To what extent should music be challenging to you?

I'll throw this open to the board with little preface. Feel free to interpret the question however you like.

if challenging music is supposed to open your ears up to new modes of listening it seems like something you couldn't really be prescriptive about

It's common to interpret art as demanding, but the case can be made that art is fundamentally giving. That said, I love it when art engages me - I love listening to Prince, John Cale, Brian Eno and other artists that make surprising choices, challenging genre dogmas. But it's a question of balance, a lot of the time I want music to be soothing.

But then again, in order to continue enjoying music I find I need musical inspiration - and music I'm a bit unfamiliar with can be very inspiring.

There's no should about it, listen to whatever the hell you like. But having said that, i do think that ideally you should always try and engage with whatever sort of music before dismissing it and sometimes that can be a challenging thing

I like not understanding music at first. I'm on this massive Royal Trux kick right now. Loving the shit out of them. Then I get to stuff like Hand of Glory and I'm just completely lost.

The real player is Neil's solo work and stuff with Howling Hex. He seems very aware of himself, like none of what he does is completely off the cuff. There's this interview out there talking about why he's gone the whole norteno route. Gotta check it out. He acts WAY too aware of what's going on. Coming through his eyes and into his musical choices, it's filtered and mangled even further. On top of that, his fucked up choices with production cause even more abrasiveness. It's like culturally, opinionally, and sonically- it's all going dissonant. Once it comes to my ears i've got all those walls of understanding to break through. OR just fuckin listen to it the way it comes to me. I don't know about you but if I could understand where they were coming from when they wrote Twin Infinitives it would make that listen a whole lot easier.

There are no shoulds in music

There's no should about it, listen to whatever the hell you like. But having said that, i do think that ideally you should always try and engage with whatever sort of music before dismissing it and sometimes that can be a challenging thing

― feargal czukay (NickB), Tuesday, August 11, 2015 12:02 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ Yup, this is completely OTM.

defining & recognising what "challenging to you" is is more interesting than whether the music you listen to does (or does not) fit into it

On that note, there aren't technically any "shoulds" in life -- as a matter of general principle. But as a matter of *individual* principal, there are all kinds of "shoulds", and for me, if I'm not looking for (and finding) music that makes me think twice, that makes go back to look for clues as to what just happened, I'm not as happy as I could be.

I listened to all the records in the ILX end of year poll and it was very challenging for my state of wellbeing, but I look back now and think that toughened me up a little. If i had not been through that experience then I would almost certainly wilted under the work colleague's spotify playlist reign of terror

Hahahahaha!

"This music isn't challenging me enough!"

For me, it basically varies - sometimes I'm not bothered about being "challenged" and just want to listen to something for the simple pleasure of listening to it, and sometimes I want to get my teeth stuck into something that I'm not so used to. Ultimately though, I'm less bothered by how "challenging" a piece of music is and more concerned about whether a piece of music is good or not.

...and, of course, getting some kind of enjoyment out of it. I think if you're not enjoying listening to whatever you're listening to in some way or another, then there's no point bothering.

Lex OTM; I find certain kinds of popular music way more challenging than so-called 'challenging' music myself these days.

I enjoyed getting over the hurdle of Dan Bejar's voice to really get into the new Destroyer album but then I could never get past the gruesome sophisti-pop sound of Kaputt. I'm not sure what separates "challenging" from sounds I instinctively dislike. But I like what Dominique said: "If I'm not looking for (and finding) music that makes me think twice, that makes go back to look for clues as to what just happened, I'm not as happy as I could be." These days I certainly feel undernourished by albums that go down too easily.

it depends

Lol saer