Liking really happy/vapid music?

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I feel kind of out of place here regarding this. It seems like lots of people here listen to like, say...death metal, or something like that. Generally angrier, harder, or darker music in some way. I like a limited amount of that kind of stuff, but the bread and butter of my music tends to be pretty happy pop music. And I've noticed not too many people here seem to have that same kinda thing going on. Generally this type of music is associated with NTs. But I seem to take it to an extreme in how happy and vapid my pop music gets to be at times. Like italodisco and eurobeat. It's about as manufactured as you can get for music. Most of the singers have no idea what they're singing about, as they're not native English singers. But it sounds cool and makes me happy, and that's it.

Most "NTs" I run into don't like this kind of music. They basically cite it's too vapid. And I feel like a huge freak in some ways over it. Even besides this board, I had a friend with NVLD who absolutely hated that I listened to this kinda music, and was even embarrassed to be in the car with me while I was playing it. He'd cite it's lack of deepness/complexity/etc. At the same time, I do listen to some "complex" music, too. But most of what I listen to is pretty much vapid pop music. I mean my tastes are sorta cyclic with it, sorta, as in, for a month or two it'll be eurodance, next eurobeat, next Russian pop, etc. But like never recently (ie, last 6 years) will I go into a "phase" where I'll like, listen to metal continuously for a month straight or something. My friends at the time hypothesized it was due to me perhaps having a low emotional maturity or something.

Does anyone else have musical tastes like this, and feel socially ostracized over it? Is this a sign of something messed up in my emotional maturity? I mean as far as I can tell, my music is like, completely "NT" in character. Just most is from different countries/the past, so "NTs" around here don't listen to it.

I've asked this here before and didn't really phrase things right, but I'd like some input.

there is a time where anodyne entertainments are just what the doctor ordered.

Your friends sound like pseudo-intellectual snobs, and if they judge you by the music you listen to, they're the ones with emotional problems, not you. Play a little Bach for them and then tell them you listen to pop to "cleanse your palate." When that flies over their head tell them they're not as sophisticated as they think they are. And in a world where rap is popular, no one should ever dare mock any other type of music.

I never liked pop but I don't see why you'd basically think there's something "wrong" with you for liking it. People react differently to music and also look for different things in art in general - some are more focused on voice or rhythm/beat, instrumental virtuosity etc, some just get that "feeling" from it.

You like what you like and it makes you feel good - what others think about it has no relevance nor is it a reflection I think on your character or emotional maturity. I've met idiots with great taste in classical music, a***holes who loved good books and some wonderful people with what could be seen as very silly artistic preferences. We read way too much in these things - it's part of how many people bond with each other but not a good indicator of someone's character or intelligence.

I feel uplifted by what others see as dark, repetitive, depressive music - they think I'm nuts. I couldn't care less Why allow others to dictate what I can or cannot enjoy?

Alternatively you could move to Sweden where everybody seems to go bonkers over Eurovision

Pop music is FUN!! Pop aka Popular (which is what that means btw).

This video: (Fink, This Is The Thing) has 1.5 million views so it's totally Pop
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPCeA5Vl29k[/youtube]

This Skrillex video has 106 million views so it's TOTALLY Pop:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cXDgFwE13g[/youtube]

This video from P.O.S (Get Down) is much less Pop because it only has a quarter of a million views. Also, it's hip hop. But that can be Pop too, really.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PputxGopVQ[/youtube]

more anodyne-
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT9rqL0dSlU[/youtube]

Here's an old friend of mine, Robert Earl Keen, Jr.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82E1d-2T0qc[/youtube]

This is a fairly nice compilation job as long as you remember that the pictures, except that of Lyle Lovett, are not of the real people and places.

For what it's worth, I lived in the Front Porch House for a while and was also around for some of the events Robert and Lyle wrote about in the song.

Here's the actual Front Porch House from the song:



I paid $70 a month to live there.

I know exactly how you feel, 1000Knives. The vast majority of my favorite songs are really "shallow", but happy and fun, with a good rhythm and bass to move to. I have always been a fan of bubblegum dance/eurodance (Aqua, Cascada, Tune Up!, Caramell, Smile.dk, and Dr. Bombay, to name a few), so I was really glad when mainstream artists like Lady Gaga, David Guetta, Pitbull, Nicki Minaj and Jennifer Lopez started integrating those styles into mainstream pop music. It makes me kind of sad that so many people are snobby about music and turn their noses up at those of us who enjoy music that's "fun" rather than "deep". That's unfortunately why I feel like I can never share my love of music with people for fear of being ridiculed.

It's getting kind of late and I need to do stuff tomorrow, but when I come back, I will post a list of links from Youtube to songs I enjoy.

When we say Pop is super NT we aren't referring to stuff like Eurobeat, we are referring to stuff like R&B, House, and Hip-Hop.

Eurobeat > that junk

But they also love Death Metal in Sweden...

That's AWESOME! Is that a duplex? (2 screen doors?) Still $70 a month is UNBELIEVABLE! Where is that? I'll move!

It was on Church Street in College Station, Texas. Unfortunately, the house has been torn down. I think there's a parking lot there now.

It was a single house. The door on the right goes into the bedroom; the door on the left, to the living room. Behind the living room is the dining room and behind that is the kitchen. Behind the bedroom is the bathroom. On the right side of the house to the side of the kitchen is a back porch.

It's kind of hard to see, but there was a church pew on the left side of the porch. On the right we'd just use whatever chairs we had available.

There was a church across the street. I didn't play any musical instruments, but the rest of the regulars did. So when everyone came out of church, we (except me) would break out into various bluegrass songs about drinking.

And the part about Mr Boyett taking the rent late was really true. When I moved in (without asking him if I could move in), he didn't even bother coming by for the rent for two months.

The bad thing about the house was that it was half a block behind the most popular and busiest bar in town, The Dixie Chicken. It was very noisy until 3 or 4 am on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights with people parked along the street in front of the house. It wasn't unusual for loud drunks to walk by to the side where they really shouldn't have been. It wasn't worth the trouble to confront them about it, though. There was an empty lot on the left side that was overgrown with weeds and they sure weren't going to walk through there.

By the way, the last time I saw Mr Boyett was at a nearby Exxon Station about four years after I had lived at the house. By then, Robert and Lyle had already written and recorded the song. He was extremely pleased at being named in the song. Imagine listening to the radio as you drive down the road and hearing a great song that mentioned you by name.

Wow! It must've been haunted or something, right? -- like, the walls would bleed, and at night skeletal hands would reach up in between the floorboards and try to grab your feet?

(clicky)the whitney music box! give it a try!

@1000Knives, I kind of have a similar problem, I mostly listen to pop and I'm always browsing both current and classic charts for stuff that I'll like. In my musical tastes, I gravitate toward 80s pop (the type with the simple synth beats, think Wham! and early Madonna ), 90s R&B/urban, and >drum roll< boy bands and girl groups! I rarely admit that last one on message boards, but I'm serious: I'll often walk down the street with NSYNC in my ear.

I also listen to music that has a bit more artistic value, but I keep coming back to my simplistic favourites. I don't know, they just give me a nice feeling.

@auntblabby: nice! That's very interesting! Some of them remind me of the Tardis materialising in the beginning. And I like the hand-cranked one as well.

Lately I'm in my super duper italodisco/eurodisco phase. di.fm got a new eurodisco channel (thanks thewrll for alerting me of this) and I've been listening to that a lot and picking up new italo favorites.