Second Most Important Genre of Music?

[Dan Gould]

In the past two years or so I have moved strongly away from jazz as my interest in blues has expanded greatly. While I'd never stop listening to jazz, I definitely spend more listening time with blues artists of late and in fact when I went to the new and improved Blue Note Records shop on Saturday, I managed to drop $100 without once looking in the jazz section.

So that gets me to wondering, assuming that for the vast majority of us, jazz is our number one musical genre, what is your number two? And as a follow up question, is there any chance that your number two could move up and supplant number one? If you had to live without one of those genres you enjoy, which would it be?

[Chuck Nessa]

Not sure why we need to stratify our musical tastes. I get fine stimulation from a number of directions. Music (aka organised sound) is the thing.

[Van Basten II]

Can't seem to find an answer that fits completely my feelings.

On one hand, i think it is important to distinguish styles of music, so i can't say that i don't recognize musical genre boundaries.

However i'm first and foremost a music lover, if a tune, the orchestration, the lyrics, the arrangment, the emotion, the technique pleases me or whatever that suits my fancy at the moment of listening makes me react positively, i will appreciate it, period.

So, to say that i like a style of music that pleases me more than anyone else is impossible for me to say. There is only one style of music that pleases me, it's the kind that makes my brain send positives waves throughout my body and God knows what kind of music it will take him next to get excited.

Edited October 23, 2007 by Van Basten II

[Tom 1960]

No big surprise Dan, but I chose blues. Although compared to jazz these days it's a pretty distant second. After pretty much taking a hiatus from jazz for a period of time, it's about all I listen to these days. I think in the past year and a half I've about doubled my jazz collection. I enjoy classical music also, but I feel I have to be in the right mood to devote my attention to it. So many hours in the day.

[Matthew]

This is going to sound shallow, but the only two kinds of music I've ever "got" in any real way were rock and jazz, everything else has left me cold. I never have been touched by classical, blues, or R&B.

[Chuck Nessa]

This is going to sound shallow, but the only two kinds of music I've ever "got" in any real way were rock and jazz, everything else has left me cold. I never have been touched by classical, blues, or R&B.

Robert Pete Williams or Bukka White might change your mind.

[clifford_thornton]

I can get nearly as much joy from some prime San Diego hardcore as I can jazz, Tuareg music, Robert Pete Williams, AMM or whatever else I'm feeling at the moment.

I will say that, in general, I haven't heard many hard-funk or R&B records that have gotten to me, but it's only a matter of time.

[Free For All]

I never have been touched by classical, blues, or R&B.

Funny, those are the three that I would choose between if I were to vote in the poll. Different strokes, that's what makes life interesting. I really try to stay open to discovering new things- most of these discoveries (especially outside of jazz) have been a result of recommendations from this board.

Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday, Matthew!

[Harold_Z]

I don't rank my musical interests and/or don't recognize genre boundaries

That's the one for me. I'm very eclectic and if I like something - I LIKE IT!

I forget the exact quote, but Duke Ellington said something like there are only two kinds of music -good or bad. He also said something about not being held hostage by the word jazz. I'm with him on both points.

Genre categories are too subjective anyway. Ray Charles...is he blues, R&B, or jazz? All of the above? Is Losing Hand blues? Is One Mint Julep jazz? Were both records meant to be pop? Pretty useless and/or meaningless questions in my book. The real questions are "do you dig it?" "Do you want to hear it again?" "Do you want to go to a keyboard and figure it out?" Things like that.

[Peter Friedman]

After jazz, my favorite musical genre is classical music. Blues would come in 3rd place.

I have little if any interest in Rock, with just a couple of exceptions.

[JSngry]

Rhythm.

[Joe G]

Had to vote for the last choice, as there is no clear hierarchy for me. My tastes move in cycles.

[BruceH]

Rhythm.

Notes.

[clifford_thornton]

Sound.

[EKE BBB]

Rhythm.

Rhythm... changes.

[sidewinder]

Library music

[Chas]

I don't rank my musical interests and/or don't recognize genre boundaries

That's the one for me. I'm very eclectic and if I like something - I LIKE IT!

