Will you take the musical challenge?

Wait a minute, I listen to music I don't like or particularly understand all the bloody time as I often (less often now, actually) listen to Radio 1 (chart pop station) all day at work.

I can tell you, after listening to 'Rollin' by Limp Bizkit *way* more than twelve times I *have* formed a new judgement - I hate it more now than I did when I first heared it. M'kayy?

This kind of taste-play is something I do a lot - not usually as formally but what the hell, I'll give it a go.

I know Josh listens to music in a similar way, kind of.

I taught myself to like Limp Bizkit's "Rollin", btw, or at least work out why someone might.

This is sort of part of my normal mode of listening. If I sort of like a record but not a whole lot I tend to listen to it a bunch to see what I think afterward. Then, in decreasing order of persistence, the same for records I don't think I understand, or that don't do anything for me, or that I hate. (When I'm less persistent, that means I might not do all this listening like right around the same time - but I will still come back to the records.)

If I didn't do this I don't see how I would have ended up liking a whole lot of the music that I do. Bitches Brew, Coltrane, Blonde on Blonde, rap, beat-based music, free jazz, classical, Fugazi, the Dismemberment Plan, Sleater-Kinney, etc. etc.

From the moment I heard "Rollin'" I had no trouble working out why someone would like it. I suppose I could on 12 successive listens.

There are a thousand different tracks I could do it with. I'm sure I will.

staind is another rap/rock crap band right? i had a go at their second single.."it's been awhile". thought it would be horrid like papa roach or linkin park..but after 4 listens i really liked it..

Josh - aren't there some records where you can tell after one listen (or after 2 songs) that it's a piece of shit ? Like, you understand what it's trying to do, but feel that it's doing it very badly, and feel that no matter how many times you listen, you won't get anything more out of it ?

Patrick: the strongest reaction I usually have is that a record is very much not my thing (at the time I listen to it). Then I put the record on the shelf and maybe run across it months later to try again; I may seek it out sooner if I think it's important for me to appreciate it. For instance, I was hungry for some more trip-hoppish music, it being hard to find stuff I like not made by the big three groups. So I bought a Morcheeba album because I had read some good reviews of it and thought, well why not. I listened to it a couple of times but found it sort of disappointing, not doing the things I wanted with the music. So I put it away. It's actually probably about time to give it another listen - though I have heard it a lot more since then, because my favorite deli bought the record sometime in the past year and played it a lot. I did grow to like it more. Another example: I used to say that I hated opera. Now, opera and me don't really sit well together, but I don't say I hate it anymore, because it's clear to me that I just have no basis for that opinion beyond the way I feel immediately upon hearing opera. So last fall I bought an opera, Debussy's "Pelleas et Mellisande," because I like Debussy's other music and this opera had been described to me as something very different from a lot of other opera. I find it hard to sit through - and certainly I've never sat through all three discs at once - but I will come back to it with some regularity to see if I have enjoyed it any more, because I think opera is a gap in how I appreciate music, and I have actually heard bits and pieces that I enjoyed in that opera, and in the others I've been catching on NPR in the past few years (now that I don't just immediately switch the station when one comes on). Also, I've been getting into other classical vocal music, which I suspect will help me get to opera in a roundabout way.

But even with music in genres I'm most familiar with, really I don't feel that certain about my musical judgments. I might have a very certain feeling about a record upon hearing it, but I'm so aware of how much my opinion might change after more listening, that I try not to let those certain feelings lock me in to a certain way of thinking about an album I don't like. (I'm a lot more mindful of this whole business for albums I don't like, as opposed to ones I do.) The most certain I feel is when listening to certain kinds of rock that's similar enough in the right ways to the mainstream alt rock I listened to most as a teen. But even then my judgment can be quite malleable. So even in the most certain cases I'm more likely to just put something aside and not blame it immediately on the record.

This may have something to do with the fact that I don't buy a whole bunch of (what I would consider to be) genuinely shitty records.

My scores for the new Pop Music Focus Group will probably give lie to the above, ha ha, so a bit more: I suppose that you could say that since I don't really bother to listen to nu-metal, or whatever is current on the modern rock charts, or emo, or commercial jazz, or musicals, or - pick anything that I don't bother with - that I'm just not giving them a fair shake. I don't do this relistening business with everything, it's true - but often when I don't it's just because I hear something, say "eh", and would prefer to devote my time elsewhere. I've still got lots of things to try appreciating better.

For something like the Focus Group, I do sometimes try to play up my initial negative reactions. I might also do this if I'm talking to friends or posting on ILM. But don't seriously mean to indicate, in cases like that, that I think a song is worthless or whatever.

This is a cop-out answer, but one that might provide some illumination into the psychology of the listener in society!
The neighbour in the adjacent flat recently got really drunk and put Stereophonics' "Local Boy in the Photograph" on repeat play for about three hours, really loudly. The first three repeats, I felt charitable and indulgent, thinking, "Well at least he's enjoying himself". Then, I started to get REALLY irritated, wishing I lived somewhere else without paper-thin walls - I could've gone out, but why should I dammit? My fuckin' house! After that, I took comfort in feeling sorry for the guy, in a contemptuous way. I thought, "The more times he plays this song, the more pathetic the guy is. Imagine how empty your life must be, to get pleasure out of the Stereophonics." Prejudiceregression(Why didn't I just ask him to turn it down? I make it a point never to complain to neighbours when they're noisy, so they give ME more leeway to play Merzbow and Anal Cunt records. So far, it's worked fine. I just particularly dislike the Stereophonics.)
However, this doesn't answer the question because (like someone above said about the radio), it's more a matter of primitive territoriality than aesthetic preference when your 'space' is being invaded, so I thought I would do the experiment. Here's where it starts becoming increasingly unflattering to myself. I knew somebody who had a copy of 'The Man Who', so I went and stole it - because I didn't want anyone to know I was going to listen to it. Then, as I was about to put it on, I...couldn't.
That's right, I crapped out.
Because I COULDN'T take the chance that anybody would HEAR ME LISTENING TO IT. If I was provided with a top-secret radiation proof and above-all SOUNDPROOF bunker, I would put the Travis CD on, but this was too risky. Like being caught wearing your sister's underwear (not that I know), it's something you couldn't just 'explain away' and hope everyone forgets. Seppuku would beckon.
Well, thanks to this 'experiment' my self- image is shaken and fractured beyond repair, as I now know myself to be a shallow, cowardly poseur.

― tarden, Sunday, 17 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry, one of the lines above should read "Prejudice derived from the displacement that leads to regression"

Dude, don't you have headphones?

Since I have Anal Cunt and Bananarama on all the time very loud most of the time, the ABSENCE of noise coming from my room when I'm clearly IN there would be even more mysterious. Listening to Travis on headphones, is that a Mafia torture?
Plus I suffer from really bad earwax.