Do you have eclectic taste in music?

I'm not very eclectic. I'll go deep into a few broad genres (folk-ish, metal, experimental-ish/ambient/drone stuff, rock) and skip pretty much everything else.

I listen to anything but rock, I guess that's eclectic? Though my interest tends to shift from genre to genre in periods; this year I've listened to a lot of ambient albums, before that I was heavily into Baroque and early music, before that it was disco, etc.

What Disndale said, pretty much (with slightly different genres). I'm perfectly comfortable with not liking everything.

Hate hate hate this word

a ~possibly~ interesting side question: if you have broad tastes in music, do you have any overarching aesthetic principles that tie the various strands together?

I knew you'd say that (xp). I'm more dilettantish than eclectic.

i don't mean some sort manifesto there btw, more of a general sense of 'these are the qualities i like' across a diverse range of music xp

I have apoplectic taste in music

lol

I have ectopic taste in music.

my taste is kind of minty with a hint of onion

http://www.richardtorry.com/minty/sickest-band-Comp-17sec-.jpg

From inside the meadow, there are many different sights and sounds, but from outside the meadow, the property developers see no variety, just another meadow they can crush with their capitalism and their cars and a new Asda

As for out there, there are so many different instruments of intrusive antagonism out there, as inventive and clever as they are barbaric and cruel, the colleague who wields the spotify playlist is like a truman in an atom bomb shop

Absolutely fuck not. The hell with "eclectic" taste in music, it just leads to dilettantism and wishy-washy-ness. I have extremely specific and particular tastes in what I like in music. And all I want to listen to is that thing which is at that moment scratching my itch.

The problem is, that That Particular Thing that I get really obsessed with doesn't seem to bear any resemblance whatsoever to whatever it is that people seem to talk about when they talk about "Genre". "Genre" seems to be random attributes thrown together with no regard to whatever it is in that particular artist or piece of music that I like.

So, y'know, the with hell eclecticism for the sake of it. But the hell with this notion of "Genre" even harder.

I definitely do have eclectic taste but I can't think of anything interesting to say about it

I don't think my taste is guided by any overarching aesthetic principles

If you ask me after the end of year poll I might make less expansive claims for my tastes

i will ask u

or someone else should ask u

'Everything from The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan through to The Stone Roses, the Charlatans, Primal Scream, Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller, Oasis, Kasabian' Rolling 'Are "Moms" Eclectic?' Thread 2017 [Started by Robert Grazer in November 2016, last updated 1 minute ago by gaz coombes on I Love Music] 20 new answers

I like music that makes me sing and/or dance and/or pay attention. I don't like meditative music with some very special exceptions. So, every genre is fair game but it's true that some are more likely to put me of (metal, latino genres, romantic classical music) than others (rap, disco, free jazz) for a variety of reasons.

*off

When it comes to music, my tastes are...a little different. A little out there. I'm not sure you can handle it!

Always been a bit jealous of the true genre experts on ILM and otherwise. I like investigating different styles, but I wouldn't say I'm an expert or have any affiliation to any specific area or sound.

I guess my musical tastes are 'eclectic' inasmuch as they are heavily informed by my ADD (which also informs my lack of deep genre expertise).

no

a ~possibly~ interesting side question: if you have broad tastes in music, do you have any overarching aesthetic principles that tie the various strands together?

― seb mooczag (NickB), Tuesday, 5 January 2016 13:28 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Often I'll get really wrapped up in an artist or genre for a certain period and pay a lot of attention to a certain area for the space of a year or so. Music works as a natural, free-flowing diary in that respect:- 'Ah yes, 2014 was my jazz year; 2003 was when I was deep into Tom Waits etc'...
I'm also a fan of making myself playlists/mixtapes that concentrate on a specific mood or vibe. They won't always be subject to a clear style, more an over-arching 'feel' or vibe.

