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Preferences for Music Genres

Rasputin

ASD / Aspie
V.I.P Member
This seems weird to ask this question but do any of you have difficulty recognizing genres of music that you like?

I was not popular in school, and was regarded as a walking computer or encyclopedia. I did not date at all until I was 27, and knew nothing about music prior to that. My first wife was a "party girl", and I made up a lot of ground socially when I met her. I was introduced to rock and roll groups that she liked, and they became groups that I liked. Honestly, that was all I knew. We were together two years, after which I met my current wife of 28 years. She has some of the same issues I have, and may be autistic herself. She likes some country music, and not much else.

The only genres that I can say that I like is jazz and blues and the only popular singer that I really liked was Amy Winehouse who is now deceased. Does this seem strange to have such limited taste in music?
 
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That's completely valid. Being autistic comes with the fact that if you didn't care about musical genres when you were young, it's a lot harder to find interest in them later.

For me, music genres is one of my special interests, but I have an extremely minimal knowledge of movies, for example. I don't know any actors or directors or the names of movies that 'everyone else knows'.
 
I think it's normal for us to develop a liking for one particular genre and care about that passionately, and then not listen to or care about other genres. I like rock/prog rock, some metal, but not much else. I don't like most of what people describe as 'pop music' and it's possible that I've never even heard of a really popular singer or band. I don't like rap/hip hop, don't like soul or R&B, techno or dance music. I'm always amazed by people who claim that they don't have one particular genre they like, or they like everything.
 
I'm always amazed by people who claim that they don't have one particular genre they like, or they like everything.
I find that to be quite funny, whenever someone mentions that they like "every genre", they usually just mean pop, rock, rap and country, and it's only the popular stuff.
 
^ Yep, in my experience “I like everything” = “I like most things I hear on my preferred popular charts-oriented radio station”

I'm not sure how restricted I am, I like Classical (although find it inaccurate to characterise the whole tradition with that word), Metal and Folk. I also occasionally tune in to the Jazz hour on our local radio station, but don’t really know anything about it: just enjoy the alternative perspective on combining melody, harmony and rhythm every so often.
 
It has been difficult for me to put my music preferences into words/genres for most of my life as well. Partly because whether I like a particular song seems to depend less on conventional genres than elements within or characteristics of that song. E.g., I love when the bass is prominent, or the overall "tone" (this shows how illiterate I am musically) is deep/low, and you get that in many genres, like funk, soul, some metal music, reggae, and of course, some pop music as well, with low voices or a nice cello.

Now imagine me giving a speech on that when someone asks me what music I like. I ain't surprised people tune out when I talk anymore
 
Started out as a metal head for many years. Then my tastes and collection expanded hugely. I find I obsess over a particular genre for an extended period before finding something else.

I'm not a fan of streaming services, I have to own my music - albeit digitally. I wouldn't want all the clutter of CD's or vinyls. Besides, at best I only like 1 or 2 songs from an album. So collecting hundreds of albums would be a waste of time.

Currently my collection sits at over 20,000 songs. However, I had a hard drive failure last December and lost over a decade's worth of music collecting. So I'm doing my best to recoup what was lost.

At present I think I have over 100 genres and sub-genres in my library. I tend to shy away from mainstream musicians, and I have a preference instrumental artists and electronic genres.

Ed
 
It has been difficult for me to put my music preferences into words/genres for most of my life as well. Partly because whether I like a particular song seems to depend less on conventional genres than elements within or characteristics of that song. E.g., I love when the bass is prominent, or the overall "tone" (this shows how illiterate I am musically) is deep/low, and you get that in many genres, like funk, soul, some metal music, reggae, and of course, some pop music as well, with low voices or a nice cello.

Now imagine me giving a speech on that when someone asks me what music I like. I ain't surprised people tune out when I talk anymore

Just quoting you to say: that is the correct music theory usage of the word “tone”. :)
 
My sister was only into music when she was young and hanging out with her friends. She's married with a little kid and doesn't feel a need for it. It was just a socialising thing for her when younger and now the socialising glue is kids things .

I on the other hand am obsessed with music and although I do tend to be drawn mostly to 80s alt rock and alt pop I do love discovering new bands and look forward to my new customised Spotify playlist every week.
 
I like the 60s, 70s, 80s rock and pop music that's played on the car radio my whole life. I don't listen to music at home much. Except whatever soundtracks are playing on a movie or my online game.
 
I found Jazz at 12 years old, began with 'Big Band' and 'swing' then 'Be Bop' and modern, love Amy Winehouse, her voice and lyrics were incredible, music is of huge importance in my life and different genres often have the ability to enhance/emulate mood, in a negative head space today so am listening to Nina Samone and Billy Holiday whilst in bed reading.
 
This seems weird to ask this question but do any of you have difficulty recognizing genres of music that you like?

I did initially, I liked popular music early on and later went to discos to dance and liked how music in general moved me.

During that era of my life, I began listening to R & B and funk and eventually blues. Then I went back to discover very early blues and folk, it was a kind of quest to discover the origins of it all. I enjoy many different types of music, and went through a classical period where I listened exclusively to that, then many other types and styles.

I'm not a listener of music usually, I find it distracting. So the radio is not playing all day long. I'm more interested in identifying it's components, influences, when I hear it.
 
For me, most popular music "went off a cliff" after 1989. Leaving me to listen almost exclusively to film soundtracks, classical music, jazz and rock from the 60s, 70s and 80s.
 
I found Jazz at 12 years old, began with 'Big Band' and 'swing' then 'Be Bop' and modern, love Amy Winehouse, her voice and lyrics were incredible, music is of huge importance in my life and different genres often have the ability to enhance/emulate mood, in a negative head space today so am listening to Nina Samone and Billy Holiday whilst in bed reading.

It seems we have similar tastes.
 
I like some of the music that was around in the 70s when I was at university and onwards, James Taylor, Carol King, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, the Eagles, and later, Tracy Chapman, KD Lang, the Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge, M People, and I also like Early Music, from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
 
Everyone here talking about all these genres and bands and what not, and here I am, hating anything that has lyrics whatsoever.
 
Everyone here talking about all these genres and bands and what not, and here I am, hating anything that has lyrics whatsoever.
I must confess I’ve drifted towards lyrics in foreign languages over the last decade or so.
Don’t dislike lyrics I can understand per se, but they do distract from the music in a way that is a little frustrating.
 

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