Does it take effort to not like certain styles/pieces/composers?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

For a little while now I have not been bothered with disliking any repertoire really. If the music is performed well then I find I enjoy listening to it as much as the musicians would enjoy playing it. It seems strange to me now to remember a time when I would believe that I didn't like a certain composer. I would need to really put some effort in to actually dislike something these days it seems. Is this bad? good? what? Has my taste in music deteriorated to the point where I can't discern a 'good' piece from a 'bad' one? Is it silly to say that the only reason I don't dislike any piece/style/composer in particular is because I am too lazy to dislike it?

And does anyone else feel this way too?

[Parsifal]

For a little while now I have not been bothered with disliking any repertoire really. If the music is performed well then I find I enjoy listening to it as much as the musicians would enjoy playing it. It seems strange to me now to remember a time when I would believe that I didn't like a certain composer. I would need to really put some effort in to actually dislike something these days it seems. Is this bad? good? what? Has my taste in music deteriorated to the point where I can't discern a 'good' piece from a 'bad' one? Is it silly to say that the only reason I don't dislike any piece/style/composer in particular is because I am too lazy to dislike it?

And does anyone else feel this way too?

If you don't dislike anything you don't like anything. Your brain is as a pipe through which water passes.

[BasilValentine]

For me it requires no effort whatever. It's like an allergic reaction.

[PerfectWagnerite]

To bring my famous feud with Wolfgang Mozart, I don't "hate" him or his music, it just doesn't do much for me in most cases but the over-publicity and unjustified religious worship of him frustrates me, on the same level as [popstar] or even religion itself. Sorry, let's keep that out of it..

Feud is not the right word. Merriam-Webster definites feud as:

a mutual enmity or quarrel that is often prolonged or inveterate

The key being the word mutual. Since Mozart has been dead for over 200 yrs this would not qualify as a feud, of any sort. And even if Wolfgang were alive today I doubt he would engage in a feud of any sort with you, no offense.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

For me it requires no effort whatever. It's like an allergic reaction.

Could you elaborate on that? What do you think is the cause for this and what repertoire triggers this kind of response?

[Crudblud]

I can't imagine ever actively trying to dislike a particular music. There are certainly people who like to loudly proclaim their dislikes as often as possible, but that's a completely different matter.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I can't imagine ever actively trying to dislike a particular music. There are certainly people who like to loudly proclaim their dislikes as often as possible, but that's a completely different matter.

Does 'loudly proclaim[ing]' take a lot of effort though?

[71 dB]

And does anyone else feel this way too?

The amount of music I have stopped "disliking" during the last 20 years is ridiculously large. As I have told before, I used to think a person can't enjoy classical music in modern world, that our ears won't enjoy "ancient" music composed before electricity in cantle ligth. Then I discovered classical music and boy had I been wrong!  After that I stopped disliking some pop, rock, new age, country, etc. Nowadays I enjoy something out of almost every genre, but there's also stuff in every genre I don't enjoy. It's not so much the genre* itself as it is how one uses the genre for artistic expression. Boldly listening to music outside your comfort zone with open eyes ears is likely to expand your comfort zone.

* I believe genre definitions of music is a negative thing.

[Jo498]

I think the most common way is a spontaneous dislike and no effort whatsoever to revise the opinion. Then one can loudly proclaim it and in such a way "cultivate" a dislike. Or one can "upgrade" indifference or lack of fascination into dislike.

Often i t is to a certain extent "self-conditioning". There are people who have listened for decades to a fairly narrow range of music, have no knowledge of music theory nor instrumental or singing practice and so their preferences tend to become deeply entrenched and  narrow. It takes a conscious effort for some of these listeners to try something most of us would find quite accessible, say some moderate "modern" music from the early 20th century.

Similarly for listeners of popular music who refuse to accept anything without singing or a continuous percussion beat as "real music".

[71 dB]

I didn't quite agree with the first comment but I pretty relate to and agree with all of this.

Nice! 

I also have quite an unfavorable view of the idea of genres too (but maybe that's just all that evil neo-post-postmodernism fried my brain  )

Genre labels help music shops to arrange music. All that is labeled as rock goes to "rock shelf" etc. The bad thing about them is how it teaches people to identify themselves as listeners to certain genres only. It is kind of music racism. Just as the skin color doesn't tell if a person is a jerk, genre labels don't tell if a piece of music is bad.

[71 dB]

Similarly for listeners of popular music who refuse to accept anything without singing or a continuous percussion beat as "real music".

True, but can you accept anything with singing and a continuous percussion beat as "real music"?

[BasilValentine]

Could you elaborate on that? What do you think is the cause for this and what repertoire triggers this kind of response?

