Hard Rock? Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down

Music is a big part of my life. I listen to music constantly while I’m walking to class, driving, doing homework, and pretty much any other time you can think of. The other day I had a thought. It wasn’t a deep or profound realization or theory, but it was something that I found interesting. You have heard people say, I wonder if something looks different to each person. Like, if I saw a bright, colorful bug crawling on the sidewalk; and, to me, it looked light blue and dark green. Would somebody else see that bug but the colors show up different to them? If so, then why? My thought runs along those same lines. Why is it that some people like a certain type of music, while hating a different kind; and other people like type of music that those people hate? Why do certain types of music appeal to some people’s ears but make others’ bleed? If the same notes are going into everybody’s ears, why do some people want to listen to them over and over again while some people make a disgusted face? Sometimes it is blatantly obvious when music is bad; just watch the first few weeks of American Idol. However, world-renown bands and artists such as The Beatles, Metallica, Linkin Park, and 50 Cent are different cases. Each have sold millions of albums and have fans that flock to see them perform. It is obvious that each has outstanding fan support; but, at the same time, they have millions of people who dislike their music and would have to be paid to go see them live. Judging by albums sold and concert attendance, it can be easy to determine which bands are the best. However, base that judgment on the sound of the band, and then there will be a never ending argument between fans and those who oppose them.

My roommate and I are the perfect example of what I am talking about, and it was largely in part to comparing the songs on our iPods that made me have this thought. We both have almost the exact same amount of songs on our iPods: I have 1248, and he has 1238. However, the other day when he looked at all the songs that I have, we realized that we only have 35 of the same songs. That came out to be only 2.8% of our iPods to be the same. We get along great, but we always argue about music. I like to listen to rock, metal, and rap; he listens to primarily oldies stuff (I call oldies anything before 2000). All the time we tell each other to listen to a particular song that we like and usually the other doesn’t like it at all. One day back in high school we were like, ok. I’ll listen to three songs that you pick, and you listen to three songs that I pick. So, for that period we tortured each other with our favorite music. It is basically an implied rule in our dorm room that we have to use headphones while listening to music, so it won’t drive the other up the wall. The point I am trying to make is, it is interesting to me how we have such different tastes in music. I was listening to the exact same songs that he listens to that one day in class, so why did I think it was horrible music but he loves it? I don’t really have an answer, because I have no idea why that is the case. He likes music from the older decades, but he wasn’t alive during those times; he just decided he likes that style of music. I’m about the same age as him, but I decided I hate it. Just the fact that people can be so different and have their own preferences and likes, and sometimes they are the opposite of others’ is interesting to me.

Not only are one person’s views of music sometimes different from another, but one’s views of music can dramatically change as well. I am probably the best example of this. Growing up I was not a passionate music-listener if that is a word. I mean, I had some CDs that I listened to but it was not a big part of my life to listen to music. In the beginning of middle school, I mainly listened to soft stuff like Christian contemporary music such as Michael W. Smith and Avalon and the like. I was pretty closed minded to music, and I only liked my style. My best friend, Jared, was into metal and more popular music like Green Day and Trapt and bands like that tried to get me to listen to his music but I thought it was horrible. I said that a lot of what he listened to wasn’t really music because all they do is scream. He even burned like four CDs for me, but I didn’t like hardly any of the music on there. Then one night, I went to a concert with my youth group, and there were many bands there that played my style of music but there was another artist there called Tobymac who was more hip hop, and I actually loved it. From that concert on, I slowly began to broaden my interest in music types. I went out and bought a Tobymac CD and started getting into more upbeat, hip hop/rap music (I used to say that music was like candy, you throw away the rappers because I hated rap). Also, I started to put up with heavier and heavier sounding bands, going from normal rock with some good guitar and not too hard vocals to a lot more bass and footpedal to ultimately liking the stuff that I once said wasn’t music because all they did was scream. Now, Jared and l listen to almost identically the same music. Sure, much of it was his influence, but it is still funny to me how my music taste has drastically changed over the years. So, going back to my initial thought, why do people like music that others hate even if they hear the same stuff? I still have no idea, but it keeps life interesting!