Poll, what styles of music genres do you very regularly listen to? You who vote for: Other, please tell us which genre it is. We are curious.

[DanielT]

What's interesting here is that Jazz and Classical are dramatically over-represented when you look at more gen-pop surveys of music genre listening habits. If you look up similar data from elsewhere, they both tend to get single digit percentages.

Could it be due to the average age of those who voted vs the surveys you refer to?

Correlation HiFi interest listening to Jazz and Classical? Seems far fetched to me but maybe.

 

[Tell]

Psydub, psyglitch, triphop, forest psytrance, goa trance, psytech, breakbeat, jazz, psychill, chillout, ambient, dark ambient. Yeah I listen to some weird stuff

Folktronica, que?

Best of two worlds?

 

[Robin L]

My "Other" would be "World Music", which would include Bulgarian vocal, Congolese Soukous, Celtic Folk and various musics of Latin America. If, however, I'm honest I'll confess that most of my musical diet these days consists of standard repertoire Classical music, from the Baroque era to Late Romantic. Used to listen to gobs of BeBop (Bird, Diz, Monk), Ellington, Miles (just got a copy of Bitches Brew this week), Lady Day, Dexter Gordon et al. Also, a lot of blues, particularly Chicago/Chess blues. I worked in LP/CD stores for decades, so I did what I could to learn about as many different genres of music as possible. This came in handy when I was playing at being a record DJ at a listener sponsored radio station for about a decade.

 

[Robin L]

Could it be due to the average age of those who voted vs the surveys you refer to?

Correlation HiFi interest listening to Jazz and Classical? Seems far fetched to me but maybe.

High Probability. These are the genres that focus on acoustic sounds, generally in uncompressed (or minimally compressed) recordings

 

[Soniclife]

My "Other" would be "World Music", which would include Bulgarian vocal, Congolese Soukous, Celtic Folk and various musics of Latin America

DOH! I didn't spot that world music didn't make the cut from 20 to 10, I listen to some of that as well, but probably not very frequently.

 

[Soniclife]

High Probability. These are the genres that focus on acoustic sounds, generally in uncompressed (or minimally compressed) recordings

I think it's simpler than that, people into hifi are just more interested in music than the mass population, it's a bigger part of our lives and we end up having broader tastes.

 

[Robin L]

I think it's simpler than that, people into hifi are just more interested in music than the mass population, it's a bigger part of our lives and we end up having broader tastes.

Maybe. But I'm thinking of the notion of "The Absolute Sound". Lots of audiophiles have broad taste, of course, but older, acoustic, genres are usually more likely to be enjoyed by audiophiles.

 

[kemmler3D]

Could it be due to the average age of those who voted vs the surveys you refer to?

Could be, but I surveyed customers of ours who match the demographic here reasonably well (middle-aged guys) and Jazz / Classical were definitely bringing up the rear. Rock was far and away the leader.

High Probability. These are the genres that focus on acoustic sounds, generally in uncompressed (or minimally compressed) recordings

Tend to agree. And exhibitors at Hi-Fi shows don't play stereotypical "audiophile" music (read: mainstream jazz) for no reason.

 

[Timcognito]

Maybe a better survey would be pick up to the top three from Rock, Pop, Rap, Blues, Soul, Electronic/Dance, R&B, Jazz, Roots and Classical what music do you listen to most often. Then have a second one of those long lists from ChatGPT that includes all variations of the first and others that gives you up to six choices. So, two polls. I have eclectic tastes or as my wife damns me "Hipster Music" so I guess I'm more interested in that stuff Cubia, Afrobeat, Tango Nuevo, TripHop, SURF, Acapela, Big Band, Chamber to name avery few and it would hard to pick six.

 

[Robin L]

. . .exhibitors at Hi-Fi shows don't play stereotypical "audiophile" music (read: mainstream jazz) for no reason.

Of course, one reason is that small combo Jazz (like Kind of Blue or Diana Krall) is much easier to reproduce than screaming heavy metal or Bruckner. Also, less likely to cause hassles with the exhibitors next door.

 

[DanielT]

High Probability. These are the genres that focus on acoustic sounds, generally in uncompressed (or minimally compressed) recordings

Perhaps. Your hypothesis seems reasonable.

If you turn it around. HiFi interest exists, but despite that listen (or not?) to good music which unfortunately is:

They have murdered "Tears for Fears" ... digitally!

