What do you say?

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ETERNAL DILEMMAS #1.

When people ask you what type of music you like, what do you say? I mean people in the outside world who don't care for music much. Isn't it the hardest thing in the world. I don't want to be a pedant but I can't just say "oh I like band x" because if they're anything like me they'll form a general idea of everything I think about music based on a few bands I name. Does everyone else do this? You're right too often, it's such an easy trap to fall into.

Lately I just say Basement Jaxx or Daft Punk followed quickly by "but I like everything really, all sorts" at which point they're like "ok I was just making conversation". Also I hate the idea of saying "I like indie" or "I like dance", because I sort of hate the whole self labelling element of saying something like that.

So the people asking usually don't care, but damn it I do. What do you all say?

― Ronan, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nobody's asked me that in ages, for some weird reason. Perhaps it's because after giving them an endless list of records, I'll make them listen to most of them, followed by subjecting them to hours of my own stuff, then I'll pry and badger them into revealing THEIR tastes, which I'll then criticise at length. Or else I just say "Moloko", or "Texas"

― dave q, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Oooh, all sorts" really is the best answer, Ronan. The other options don't bear thinking about. Unless you just say something like "Hard handbag, exclusively", just for the hell of it.

― N., Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

also wouldn't it be much more fun if I was into gardening or something instead of music. that way I wouldn't have to put up with any of this stuff.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I say "pop, hip-hop, some dance and some indie" which covers it fairly accurately at the moment.

― Tom, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The only problem with my answer is that "some dance and some indie" makes people think I like Oakenfold and Coldplay but so be it really. I always have a whopping great pile of CDs on my desk at work and people come and look through it rather than actually ask me. Last week one guy asked me if he should buy the Dungeon Family CD or the Outkast Greatest Hits. I waxed lyrical about the greatness of the Outkast record and he listened politely then said "I think I'll buy the Dungeon Family".

― Tom, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

depends who's doing the asking.

OR

st. etienne

― gareth, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i say i hate fucking music and that shuts them up. mind their own fucking business.

― XStatic Peace, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ok, XStatic Peace, you've finally made me laugh. thanks. note: this shouldn't encourage you

― Alan Trewartha, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As Tom says, the problem with being specific is that people will come back with an example which is invariably shit. My stock answer is to make up a genre ("I'm into fuzz-breaks at the moment") or list a few groups.

― Dr. C, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Used to take the meta route: "I listen to music that critics like" which is no longer so true, so now I say "everything really, but I've been getting mainly into hip-hop and R&B at the moment".

Alt: I used to listen to rock, but then I realized it was dead.

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

How about “I like everything I’ve heard that I think is good from the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s”

― David Gunnip, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have a lot of trouble answering this sort of question in a way that is socially appropriate. (Even worse is what to say when they ask me if I have plans for the holidays. "Well, you see, my sister is a religious fanatic, so I stay away from my family over the holidays." Why can't I just say, "Yes, it's going to be very nice.")

So, I generally say something about having eclectic tastes, but might mention Latin and Arabic music specifically, even though by no means is this all I listen to. I don't know what I'd do if it were someone that I really knew wasn't interested in music. That would make it a sort of empty conversation, unless for some reason they were really interested in finding out more about me.

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I usually say "weird pop," or just list the last few things I've played.

I like Christgau's old answer of "semipopular music."

― Douglas, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I usually say, "I like everything you hate and hate everything you like." - whether it's true or not.

― Dave225, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I usually cop out and just say "lots of stuff", unless it's someone whose tastes / predilections are simpatico with mine, and then I try going into a bit more detail about what I like (often just resorting to, "It's really, REALLY good"). Honestly, I have trouble remembering what I've been listening to recently, unless I've JUST been listening to it.

Took me a while to stop answering with, "Everything except country."

― David Raposa, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ronan, if you were really into gardening, you'd still have the problem. I'm not into that mainstream flora, I only dig herbacious borders. I hate those fools who claim the only _real_ gardening is down at the allotments with the veg, man, they just can't move on, and accept the cross-pollination that's going down...

We did this before, and as I pointed out then, I hate 'oh, all sorts', simply because it sounds pathetic and smacks of not actually caring at all.

I haven't had to explain myself much recently, so I'm not sure anymore. I guess make them a tape and then spend hours worrying about whether or not to put on a song that suggests that I might fancy them when really I don't and it would be awful if they thought...

― emil.y, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Aren't fuzz-breaks the things sellotaped to the side of Supergrasses' faces.

― Billy Dods, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've got a new answer: "I'm into token rock".

― N., Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I usually say "I like lots of different music". If that is not enough I say that I am not really into mainstream. If they are still interested I start with a short list of bands/artists. Usually that is the end of the dialogue.

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

*sings* "I'm into something good."

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Like Gareth, I respond with "St. Etienne" quite often. Have made a lot of lovely friends that way.

― cybele, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My answer is "all sorts of stuff"

― Gage-o, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't remember the last time someone asked me this...it's an answerable question for me.

― jel, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Some random guy came up to me the other day and said "You like [something], [something], Sepultura, [something], don't you?" (the other bands were sepultura-ish), to which I politely mumbled away from him.

― Graham, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Oh, you know, gay shit."

Really, I haven't been asked this in years.

― Arthur, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

An old classic, but...

Both types - Country AND Western

Actually, this might work for you Ronan! ;>

― Bill E, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Nothing you have heard of." and then I stroke my chin and say "Unless you have good taste in music of course."

― helenfordsdale, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I only listen to This Corrosion.

― Ally, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Left-of-centre guitar music". "Underground music". "Everything But The Girl, and bands more obscure than that."

― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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