If I had to choose an aesthetic principle, I guess I'm mostly interested in hearing ideas I've never heard before. As a general rule, I prefer shock + awe + innovation, and I get frustrated by things that sound generic or cosy or feel too much like a retread of what has gone before or riding on the coattails of an established sound. That's not to say I dislike 'old' music, by all means - I love hearing music by Beach Boys or Talking Heads or Miles Davis or Joni Mitchell because to me these were innovators in their fields, thinking about music in ways that no one had before and selecting their influences in interesting new ways. If an artist can combine shock & awe with hearts & minds in the right balance, then I'll love them forever.

I experience shock and awe every time i go to the shop or come to work, enough is enough

I guess, but it seems very de rigueur today to have "eclectic taste in music" -- you rarely meet rigid genre-heads anymore.

True! Dilettantism is the expected behavior of young music fans I know, without the pejorative view. If you have access to a huge chunk of the history of recorded music, why not dip in here and there?

Yeah, in my experience eclecticism has gone from an exceptional 'Wow, you listen to Pantera AND Happy Hardcore, LOL?!!?' thing when I was at school; to 'Look at me smashing the boundaries of genre oppression - White Stripes, NWA, Squarepusher - life is a box of chocolates!!'; to 'Yeah, just let Spotify do its thing, no bother'...

Absolutely fuck not. The hell with "eclectic" taste in music, it just leads to dilettantism and wishy-washy-ness. I have extremely specific and particular tastes in what I like in music. And all I want to listen to is that thing which is at that moment scratching my itch.

The problem is, that That Particular Thing that I get really obsessed with doesn't seem to bear any resemblance whatsoever to whatever it is that people seem to talk about when they talk about "Genre". "Genre" seems to be random attributes thrown together with no regard to whatever it is in that particular artist or piece of music that I like.

So, y'know, the with hell eclecticism for the sake of it. But the hell with this notion of "Genre" even harder.

― Liebe ist kälter als der Todmorden (Branwell with an N), Tuesday, 5 January 2016 13:42 (2 hours ago) Permalink

you have eclectic taste in music

I guess, but it seems very de rigueur today to have "eclectic taste in music" -- you rarely meet rigid genre-heads anymore.

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Tuesday, January 5, 2016 11:10 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed but i don't think it's as just fashionable as de rigeur suggests, i think it's something deeper. and it is a good development imo

one can only have an eclecticism of outlook, not of taste

i have a catholic taste in music

Haha I have been listening exclusively to West German bands of the early 70s (in fact pretty much only from 3 cities south of the Uerdingen Isogloss) for about 6 months straight now. I have p much the least eclectic tastes of anyone on ILM at the moment.

I like everything from Kanye West to Billy Joel, it's true

people with eclectic taste can go on genre binges, in fact i would say that's a symptom of eclecticism

i agree with most itt that there is something *shudders* about the word eclectic. i think our revulsion stems from an association of eclectic with specific pieces of music, maybe 2000's-era mash-ups? those world music comps they used to sell in cafes and "hippie" gift shops? i don't think there's anything inherently reprehensible about the concept itself, how could there be?

shudders from my fortunately historical days of online dating where every other profile would make the eclecticism claim beside a truly myopic taste, allied to my own self-realisation of myopia relative to the sheer wealth of style and form across the musical globe

xps to flopson

I agree it's a good development, possibly brought on by people having more access to the internet and therefore a much wider source of different music.
It's good that it's easier than ever for people to have broad horizons and less strictly-defined tastes in general.
That said I can't really remember the last time I met someone who said they listened to 'just punk music' or defined themselves via their narrow musical allegiance. Not sure if this idea prevails in people a lot younger than me, and there are probably a lot of people who only listen to grime and shun everything else, but this feels increasingly like an exception rather than a rule.
In some ways I can lament this. While die-hard genre fans could be annoying (I had a lot of friends growing up who eschewed anything that wasn't 'metal enough'), maybe it also means that newer styles and genres only get a finite time to flourish or grow a core fanbase before followers get tired and move on. I'm thinking about the kind of movements that would have spawned small but fervent clubs and fanzines and other outlets, many of which would have continued well after that scene crested.

