LogFAQs > #961025421

rwlh posted...

Cool! Looking forward to this.

Last year I asked what genres/styles/etc. of music you didn't have a lot of experience with, and I tailored my nominations accordingly. So I'll ask that again - what are your musical "weaknesses," so to speak? I still have the post you made for last year's topic, but I figure it's worth asking again, since your tastes and exposure may have changed since then.

Looking over my last answer...

-I still don't have much exposure to rap songs outside of the ones nominated for this topic series. I've kept up with the "Rank the Tracks" series which has covered a few rap albums, but not many.

-I still haven't listened to much opera. I did make a point to listen to Placido Domingo's album of Pagliacci, but I can't honestly recall any of the songs beyond "that one opera song everyone knows" and haven't tried non-Placido opera singers.

...well, I suppose I heard The Three Tenors at some point due to Placido Domingo, but I wouldn't say I actually know Pavarotti's music or even what the third guy's name was.

-Still a lot of blind spots on non-English music. Japanese music and Cantopop is usually represented, but other languages are slim at best. Not really looking for any specific language this time, it's just a general blind spot.

...though now that I've mentioned liking one German pop album, I suppose I am tempted to try more German music. I should probably do that one of these days. (This is more musing to myself than a request).

-I still make no attempt to follow current music, but I'll admit to listening to a fair amount of The Weeknd's singles. Between working with Kenny G, working with Kendrick Lamar on a Black Panther song, and having a song in Fuser's base game... let's just say he popped up quite a bit last year.

+ I know a bit more Broadway; I listened to a lot of "best Broadway duets" lists and I finally caught Hamilton thanks to Rank the Tracks, but I'm still lacking in more traditional plays & non-duets.

+ As mentioned, I did make an attempt to listen to a bunch of Game Gear music. It's the only real gap that I went out of my way to fill in. I also love studying obscure system's VGM... I'm not an expert or anything, but I do like hitting YouTube up for "[insert system here] music" and randomly clicking things. I think I managed to listen to every Atari Lynx song on the site, but don't quote me on that.

-...not really relevant to anything, but whatever happened to Soul music? It feels like a genre that got a lot of play in the 70s and then vanished entirely. If the genre transitioned to anything over the decades that would probably be news to me.

(There's probably also the question of "are the mainstream hits that get played constantly to this day real soul music??" but I am woefully unfit to answer that question and have not consciously thought about the genre prior to this exact moment.)

-I'll regret saying this, but I might be more open to more dance-adjacent music?? I still don't like overly thumping one-note beats, but... last year's winning song was certainly closer to that type of genre and I might have been a bit too harsh on certain songs.

-I keep saying I'll make a list of relaxing/meditative songs, but never actually do. I'm told New Age music might fit such a playlist, but I never bother listening to any to find out what the genre actually is.

-For obvious reasons, I don't listen to much religious music. I can't tell you what modern Christian music sounds like and I can't speak of the music of other faiths, be it traditional or modern. I imagine most super religious songs would be in contention for last place, but it'd be hard to find anything I have less exposure to than modern spiritual songs. (Also I do still love the film version of "Gethsemane" from Jesus Christ Superstar, so there are obviously exceptions)

-"songs that have a saxophone featured prominently" is not a genre, but it should be. There are also multiple types of saxes and I should try to learn what the differences are so as to actually have an opinion on them and which type I prefer, but that'd be... like... work or something.

-I'm still not really clear on all the subsets of jazz. I occasionally turn on a jazz station in hopes of hearing a sax solo and sometimes that works out. If you're hoping for a more nuanced take on the genre than "sometimes it plays instruments I like", then you're in the wrong place.



So... pretty much the same as last year.