Bad Music for Bad People

An ex-Boss of mine was a total, total, TOTAL homophobe, racist, misogynist and an all-together complete arse-banana. Aside from the unrelenting hatred of everything he would often talk about his favourite music. Most of which made me raise an eyebrow or two. His favourites were:

'Smalltown Boy' - Bronski Beat 'Will You' - Hazel O'Connor 'Three Little Birds' - Bob Marley UB40 Queen

The irony of his choices seemed to be lost on him however. He said it was a shame that Marley was the "wrong shade of grey" and upon hearing the news of Freddie Mercury's death he said: "It's terrible, but then again it was his fault for being a dirty little shit-stabber wasn't it?"

All the aggresive, violent, bigots I've come across all seem to have liked the same type of music (esp. Cod Reggae and Pomp-Rock) and had a strong streak of sentimentality. When drunk they all hold each other around the shoulders and bellow 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and the like.

i don't know any bad people but they all listen to bad music anyhow. is this subject to infer you can tell someone's character by how many reggae records they have? the the must have made them terribly frustrated being that matt j is crap and all.

I remember Matt Johnson saying once that an American fighter pilot used to listen to "Mind Bomb" while bombing Baghdad.

I moved to this small city in the midwest some years ago (I've since moved back). I stayed briefly with one local indie "rock star". You wouldn't recognize the name, but his old band did make the Trouser Press record guide. He had gone all Christian populist (unbeknownst to me until I moved out there) and modeled his new sound after Bruce Springsteen, the Pogues, and (vocally) Tom Waits. Also anyone who was a non-right-wing Christian, like U2 or whoever. It was sad: he really thought he would bring righteousness to our little hamlet. Thing was, he was a horrible misogynist and his wife left him because of continual abuse. He also used to make anti-Semitic comments along the lines of, "oh so-and-so's nice but he's a Jew". At first I thought he was being indie-ironic or something, but it became clear that he was serious, just as he was non-ironic in his admiration for Neil Diamond and the Brady Bunch (as a model for family values and conduct).

Anyway, it put me off singer-songwriter earnest type stuff for life, along with Christianity in music. I will actually run *into* a burning house to get away from this stuff. And I can't even contemplate Bruce Springsteen, I find him so repugnant and it's not even the poor guy's fault. I think this particular creep's taste in music definitely had some bearing on his creepiness, since it made him all pious and he actually convinced himself that he had as much talent and lyrical skill as these folk.

The biggest dickhead I've ever met, a self-proclaimed BNP supporter who had a meatball shaped head and smelled of cat piss was the biggest Mansun fan you could ever hope (not) to meet.

I have a vague memory (but no more) of one complete *arsehole* liking folky stuff, and I know another fairly dislikable bloke owned every album by Traffic.

When I was at school I remember a much older boy (I was 11, he was probably 15) playing Quadrophonia's "Quadrophonia", and it might well have been the same boy who hit me in the stomach. But I can't be sure of that.

I remember a dickhead at school who used to get right in my face and rap all the words to RATM's "Killing in the name of". Bastard.

Oh, man, I just remembered that when things started to get tense between us, the above creep used to play the Stones' "Stupid Girl" over and over again whenever we were in the same room. Then he'd yell over the music, "I just love this song, don't you?" That's not really answering the question, I guess, but it is a good example of someone who's trying to live out his record collection.

Snotty private school girls I knew played nothing but Creedence Clearwater Revival and 'The Year of the Cat.' That music is so obviously racist. Boys that teased me in high school were into Eric Clapton. Wife abuser I knew was into the lite Flying Nun catalogue, espec. Abel Tasmans. It's true what others have said here - no wonder I hate all that stuff!

"That music is so obviously racist."

How 'obviously'? Isn't Al Stewart a dull 'sensitive' singer-songwriter and CCR harmless pop-rock rockers. The latter covered black (Marvin Gaye) and white (Dale Hawkins) musicians, and had their songs covered by black (TIna Turner) and white (Minutemen) musicians - so examples of their racism, please.

i was abused as an adolescent.
The man who abused me listened to hooked on classics shit. So i cannot stand most classical music.

The boys who fagbashed me in jr high and high school played metal.
I still do not like most guitar rock

The first boss i had fired me for a variety of reasons one of which was that i played foreign music at work.
sort of not related but i still love britpop just to piss that man off and i have not seen him for ten years

I cannot stand alot of protestant hymns because of the church i grew up in .
For one the words they had were changed to fit some crackpot theology and second of all they excommunicated me

Snobby rich kids at my school, the kind who get new cars for their 16th birthday, were all into U2, every last one of 'em, especially "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

OK, I never liked Dadrock much, but my horrible, evil boss had such poor taste in music that I used to refer to him as my "Oasis-Loving Boss" and everyone would know who I was talking about.

Don't jump on me, as I know Oasis is sometimes a bizarre abberation in the musical taste of people I adore and respect (Hi, Ned, hi, Cat) but when it's the founding cornerstone of your record collection...

This guy's record collection consisted of, basically... Oasis. Ocean Colour Scene. Cast. Every Paul Weller record ever put out. (OK, true, he was about 40, so he did like The Jam when they were good. But I mean honestly... Style Council? GAG!) I thought I had found maybe the one listenable record in his collection when I found OK, Computer, but when I pointed it out, he decried "I only bought it cause everyone was raving about it... but it's terrible! I mean, it's so WEIRD!!!"

And I don't mean, he thought it was pretentious, arty rubbish like some of my Radiohead-hating mates. He GENUINELY thought it was the most far-out, weird, bizarre, atonal record he'd ever heard. I mean... OK COMPUTER!!! If he'd bought Kid A his head would have exploded. He used to freak out and tell me to turn off Sigur Ros cause it was "too weird".

Arsehole! And he was such a demanding, ungrateful, jerk! He actually sulked when I quit, not because he liked me and wanted me to stay, but because he couldn't believe I could actually go and do something I *loved* (ie play music) instead of working his crap dayjob nightmare. I'd been there 2 years, and I didn't get a leaving do, I didn't get a gift, a speech, anything. People who had been there 6 months- they'd call everyone into the big office and make a speech and give them a gift and take them out drinking. Oasis-Loving Boss was such a sore jerk about it that he took the day off so he wouldn't have to be nice to me. AARRRGGGHHH!!! I *hated* him. He made my life a living hell for 2 years.

He GENUINELY thought it [OK Computer] was the most far-out, weird, bizarre, atonal record he'd ever heard.

That's not as unusual as you think. Most people I know would probably feel the same way. To someone whose knowledge of music doesn't go far beyond what's on the soft-rock station, OK Computer *is* some serious weird-ass shit.

My boss is a complete asshole in every regard and he likes kenny g!!! Hates rock music of all types!!!

One of my asshole bosses during my undergrad years -- basically a bumpkin from the backwoods of Pennsylvania who somehow managed to get a Computer Science degree -- claimed to hate all music and thought just about all music was "cacophony" (his 25 cent word I suppose). Except for Simon and Garfunkel. (Hey, Tanya, ya got any family in Pennsylvania?)

Oddly enough, he had very good taste in modern paintings, though I chalk that up more to his wife than him.

Most of the rich white asshole males I know are / have always been into gangsta rap, from Ice Cube in 7th grade to DMX now. Also, my ex- roommate was a big jamband guy, and to this day I cannot hear Phish without having the urge to pick up something heavy, find the person who put it on and bash their skull in. And I don't even dislike him any more! This hippie shit has got to stop, seriously.

Racist - in noumenal, not phenomenal, terms. Obv. As Simone is noumenally a girl.