You will have noticed how counterproductive it has become to ask, “So, what kind of music are you into?” Invariably the respondent – as sick with this question as you are – answers, “You know, like, everything.” And they’re ingenuously and more or less correctly representing their preferences. There’s nothing wrong with this answer; the inanity is in the query itself.Allow me to approach this question of “everything” from an analysis of “a little less than everything.” Despite my claim above, sometimes the respondent feels like reducing the field. Thus, to “everything” they might add, “… except country and/or rap and/or electronic and/or some other type of music.” By arguing that this sort of categorical reductionism is questionable, I hope to show the utility and veracity of the “everything” answer.
There are two reasons why I think eliminating whole genres of music from one’s repertoire is foolish: (1) ignorance and (2) hybridization.
Clearly, no person can catalog, interrelate, and understand the wealth of music that exists today. Yet, when someone claims that they dislike a certain genre, it is assumed that they know the genre. Consider quantifying “knowledge.” On a rule of thumb basis, how many artists from a genre would you expect somebody to “know,” before you would certify them knowledgeable about that genre? I think a lax lower-bound would be twenty artists.
Now try to list twenty artists belonging to a genre you like. This can be as vague and prodigious a category as Rock, Funk, Hip-Hop, Jazz, or Electronic – the genres I chose. When you have completed this challenge, try the same exercise for your ambivalence or punching-bag genres. For me, completing the first five was less than effortless, but I failed Country (miserably) as well as Soul (which I adore; see results below). Obviously, people know less about genres they claim to dislike than those they claim to like. But, how can you dislike a genre you don’t even know?
My claim is that when people decide to narrow their field of musical preference with a categorical exception, they almost always do it in a state of ignorance. If the former experiment does not convince you, test the next person that evinces this behavior. Take them to task. Undoubtedly they’ll complain: there’s no incentive to know about a genre that you dislike; they’ve heard the music, they just can’t produce names; and it’s common knowledge, after all. Everybody knows what Hip-Hop, Country, and Electronic music more or less sound like, don’t they?
The answer is a radical “NO!” No, they do not! Even a person cognizant of twenty artists in a genre does not know the genre. Any umbrella category such as the ones discussed here is best characterized as vastly heterogeneous. There may be recognized pioneers, paradigmatic artists, and common technical elements, but there is no representative sound. Knowledge is scarce, and rejecting a musical genre from a state of ignorance is preposterous.
My second reason for rejecting genre reductivism is also illustrated by the exercise above. When you list twenty artists according to genre, you inevitably find boundary-stretchers and outliers. These are more often than not some kind of hybrid. Artists almost always represent more than one genre. Sometimes, they hybridize so weirdly that they do not seem to fit anywhere (this is common: I suggest The Books and Matmos & So Percussion). In any case, all genres significantly interpenetrate and overlap. There is no purity. One cannot limit the contagion of an unliked genre by will alone.
If you follow my argument thus far, you should be convinced that reducing your field of “liked” music from “everything” to “everything but…” is a dubious and somewhat arbitrary practice. If you’re like most of the people I’ve queried about their musical tastes, you are probably much closer to liking a little bit of everything than you are to responsibly amputating swaths of the spectrum.
This, I think, is one of many idiosyncratic and positive features of the past couple decades and the modern cosmopolitan, aesthetic outlook. Of course, it’s not without its controversy – it’s caught up in debates about the authentic, cultural imperialism, inequality (because ‘cultural’ range and sophistication are usually predicated on wealth), and a whole host of unmentionable post-isms. In short, lots of stuff to think and write about in the future.
If I am dogmatic about expansive tastes, well, one has to stand up for something. I am a fan of liberal draughts of trying and tolerance. Of course, I concede that one can be rationally picky or dislike something through relative disinterest. Nonetheless, I beg you, be wary. Explore a genre patiently, expansively, and with an open mind before you write it off. You may find that what you thought you knew was just stereotype and caricature and that what you thought you liked can be nourished and grown almost without bound.
See expanded text for "Super fun game!" and my results.
Super fun game: Name 20 artists, from memory, which fit in your favorite (1) and (2) trashcan or terra incognita genres. Even with irresponsibly vague umbrella categories (e.g. Rock, Classical, Jazz, Electronic), this can be embarrassingly hard. If you’re of the music head or audiophile species, try more recondite and specific genres (e.g. Post-Rock, Post-Punk, Bebop, Shoe-Gaze, Dubstep). My results are shown below in order of ease and fullness (easier and more full at the top). Note the diversity and hybridization of most artists and categories. You should approach the game with an unadulterated mind (i.e. don’t read my results and then play).
Rock (all types)- Radiohead, Battles, Persephone, Led Zeppelin, Moe., Rubblebucket Orchestra, Explosions in the Sky, Pelican, Manu Chao, The Mars Volta, Jethro Tull, Warren Zevon, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20, Soul Coughing, Lynard Skynard, The Foo Fighters, The Decemberists, Yes, The Dirty Three, Blind Melon, Dispatch
Hip-hop- Guru/Gang Starr, Atmosphere, Saul Williams, Aesop Rock, Pidgeon John, The Fugees, Wyclef Jean, Digable Planets, Rhymefest, Theophilus London, Bread and Water, Nas, Wutang Clan, Blue Scholars, Blood of Abraham, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Flobots, Folie a Trois, Kwal, MC Solaar, Positive Black Soul
Jazz- Weather Report, Return to Forever, Miles Davis, The Bad Plus, John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Portico Quartet, Basquiat Strings, Cinematic Orchestra, Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sanders, Chicago Afrobeat Project, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Buddy Rich Big Band, Louis Armstrong, Brad Mehldau, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Max Roach, Herbie Hancock/The Headhunters
Funk- Cymande, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Medeski, Martin, & Wood, Sly and the Family Stone, The Jimmy Castor Bunch, The Herbaliser, The Red Hot Chili Peppers (first 5-7 CDs, see What Hits?) Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, The Incredible Bongo Band, The Bar-Kays, Incubus (Fungus Amongus, S.C.I.E.N.C.E.), Average White Band, The Meters, War, Curtis Mayfield, The Doobie Brothers, Sophistafunk (local Syracuse, NY), KC and the Sunshine Band, The Isley Brothers
Soul- Nina Simone, Liz Wright, Barry White, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Aaron Neville, The Neville Brothers, Me’shell N’dgeocello, Erykah Badu, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Aretha Franklin, 4Hero, TM Juke (producer), Greyboy (producer), Commodores, Jamiroquai … and I say I like soul…
Country- Jimmy Buffet, Dixie Chicks, Johnnie Cash, Reba McEntire (I’m desperate), Ted Nugent (O god… and not even really country upon inspection) …
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