Is it OK to NOT like classical music?

While I don't really agree that there is a style that cuts across, since I think Bach is very different from the others, it's cool that you've found something you like in all of them. I do wonder what you have listened to by Beethoven though, since you "struggle" with him, because he has much more in common with both Mozart and Schubert than any of them have with Bach, and there is plenty of melody and (definitely) emotion in Beethoven.

I think learning a little about the periods in Classic music is a good way to understand it a bit more, and of course to find other things that are similar to things one already likes.

 

You should definitely be ashamed.

 

A nice smiley it gives you the right to be locked into a very small parameter. There is so much more. You have not stated what your preference is.

 

I was laughing at myself, a very healthy exercise every now and then. I fully recognize the irony, and laughing at myself seemed entirely appropriate. You can laugh too, if it suits. We can laugh together.



Am I "locked into a [very] small parameter"? Perhaps. My musical tastes have grown organically, with one thing leading to another. There's a thread between what I like now, and what I liked then. In other words there's a musicsl reason. It might be a musician, a label, or a producer. It could be many things, but it's never a random jump. I don't listen to music on the radio, nor do I stream. I sometimes try something recommended by someone on these forums.

Is that bad and limiting? Not really. I only have so much time to listen, and I cram as much music as I can into that time. If I was listening to rap, then I wouldn't be listening to something else. Time is finite. Money is finite. These two parameters trump personal taste. I can't afford, nor do I have time, to buy and listen to everything I already own or want. How am I going to fit in rap? It's just a practical limitation.

That said, yes, I am no doubt missing out on some good music. Maybe things I'd enjoy. No doubt. Hell, I'm missing out on things artists I already know about have done. In the "5 recent CD purchases" thread I have recently posted my latest haul: Prison music from the 1930's (Parchman Farm), Southern Mountain Music (Ola Belle Reid), Jazz (Tony Marsh), and a little earlier, the first two albums from The Stooges. Classical wise, I recently got hold of Johann Johannsson's Orphee. I'm going to lay claim to having very broad tastes; though not so broad that I have time for Rap and Hip Hop. While pondering how to react to the question: Is it OK not to like Classical, it occurred to me that I'd miss not listening to some of it. I don't miss not listening to Rap or Hip Hop. Which is perhaps hypocritical, though I'd prefer to say it's simply being a human. We're all contradictions.

 

Cool and very open post.

 

I've always struggled with Beethoven because of what I perceive as a reliance on drama versus melody. I think of Beethoven as Pete Townsend as compared to Mozart as Lennon/McCartney. The late quartets, recently discovered by me, are the first pieces of Beethoven's I've explored with some desire.

I am definitely a novice when it comes to understanding classical music contextually, but my posts were meant as a response to the OP's original question. I'm a hard core brit and alt rock fanatic, yet I've found logical bridges to classical from that place that connect the two together in my mind. To not like classical music, period, is impossible for me. I may not like some, maybe most, but there are pieces that transport me as much as the Beatles or Kinks do.

 

I detest it. I was forced to play it for much of my childhood. I don't care how important it is. I regard it as music to punish the young, sedate the mentally ill, and lull the elderly to the grave.

 

Yes it is abused in the name of whatever controls polite society currently wants to apply to 'free spirits'. Anthony Burgess' Clockwork Orange highlights some of this, in extremis, of course.
These abuses I also detest. But just like the sufferings of Tori Amos (at 5 entered a music conservatory, kicked out a 11 for only playing by ear and liking rock music) never stopping her fascination for classical music, there is surely a middle way to be found.
Tori now has a contract with Deutsche Grammophon and releases her own compositions in the classical tradition.

 

If you don't like Mahler's 4, 5, or 6, it's not ok.

 

I think Mahler has too much cowbell! (seriously!)

 

To paraphrase..... Mahler's music is much better than it sounds......

 

It's always OK not to like something.

 

I have been seeing this thread pop up over the past week and never gave it a second thought. But thinking about it now - even though I oftentimes marvel at the beauty and technical prowess exhibited, I sometimes feel I am forcing myself to listen to it. I can only take it in small doses.