Check this out: https://magicvinyldigital.net/2022/03/04/tears-for-fears-the-tipping-point-review-lp-cd-qobuz-tidal-amazon-atmos-blu-ray-audio/ ALL the existing digital formats are screwed! The compression, the clipping! Quoting my buddy Danny: "The sound engineers should be shot. Out of a...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Soniclife]

Of course, one reason is that small combo Jazz (like Kind of Blue or Diana Krall) is much easier to reproduce than screaming heavy metal or Bruckner. Also, less likely to cause hassles with the exhibitors next door.

It's the worst music for hearing reproduction errors, so very popular at hifi shows.

 

[Zek]

The Jazz / Blues category should be separated into separate categories because they do not belong to the same genre.

 

[Jim Taylor]

I'm interested what people are classifying as other. Awaits really obvious in retrospect answers.

In addition to Classical, I also chose "other". For me, it's Latin music ... especially Huayno.

Jim

 

[Robin L]

It's the worst music for hearing reproduction errors, so very popular at hifi shows.

This reminds me of Michael Femer demo-ing "Walk on the Wild Side", an inner track on Lou Reed's "Transformer" LP, as proof that IGD (on his stupidly megabuck turntable) was something of a myth. "Walk on the Wild Side" has almost no dynamics and Lou Reed is singing (almost, it's closer to sprechstimme) with no dynamic inflection whatsoever.

 

[Titurel]

I’ll listen to almost anything that isn’t meh - as in not interesting. For example, during the last 2 week I’ve listened to seven different recordings of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. Four were engaging, two were merely interesting, one was meh.

I suspect the works of anyone who composes at a drafting table.

Ditto of any C&W performer who obsesses about his hat but not his boots.

 

[DanielT]

Maybe a better survey would be pick up to the top three from Rock, Pop, Rap, Blues, Soul, Electronic/Dance, R&B, Jazz, Roots and Classical what music do you listen to most often. Then have a second one of those long lists from ChatGPT that includes all variations of the first and others that gives you up to six choices. So, two polls. I have eclectic tastes or as my wife damns me "Hipster Music" so I guess I'm more interested in that stuff Cubia, Afrobeat, Tango Nuevo, TripHop, SURF, Acapela, Big Band, Chamber to name avery few and it would hard to pick six.

This poll can be seen as a test balloon with choices painted with the broadest brush so to speak.
But that doesn't prevent other polls from being created and the ideas you outline about new polls, surveys sound exciting. I'm game on to vote but you get to create the poll itself.

 

[Mr Swing King]

I gave them all a vote except for hip hop, which I still listen to but it’s becoming rarer and rarer. Still love me some Malk de Koijn and Wu-Tang from time to time though.
In my teens I was a huge music snob. I listened to ‘real music’ and scoffed at peeps who listened to hip hop, pop and most of what was playing over the radio. If it was too mainstream/popular, I was out.

Growing up a bit and having various friends act as gurus in whatever genre of music I didn’t know well helped me out tremendously in trying out new stuff (alright a bit of space tobacco may have helped things along as well). It’s nice to have someone knowleadgable, who knows your tastes in music and is willing to direct you at albums/artists in X genre that perhaps utilise some of the same sonic trades that you dig.

Last couple of days has consisted of:
Pharoah Sanders - Karma
Siouxsiee & The Banshees - Hyena
The Budos Band - ll
Solar Fields - Movements l
Waste Of Space Orchestra - Synthesis
Penderecki - Threnody To The Victims Of Hiroshima
Caravan - In The Land Of Grey & Pink
The Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms
Magma - Kobaïa
Material - Hallucination Engine
Perry Leopold - Christian Lucifer
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Amon Düül ll - Wolf City
Men At Work - Business As Usual
Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood
Tim Maia - s/t
The Cure - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
The Jacksons - Triumph

 

[Chrispy]

My country/folk vote is more like bluegrass/folk, country I rarely listen to.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I've been listening to music a lot of people think is oddball since I was a preteen. I have this weird thing for stuff from before I was born. I enjoy a lot of the pop music from my parents' and grandparents' generations, i. e. 1900 to 1945. I prefer classical from before 1825 with a strong preference for medieval, renaissance, and baroque. I love pre-WWII blues. I like country music from before 1970. I like jazz from all eras. I listen to King Oliver and Louis Armstrong over and over as well as contemporary. Duke Ellington's "jungle music" period is a particular favorite. Oh, electric guitar from the pre-rock and roll era, late 1930s to early '50s.