how do you feel when someone says "i guarantee you won't like that record..."

I think everybody has some aspects of their tastes having predictable boundaries. Whether he or she wants to admit it or not is the key here.

Personally, I don't mind if someone does this me.. as long as I get the pleasure of laughing in his or her face when i end up liking or not minding the record.

THAT SAID... whether the brain immediately raises a self-defense mechanism that forces one to put down the knives to otherwise tear apart the record with words is a far more interesting topic.

It would be more sly if the person just played the record, got you to negatively react to it, then presented a piece of paper behind his or her back saying "I knew you would hate this record."

Someone just saying "you won't like it" is fair warning: anyone who knows me would know I wasn't going to like, say, the Kaiser Chiefs. I worry more about people saying I'll love something, I feel there's great potential to let them down.

This is the aspect I want to discuss. What is it about people who are really into music (or even sports or anything) that makes them automatically defensive whenever someone else claims he or she will be guaranteed to like or dislike something? (I'm not saying this self-defense mechanism is a bad thing.. it's just one of those things that becomes harder to describe the more you think about it. Kinda like the "why does a mirror only reverse left and right" question, assuming you're not a math major.)

More often you have people raving about something in a "you should check this out way" when if they actually thought about what I like they'd know I would hate it!

Kilian otm about "lack of sophistication" perhaps, only a music snob would say "you won't like that record", because let's face it, the 12 CD person wants you to love their records and wants you to be the same as them, might even be offended if you're not.

I have this conversation, "I guarantee you won't like it" with my friends gf regularly, she always attempts to argue about music with me and it runs thusly

Her: "I am very open minded about music"
Me: "Ok, you just don't listen to all the stuff you would actually like if you did."
Her: "No I do like......that stuff"
Me: "No you don't"
Her: "Sometime I'll go to your club with Dave, he always says I won't like it though"
Me: "You won't"

etc etc etc

I think it's fair sometimes to have a guess, I eventually end up saying in the above row "OK you MIGHT like it but judging by what you do like and the fact that you're 24 and have never listened to any of that music of your own free will I am fairly sure you won't like it"

It kind of annoys me when people assume they will or do like something that they actually don't, for the sake of being "open minded" etc.

Open minded does NOT mean having no opinion on genres you've never heard!

if not, there's more chance of it being a harmless "me and you are going to have such a chuckle together when you listen to this absolutely awful record." although there may be a slightly irritating assumption still, kinda "us music geeks will always agree on what's crap, won't we?"