I'll try, but I'm not sure there is all that much to say. I hear Bruckner, practically any Bruckner, and I have the urge to leave whatever room or hall it is playing in. Same with Boulez, to pick another random example. What triggers the response is that my brain tells me this music is devoid of ideas I find interesting. I feel overwhelming, stultifying boredom coming over me and want to escape. 

[Crudblud]

Does 'loudly proclaim[ing]' take a lot of effort though?

I think it depends on the person doing it. I would guess that, for those who enjoy doing it, it feels like it takes less effort than it does to keep silent about it. I recently expressed a negative opinion of Sibelius's Symphony No. 4 in the unpopular opinions thread. It took me quite a lot of effort to determine how I should phrase it and indeed whether it was worth expressing at all, in fact it took me a few days to work my way up to actually doing it. I ended up posting it, as I had determined that it was personally meaningful enough (this particular piece having been something of a favourite when I was younger) to share with others, but the time and effort I spent making the post and thinking about the details seemed to me rather a waste, so it isn't something I'm particularly fond of doing.

[Maestro267]

Nice! 

Genre labels help music shops to arrange music. All that is labeled as rock goes to "rock shelf" etc. The bad thing about them is how it teaches people to identify themselves as listeners to certain genres only. It is kind of music racism. Just as the skin color doesn't tell if a person is a jerk, genre labels don't tell if a piece of music is bad.

After reading this, I was going to post something, but you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. One thing I will add is that genres help us as listeners to "explain" how certain artists sound to those who are unfamiliar with them. But, as you say, if you say something's [genre], the prejudices/stereotypes of that genre immediately come into the head of the other person, even if this particular music is not stereotypical. So it is very difficult.

[Jo498]

True, but can you accept anything with singing and a continuous percussion beat as "real music"?

I would not deny that it is music although I really think that most of it is quite bad and even the better popular music (like the overrated celebrated Sgt. Pepper Album) is not something I would personally miss much if it ceased to exist. (As this was mentioned all the time in the last two weeks in some of the media I had a few tunes going through my head but although it is the only Beatles Album I actually own I did not feel the urge to listen to it for the sake of the anniversary or for refreshing memories etc.)
And I would certainly welcome if current pop music existed mainly in the "private" way most non-popular music does, not being blasted at one almost all the time in public places.

[Jo498]

I also would greatly appreciate this also, regardless of what music "genre" it is. I'm open to all kids of stuff but blasting it over shop speakers isn't going to create positive connotations for me, whatever the said music is 

It rarely is classical Persian music or Brahms or Cage.... In 95% of cases it is current popular music or some kind of muzak (including sickening arrangements of some classical music). For me the most bearable stuff among such background music is often some kind of "soft jazz"/"lounge music". But most of the time it is revolting and can make me avoid certain spaces.

[71 dB]

After reading this, I was going to post something, but you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. One thing I will add is that genres help us as listeners to "explain" how certain artists sound to those who are unfamiliar with them. But, as you say, if you say something's [genre], the prejudices/stereotypes of that genre immediately come into the head of the other person, even if this particular music is not stereotypical. So it is very difficult.

Thanks! 

I would not deny that it is music although I really think that most of it is quite bad and even the better popular music (like the overrated celebrated Sgt. Pepper Album) is not something I would personally miss much if it ceased to exist. (As this was mentioned all the time in the last two weeks in some of the media I had a few tunes going through my head but although it is the only Beatles Album I actually own I did not feel the urge to listen to it for the sake of the anniversary or for refreshing memories etc.)
And I would certainly welcome if current pop music existed mainly in the "private" way most non-popular music does, not being blasted at one almost all the time in public places.

I don't think I have ever heard Sgt. Pepper. The few Beatles songs I have heard passively in my life tell me it's not the most interesting music for me. Beatles represents pop music the way Vivaldi represents classical music. There is SO MUCH more!

[71 dB]

But one quote I remember reading once was something like "Once you put a name to or a group of people, you inevitably create a perceived shared sense of ideals, impressions, cliches, but they aren't actually there"

That's why for example Autechre refuses to put their music under any genre except "Autechre".

[Richard Pinnell]

In theory, if you apply yourself properly then it isn't possible to dislike something you like, so the opening question of the thread makes no sense.

However as Wittgenstein once said; "nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself". Sometimes we convince ourselves we don't like something based on external stimuli, but if we have to convince ourselves then we are wrong.

If the thread is more about what we say to others about what we like or dislike though then we are largely just discussing how honest we are are we not?

[nathanb]

It takes effort to type long posts about how much you dislike Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Cage, and the like.

Whether or not that effort is something an individual particularly minds putting forth is another matter. Some people just love to hate.