One of the questions I feel like that gets commonly asked of anyone is, “What kind of music do you listen to?” or “Hey, what kind of music do you love?” I always feel put on the spot anytime someone asks me this question. Why? Because I feel that both of these questions in particular demand to be answered with one particular style or genre of music. When I get asked this question, I usually return it with a question to see just how the person reacts and returns. “Hey Brainfart, what kind of music do you like?” I say, “What do you mean?” They say, “What kind of music do you like? Rock? Metal? Reggae? Bosa Nova?” I usually just pretend to think on for a hot second and then I return with, “Well, I love music that I think doesn’t suck.”
This usually baffles people and it truly does blow me away when people are kind of dumbfounded by this reply. I get asked this question a lot so it’s something that I have taken a lot of time to mull over and process. As someone who listens to and loves a lot of heavy metal music, it always blows me away that even within the metal community, I see this question poised time and time again. “Hey brah, what kind of metal do you like?” Well, the answer still stands for metal that it does for all other kinds of music. “I love metal that I don’t think sucks.” Insert blank stare here from kid in Avenged Sevenfold shirt who just asked me this retarded question.
So you’re probably scratching your head at this point and wondering just what the fuck I mean by this? Did you not read the first part of this? Ok, let me break it down for you. What I mean by this is that, after all, whether or not some band actually sucks is truly subjective. I also find it highly unlikely that if you say you love a certain genre or subgenre of music that you truly do. So if you tell me that you love thrash metal, do you truly love EVERY thrash metal band? If you say you like glam metal, do you truly think that they are all equal across the board? Let’s break this down from my own person likes.
Hey Brainfart, do you love thrash metal? Well, I love Bonded By Blood but I fucking hate Diamond Plate. I love Nuclear Assault but I’d rather eat glass than listen to Warbringer.
Hey Brainfart, do you like glam metal? Well, I think Babylon AD is pretty fucking rad but I think Kik Tracee sucks a bag of hot boiled peanuts. I think Poison has some pretty great songs and I love the fuck out of Great White and Cinderella but I’d rather do shots of gasoline than listen to Sleeze Beez.
Hey Brainfart, do you like black metal? Well, I think Venom and Watain are pretty badass but I’d rather drown in the sludge Louisiana swamp than listen to Goatwhore. I can’t stand Dimmu Borgir but I can dig me some Enslaved.
Hey Brainfart, you like prog metal right? I like Symphony X and Dream Theater but I pretty much think that Mudvayne is shit water. I dig the fuck out of Watchtower and Crimson Glory but I’d rather sit through a 5 hour Polka Fest than listen to The Dillinger Escape Plan.
There. Did that make any sense to you? I hope I cleared a few things up. If you learned anything from this little editorial piece, I hope that maybe you’ve learned to a bit more mindful when approaching a person and inquiring about their musical likings. Trust me, doing so will actually open up a really great door to a world of conversation as opposed to being stopped dead in your tracks by a rolling of the eyes. Hell, if you got anything out of this, you learned another handful of bands that I can’t stand so either way, you learned something didn’t ya?
About The Author
