Music Head Wrote:Rank them from 1-10 as to your preference.
1) Jazz & Blues
Number one for me right now. Jazz that is, which has been an obsession for the past five years. I'm not much of a Blues fan. I can take it or leave it, but I don't really listen to it intentionally. But for Jazz, I listen to it all the time. I listen to everything from approximately 1960 on through today. I find that Jazz recorded prior to the late 50s sounds a little simplistic to me, so I don't have many repeat listens from that era. I'll try stuff, but very little of it sticks in my regular (or semi-regular) music listening rotation.
If Blues were its own category, I'd rank it much lower. It's inoffensive music, but nothing I ever seek out to hear.
2) Soul/R&B & Hip Hop/Rap
It's kind of rotten to have these merged into one group when they are two discrete genres, and Rock&Roll is given three different categories, but I'll work with the crude format we have here. To keep things simple, I'll just refer to the two as "Soul" and "Hip Hop". If I had to break this out into separate genres, I'd list Soul above Hip Hop and list these as #2 and #3 overall.
A lot of people for whom Soul isn't their primary (or secondary) preference like to make a big deal out of calling older music in this category "Soul" and calling more recent music "R&B". The truth is, it's all the same. The delineation seems to be the mid-1970s. I could go into a lot of psycho babble as to my thoughts on why people make this distinction, but that's a discussion for another time.
For me, Soul music is the music of my youth. It's the old well I return to time and again when I need to hear something great. It's that simple, really. It might be an Earth Wind & Fire song from 1974, or an Otis Redding song from 1964, or a Jill Scott song from 2004. It's all Soul music. And there are great songs/albums from every era of it.
Hip Hop is another grand favorite. It's the music of my young adulthood, the soundtrack to my coming of age. I could list a Hip Hop song to describe every major moment of my life from ages 13 through 33, and beyond. When the lyrics are point on, there's no other genre that speaks to me as eloquently and directly as Hip Hop. It doesn't dominate my listening time as it once did, but I still devote a good chunk of time to the genre.
3) Pop, & Dance
There's something wonderful about a well-crafted pop or dance song. Sometimes, there's nothing better than to mindlessly listen to a tune that makes you bob your head and tap your feet/fingers. There's always a place for good Pop/Dance songs on my playlists.
4) Rock:- Rock & Roll, Classic Rock, & Progressive Rock
This genre doesn't get a lot of time from me, but it keeps a steady small presence in my listening rotation. I don't go very wide in this genre. Once I find an act I like, I'll usually work my way through a few albums by the same artist/group. A little R&R goes a long way for me, so there's not much reason for me to follow up on "RIYL" offshoots. By the time I work my way one R&R artist I like, six months may have passed.
5) Alternative:- Punk, Post-Punk, Grunge & Indie
See above. For all intents and purposes, this is the same as Rock & Roll to me.
6) Electronic Music
I don't listen to this much, but I really appreciate albums/songs that quote-unquote "overcome the limitations of the genre." I'm turned off if there is too much bloop-bloop bleep-bleep over-self-indulgence involved, but otherwise, this can be good background music for me.
7) Country, Folk & World Music
If this were strictly Reggae, I'd rank it 4th. If it were strictly Folk, I'd rank it 9th. Because it's a combination of the two and it has Country in the forced mix, I'll rank this 7th.
Reggae is something I always appreciate, but seldom buy. A good Reggae song is one of my favorite things to listen to. Like with Soul music, I don't make artificial separations of Reggae music. I like everything from 70s Bob Marley, to 80s Ziggy Marley, to current Reggae & Dancehall. But, I never seem to listen to it a lot.
I'm the perfect guy for a Country compilation. I'll never be able to gladly listen to a day's worth of Country albums in a single day, but give me nine or eleven great songs on a wide-ranging compilation and I grin and nod for an hour. Similarly, give me an album of a contemporary Country artist and if the music suits me, I'll be a happy camper. I'm fairly certain most Country fans would not look too favorably upon the few acts I like, but they work for me. For instance, I'm high on Sugarland right now -- I got their new album the week it was released and have heard it a dozen times in the last two weeks.
Folk. Blah! The less said about that, the better for me. It's not for me. It's generally boring and I don't really see a lot of talent involved. Please don't feel obligated to list numerous examples to disprove me. It's simply the way I feel about the genre as a whole. OTOH, I have heard a few Folk songs I liked. Darn if I can name any right now, though.
8) Film & Stage Music
For a while, I was really into orchestral movie soundtracks. And, on occasion, I'm a sucker for a good Broadway soundtrack. A few years ago, I'd probably have ranked this a couple of spots higher. These days, I don't listen to the genre often enough to justify a higher ranking. Though, on the rare chance I listen to an album, I absolutely love it.
9) Hard Rock & Metal
Metal would probably rank last for me, but with Hard Rock mixed in, I'll nudge this to ninth. I'm not wild about Hard Rock, but some of the R&R acts I like get listed as Hard Rock. That's why I bumped this up. I don't hate music, but I hate the more extreme forms of Metal. OTOH, there are a couple of Metal albums/acts I've found palatable. But it's not a genre I'd ever seek.
10) Classical Music & Opera
I feel kind of guilty about placing this last. When I hear Classical music, I always find something to like about it. However, out of over 1500 CDs, I think I only have about 3 Classical albums and I haven't listened to any of them in over three years. Bottom line, I simply don't listen to the music enough to rank it anything other than last. And when it comes to Opera, I don't think I've ever heard an entire Opera song, much less an entire album's worth of music. Again, I'm not ranking these last because I dislike them. Only because I never listen to them.
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