Which artists do you just not get?

Stehno - your description of your reaction to jazz sounds just like my wife's. I think she even used some of the same phrases to describe it! She can't stand it if I put on Miles or Casandra, or anything remotely sounding like jazz. She equates it to a kind of musical masturbation. I love the stuff though, so it stays at work, or is played in her absence (just like masturbation...hey, maybe she has something there!!).

I don't get most rock'n'roll anymore. I did like it at one time I guess, but I've become an old fart in my 40's already. In highschool I never did get that "Stairway to Heaven" band that everyone else my age seemed to be crazy about. I'm utterly nauseated by heavy metal...makes me want to run screaming from the building! House Music.....Pulllleassseee! I'd rather have an ice-cold enema!

More specific artists outside those genre's: Never did get the Grateful Dead either. Who's that Canadian female vocalist that the world is nuts for that is supposed to have a "perfect voice"....you know, the blonde who does some numbers in Titanic? That's just right over my head.

Audiophile don't-get-it's: Diana Krall (she just doesn't get inside me like Eva Cassidy can - to apply an audiophile definition; too analytical sounding..no soul). Terry Evans (Tried and tried on him and still don't get hooked).

On an interesting tangent, there have also been some artists that I couldn't understand for the longest time, yet I held onto their music just out of some kind of instinct. I'd give it a try every now and then, and in some cases would come around to really liking it. Patricia Barber's music was like that for me. I tried listening to Cafe Blue over the years and never really connected with it till only last year. Now I listen to her stuff frequently and enjoy it very much. I'm just coming around to Pink Floyd as well, though repeated listenings to Dark Side of the Moon never flipped my switch over the years and left me wondering what everyone was talking about. I do enjoy it today though and am glad I hung onto the vinyl pressing I had.

Marco

Kinsekd - well said. Ben - I respect your right to your opinion, but definitely don't share your opinion in this case. First of all most of the posts go beyond being 'negative' in their content. Some add humor. Some swing into the positive. Some add information. While others add other personal touches. I think Kinsekd took care to phrase his/her query carefully to suggest the thread NOT go into negativity for the sake of negativity. The question posed is "Which artists do you just NOT GET?"....even the title softens what could be more like you may be suggesting (I think). Even if it were strictly about what folks don't like, does that make all the threads about what folks DO LIKE also "dumb" in your opinion?! How's it so different? If you start to get a sense for some folks having remained on this forum for a while, or even simply looking back at some older posts they've made when you strongly connect with what they are saying (or the opposite), you may get some great reccomendations/insight. That applies to both 'negative' opinions as well as 'positive'. I've gotten some great reccommendations for music from reading this forum.

Ben, one more question: You started a thread a while back titled "The Five most Overrated Movies Ever", the start of which you declare: "Ah such fun is being had on that other thread it's now time to take the axe to movies......." How is that thread so different from this one?!

On that note, as I said, I've never really clicked with Diana Krall, but the one CD I still own of hers is Live in Paris. It still doesn't really grab me for many of the reasons stated here (No Ben, I still don't get the emotion...and I do love Joni Mitchell's songwriting). But I'm not going to give up on her just yet. I'll hang onto the CD and perhaps come around to her as I have before to others. Then again, maybe I'll never get her. My buddy back east (a hard-core audiophile with whom I share some tastes and not others) tells me the DVD of that same live performance is just wonderful.

Marco

Ben- It is our differences, as well as our similarities, that makes life so rich and keeps things interesting. If we all liked the same things life would be pretty boring I think. In spite of your thinking this was a "dumb" thread (I get cranky too and have had similar knee-jerk reactions to things when I am, especially when it strikes at something at my core as you so eloquently have confessed), you have made some interesting contributions yourself and I would guess you may have gotten some 'value' from the insight necessary to write what you have. I guess I'm simply suggesting that is not a "dumb" thread at all. Perhaps if you apply the way you approach music (per your last paragraph) to how you view others points-of-view (simply try to understand them, recognize they may be different than yours, and also realize that you may also have much common ground as we all do) you may open yourself up to a whole new world of possibilities, as you do with the music! You don't need to change people at all, nor defend yourself or anyone else ...appreciate them for who they are, just as you are able to be so open to such a diverse selection of music.

Thank you for your candid thoughts...and I am not at all being sarcastic. I appreciate that they make me think about this stuff too.

Marco

Nrchy - You plucked out two ringers that I was trying to think of myself. PJ just grates on me and I've tried several albums on numerous occassions. KD's got a great voice but I just can't get into her songs for some reason.

Tomryan - I'm still laughing about the Red M&M's! Reminds me of that great Kevin Spacey film, Swimming with Sharks. I do happen to like some of Springstein's music though. Just shoot me.

Enjoy Nirvana at times in small doses, as I do some other 'unlikely' bands when you consider my broader tastes. In those realms I do really enjoy Tool and Filter in small doses if I'm in the mood. These kind of unlikely preferences keep me way open to all kinds of music. I'll always give something a try, at least a few times.

Not a fan of opera overall, but have heard and been drawn to many gorgeous passages of opera music, and performers whose voices defy confinement. How could you not be moved by someone like Cecilia Bartoli?!

Marco