each of those categories.
 
I am also no big fan of Country music - but it's not as annoying as the above mentioned. 
I'm not much of a prog rock fan either.
 
What also annoys me is when they take one very specific ingredients and turn it into a genre - like DubStep. I love electronic music, but I can't stand DubStep. It's like calling ketchup a meal. I love ketchup, but a bowl of ketchup isn't a meal.
 
Otherwise, from Bach to Children of Bodom and from Oasis to Haujobb, it's all good.

Wow! I was told I had a twin that I was separated from at birth. Are you him?

I'm into hard core gangsta polka.

My musical tastes reflect tbe ecclectic journey my life has been so far. I looked at the last 10 artists I played and it went like this:

Roots Manuva
Tony Bennet
Frank Sinatra
Jedi Mind Tricks
The Andrews Sisters
Johnny Cash
Some local rapper freestyling
A song from an old house music mixtape from 93'
Abbey Lincoln
Led Zeppelin

I'm not sure if that makes me weird,"diverse", both or just a product of adapting to many surroundings. I suppose it doesn't matter. I never have understood why people feel the need to passionately hate things they don't enjoy and worse still, make lame rationalizations. If one must hate, there is typically no reason that matters other than "I simply don't like it". When "reasons" are listed they often come across as hypocritical and on this forum some of the comments reek of racism.

Most of us have a tinge of music snobbery. Our music is "good music","real music" and what we don't like is "garbage". In my experience music that we don't like all sounds alike. I'm guessing an alien would have a hard time disntinguishing between Johnny Cash and Two Chains. Most western poular music follows similar patterns with arbitrary minor differences we invent to make our tastes seem superior to others. I honestly think I can find a song from any genre that I can appreciate.

For pop music I like listening to the radio- doesn't matter where the wonderbar is, I will probably be alright with it.
 
I remember years and years ago watching Oprah and Ashley Judd was a guest (very talented girl). She had this game called 'druthers' where you pick which you prefer between two options. This thread kind of reminds me of that. If we played that game it may come to pass that musical preferneces are as narrow as the so called 7 movie endings or the myers brigg personality test!
 
Funny how people have an aversion to "black" music too. But I guess that flips both ways and as Anton newcombe said "GnR were not a great band because black people don't listen to them"

backwoods
 
Funny how people have an aversion to "black" music too. But I guess that flips both ways and as Anton newcombe said "GnR were not a great band because black people don't listen to them"

 
Overgeneralization.
 
It's entirely possible - and quite frequent - to be the biggest blues, gospel, jazz or reggae fan and not to like hip hop or RnB. Not counting the fact that black music influenced many of the biggest white stars, starting with Elvis and the whole British Invasion... You can acknowledge and appreciate those roots w/o having to like Jay Z.
 
There are many more "black" music genres that I like than not.
 
Just because I don't like Wagner doesn't mean I hate German composers.

craigb
1)  Are you one of those that pretty much stay in a small, focused area of music?  Or do you like a wide range of genres and styles?

 
I think my tastes are pretty diverse. Hip hop and Rap being the areas I generally dislike
 

craigb
2)  What are your favorite types/genres/styles?

Progressive Rock
Celtic and English Folk
Folk Rock
Earlier R&B  (ie Mowtown, Stax etc.)
"Classic" Rock
The Blues
 

Old55
Regardless of style, I generally like earlier releases from many artists--usually the first three or four albums.  It's unusual for an artist to keep my interest after that, they start repeating themselves or they change so much that they're unrecognizable from the early efforts.  Peter Gabriel and Joe Jackson are ones who managed to avoid that situation.  

I think this is a great point for me as well.  I've had some "over a few drinks" discussions with friends about this and, personally, I've come to two conclusions for this: 
 
The first is that the new group is raw and organic so that what you hear is really what the band is all about (the exception to this is when a group makes a definite change early in their existence - usually because they stop copying someone else and come into their own "sound" - then it's the first three or four albums from that point).  After a few albums, it seems like others start pushing them in what they consider "more marketable" directions which also causes the band members to attempt higher levels of musicianship and to strive to produce a more polished product.  In my mind they cease to show that wonderful sense of innocence and new-ness.
 
The second is that the first few albums generally contain songs that have perculated in the band member's heads for a LONG time.  They've had a lot more evolution and they now hold more meaning to the musicians (which shows in their performances).  Eventually, for several of the same reasons as conclusion one, they begin just pumping out songs that never have any lengthy roots to them and they begin to have a bit of a jaded feel to them.  Basically quantity starts to trump quality and formulaic music begins to replace the more emotional, if less elegant, original offerings.
 
Another way of looking at all of this is that earlier works seem to appeal to the emotional senses while later efforts get recognized intellectually.
 