no shame in dilettantism imo, i've gone deeper in various things at various points and have some relatively strong knowledge about a few artists/genres but i'm not an expert, i'm fine with that. dog latin's posts itt resonate very much esp regarding "natural free flowing diary" aspects of getting into different things successively, also feeling a little jealous of genre-heads but at the same time totally okay with not being one.

shudders from my fortunately historical days of online dating where every other profile would make the eclecticism claim beside a truly myopic taste, allied to my own self-realisation of myopia relative to the sheer wealth of style and form across the musical globe

― sounding like a silly Iain Banks on a track (imago), Tuesday, January 5, 2016 9:56 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can you tell us more about musical globes from your historical days of online dating.

as with any academic interest, self-identifyingly 'serious' music listeners certainly benefit from an area or areas of close expertise

matt you can stop me when my posts get too Aimless but cmon man

xp dog latin - maybe how you feel about the reign of eclecticism has to do with how you feel about the Retromania hypothesis. if everyone is eclectic we just play around in old forms because the obsessives who drive new forms to prominence don't exist. in simon's book it's all about technology, but it's plausible that it's demand-side

DO YOU EVEN MUSIC BRO

My tastes are VERY eclectic; I like both Adele and The Weeknd

http://i.giftrunk.com/dzjmv2.gif

I prefer to think of my musical tastes as 'interesting'. But also 'intelligent'? They certainly aren't 'run of the mill'!

No way am I eclectic. All I like is jazz and new wave.

I'm not sure how much it has to do with retromania, although I think there's a probably a bit of crossover. but yeah I think historically, a lot of celebrated styles have benefited from conservative obsessives; hardcore punkers, ravers, metalheads, indiekids who don't just listen to lots of different music but define themselves and their lifestyles around their chosen obsession, perhaps even turning it into a career or long-term project.
I love eclecticism and listening to lots of things and being smacked in the face by new things but I also kind of miss the fun of when people used to wear band t-shirts or the theatre of tribalism or the idea that a scene with a specific sensibility and fashion could spring up around a particular nightclub. If everyone's a dabbler, it naturally gets harder to recognise these subcultures. instead you end up with much more ephemeral microcosms that form around a blog maybe and tare much harder to to pin down.

I mostly just play the Jordy album on an eternal loop.

so wait you all are saying that characterizing oneself in a general way is related to the perceptions of others? need a list thread hardcore rn.

i'm eclectic btw

I guess all I meant by my comment is that "I have eclectic taste" is not a very interesting thing to say/discuss in 2016 among music fans. It's certainly not a bad thing, it's just not remarkable.

maybe another way to gauge it is to see how many hours of programming the "eclectic music hour" for your local college radio station would you feel comfortable doing before feeling like a fraud

my local college radio station has a requirement that they have to play at least 3 genres per hour ...

i used to hate music as a kid.

it's alright now i guess. just a lil bit

Absolutely fuck not. The hell with "eclectic" taste in music, it just leads to dilettantism and wishy-washy-ness. I have extremely specific and particular tastes in what I like in music. And all I want to listen to is that thing which is at that moment scratching my itch.

The problem is, that That Particular Thing that I get really obsessed with doesn't seem to bear any resemblance whatsoever to whatever it is that people seem to talk about when they talk about "Genre". "Genre" seems to be random attributes thrown together with no regard to whatever it is in that particular artist or piece of music that I like.

So, y'know, the with hell eclecticism for the sake of it. But the hell with this notion of "Genre" even harder.

