For those of you who don't know me well, let it be said that I am a music fanatic. I always have been from a very early age. I spent many a Saturday afternoon stacking my 45's on my record player and jamming out in my room for hours. Once I progressed and got my first "boom box", the age of "mixed tape making" began, and it was all she wrote. To this day one of my absolute favorite activities is to sit in front of my disc burner, spread out all of my CDs, pop open a cold beer, and see what kind of mix my mood at the moment will make. I'm going to estimate that I've made around 500 mixes (tape and CD) in 25+ years. Love it. ....Now, I've always prided myself in my diverse taste. I mean, I'm talking DIVERSE. My collection includes AC/DC, Herb Alpert, Rolling Stones, DEVO, Ella Fitzgerald, XTC, Grateful Dead, The Go Go's, Glenn Miller, Kelly Clarkson,Harry Chapin, The Dead Milkmen,Dolly Parton, Donna Summer, The Eagles, Phish, etc etc etc ...You get my point. Anyway, I have tried to define my taste on several occasions, and finally now conclude that there is no easy way to do so. I've settled, for, "DEVO and everything else."
So my thoughts going into this post, were, that I am baffled by people using the words "hate" when describing music. Music is subjective,....duh! But, it's all about chords, tunes, practice paying off, artistic outlet, poetry, fun, entertainment, and.....enjoyment. I'll give you an example: Since moving from Chicago to Indiana 6 years ago, I have met alot of "haters" when it comes to music that doesn't fit a preconceived definition of "good", or "cool." Two acts in particular that I oft here referenced this way (here, in Lafayette at least), are The Eagles and John Mellencamp. Growing up, I loved both of these acts...still do. Are "Hotel California" and "Jack and Diane" over played on FM stations. Sure. Are they my favorite songs by these guys?? Absolutely not. But, I still find myself able to enjoy and find the good in songs even when they are saturated on one's memory. The Eagles, for me, are part of my youth's soundtrack. I don't recall a time where they weren't around, whether on the radio, or whether it was me playing "Tequilla Sunrise" at 4 in the morning behind the DJ booth at Streeter's Tavern in Chicago in 93. I played anything and everything at Streeter's. When I first sorked there, the DJ on Friday afternoons used to do a 3 hour set consisting of songs by only Led Zeppelin or Frank Sinatra. It was great!!!!
I pose this question, and really answer it specifically if possible. Why "hate" a band or artist?? Please try to elaborate verbally more than "Cause they're p*ssies" or "cuz his music blows!!" or "cuz I met them once and they were assh*les!".....OK....more than generalities accompanied by spitting and middle fingers. Talk to me. Were you teased on the playground by bullies singing "Life in the Fast Lane" as a kid?? Did you never get the chance to suck a chili dog with a girl outside the Tastee Freeze??? Is that it, jealousy??.......Really, tell me.
I love all music. I intend to jam out to Earth,Wind and Fire and Nirvana til I can't hear. I'm gonna let the dogs out, while consistently buying a stairway to heaven til I really have to.... Yeah, you heard me. I referenced them both in the same sentence and admitted liking them both. So there!!! Knock me down if you like, but I get up again. I will survive.
So that's my beef and query for the day. I hope for some enlightenment. If I don't hear back from any of you.....oh well. Life goes on. Long after the thrill, of blogging is gone.Well, I'll stop now. I gotta make some meatballs for dinner. I'm gonna play some music while I do....not sure what yet. I'm feelin' a little Grateful Deadish, though I've been humming Men at Work all day.
Ooh - I can answser that. There is one musical artist that I hate. Huey Lewis. But it has a lot more to do with what Huey Lewis represents rather than Huey himself. To me, Huey Lewis was the worst of the prefabbed shitty 80's music and there was so much good stuff out there. And now somehow Huey Lewis seems to be the primary rep for 80s music. Which pisses me off. Because it was terrible. 80s music SHOULD be remembered as the REM, U2, Prince, Run DMC time. Instead, it's f'n Huey Lewis.
