@waytoomuchstuff I appreciate your sentiments.
As someone for whom music is central to existence, I was offended when my good friend Matt said, while we were doing hard work on a commercial fishing boat, “I just want to listen to something with energy and a beat, not any art-y s**t.”
Keep in my mind he is my good friend but his definition of art-y is much broader than mine. I have no problem curating playlists for certain situations and people (I actually enjoy it) and I understand why he would prefer certain kinds of music (good loud/aggressive/fast music is good for those long, grueling work days) but it still seemed derogatory and disdainful the way he said, “art-y,” and, based off of knowing him for years and his own words throughout our friendship, I really believe music for him is merely a distraction. Kinda hurts my soul.
Ultimately, whatever, people can like whatever they like however they like it.
But…
When I see (more specifically and importantly, excruciatingly ‘hear’) people using a CELL PHONE SPEAKER (sans headphones) as a stereo IN PUBLIC, when I see people thoughtlessly letting algorithms determine their music, when I see people complacently listening to the same narrow sliver of music’s historical continuum every day of their lives (like, say, the same corporate FM classic rock trash we’ve heard 80 bazillion times or, as another example, a ceaseless onslaught of pseudo-bluegrass, milquetoast Americana) or only using music as another “app,” another utilitarian appliance in their modern lives, that really does hurt my soul.