― Liebe ist kälter als der Todmorden (Branwell with an N), Tuesday, January 5, 2016 1:42 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

YEAH THIS
When Pandora first came out I was dead excited because I thought it might actually analyse the stuff I liked and find more stuff where the melody does this or the production evokes this exact feeling but no it was more like Spotify's oh hey have you heard of david bowie?

A colleague and I drove up to a sub-branch of the company we work for, I was driving my car, ok?

Anyway, he says "Oh, I have quite a wide taste in music" he peruses a bunch of cds that are in the arm between the front seats. He finds Aphex, Sun Ra, Mungo Jerry, Big Audio, and Jane Weaver.

He put them back without comment.

Basically, I'm not saying yes or no.

my local college radio station has a requirement that they have to play at least 3 genres per hour ...

mandated diversity in programming always baffled me at KZSC, but then again I was just an entitled stoodent that wanted to be able to play whatever I wanted

is the 3-genre rule station KALX? the metal/noise guy played this once but I could never find the single in shops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVAt_3WM8Jw

most of the other DJs somehow made the 3 genres sound pretty close to each other though...

embarrassed by the extent & the vague neocolonial trappings of my willful eclecticism

did you see your record/mp3 collection as an assortment of cultural loot ala the british museum? at what point did the records turn from glorious idols to shameful relics? i'm looking for a specific record if possible

this thread is a trap

http://cdn.discogs.com/6G42tOgnKlZ_8pej2uFxhyXwbRc=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb()/discogs-images/R-1600530-1281755572.jpeg.jpg

xp Philip Nunez - yes, it's KALX. I think KDVS had some similar rules, according to a friend that was a dj there

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dj-nic-harcourt-why-spotify-672688

Ha, I had assumed the "3 genres/hour" post was a joke.

http://openglam.org/files/2014/12/SnowflakesWilsonAlwynBentley.gif

idg the snowflake line. am i supposed to believe that snowflakes are more complex and interesting than ppl or am i supposed to refuse to recognise snowflakes as a significant category and insist that snow is snow only to be understood as an undistinguished tedious mass

what is snow? we don't know. but snow is lots of fun, we know.

vonnegut had a similar line that i prefer: "genius is as common as daisies"

this thread is a trap

I think eclecticism entering the mainstream is a positive development, and it connects well with postmodern & poptimist "relativism". Like so many other aesthetic preferences eclecticism could be used for social positioning, but I don't think that's too interesting. I do find it interesting that it seems like most people are able to enjoy most music. Maybe it points toward some shared qualities in all music.

I don't think eclecticism necessarily reinforces conservative genre constructs - eclecticism could just as easily be seen as a critique of genre rigidity, since it makes the case that genre doesn't matter much.

Instinct is to say 'no' because I know people - mainly online - with much broader taste than me, and I feel like my own taste is ossifying as I get older, in that I know the kinds of things I'd like better and better. But then I also feel like I know nothing of any depth about any particular area when compared to genre specialists, and that I flit about ridiculously from one taxonomical category to another as far as some people are concerned. So I'd probably refer to myself, pejoratively, as a dilettante.

But then I read BraNwell's posts, and basically, aside from the fact that I don't really understand my own exact triggers for enjoyment (not playing an instrument / knowing music qua music as a language), that pretty much sums up where I am.

Compared to some people I have super limited musical tastes. Some of my friends have encyclopedic knowledge of genres I would never know. Then again I think I enjoy music from a much wider variety of music than the average American. I paid close attention to Pitchfork and the music industry up until the White Stripes hit, and which point I was more or less involved with local music from that day forward, and knew and cared far much more about music made by friends and people I knew. Of course during this time I rediscovered and discovered a lot of things I never knew or gave a chance.

The internet has kind of changed it all, making it easier for a post-genre musical landscape. Everyone can like metal or pop. There was some ad on a youtube video the other day and it showed a rhythm video game soundtracked by Britney Spears' "One More Time" and the camera panned to reveal ... a bunch of dudes who should be into something more obscure. This is fundamentally different from when I grew up, I feel. Then again maybe not. I am sort of on the cusp of millenial so while I discovered Nirvana through MTV I learned about MBV, Pixies, Fugazi, etc. from Allmusic.com and sites like this.

