I just don't get it!! I know everyone has different tastes but...

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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I just don’t get it!! I know everyone has different tastes but…

…what makes people think “that sounds good”? This has fascinated me for so long but never really asked anyone else’s opinion.

I’m referring to the bullshit cringe worthy cheesefest videos that people put links to on facebook. It’s normally silly bubbly girls that write things like “eating dinner”, and “wiv tha gurrlzzzzz”! They put links to some bullshit RnB pop crap and put a comment saying “luv disss”. Some of the tunes are so bad, like I mean actually embarrassing to listen to. I just don’t get how people can think it’s good. And the lyrics… wow! Like I can just imagine these clueless fucks sitting in the studio with a producer they probably met that day, and a manager feeding them promises of having a number 1 hit single by this time next year, jamming it out getting all hyped about what they believe to be clever words. It baffles my mind at what some people believe to be “good music”.

But putting all the criticism aside. I actually think it’s a beautiful thing that people have different tastes. And it when it comes to music it actually really fascinates me how someone can listen to something and it blows their mind where as others can listen and think it’s utter trash.

Like for me, I love to hear new music. I love to hear new sounds and sonic frequencies I’ve never heard before. I love to see how sonic synthesis boundaries can be pushed to produce new and exciting tones that stimulate my brain. I also like all sorts of music, provided the sonic frequencies that enter my ear agree with my tastes I don’t care what genre it is. I don’t give a fuck about the message or how clever the words are, for me it’s all about the harmonics and melodies. It can be as smooth as classical or as nasty as the filthiest DnB tune known to man. Provided sonically it sits well with my ears I’m happy.

I would love to see a scientific study of why I can play a simple pretty nasty distorted synth sound and some fall in love, yet others seem to scare away from it. Could it be environment? Like it all depends on what you have been exposed to? And why is it the older generation generally can’t listen to say dubstep, for example, for more than 10 seconds before calling it a load of noise? Why do their brains not want to experience these “new” sonic frequencies they haven’t heard before? Why do they insist on sticking to what they “grew up on”? For example, I love Stevie Wonder (amongst many others), but I also love Excision (again amongst many others). Why is it my mum loves Stevie Wonder but she wouldn’t even give Excision the time of day? What is creating the barrier in her brain to be scared of music as aggressive as that?

It’s probably unexplainable as to why someone like Akon or Rhianna makes me wanna shoot myself in the face yet others think they are the best thing since sliced bread. It’s also probably unexplainable why some get off on aggressive nasty music while others get off on smooth relaxing chilled out stuff. I think I, probably along with many others on this forum, are a rare breed that can listen to different genres depending on the mood. Where as others listen to the same style regardless of the mood.

Another thing I’ve noticed from DJing in commercial venues is that there’s very few people that actually like to hear new music when they go out. People mostly like to hear shit they know (I’m talking about the majority here). The thing that gets me though is there’s always a first time you hear something so why do a lot of people look oddly at a DJ when he plays a new track they haven’t heard before, as though he’s doing something wrong? Why do I sigh in frustration when I’m in a club where the DJ is banging out the same old shit I been hearing on the radio every day, and others go mad for it when they too have been hearing it on the radio every day? Why do I get excited when I hear new music in a club I’ve never heard before, and others tend to go and sit down because the shit they hear day in day isn’t being played?

What is it that tells one person something sounds good when to others it’s shit. I mean, we all hear the same song as a whole (forget picking certain sounds out of a track we like, which again fascinates me), so what is it that makes us determine what is good and what is bad? I think it’s amazing!

Sorry for lengthy post but it just fascinates me deeply. I’ve done a few searches but if anyone knows of any links to scientific studies on this subject I’d love to read up on it.

Thoughts welcome.

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Record label marketing.

The labels spend a LOT of money putting certain sounds in front of the buying public. These are people that likely listen to radio and watch TV ads with the music in. They also want to buy into the culture in these videos. Sexy women, sexy men, cars, clubs etc.