 

It's not ok because you'll be saying that you know exactly what classical music is to be separating it from other music. Even if someone who likes it says that there is a clear line, then they are admitting that it has its limits without realizing it.

 

I understand how the people that don't enjoy classical music feel. Jazz music does nothing for me and I actively avoid it if I can. Many good people love Jazz, it's simply not for me.

 

1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and all the 10s as well.

 

Don't give up. Don't surrender. Don't play THEIR game. I mean it. Most of the ones forced to play it as kids or teens, never play or listen to it. It is a crime of the teachers and the system.

 

You might try listening to a variety. Like rock, classical music isn't one thing. It's a whole lot of different styles grouped into a genre. I don't like all classical music, but I listen to Beethoven and Mozart, and I have a fondness for baroque music, particularly Italian baroque music. Most modern classical leaves me cold. I don't like much jazz, but I've got about 40 Stan Getz discs because I love the sound of his sax. I don't think you should ever feel obligated to like a genre of music, but most forms of music have some redeeming qualities, and you might discover something you really like buried in the stuff you don't.

 

It's often hard for folks raised on rock music to cozy up to classical. The approach is a bit "turned on its ear" in comparison. Rock music is very artist/song focused but classical is work-oriented. Imagine a world where every great rock artist just recorded their own version of songs existing for many years. It's not a dig on classical...just an observation.

Yes, it's okay not to like classical. I don't like watermelon.

 

I hate anchovies so, yep, it's ok.

 

Only if you're an uncultivated ruffian.

(just kidding ).

 

A less painful segue from rock to classical might be through Erik Satie or Debussy...those radicals of classical.
I've always loved both. Raised on the Moody Blues helped (Days Of Future...), and the Erik Satie variation on the Blood Sweat & Tears album got me to Satie in 1969.

 

I think it's an attention span thing. in an age where everything had to happen yesterday, 20-40 minutes of music with no words requires too much listening. People in our modern age want instant gratification, and instant gratification only. In an age where music consumers have had record companies promoting and financing music that hits the chorus in the first thirty seconds (for forty years or so), how will folks with little motivation spend 5 minutes waiting for the musical reward?
I will live, it's not huge, but it seems that music as an industry is in its death throws. There are seemingly only some of us in an older age bracket that will give diverse music a longing listen and savour it for what it is......
One of the reasons that gaming is so popular is that if you aren't blowing something up every tenth of a second, you will die, game over. Music doesn't work that way.
Sitting quietly for an hour and listening to a long piece of music develop and give its rewards out subtlety, doesn't seem to work for the gaming generations. They will say it's boring. An age where melody is often frowned upon as a bad thing and all that matters is a groove ...
Anyway, I am not criticising the younger generations, so don't get mad guys, it's just that they have been indoctrinated into a world with no soul and they can't see it, because they have been taught not to.
I am glad that I am old now. The world is going down hill so fast it is breathtaking and the last twenty years have been astonishing and bizarre.

 

Right on, my friend. Staggering indeed.

"The New World Symphony" used to offer hope as it unfolds in all its glory (it still does for me--goosebumps)...but the real "new" world is looking rather bleak to my old tired eyes also. I also am rather glad I won't live to see what is, and will be done to "our fair sister".
What seemed bleak in 1967, seems quite prophetic now...we need a little hour's downtime with Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G-Minor, OP 22, maybe. The title alone makes us slow down and reflect.

"When The Music's Over"

What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences and dragged her down
I hear a very gentle sound
With your ear down to the ground
We want the world and we want it
We want the world and we want it now
Now?

©The Doors 1967

PS. To those who love long songs that build and change and then change again (think "The End" or "Stairway To Heaven" )...they're just rock songs in the classical mold. You love classical music and didn't even know it!

Or didn't you know you being classicized when you were listening and loving YES' "Cans & Brahms"...

 

Or the genius of
Fever Tree's "Imitation Situation (Toccata & Fugue)"....a little Bach in the night, psychdelicized.