We kind of all have eclectic tastes now in 2016, The Future of Infinite Music. The real question seems to be comparing/contrasting.

The internet has largely encouraged a Race To The Obscure, universalizing hipsterism, so now your Aunt may post some mind-blowing 80's European kitsch accidentally.

i just listened to some jazz then some heavy metal, feeling vv eclectic RN guess what? now i'm listening to rap!

for xmas I received records from my loved ones by Arca, Oval, Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, The National, Joyce Manor, The Beatles, Courtney Barnett, Phil Spector, Howling Wolf, Fred Neil, Justin Timberlake, The Grateful Dead, The Smiths, Bully, Cream, and The Feelies.

serious question to flappy: Did you have a wishlist (or a penchant for dropping hints)? Because otherwise, wow...

I have eclectic tastes in the sense that I am v enthusiastic about genres that have mostly non-intersecting audiences, but there are also vast musical territories into which I never venture, so, what was the question?

Related observation: I tend to dislike eclectic (or poly-stylistic) music.

serious question to flappy: Did you have a wishlist (or a penchant for dropping hints)? Because otherwise, wow...

― aka styx (paul santa cruz), Wednesday, January 6, 2016 3:15 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nope, completely unsolicited

i think it's mb instructive to look at this the other way round; what 'schools', genres, scenes, communities or little kingdoms do people think they have a special connection, affinity and knowledge of

as 'consumption' has become easier it is less significant in itself, but there are other things in play, and not everyone hears the same grab bag of stuff the same way

guys? can we get back on topic please? i think one of the main things is how the internet made it faster to hear great music and the whole social media thing had a big effect

― missingNO, Tuesday, September 2, 2014 9:31 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Matador is very eclectic, and yet somehow is held together, often with the help of his growing collection of analogue synthesisers, that not unexpectedly, give the recording a certain depth and warmth that digital just can't achieve…

To add to the overall sound vibe, there's a stream of consciousness here and there, an extension of the absurdist philosophy that informed his previous album. As Coombes has previously said: 'I find the contradictory side of life fascinating', as he tries to tie everything together, in attempting to make some kind of sense of our contradictory ways.

@paul - actually i forgot a couple, The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle by Bruce Springsteen and Beauty Behind the Madness by the Weeknd.

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Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

In a very general sense, anyone who regularly reads and participates in music criticism/music boards like ILM has eclectic taste compared to the average person. Compared to the rest of ILM, I have fairly narrow tastes, but I wouldn't visit this site if all I was interested in were a small handful of genres. I assume most of you are the same in that respect.

Too many people on this thread conflating "the community of ILM as a whole has eclectic tastes in music" with "ergo, all the individuals in that community have eclectic tastes."

No.

Peace

excited to find out how many ILXors have eclectic taste in music

I don't really know what the norm in music currently is since I tend to pick up bits and pieces from various places constantly.
Not very sure what is current anyway. Think most of what i'm listening to is normally several decades old but am pickking up current live sets from torrent sites.

Assume that means it's eclectic to some extent.

& do wonder how well known anybody I'm into actually is.
BUt then again if it is possible to find the pre-remaster Beatles Rubber Soul cd put in a record shop rack under R I wonder how well known anything actually is generation to generation.

what if there's a silent majority of people with eclectic tastes who just don't think it's anything to crow about

think i need to make some coffee in anticipation of this poll's results

I am so excited about this impending poll result I just nipped off for a quick J Arthur and my hands melted

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4102/4859727161_504cee7e02_b.jpg

POLL closes: February 01 (in 1 second)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol

50 Rubes, a new comedy by Alexander Payne

strong showing from joke response, i <3 ilm forever