This is the same reason why a recent poll found out that something like 60% of university(!) women want to marry a footballer (UK).

Personally, I believe we are watching the slow decrepit downfall of western culture. It’s sad, and heart breaking, knowing how much we had.

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great post, i struggle with this issue too sometimes, and a lot of my friends dont understand my facination with production and synths…

when it comes to commercial music and certain sounds being overused and thrashed in a million songs, i think people just like to hear things that they can relate to. it is in their “comfort zone” and they feel safe listening to what they know or what sounds simmilar. whereas some people are more adventurous and love hearing new things and venturing into “unchartered territory”…

Its kind of like extreme sports, or any kind of “risk taking” activity, some people love it, and just love the thrill of doing and trying extiting things, while other people preffer to stay in their “comfort zone” and stick to what they know.

As a DJ, i can understand its hard and frustrating trying to please everyone. DJ’s tend to be the latter in that theyre allways listening for new cool sounds and tracks and sounds they have never heard before… i mean thats why most of us got into DJing anyway… but if your playing in a “commercial” venue then it can be frustrating, because people going to “commercial” clubs will want to hear the same shit that they have been listening to for the last 3 months because they are comfortable and feel “safe” doing so… well not really “safe”, but those types of people tend to feel uncomfortable when they hear something they havent heard.

If it really bothers you, try and find a club to play at where the music policy isnt “commercial” based… For me, i try and play at clubs where theyre already playing sort of “weird” or uncommercial music… I started out in commercial venues, and quickly got frustrated by the reactions of the crowds there and the music i would have to play to get them going… (being radio garbage)

as SOON as i changed the types of clubs i was playing at, i was much more comfortable and felt a lot more at home, and the response i was getting was a lot better… people who go to the “non commercial” clubs tend to be like minded people who are sick of hearing what they hear on the radio all the time, and want to go to these clubs because they want to hear something new and exiting…

anyway, great post, and good luck :slight_smile:

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Also, a side note:

I bet you will find a direct relation to what people do for jobs/hobbies/activities, to what kind of music they listen to…

Example:

  1. A guy who works in a retail clothing store, goes home, watches TV and plays Xbox with no real other hobbies or activites, will most likely listen to “commercial music”… this guy is the non risk taking kinda guy who likes to stick to his comfort zone

  2. A guy who works in a sport store where they sell snowboard, dirtbike and whatever gear… probably spends all his spare time on his dirtbike or snowboard and other “risk taking activities” and his iPod is probably filled with a mixture of rock/metal/Dubstep/Drum and bass… and other “high energy, high octane” music… i doubt your going to look on his iPod and find “the pussycat dolls”, “Beyonce” or “Lady Gaga” on his iPod.

Usually the people with more “unusual” or “unconventional” hobbies and interests, tend to have a more “unusual” taste in music…

… but then eventually, as with everything… at some point “commercial society” is going to decide that something is cool and hop on the bandwagon, and then ruin it with all their commercial cheesyness and make it lame… kinda like whats been happening to dance music in the past few years…

Youll notice a few years ago it was all the “emo” kinda hardcore screamo music that became “cool”, and then a bunch of commercial bands started coming out like panic at the disco, and fallout boy… and it was basically all downhill from there…

I see house music going downhill at the moment… dont get me wrong, theres still a LOT of good house music, its just that commercialism is tainting it with its cheesyness… Its like, you say house music, people automatically think DAVID GUETTA or BLACK EYED PEAS…CALVIN HARRIS WOOO!!! YAAAY DEADMAU5 (Although Deadmau5 does have some awesome tracks)… its just getting ridiculous though… I also see an uprise in “wannabe DJs” lately too, since house music is cool now… and who plays house music? DJs, so everyone thinks they are, and want to be a DJ…

GOD i wish commercial music would just move onto something new and leave us ALOONEE!!!

