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comment by Kafke
Kafke  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are your sosumis?

1. Pop music. All of it. Any of it. Old, new, etc. I don't care. If it's popular, there's a 99% chance I'm gonna hate it. I guess it's my hipster blood, but I can't stand any of it. Beatles? sucks. That stupid fox song? Stay away. Gangnam style? okay the first time, but it got annoying. Really. It all sucks. Go get me some good music.

2. I guess a strange one would be: Jeans. I don't get the big deal. I hate the texture. I don't care that people like them, but it just seems so eery and robotic. Literally everyone wears jeans it seems. wtf?

3. Movies. Not movies in general, but just what seems to be popular. Comedy movies aren't funny. Action movies are usually the most boring. And the avengers was not good. All those movies suck and I'm ashamed I paid $10 to go see it with my friends. I'll stick to my time travel, parallel universe, and anime movies, thanks.

4. Wearing shoes indoors. I get home and immediately take off my shoes. I know people who'll wear their shoes until they go to sleep. How can you be comfortable/relax when you have shoes on? I don't get it.

5. First Person Shooter games. They just don't hold my interest. I played some way back when, but I got bored of them and haven't touched one since.





iammyownrushmore  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hey Kafke, everyone is kinda asking you "Well, what do you like?" so maybe some more music can be recommended to you. There is lots of very good stuff out there, but you have to listen with different ears sometimes.

The context argument newgreen spoke of is an important one. You are not sitting there listening to music unseated from history or without any personal context. The preferences of your relatives and the music they exposed you too have provided you with something to base your preferences off of, as you stated yourself. Also, there's been plenty of artists that I now adore that I used to not enjoy at all, because something from their catalog finally just struck me at the right place/time and their other work began to make sense.

Also, Meriadoc recommended Sufjan Steven, and I would consider that a very good idea, but his Illinois album would be a better primer, imo.

Bjork is also a very good recommendation, she is an extremely varied artist and I think can appeal to your sensibilities you previously mentioned, ie, "fusion" styles or some juxtaposed form.

Kafke  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    There is lots of very good stuff out there, but you have to listen with different ears sometimes.

Of course. I generally prefer a specific style for general listening, but I'm up to try anything.

    You are not sitting there listening to music unseated from history or without any personal context. The preferences of your relatives and the music they exposed you too have provided you with something to base your preferences off of, as you stated yourself.

I suppose that's true. Most of the stuff I heard early on I don't really like or listen to anymore (and didn't care for it at the time either). So it hasn't really changed.

    Also, there's been plenty of artists that I now adore that I used to not enjoy at all, because something from their catalog finally just struck me at the right place/time and their other work began to make sense.

This has definitely happened to me before. Not often, but it has happened in rare cases. The few times it did, it took me maybe 10-20 listens of the same song (even though it was meh) to begin actually liking it. Sharing those songs with friends/family gets roughly the same reaction I had (didn't like it, then it grew on you).

    Also, Meriadoc recommended Sufjan Steven, and I would consider that a very good idea, but his Illinois album would be a better primer, imo.

When Meriadoc mentioned this artist, I gave it a quick listen (the suggested album was age of adz) and I didn't really like it (and responded as such). Giving it a second listen resulted in the same opinion. I have his Illinois album a shot, and actually ended up liking it (although it's a bit simple). It's definitely a completely different style of music than I usually listen to, but it was enjoyable. Which is rare for me to find in slower/simple music. Which is why my preferences have progressed from rock -> punk rock -> metal. It kind of reminded me of "clocks" by coldplay (which I also enjoyed). I also noticed there was a "vs" youtube video in the recommended videos (so my thoughts on the matter weren't far off).

    Bjork is also a very good recommendation, she is an extremely varied artist and I think can appeal to your sensibilities you previously mentioned, ie, "fusion" styles or some juxtaposed form.

As I mentioned in my other comment, Bjork sounds like the type of artist I'd listen to, but I haven't been able to find anything by her that I actually like.

    Hey Kafke, everyone is kinda asking you "Well, what do you like?" so maybe some more music can be recommended to you.

Yea, once people find out that I tend to not enjoy most music, they kind of jump in on the "find music Kafke likes" game.

I'll have to look further into Sufjan Steven. A "meh" and a "this is pretty good" leads me to believe that there's some other good stuff hidden away.

And yea, for a while I was just kind of genre hopping. Sampling the top hits of every genre until I found some I enjoy. As I mentioned in another post, that kind of landed me somewhere around electroswing, jazz, and some sub genres of metal (along with japanese doujin music).

iammyownrushmore  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm glad you like Sufjan, although I would be careful about calling it "simple", he's a very powerful and thoughtful artist, it just may formulate itself in other ways than you may be used to listening for.

