I live for years in the much more liberal, progressive West Coast area of the country listening to "Edge music" like Green Day and Sublime, but now after only a couple years of living in the South in north Florida I find myself digging music with a... dare I say it... "country sound." Am I now a country hick?
First into my CD player came the "Kings of Leon" the Southern Rock, Blues/Punk band. If you like Tom Petty's old stuff you should like.
I spent my first 35 years in Los Angeles, and developed an affinity for 80's alternative rock and even New Age (in my lighter moments) there. I've been in Phoenix since '91. Country music here is much more prevalent here than back home. I'm glad to say that I still hold Country with pretty much the same disdain as Rap. And don't even get me started about line dancing.
You've been exposed to a different lifestyle, along with its different accoutrements. You may not previously had the opportunity.
To say that embracing a different style of music makes you, somehow, less deserving as a human being is ridiculous. In fact, it absolutely makes you a better person.
Consider the pathetic twit my age who still clings with misbegotten loyalty to the rock of the early 1970s, refusing to hear anything from any other period or geography. A closed mind, to be sure.
No, that would be like buying a 1993 Ford Mustang, and refusing to either unload it or trade it in for something newer and better.
dwight (I listen to all music from everywhere. All voices have merit.)
Or his dog may not have eloped with his girlfriend, taking his dusty misfiring pickemup truck full of 8-track tapes, leaving him to dull the pain of his saddle sores with a 6-pack of warm Coors Light.
Bullshit. If this had any kind of logical merit, we'd all become better persons by driving vehicles and eating food from every corner of the globe. By extension, we'd all be dissing each other based on the number and types of international experiences we've had. Can you imagine the amount of snakeshit, buffaloshit, and parrotshit that would result from that?
Equine manure. Each of us likes whatever music he likes because it elicits a memory or feeling from us. You can't tell me that "embracing" music that grates on my nerves makes me a better person.
While this is truly funny, I don't buy it either. In general, that is. In Patrick "Voice of Tomorrow" McKenzie's case, it is quite ironic.
And you think you're better than me 'cuz you done scored more culture points? Well, do ya, punk?
To the contrary, I find your logic without merit. How would you know you don't like something unless you experience it ? Having more experiences and knowledge enables one to make better decisions about what is right and wrong for their life.
The key phrase here is "embracing", the term chosen by dwight. I can listen to a sampling of a particular style of music by different artists and know pretty well if I'm going to like the genre or not. I certainly don't need to "embrace" it to be a "better person". That is just a bunch of liberal crap.
Well, how one "embraces" music is a confounding problem. I think most people use the term to describe a deliberate effort to understand a subject rather than a casual dismissal based on whatever pre-conceptions one may have; i.e. Bluegrass music is for "redneck hicks". How ever much someone wants to partake of any given thing is their own choice. Yet, I hardly think going through life with a rigidly prejudicial mind serves anyone well.
Your leap here is impressive, but has nothing at all to do with what I wrote. I thought we were talking about music.
I could try to make that case, but I said no such thing. And in your example, you seem to be thinking in terms of "song", rather than "music". Try to broaden your scope. I'm not talking about buying a Baliwood music video to enhance your manhood. I'm talking about exposure to the southern American country rock music of the 1990s and early Oughts, which goes way beyond "elicits a memory or feeling".
Oh, I think I'm better than you on a number of levels, but not because of my musical knowledge.
Ahhhh! It's the "embrace" thing that set you off. Let's look at what Patrick wrote, and then read the offending "embrace" passage:
"To say that embracing a different style of music makes you, somehow, less deserving as a human being is ridiculous. In fact, it absolutely makes you a better person."
Yes, LIBERAL CRAP, alright.
Again, your focus is too narrow. You would sample a cultural movement and either dismiss it or bring it into your life ("embrace"). I say that you're missing out on literal worlds of music out there.
I don't care for reggae, don't seek it out. But there is reggae out there that, I cannot deny, is wonderful. The same for hip hop. The same for Florida Panhandle American Country Rock. The same for the generic white rock of the early to mid-60's.
(In my work, I get to listen to the unlistenable. Much of it is what I call "spaz music" - herky jerky crap that builds to nothing and goes nowhere, leaving the listener like a frustrated lover who chose to utter the wrong name during the throes of passion. But every once in a while, within this "genre", I discover a gem, a surprise, a keeper.)
Patrick's question related to the overall "country sound", not the specific artists that he plucked out of that pool.
Maybe you object to the notion that bringing other kinds of music into your life makes you a "better person". Let's put this in simplest terms:
Does it make you less of a person? Are you the same person as before? Or are you a better person?
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