I forget the exact quote, but Duke Ellington said something like there are only two kinds of music -good or bad. He also said something about not being held hostage by the word jazz. I'm with him on both points.

Genre categories are too subjective anyway. Ray Charles...is he blues, R&B, or jazz? All of the above? Is Losing Hand blues? Is One Mint Julep jazz? Were both records meant to be pop? Pretty useless and/or meaningless questions in my book. The real questions are "do you dig it?" "Do you want to hear it again?" "Do you want to go to a keyboard and figure it out?" Things like that.

If we want to go beyond appreciation to understanding , then an 'everything is everything' attitude gets us nowhere . This is not to suggest that any particular type of music is truly sui generis , since musical categories , like Venn diagram sets , intersect , but rather that such intersection does not invalidate our use of such categories in our attempt to understand music . Nor should we avoid taxonomic questions out of fear that they might contribute to musical parochialism , for our affect is not so constrained by language . So far , the poll results evince a certain postmodern skittishness about ordinal rankings . This is somewhat curious , for while such rankings implicitly reference a telos , it is subjectively determined , and as such , of no threat to anyone's musical enjoyment . I am skeptical of the equal preference plurality , and I think a question such as , " After jazz , what music do you listen to most frequently ? ", would provide a truer measure of people's preferences .

[tonym]

But judging by the results so far we could probably do with a classical music section........

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I interpreted the question as about quantity, not about how much you like various kinds of music. It seems silly to me to say that I prefer, for example, Mbalax to Mbaqanga. But it also seems silly to me not to distinguish between them (and there are practical reasons for doing so, anyway).

So with me, Mbalax is followed by Gospel, Djeliya, R&B, Soul/Funk/Disco and Ska/Reggae. And I voted "Something else", of course. But this says something more about price and availability than about my taste. Mbalax and Djeliya albums are very cheap in West Africa and Paris; so when I visit, I buy a lot.

MG

[Rosco]

The answer to this depends on what day you ask me.

Jazz (whatever that is) will always be number one. Number two depends on my mood at the time. Any of those could fit the bill (well, maybe not country...) given the right day. In fact, you could add Brazilian music, salsa, reggae, etc, etc.....

[MoGrubb]

I don't rank my musical interests and/or don't recognize genre boundaries

This is my #2, reaching into an eclectic field, e.g. some country, some folk, some rock, some classical, some "soul." Jazz is #1.

[paul secor]

I do recognize genres/boundaries, even if they overlap sometimes. I probably listen to more jazz than anything else, but there are many times when I feel the need to listen to other types of music, and at those times I listen to what I need to hear speaking to me - no 2nd, 3rd, etc. favorites. Whatever I'm listening to at the time is my favorite. So I didn't vote, but I'll look at the results out of curiosity.

[Christiern]

I have spent most of my life absorbing and advocating jazz and blues, but I get as much from listening to, say, Lotte Lenya singing Weill, Landowska playing Scarlatti, Carlos Gardel singing anything, or Hank Williams' "Cheatin' Heart." Ditto the music of Bali, the Carter family, Aretha, Kathleen Ferrier, or a sermon by the Reverend Gates.

Good music is beyond category and I think people who close their ears to a broad spectrum of music short-change themselves.

Obviously, I voted for the last item in Dan's poll.

[Rooster_Ties]

From about 1995 to 2001 or so, I would have said Classical was actually my FIRST choice (strictly composers who worked from about 1850 and after, but especially the first half of the 20th century). And Jazz would have been a close second choice.

But for the last 6 or 7 years, I've shifted rather strongly towards Jazz, with Modern Rock as my current second choice. Classical would be a distant third now.

I still own more classical CD's (total) – than I do Jazz & Modern Rock combined. But I could easily dump half the classical discs I own and never even notice for years (or at least not miss them until the next seismic change in my tastes).

I seem to have such seismic shifts in musical interests about once every 7 years or so (give or take).

(I voted for Modern Rock in the poll, but I too would really enjoy having a Classical "sub-forum" around here.)

Edited October 23, 2007 by Rooster_Ties

[king ubu]

adult contemporary