I think you may appreciate the more eclectic, so if you don't mind a couple of other suggestions:

Dirty Projectors did an album "covering" Black Flag songs, and it's my favorite of theirs and their earlier work is definitely more of a challenge to listen to and probably will appeal to the "rock"-ish aspects of your preferences.

Naked City is a group that John Zorn took part in and they are just some wacky fuckers.

Extra Life is a self-proclaimed "baroque-metal" group that recently disbanded and sound to me like a stylistically extreme Tool.

WorLord  ·  3802 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh I am SO glad you said it. Jeans are the most uncomfortable things ever. The appeal is completely lost on me.

thenewgreen  ·  3802 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Even when they're old and haven't been washed in a while? Because I agree that new jeans or recently washed jeans aren't that comfortable. However, a worn in pair can be one of the more comfortable things I ever wear.

WorLord  ·  3801 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I... I've never not washed any of my clothes. So... I can't answer this.

sounds_sound  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm curious Kafke, do you have a desert island list of music or albums?

Kafke  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

If by "desert island list" you mean severely lacking, then yes. But I wouldn't say it's because of my music taste. My first introduction to "music" was probably around middle-school where I just listened to my Mom and Brother's stuff. My mom is more into... err... traditional? music. I think it falls more in line with classic rock and country. I didn't really like that stuff. My brother had a "better" taste in my opinion, and he was more into punk rock. Linkin Park, Good Charlotte, and the like. Which were okay. That was really my only taste of music up until high school and college.

In highschool I started to dabble in some music I stumbled across. Just misc. songs. While my actual music discovery just only started maybe last year or so. So yea, my library is a bit lacking at the moment.

Fortunately, I've found 3 artists in the past week or so that I really enjoy. So it's not just that I hate everything :P

AshShields  ·  3802 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh, yeah, once you start really digging in in terms of music discovery your tastes kind of explode and develop like mad. I'd recommend starting with a few bands you like and checking out related artists on last.fm or the like. Or go check out a sharethread or something, like the #weeklymusicthread or something. Lots of good obscure stuff out there.

Kafke  ·  3802 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yea, that's what I've been doing. Checking last.fm, youtube, music-map, and of course the weekly music thread.

sounds_sound  ·  3802 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Sorry. The desert island question is a hypothetical game people sometimes play. As in "You're stuck on a desert island, what music would you like to have with you?" Sort of like asking what album(s) would most satiate you if you only had a select few for the rest of your life. It sounds like your musical tastes are changing though, maybe, which makes it a tough one to answer. Do I go with a classic from childhood, or something more contemporary?....

Kafke  ·  3801 days ago  ·  link  ·  

See my post here.

humanodon  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

What's robotic about jeans? Just the fact that they're ubiquitous? If it weren't for jeans, I would be naked about 75% of the time.

Kafke  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yup. Just the fact that everyone wears them without any thought in the matter. As soon as I was old enough to think and decide for myself, I nope'd out of them.

Do you actively say "yes, I want to wear jeans"? or is it something you grew up with and so you never thought about changing?

As a side note: I enjoy seeing different styles of fashion (like in Harajuku) but it seems most people just go with the t-shirt+jeans look. Which is fine, but it's a bit boring to see it day in and day out.

humanodon  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Actually, I chose not to wear jeans for a long time. Like, 10 years. Then one day I found a pair that fit really well and that was that.

As for boring, I can understand that. I am also fine with that. It's unusual to see me in something other than jeans and a white t-shirt. That's more of a habit though. I used to work long hours at a restaurant and then have class all day, so instead of doing laundry I just bought packages of white t-shirts from the discount places downtown, near school (I do laundry more regularly now).

Edit: until 2012 I pretty much wore business clothes during the day but . . . I haven't exactly been doing business since then.

Jeshk0  ·  3802 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I feel the exact same way! I own one pair of (skinny) jeans and the rest of my jeans have become cut-offs that I rarely wear. Otherwise I wear cords, chinos, or other slacks. But absolutely never do I wear blue jeans.

Meriadoc  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Not even really good and creative pop music? Sufjan Steven's Age of Adz or Bjork's... well, anything?

Kafke  ·  3803 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I've never heard of either of them (and thus would be excluded from what I was talking about) but I gave them a listen aaaaaannnnnd didn't like it. "Sufjan Steven's Age of Adz" I had really no idea wtf was going on and it was just meh. Bjork seemed to have potential but ultimately failed in my book.