anyway, sorry for the extended rant there, just needed to get it off my chest… :stuck_out_tongue:

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Somewhat of an answer to your question.
http://www.darwinversusthemachine.com/2011/01/music-induced-chills-caused-by-release-of-dopamine/

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watch this documentary… its a great piece about how quality of music/artist is put aside to produce and air catchier songs that make more money…

http://www.imdb.com/title
/tt0760307/

check out the part they comment on auto tune…dont u guys think it the most overused app ever… its like in every hip hop/rnb track these days… i loved the black eyed peas sound when they first started then they went too mainstream and now every track sounds like a chipmunk is singing on it…

chubbz

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heres the youtube trailer…

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The Black Eyed Peas were good until they let a girl start singing with them in my opinion.

I cant stand poppy R&B bullshit myself, but I don’t try to throw my opinions about music on people that do. I’m sure there are a lot of people who don’t like deep techy house, and think it all sounds the same, just like my opinion of chart R&B.

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@steve81

i am not genre bashing here…what am trying to say here is the quality of the tracks thats out there mate… i like rnb but most of the songs produced at the moment dont have the class and style of what rnb used to be… granted they are some good songs out there but most are just destined to make it as big as ring tones… fast food music for the masses…

chubbz

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I’m also not genre bashing. Unless you count the stuff made for the charts as a separate sub genre.
There are some amazing R&B songs, its just the ones we hear on the radio are a bit crap.

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nah man fergie was with them for ages before they went shit, she can actually sing despite her vocal performances in any of their recent records. They just sold out, simple as

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Great post!

Very stimulating.

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Can anyone even begin to explain the part about why oldies can’t except new music? I just can’t even begin to imagine hitting a certain age and that being a cut off point for me and only listening to music up to that particular era. I refuse to let it happen. I think I will always want to hear new things. Even if I don’t I will force myself to give new music a chance.

I just came back from a season in spain and 99% of the bars in the area I was living in was pure cover singers singing the same old shit for the oldies on holiday. I just can’t comprehend going on a 2 week holiday only to sit in bars listening to the same classic 40’s, 50’s and 60’s music night after night. No matter what age I am, I think I’d sooner hang myself then get to that stage.

And it’s not like these oldies check out one bar and do other shit for the rest of the holiday. Some of em where telling me shit like “Ooh, we watched the Four Tops tribute at that other place and it was dreadful, then we saw a different Four Tops tribute at that new place and it was wonderful, think we’re probably going back there tonight”. I mean what the fuck? Don’t they get bored of hearing the same shit they’ve probably been listening to since the Four Tops were in their hay day? It baffles me.

Look at someone like John Peel. Before he passed away he played the most current shit. For an old boy he did well on playing fresh music. (Well you never know he might have just been doing it cos he was getting paid, for all we know he could have been sitting in the studio when ever a new track was playing saying “what the fuck are kids listening to these days?”). But still if he played what he did cos he was genuine, which Im sure he was, why is it he could stand new music and my dad for example, who is the same age as John Peel was when he died can’t listen to anything but smooth jazz? I played my dad some dubstep in his car one time, just to see what his reaction would be. I think 6 seconds was as long as I got out of him before he told me to turn it off. Why can’t he even listen and try except it for what it is, even if it’s not to his tastes?

I personally don’t like the band Cradle Of Filth, but if someone said check out this new tune by em, I could happily listen to a whole track and come to my own conclusions. Play it to a 70 year old biddy and she will literally instantly cover her ears and screw her face up like she’s scared out of her wits. At the end of the day it’s just sounds, sonic frequencies. It amazes me how that works.

I would love to get a group of old fogeys, and do a serious scientific study as to why they refuse to listen to new styles of music. Like play different and various genres and narrow down exactly what frequencies and sonics within the music makes it unacceptable for them to enjoy.

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It’s kinda like one of those “what’s the meaning of life?” theories. Don’t think it could ever be explained.