I listen to all music...

I don't necessarily like all music...

My preference is Classic Rock, but I listen to a plethora of other music.
I don't care for Hip Hop, Rap, etc...but there are a great many songs 
in these genres that I DO like and that I find completely fascinating..i.e...Gangsta Paradise.
That is a fine piece of music to me...it's real, and melodic...and different...
(and I LOVE Wierd Al's "Amish Paradise" - laugh my arse off, also "Bedrock Anthem"
 Al's parody of RHCP's "Give it Away")

I'm not opposed to listening to any genre of music...but obviously my preference is
what I listen to the most...as does everyone..

cclarry

...Gangsta Paradise.
That is a fine piece of music to me...it's real, and melodic...and different...

It was sampled from Stevie Wonder's 'Pastime Paradise'
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H3Sv2zad6s

jamesg1213

Rain
 
A whole lot of pop music these days leaves me feeling as if the singer was clinging to me, wrapping their legs and arms around me with their face an inch from mine and yelling for attention and not letting go for a second. There's no room to breathe for the listener in modern pop mixes.
 

 
That is so true.

Rain, I know a long time ago while playing in groups I started not liking vocalists. I had spent years and worked many hours learning to play my instrument and music for a group to make a few dollars playing and it never failed...everyone in the group had to buy equipment, haul it around and work on parts except the "main vocalists"...and he was the one that got all the credit. At least that's how it went for the groups I was in. People always thought that the group was the singers. Most of the time the singer had the idea that the band was nothing without him. Man, how hard is it to swallow crap like that. You sure have to love making music if you wanted to make some coins.
In the mid eighties I decided to hell with supporting vocalists. Easier ways to make a buck without supporting the bums.
How many vocalists did I work with that owned a PA or mic?...none...how many would haul equipment?...none...well they would roll up cords sometimes..how many ever spent hours studying music, buying equipment and having to haul it around?...none...do ya think that I think a vocalist in a group is the blood sucking leech of music? Well I do if they aren't behind an instrument while flapping those jaws. LOL...sorry but they just piss me off. Got me box and leaving now.

There isn't much hip hop/dance/rap-stuff that I like, but a lot of it makes me really annoyed in many ways. And that's without anything to do with skin colour, as all the Finnish rappers are white.
 
I've tried to get my hands on written US/UK rap lyrics because I seldom understand the street slang well enough to form an opinion about the texts "live". The ones I've read this far indicate that a huge portion of the lyrics are unbelievable manure with no signs of verbal talent, moral or ethical quality, nor any kind of professional ambition.
(Except for the studio-technical part, which is sometimes very good.)
 
When you add the fact that they so often use samples and melodic lines taken from other artists, I can't respect those guys very much as artists nor as persons. 
 
Gangsta type, violent or really harsh texts you don't hear in Finnish rap so often, but the emphasis usually seems to be on quantity of text, not quality.
 
Then, of course and thank God, there are exceptions.
 
As to the OP, that above mentioned and very introvert modern (often jazz), experimental music is something
that I can't motivate myself to sit down and listen to. Otherwise I dare to say anything goes, depending on the mood I'm in. I have classical weeks, hard rock weeks etc.
 
 

spacey
 People always thought that the group was the singers.

This is my big beef with the Idol, X-Factor, The Voice etc. Even the groups are vocal groups. These days its all the vocalist. I come from a time when Keith Emerson, Richie Blackmore, John Lord, Robert Fripp, Jimmy Page and many others were as big or bigger than the vocalists.
 
Nothing against vocalists but the vocals are part of the whole.

Hi,
 
All types of things are ok in their own right.
 
I do find that the over simplification and idealism of one over the other is boring and gets in the way of appreciating things.
 
There is a lot of violence in the words in American rap, and I attribute it to a society that loves to hide the problems under the carpet and then get upset that people speak out, until they make money and then the big/huge companies support the same artists with a fake name company!
 
There is no way that any music industry is going to ignore the millions anyone is making and they will buy out that person, because you are from a small town and you have no conception of what the large money is all about! That, in and of itself, should be one reason why you should never/ever pay attention to top ten lists and things called "classic rock" which are the same record companies making sure they can collect money from ASCAP/BMI for their coffers, while you, and your band are struggling to even get someone to buy a CD for 5 bux!
 
We live in a materialistic country, that does not know the meaning of words, and creates laws because they don't like words, be it _______ or _________ or ________ and to me that is the sign of a repressive/religious society kicking back to all the freedoms and fun we ever got, and you sit here and argue left and right, instead of realizing how manipulated you are. It sounds this and that and paranoid, but you haven't lived in a socialist/fascist country to understand this, and how their machine works and convinces people and gets their minions to stand up and cheer to make us look bad and wrong!
 
