Do You know Anyone Who Doesn’t Like Music?

[KenMasters]

My wife is largely indifferent to music.

I say largely because she won’t listen to music herself, but occasionally she’ll comment that she likes something I’m listening to and after a few drinks might actively request songs.

I guess it’s more fair to say that she enjoys music under the right conditions.

 

[bluefuzz]

Agree, some of the abstract paintings, such a those by Picasso, would look that way.

Picasso was famously the quintessential child prodigy. A talented draftsman from a very early age. You could say it took him 90 or so years to learn to draw like a six year old ...

Whenever anyone says of a piece of art 'I could do that' the answer is inevitably 'yes, but you didn't'.

In the music world, pretty much any budding fifteen year old guitarist can do a passable Hendrix impression. People like Stevie Ray Vaughn made a whole career of playing Hendrix arguably better than Hendrix himself. But none of that would have existed had Jimi not done it first ...

 

[Mart68]

My wife is largely indifferent to music.

I say largely because she won’t listen to music herself, but occasionally she’ll comment that she likes something I’m listening to and after a few drinks might actively requesting songs.

I guess it’s more fair to say that she enjoys music under the right conditions.

'In vino veritas'

 

[egellings]

'In vino veritas'

As required, as required!

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

My wife is largely indifferent to music.

I say largely because she won’t listen to music herself, but occasionally she’ll comment that she likes something I’m listening to and after a few drinks might actively request songs.

I guess it’s more fair to say that she enjoys music under the right conditions.

Just read your post Ken. It perfectly describes my wife also.

 

[xanalog]

In music there are SO MANY different genre's with folks loving some and hating others.

How can I stop having such feelings of hate for Country&Western and MiddleEastern twang!
Should I seek therapy?

 

[Sal1950]

My wife is largely indifferent to music.

I say largely because she won’t listen to music herself, but occasionally she’ll comment that she likes something I’m listening to and after a few drinks might actively request songs.

I guess it’s more fair to say that she enjoys music under the right conditions.

I imagine that makes life a bit difficult for you, sorry.

 

[Sal1950]

How can I stop having such feelings of hate for Country&Western and MiddleEastern twang!
Should I seek therapy?

I feel sorry for you. It's largely music written about real adult life with voices like Alison Krauss and Linda Ronstadt presenting it.
Absolutely freakin beautiful.

 

[KenMasters]

I imagine that makes life a bit difficult for you, sorry.

Not really, she's quite supportive of my hobbies and I don't feel the need for her to be into the same things I'm into. We also enjoy chatting to one another about our various interests.

 

[Karmacoma]

Inspired by a confession thread on Reddit where the person admitted that they simply do not like music. To them music is at best boring but in almost all cases an irritant.
Doesn’t matter whether its a live concert, music in the background, even music in his gaming, it’s all a yuck factor.

That got me thinking that I am not aware of knowing anybody who doesn’t like music.
Feels pretty hard to fathom.

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.”

I suppose there’s a similar divide regarding music.

Does anybody know somebody who doesn’t like music?

I know a religion which forbids music. Between 1,8-2 billions worshipers but fortunately the vast majority just doesn't follow most of their religion's precepts.

 

[meesbaker]

I've never met anyone who doesn't care for music at all, but it does amaze me that almost everyone I meet have no interest whatsoever in how their music sounds - even those who are incredibly passionate about particular artists, live performances, etc. I just can't fathom how the two don't go hand in hand!

See, as someone who works in sales the incompletion of the solution is a very common theme which puzzles me as much as it does you. You have the guy who "loves videogames" buys a 2300$ gaming tower and pairs it with a 89$ acer monitor.

Then you have the self proclaimed home theater enthusiast that "loves movies" and who puts down 5 grand for an A95L without breaking a sweat but responds to questions about his audio setup "the tv speakers are fine".

Then there is that whole invention of the soundbar...Can you imagine how many people on the daily pair very premium TVs with 200$ Samsung soundbars and really think thats how watching movies works?

It is very common for people to claim to really care about an experience and even invest good money into it but completely ignorant on a full solution in the most key aspects. I can totally picture your music fanatic who talks about all his bands and favorite tracks all day and listens through 5$ earbuds on his phone.

