I really think a lot of people are too quick to pass up what could be at least interesting listening experiences. I used to be a very "basic" listener with relatively normal tastes like 80s/90s rock, some classical (it didn't matter which), prog, The Beatles and the soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever.
That's not to say that I don't enjoy that any more, of course I do, but getting engaged with people who have the kind of music tastes I know nothing about got me into things that elicit different emotions. I learned that music didn't have to be about a quick entertainment (that's how I treated it) but rather it can arouse various emotions, too.
I started with 80s synthpop and especially J-pop/city pop, finding a wide variety within that subgenre alone, but it drew my attention to electronic instrumental music; listening to Boards of Canada and ambient by Stars of the Lid for a start, venturing into drone music from there (Phil Niblock, Klaus Schulze's Irrlicht and especially Celer), finding modern classical simultaneously (Schonberg, Béla Bartók) and then getting more interested in the "avant garde" modern classical like by Jurg Frey and from there to EAI and improvisation such as AMM, leading up to what best fits the category "ECM style Jazz" (as on Rate Your Music anyway), into experimental music with tapes and Graham Lambkin (and his idea of listening to listening to music), further to the simple beauty of field recordings such as by Toshiya Tsunoda and Marfred Werder's interesting concept of raw recordings in one place (2005¹)and then back to interesting lowercase by the likes of Taku Sugimoto and Keith Rowe (The Room).
All along the way I felt things that I never used to feel, perhaps it's a placebo, but it has significantly altered the way I think about music, what constitutes music, and the sort of things I like to listen to. It's also been inspiring for me, someone with not much musical knowledge (I abandoned the violin at grade 4) to try and make my own music.
Lowercase and other music usually considered "weird" or not music at all makes pleasant listening experiences, depending on how open minded one is, or if it's suitable for one's tastes. I'm not trying to say it's some new height of music for patricians, rather, it's something different which people may find nice to enjoy. I've found I've started to develop a more eclectic liking[0], so I certainly don't stop enjoying the things I did, but rather I just enjoy new things in different ways.
I hope this inspires someone to go out and see what there is to listen to.
That's not to say that I don't enjoy that any more, of course I do, but getting engaged with people who have the kind of music tastes I know nothing about got me into things that elicit different emotions. I learned that music didn't have to be about a quick entertainment (that's how I treated it) but rather it can arouse various emotions, too.
I started with 80s synthpop and especially J-pop/city pop, finding a wide variety within that subgenre alone, but it drew my attention to electronic instrumental music; listening to Boards of Canada and ambient by Stars of the Lid for a start, venturing into drone music from there (Phil Niblock, Klaus Schulze's Irrlicht and especially Celer), finding modern classical simultaneously (Schonberg, Béla Bartók) and then getting more interested in the "avant garde" modern classical like by Jurg Frey and from there to EAI and improvisation such as AMM, leading up to what best fits the category "ECM style Jazz" (as on Rate Your Music anyway), into experimental music with tapes and Graham Lambkin (and his idea of listening to listening to music), further to the simple beauty of field recordings such as by Toshiya Tsunoda and Marfred Werder's interesting concept of raw recordings in one place (2005¹)and then back to interesting lowercase by the likes of Taku Sugimoto and Keith Rowe (The Room).
All along the way I felt things that I never used to feel, perhaps it's a placebo, but it has significantly altered the way I think about music, what constitutes music, and the sort of things I like to listen to. It's also been inspiring for me, someone with not much musical knowledge (I abandoned the violin at grade 4) to try and make my own music.
Lowercase and other music usually considered "weird" or not music at all makes pleasant listening experiences, depending on how open minded one is, or if it's suitable for one's tastes. I'm not trying to say it's some new height of music for patricians, rather, it's something different which people may find nice to enjoy. I've found I've started to develop a more eclectic liking[0], so I certainly don't stop enjoying the things I did, but rather I just enjoy new things in different ways.
I hope this inspires someone to go out and see what there is to listen to.
[0] http://ue.iwakura.moe/chart.png