ReplyDeleteThat makes me hate him
I don't like Huey Lewis either but not because he sucked (I actually thought he was cute in an older guy kinda way) no, I don't like Huey because of American Psycho. The way Christian Bale bashed skulls while listening to "It's Hip to be Square" freaked the living shit out of me.
ReplyDeleteNot a Huey fan. But some of their songs are okay.
ReplyDeleteI love Hall & Oates and Devo though.
I was recommending Thomas Dolby's first record to a younger friend a couple of weeks ago and I heard myself talking about it and I felt so old and weird and lame.
Joe, there is not a particular artist or act that I really hate. There are individuals that happen to be musically inclined, of whom I am not a fan, and there are songs for which I don't care much. I too love music and the only negative feelings I have about a song or group really stem from my distaste for the message in the lyrics or the memory that it inspires in me. Well, if I'm being honest, I have to also admit that I just don't have an appreciation for really repetative techno. . . and excessively (defined by my ears) yelly/screamy music. The latter makes me feel like a stranger I have never interacted with is incredibly angry at me and I can't even understand their words well enough to be able to mend what I have done to upset them.
ReplyDeleteI think what I am getting at is that I think perhaps people claim to dislike or "hate" music sometimes because they are displacing a quality of themselves. "La Vie En Rose" has always been a song that I love, but now it is bittersweet as that it reminds me of the first time I heard my friend sing. I can't hear the song without it reminding me of him and that experience. People attach memories, ideas, and so many other things to music. It may be those things that people are "hating" and taking it out on the music.
i hate dead babies. i know that at some point in time i have verbalized "hating" john mellencamp. or john cougar mellencamp. or johnny cougar. maybe that's why. not so much the music, but the man behind it and his inability to settle on a fucking name. if that was the case though, i wouldn't have watched the super bowl half time show just because of prince. which was, by the way, the best half time show ever. either way, i would pay to see mellencamp in concert if it ended dead babies.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't use the word hate for very many musics, but in the cases where I actually do hate a band, it always has to do more with someone I've known, than the actual artist.
ReplyDeleteBruce Springsteen is probably the one musical artist that I can't stand because of someone else. And it's because of a group of people I knew a long time ago. They just couldn't understand that other people might actually not like Bruce. They were like evangelists of the Church of Bruce. They felt they had a duty to go forth and aggravate and convert everyone to the wonders of Bruce.
As for Bruce's music, I don't get the whole "Bruce is the Boss" thing, I don't relate to his music, or appreciate it. There's nothing anyone can say, or any song by him you could play for me that would ever change my opinion. To me, his voice is as soothing as fingernails on a chalk board. In fact, I'd rather listen to a chalkboard. If Bruce is the Boss, I quit!
Now, that being said, I know the host of this blog likes Bruce a lot, and I didn't use Bruce as an example to ruffle his feathers. But Joe wanted to know why people hate certain music. I'm just trying to help him understand. Sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with the music. In this case, it had to do with some reeeaaalllllyyy obnoxious people. To this day, whenever I hear Bruce on the radio, TV, etc. I can't listen. So now you know Joe. Bruce is my kryptonite :)
I dont' think of myself as a "hater" and I too have a diverse appreciation of music. If there has been a time that perhaps I've said something derogatory about an artist or a song, it is usually because it is associated with a particularly distasteful memory or person in my past. Or it is because I've heard that album/song 1,000,000 times- and nope, it hasn't changed, it is still the way I remember it. Now I will say that there is music that just doesn't float my boat, but I do not believe that "they" SUCK, etc. I just choose not to listen to them repeatedly.
ReplyDeleteGlen Miller?
ReplyDeleteI believe you forgot to mention Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Willie Nelson..I forgive you because you are not able to be completely inclusive in such a terse blog.
I hate Korn because they make my ears bleed. I do not like cacophony.
This does not mean I hate artistic endeavors, I respect the work that takes (except for the naked cowboy.) But my taste is mild. My head is an aching spasmodic wreck so when music is applied it should soothe, not defile.