Do You know Anyone Who Doesn’t Like Music?

[Mayan]

Reminds me tangentially of different peoples attitudes toward enjoying food. A work companion once accompanied me to a nice restaurant. I’m a “ foodie” and so I was just swooning over the food and he’s looking at me puzzled. He said he just didn’t understand people into food in the way I am. To him “hunger is just a hole I have to fill, and food is something that just fill the hole. It’s functional, I fill the whole and just move on.”

Outside of your initial titled thread this paragraph quickly captured my attention on how diverse, unique, and quirky we stand together or as individuals. It's difficult to wrap around such logic when it pertains to food but makes sense in some weird (odd) way, to fill the void.

 

[Anton S]

My ex-wife and I were constantly at odds over whether to have the audio system or the boob tube on for entertainment, which is just one of the many reasons she eventually became my EX-wife. She didn't exactly hate music. She could take it or leave it, but she was card-carrying a TV junkie. I hated the TV, because my high-frequency hearing was quite extended back then, and the sound of the tube's 16KHz raster frequency always made me want to bite the heads off live chickens after a while.

My second wife loves music, and we never have such disagreements.

 

[RayDunzl]

I demonstrated my system to the nice lady who ran the Documentation Department at work, from Louisiana, who came over to the house for a lunch party one day.

I asked what she thought of it, and she said "I don't listen intellectually".

 

[Ron Party]

music is very important. Music is a tonic for the pineal gland. Music isn't Bach or Beethoven; music is the can opener of the soul. It makes you terribly quiet inside, makes you aware that there's a roof to your being.

Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn

 

[Russell484]

Well I've never had that problem (not liking music) and all of the many friends I've had over the years liked music also, albiet different genres for different folks. AS a little kid we had a 78 RPM phonograph built into a giant mahogony cabinet. I wasn't allowed to play records on it, but I did anyway. I played 78's of Schubert impromptus and Die Schone Mullerin sung by Richard Crooks, I also had Mozart's Serenade in G to listen to. After my dad bought a new LP record player table top in a mahogany cabinet, When I was old enough to walk to school and back I always walked home for lunch the after eating quickly I put on records to play, Beethoven Sonatas but especially Schubert's Octet, Quintet in C, and last three String Quartets. My dad had put himself through college by playing piano in a jazz band, so as LP's came out he started buying more jazz to go with our classical collection. When the folk music craze hit, that got added to our record collection, and I was an early Dylan fan when all my friends were complaining about how bad he was. They all like that Peter Paul and Mary sound while I preferred Woody Guthrie, Dylan, Dave Van Ronk and Odetta. In my late teen years via jazz i discovered the blues which became a major obsession along with jazz and classical. I did listen to the top 40 and liked some of it, but I also discovered Wolfman Jack's radio broadcasts from Mexico and through that I listened to a lot of R&B and more blues. My college friends and I were very into music, several played in groups in San Francisco during the mid sixties and we delighted in expanding each others musical horizons. My wife and kids love music including classical and jazz and the popular stuff.

 

[Audionaut]

Do You know Anyone Who Doesn’t Like Music?

Yes, myself.
There are moments when I'm not open to music at all and there are moments when I just can't stand certain music.
I can rarely listen to Chick Corea or Keith Jarret with pleasure, and I can only listen to Tool when I'm in exactly the right mood for it.
The same goes for Beethoven and Bach.
To summarize:
In order to enjoy music I have to be in the right mood or vice versa, the music has to match my mood.

 

[MattHooper]

I demonstrated my system to the nice lady who ran the Documentation Department at work, from Louisiana, who came over to the house for a lunch party one day.

I asked what she thought of it, and she said "I don't listen intellectually".

That reminds me of the one person I can remember who did not react strongly or positively to listening to one of my audio systems.

Virtually every person I can remember who sat down for a demo of my systems over the years where sincerely blown away or impressed.

Except for my wife’s friend.

She was curious about the big audio equipment in my front living room and I explained a little to her (not going overboard as I knew she didn’t care much) and I asked if she wanted to hear anything on the system.
She said OK.

I asked what she wanted to hear and I managed to find within her selection a nice sounding track.

And when she finished listening she just Had a slightly puzzled look. I asked what she thought. And she said: …well… It sounded really good. But…(she added slightly puzzled and sheepishly)…. So what?”

She could recognize the sound was something on level she hadn’t heard before, but that fact meant absolutely nothing whatsoever to her. She didn’t even understand what to do with the experience and what I do with the experience.

That was kind of interesting.

 

[MattHooper]

Musical anhedonia is the term for a neurodivergent condition, which has been proven with fMRI scans that show less neurological activity at the nucleus accumbens than normal.

The idea of it being a brain processing issue is interesting, and I would wonder about what type of spectrum there is, perhaps from a lack of interest all the way way to active dislike.

