Don't tell me what music to listen to

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People once told me that I shouldn't listen to rock bands that are broken up, underrated, not well known, or no longer exist. They even told me that Video Game music doesn't count either. People say I should listen to stuff that is "now." I don't want nor have to listen to music I don't like just to be part of a group because I'd sacrifice my own unique individuality. I hate hip-hop music (especially Snoop Dogg's "Drop it like it's hot" I hate that song so much), country music, pop music, and I even cringe when I hear Justin Beiber. I'll listen to rock bands from previous decades most of which are probably broken up by now, underrated bands like Crush 40, non-existent broken up bands that never released any albums like Sins of a Divine Mother, and video game soundtracks whenever I want.

I like listening to music. However, I prefer songs without lyrics, and the lyrics ruin most potential songs on the radio. So a lot of music I listen to are from my favorite video games, and a bit of techno (not dubstep!).
So whenever someone asks me if I like music, I say "yes", but then they ask what artists I like. I just don't answer that.

It really gets to me when people berate my music tastes. I like a mix of things, but not much that's popular (Justin Bieber, One Direction, will.i.am and Little Mix can all shove it). It's up to me what I listen to, but I'm used to people not knowing/liking the same bands I do. I think if they want to listen to 'J-Biebz' then they can, but I'm going to enjoy The Tease, Oasis, James Vincent McMorrow, The Smiths, The Bee Gees, Newton Faulkner, Lupine Bell, Alice in Chinatown, Dido, Washington, The Travelling Band and Ben Folds.

Having said all that, I actually quite like Ed Sheeran and Florence + The Machine at the moment...

...and Mumford and Sons. And The Vaccines.

I don't think I want to meet whoever it was you where talking to. You should listen to whatever you like....my favorite band is Pink Floyd and well its not a band that is together anymore or recording new albums. Other then that I listen to anything from mellow rock to death metal.

To me, as long as you don't have a prejudice that all new/mainstream music is automatically terrible, then you're fine listening to whatever songs happen to get inside your head. Maybe that's what those people were assuming? Either that, or they are being rather controlling... My brother loves video game music

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Many just never look beyond what is going on now, and just might think it odd when someone does. Some use music as another measure of peer conformity, like clothes, slang used, etc. A lot depends on how important it is at any given time to fit in or stand out. Generally speaking I wouldn't let others decide for me what is a matter of personnel taste, but there have been exceptions.... like when I found myself the only yankee in a barracks full of southerners. I learned to appreciate Country Music rather fast. There was another time I tried to learn to like Jazz, because the friends I was making were all into that. In neither case did I get into the music myself, but I did find a few pretty cool songs that I still keep on my playlist, and they were interesting experiences.

I guess I am saying that in general follow your own drummer, but be open to following another as a change. You can get to see (hear) things you might not otherwise.

I like to listen to a very wide variety of music in a number of different genres.

The only thing that I absolutely cannot stand is rap. Playing that on a radio means an immediate change of station. Putting it in a movie means I'm going to turn it off immediately.

As I heard one friend of mine, now deceased, ask someone else: "When you say you like music, do you mean that you like one particular type of music or do you mean that you actually like music?"

Several years back I let a friend of mine listen to my ipod shuffle and he said I had some gay songs on there. I said "WHAT?!" and then he said he was "just kidding." Honestly, so what if the rock bands I liked performed several ballads? I doubt he even knew what a ballad was.

Well someone told me I listen to gay music because I listen to Suede. He had a point.

For those who like video game music:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUI08Y6UziE[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGGQoqGOsbM[/youtube]

See, the funny thing is that people are usually the opposite to me when it comes to who I "shouldn't" listen to. You see, the stereotype of someone with AS is that they'll seek out any indie hipster bands that are obscure, blah blah blah.

Music-wise, I do have a few obscure things in there (rasputina? kenna? anyone?) , but generally I'm little miss pop when it comes to music. I have quite the fluffy tastes. Usually when I tell someone that my music collection has a lot of the backstreet boys, their first reaction is WWWHHAAAIIIIIIYYY?????????! !! !! (something akin to someone running over their pet in the street) I swear I've gotten more flak for liking this boyband than any thing else on earth second to not fitting in due to my AS (I think my appeal to them is not just them nabbing well-written songs and occasional a capella singing but the fact that they all have distinctly different voice types that gives them their distinct sound when they blend-- this is why no other boyband ever did it for me). But that's okay, because the dirty little secret hiding in my music collection is actually more embarrassing stuff, like aqua.

Essentially what my music tastes centers around is a good whopping melody. Currently playing is a band named within temptation. But the previous song was foo fighters, and before that was garbage. I'm also kinda stuck in the 90's warp sometimes. Not that I mind in comparison to some of the crap on radio these days.

Not all pop music makes the grade though (especially not that crap that repeats the same syllables or one phrase hook over and over-- that's not catchy to me, that's "someone was too damn stoned to finish the damn song"). And ew at these days with people and their terrible mastering. The last thing I want to listen to in any song is if it sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. And people making excuses for their sh***y mixing and mastering saying "well, it's bright!"-- yeah. it's bright. it stabs out all your orifices.

It has to move me. I want memorable melodies, and feel good cadences that are engineered so pleasing that they knock me over sideways. That to me is the appeal of music.

Here's something funny. I actually met a person who was so "in the now" (as he described himself) he actually thought all music performed, released, and charted even 24 hours ago as old people music. I never EVER want to meet another person like that ever again.

People with pushy attitudes ruin everything, including music.

Over the course of my life, I have listened to everything from New Wave to metal to rap to techno to the current bubblegum-type dance that the radio plays now (Gangnam Style, anybody? I think it's a funny song). I move on to the latest thing, but I don't lose my love for what went before. I understand that some AS people have a love for certain eras, like the 60s or disco or metal. NTs use music as just another way to establish "pecking order" and who is "in" and "out". The way I look at it, I as an aspie am unable to play pecking order games, and I presume that everybody else here on this forum is the same, so we shouldn't worry about what music is popular or not, unless you happen to like it. The place that liking popular music really counts is HS and college, when kids dance a lot, and if your music tastes are not mainstream and everybody around you dances to Gangnam Style while you are listening to disco, you can find yourself ostracized. As you get older, being "hip" matters a lot less, I know people my age who still listen to 90s music, there's nothing wrong with that except some people tend to get stuck in the past.

I listen to all sorts of stuff, except new stuff, as the mastering engineers over compressed and hard limit all the dynamic range out of it.

Some of the artists and bands I listen to are:

Devo
The B-52's
Talking Heads
The Swinging Blue Jeans
Cilla Black
Dusty Springfield
The Bee Gees
The Beatles
Chuck Berry
Johnny O'Keefe
Françoise Hardy
Lonnie Donegan
Cliff Richard & The Shadows

And those are just a few of the well known ones.