 

[KenMasters]

See, as someone who works in sales the incompletion of the solution is a very common theme which puzzles me as much as it does you. You have the guy who "loves videogames" buys a 2300$ gaming tower and pairs it with a 89$ acer monitor.

Then you have the self proclaimed home theater enthusiast that "loves movies" and who puts down 5 grand for an A95L without breaking a sweat but responds to questions about his audio setup "the tv speakers are fine".

Then there is that whole invention of the soundbar...Can you imagine how many people on the daily pair very premium TVs with 200$ Samsung soundbars and really think thats how watching movies works?

It is very common for people to claim to really care about an experience and even invest good money into it but completely ignorant on a full solution in the most key aspects. I can totally picture your music fanatic who talks about all his bands and favorite tracks all day and listens through 5$ earbuds on his phone.

Agree, it irks me as well, but I’m also conscious of the fact that this opinion can come across as snobbish.

 

[meesbaker]

Agree, it irks me as well, but I’m also conscious of the fact that this opinion can come across as snobbish.

I would agree if I felt that cost factor was in the way of those folks - I'll never judge a man who cant or doesnt want to spend the money.

But its usually more so complete disregard for what would make sense and pairing components that do not belong together.

 

[KenMasters]

I would agree if I felt that cost factor was in the way of those folks - I'll never judge a man who cant or doesnt want to spend the money.

But its usually more so complete disregard for what would make sense and pairing components that do not belong together.

On the plus side, I get endless pleasure from seeing people’s faces trying to comprehend my setup when they see it for the first time.

We were considering moving at one point, to this end we had an estate agent come by with his team of young agents to discuss sales strategy. They walked in and got excited, trying to puzzle out the setup, the estate agent said in Danish "I know, he's crazy" (my wife and I aren't Danish and he assumed we couldn't understand the language because we always spoke English to him).

They asked me why so many speakers? I tried to explain the concept of surround sound and bringing the theatre experience home. They then wanted to know what the big boxes were for and I had to explain subwoofers and the effect low bass has.

I know people closer to my age usually think it's way over the top (though by the standard of setups I regularly see on forums, it's quite modest), but I didn't think home theatre had become so niche that youngsters would not understand the concept.

 

[Ropeburn]

It's largely music written about real adult life

This belongs here:

 

[Curvature]

only humans and birds have any concept of music. Cats and dogs don't dance, not because they can't, it's at least partially because they don't hear music as music. They hear the same audio that we do (and more) but they don't perceive anything special about it.

This is not really my normal area of interest but I understand that animals have some similarities anatomically and cognitively that set them apart from humans, though these might be differences in degree.

The smaller the animal's frame, the higher the lowest frequency they are able to hear. So the bigger the animal, the deeper the bass heard. Also true for humans in that psychoacoustic testing of babies shows they hear less low bass than adults. If the results obtained in infrasonic experiments hold, then all this means is that the SPL thresholds are shifted up. This plausibly is to do with the size of the hearing organ, since some animals don't have outer ears. I don't know if a similar rough anatomical rule exists for high frequency limits.

Animals may have wider ranges of hearing, but their critical bands are also wider. So humans are more able to analyze the smaller range of frequencies they hear, while animals rely on more energy distributed across a wider range, and are less capable of processing small signals. I don't know how this translates perceptually, but if it's anything like what happens to humans with hearing damage (widening critical bands) then I would imagine our speech and music sounds to them indistinct.

Heart rate is correlated with perception of passing time, and with size. Small animals having higher BPM while time flows slower.

This last one is from entomology: insects can have their hearing organs anywhere on their bodies.

 

[egellings]

I wonder if birds have the same feel for music as humans do in the sense that they could appreciate kinds of music that is different from what they make. As an example, could a robin enjoy a blue jay's sound?

 

[Ropeburn]

I wonder if birds have the same feel for music as humans do in the sense that they could appreciate kinds of music that is different from what they make. As an example, could a robin enjoy a blue jay's sound?

I bet it's more like this:

Blue Jay: chirp chirp

Robin: Yeah mate shut up already, I know you're horny.

 

[Robin L]

How can I stop having such feelings of hate for Country&Western and MiddleEastern twang!
Should I seek therapy?

A: Try Alison Krauss.
B: Yes.

 

[egellings]

Hork! About hork: A shout of derision by a grandpa bullfrog!