On a similar note, my son (25) never ever liked reading. When he was in high school and given fiction books to read he would always say “ I just don’t understand why people like to read. Like this stupid book. Somebody walks into a room, there’s all these descriptions about things on tables and and walls and that kind of house it is and just all this nonsense I don’t need to know. It’s just not interesting and it’s torture for me to get through it.”

Turned out upon testing he did have a language processing problem. Interesting how it manifested.

(he still managed to get through school fine)

 

[HalSF]

There’s some fascinating material on this subject in Oliver Sacks’s book Musicophilia.

 

[Gitfiddle]

I've known lots of people that dislike certain genre's of music. Never anyone that disliked all music.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Around 2006~07, I knew a Salesman at a Hi-Fi/HT store in Miami, FL.. who hated music, yet was one of the top salesman there !! I could not comprehend then, anyone not liking music, but to came to understand that my passion for music was that of an outlier (you all, here at ASR, are outliers !! .)



Peace

 

[olieb]

I could not comprehend then, anyone not liking music, but to came to understand that my passion for music was that of an outlier (you all, here at ASR, are outliers !! .)

Passion for music certainly makes for an outlier somewhat, but even more so does passion for good sound and investing effort and time for it. For most people it is about "good enough", which involves going to a shop, get a recommendation and buying it.
For others this is about status.
The attitude toward music often is similar. Most people do care somewhat about music as to those Matt is asking about, at the sam time it is part of the culture, like movies, theatre, sport and such. Often these are means to an end which is to invoke an emotion that one craves. Depending on brain structure and upbringing one might choose appropriately. A genuine passion for music is not mainstream.

 

[Timcognito]

Every Dentist Office where they try to please everyone but rarely anyone. They like it in some obscure way, as an enhancement to calm people, I guess. I always find it annoying.

 

[Chrispy]

Every Dentist Office where they try to please everyone but rarely anyone. They like it in some obscure way, as an enhancement to calm people, I guess. I always find it annoying.

Reminds me of my former optometrist (I moved away, he was an excellent optometrist) when he installed a nice little audio system in several rooms. Mostly playing what he liked to listen to....it was for him, not the patients. My current dentists office is mostly country western with some pop vocalists thrown in....that I could live without. I had an endodontist who provided a good library of movies, that wasn't bad.

 

[Chrispy]

Every Dentist Office where they try to please everyone but rarely anyone. They like it in some obscure way, as an enhancement to calm people, I guess. I always find it annoying.

In my dentists' office most people probably like their choices, which is rotated among some of the employees as to what is played....so perhaps more for the staff's enjoyment than the patients'

 

[Chaconne]

I once saw a Dick Cavett interview with the great American poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren. Cavett asked him what music he listened to, and Warren said that he didn't listen to music. Cavett expressed surprise, saying that poetry and music are often thought to be the two most closely allied arts. Warren grumbled, "Well, you can't like everything."

 

[DMill]

I’ve known a number of very smart people who do not like music. It always surprises me. But I guess we aren’t all wired with 12 ga. Copper. My thinking is they were likely not introduced to it at an early age. I have such fond memories of my dad putting in an Abby Road cassette in his Saab and hearing the music from since I can remember. Really some of the best memories I have.

 

[MattHooper]

I've known lots of people that dislike certain genre's of music.

Of course. Although I like most genres, the occasional genre I find intolerable (“The Blues”).

Those these things can shift, can’t they?

I remember during a trip through Southeast Asia in the 90s I was absolutely astonished at how bland Asian pop music was. It seemed to sort of ape North American Pop music, but to my ears with absolutely zero taste coolness or creativity - it was the most bland, neutered version of pop I could imagine.

And yet here I am today buying some genres of Asian pop on records - going right back to the late 70s and 80s and onward - having come to an appreciation for some of it.

 

[Gitfiddle]

Of course. Although I like most genres, the occasional genre I find intolerable (“The Blues”).

Those these things can shift, can’t they?

I remember during a trip through Southeast Asia in the 90s I was absolutely astonished at how bland Asian pop music was. It seemed to sort of ape North American Pop music, but to my ears with absolutely zero taste coolness or creativity - it was the most bland, neutered version of pop I could imagine.

And yet here I am today buying some genres of Asian pop on records - going right back to the late 70s and 80s and onward - having come to an appreciation for some of it.

That is fair. I found myself hating southern United States country music with a passion back in the 90s as I grew up in that time. Now I will sometimes listen to some songs by Johnny Cash or Garth Brooks very sparingly.

I really can not find any Opera that I can enjoy though. I know how much effort and experience goes into it. I've been to numerous live performances. I can not enjoy it. I very much respect the people that put the time and effort into opera. It simply isn't for me.

 

[raif71]

After listening to several new music generated by AI, I don't particularly enjoy them. They seem to be something amiss or perhaps more added to the composition.