Or it's all complete bollocks.

For the record..its not much hating rap that sometimes has racial overtones in this forum, it is typically the way it is expressed. That makesbit appear that way.I'm not a big fan of rap these days myself but I habe seen more than a few theeads where it takes an ugly turn.

Race only comes into play when stereotypes are considered.  Sorry, but most of the Rap that's really crap comes from undereducated, anti-social, losers of lower intelligence who have a distorted version of reality and actually think that drugs and violence are tokens of accomplishment (ok, so I sugar-coated my sentiments).  This crosses all racial lines, however it's statistically relevant that a greater number of certain races fall into this category just has it does for gang and murder statistics.  It doesn't have to be that way.
 
On another side, age comes into play and people learn to like certain music if it helps them identify with their generational members.  Personally, even though I love some of the music, I simply can't stand Cookie Monster vocals.  I consider it the equivalent to someone puking into a microphone.
 
That said, most of these types of things don't appeal to us because they aren't meant to.  They have meaning within the social groups that they are meant for and, if they sound ridiculous to others outside the group, so what?  It's like someone from a knitting forum reading our FSF thread or wondering WTH we keep going on about "becan."  Who cares?  Neither is meant for their enjoyment anyway.

dubdisciple
For the record..its not much hating rap that sometimes has racial overtones in this forum, it is typically the way it is expressed. That makesbit appear that way.I'm not a big fan of rap these days myself but I habe seen more than a few theeads where it takes an ugly turn.

I'm always reminded of that day where a friend of ours walked into the apartment my pal and I were sharing and brought to our attention that besides one SRV poster, there were no white guys on our walls. Hendrix, Guy, Davis, Parker, Marley, etc...
 
And to be honest, we'd never even realized.
 
OTOH, I have no problem telling you that I don't like rap nor the violent gangster culture and attitude it quite often (though not exclusively) promotes. That's where I draw the limit for myself. It doesn't change a thing for rappers or their audience. Free speech goes both ways.
 
But to me, there's a world of difference between Rocko and his rap about date raping a woman and Louis Armstrong singing What a Wonderful World. 
 
It's also not too surprising that a forum filled w/ guys who spent years learning to play music won't be too inclined to favour a genre that's often limited to a drum loop with a guy speaking rhythmically and a line sampled from a 80s hit for all melody...

As soon as I say I dislike a certain type of music, I hear something on the radio that make a liar out of me.
 
My music mould was created in the late 60's and early 70's. The big British rock bands playing blues got me hooked on guitar. The Beatles were in a class by themselves.
 
I want to say I hate rap and hip hop as done in America because it does nothing for me. I spent some time in Negril, Jamaica one summer and their version of rap was amazing. It was essentially the DJ playing music while doing this amazing voice over and adding effects like reverb and delay. It worked there and it belonged there. When you went to take a walk, the music seemed to be coming from everywhere. That was in the mid 80's, before I was really exposed to American Rap in any large amount.

dubdisciple
For the record..its not much hating rap that sometimes has racial overtones in this forum, it is typically the way it is expressed. That makesbit appear that way.I'm not a big fan of rap these days myself but I habe seen more than a few theeads where it takes an ugly turn.

I think apart from the music element, people dislike the street culture that it's come to represent. And that includes many older black people that I speak to. They love rap for what it was back in the day, they hate what it's become. And I hate it too. I just hate the whole angry, thuggish sound of it. Here in New York I sometimes work with my window open, and every 30 seconds or so an SUV drives by slowly with modern rap blaring, and from the lyrics I manage to make out there is invariably the n-word and the b-word and references to one of the following themes: violence, intimidation, jealousy, disrespect, wealth. It's not just the content of the lyrics, it's the way they're articulated as well - the angry vocal posture which gets old after about 10 seconds. My dislike of this music does not have any racial overtones at all. I've spent my whole life listening to black music - the blues, jazz, reggae, ska, soul, funk. Nor does my dislike of the culture it represents have any racial overtones. To suggest that it does is to deny that the vast majority of black people do not have anything to do with thug culture, or that there are people of other races who partake in this culture too. It's perfectly OK to hate thug rap and there is no need whatsoever to bring skin color into it. If death metal bands were singing about shooting each other and actually doing it in real life, I'd hate that whole culture too. 

backwoods
What's "thug" rap got to do with it? 

Because when people say they hate rap, that's generally what they're referring to. Chances are they're not referring to Grandmaster Flash. 

backwoods
OK. Hate the "thug" rap which we hear so much of these days then... 

I do. Apart from the violent element, I just don't hear much of musical interest in it and haven't for years. Now someone like Kool Keith, I could listen to.