Without sounding like I'm picking on Rain, and I'm not, the example is ... that you think one guitar is going to make you better, and that is an absolute rarity at the very most. The only thing that can make you better is your inside, and you KNOWING what you want to do with that string at this moment ... not repeating what has been done before! As I love to say ... who are you?
 
We're too empty and sit here, and can only condemn others instead of looking in the mirror and find that we're more frustrated with ourselves than anything else ... but we won't admit it!
 Yeah ... let's go buy the new bruhaha ... that ought to calm us down for a few days! At least I'm asking for help with the equipment!

Moshkiae
 
 
We're too empty and sit here, and can only condemn others instead of looking in the mirror and find that we're more frustrated with ourselves than anything else ... but we won't admit it!
 

 
Indeed.
 

Glyn Barnes

spacey
People always thought that the group was the singers.

This is my big beef with the Idol, X-Factor, The Voice etc. Even the groups are vocal groups. These days its all the vocalist. I come from a time when Keith Emerson, Richie Blackmore, John Lord, Robert Fripp, Jimmy Page and many others were as big or bigger than the vocalists.
 
Nothing against vocalists but the vocals are part of the whole.

That's we're different, I'm Ok with that.
I had my fill of vocalists that weren't part of the whole. If they didn't play an instrument and help with all the work that comes with it...they could do a barber shop gig or something because I wasn't going to back their lazy arse any more.
 
Jeff, the guy that I wrote/recorded the tunes with that I posted at Mix. was a vocalist in a local group and that's all he did. He would at least roll up cords...
When he asked to record with me he had a great laugh when I told him what I thought (he asked lol) but he also understood how I felt...and never held it against me LOL. 

spacey
 
Rain, I know a long time ago while playing in groups I started not liking vocalists. I had spent years and worked many hours learning to play my instrument and music for a group to make a few dollars playing and it never failed...everyone in the group had to buy equipment, haul it around and work on parts except the "main vocalists"...and he was the one that got all the credit. At least that's how it went for the groups I was in. People always thought that the group was the singers. Most of the time the singer had the idea that the band was nothing without him. Man, how hard is it to swallow crap like that. You sure have to love making music if you wanted to make some coins.
In the mid eighties I decided to hell with supporting vocalists. Easier ways to make a buck without supporting the bums.
How many vocalists did I work with that owned a PA or mic?...none...how many would haul equipment?...none...well they would roll up cords sometimes..how many ever spent hours studying music, buying equipment and having to haul it around?...none...do ya think that I think a vocalist in a group is the blood sucking leech of music? Well I do if they aren't behind an instrument while flapping those jaws. LOL...sorry but they just piss me off. Got me box and leaving now.

Well, me I married one, so I do like them. And she does own her mic and pretty much everything in our studio, technically... ;) 
 
But I totally get what you mean. I do despise those singers - like most real singers I know do. Unless you actually go on to become a huge star, you don't get to work and earn your bread in this business for very long with a crappy attitude.  
 
A bunch of friends of ours started a band a few years ago which features no permanent singer. They're all guests, all at least relatively well-known (which helps sell tickets) they come and go as new singers join for a show or two. No matter if you're a hot new relatively newcomer or a living legend, you only get 2 or 3 songs. The real focus is the music and I guess that not having any one bogarting the mic helps.
 
The guitar player is also an incredible performer and a permanent center of attention, which further evens out things.

Glyn Barnes

This is my big beef with the Idol, X-Factor, The Voice etc. Even the groups are vocal groups. These days its all the vocalist. I come from a time when Keith Emerson, Richie Blackmore, John Lord, Robert Fripp, Jimmy Page and many others were as big or bigger than the vocalists.
 
Nothing against vocalists but the vocals are part of the whole.

The sad thing in smaller markets like back home is that these shows have become pretty much the only way to get a break. The same people who own the TV networks also own radio networks and printed medias - so if you don't get in bed with one of them, you're history.
 
I doubt that people even buy records all that much - they get their "music" from those shows. For many people, music has become interesting as a soundtrack to something else, nothing more. They need to see "human drama", and "the american dream", over and over again...
 
In a market that's already over saturated and where actual singers have trouble earning a living because there aren't really many opportunities, it's a tragedy to have a new batch of "stars" getting all media attention for a few months then being spewed out for their 15 minutes of fame before they fade out of it.