Ears Over prejudice. Sound Okay?

Music (232/365) (Photo credit: tim geers)

There are a lot of different types of music out there.  If I listed a single one right now, I guarantee that a small army of people probably hates that type of music with a passion.  I’m not bothered by people hating certain types of music, but lately I’ve been pissed at the amount of judging that goes on in conduction with a person’s music tastes.  A person does not become what they listen to, and a type of music is not defined by its listeners in my opinion.  Yours may differ, but I’m just talking about what I have experienced when I listen to music.  Your way of listening may be different and that’s fine, I’m just making some observations about my own music experiences.  Read on!

This post was brought on by my purchase of the new Super Junior album, Sexy, Free, and Single.  Right off the bat I noticed some interesting comments on my tumblr dash.  The album was getting mixed reviews.  They were all quite different.  Most people either LOVED the album or HATED it.  The thing that bugged me were the accusations floating around.  I was indirectly called a sellout, a stupid ELF fangirl, and someone lacking musical integrity because I bought the Suju album as soon as it came out.  Now these incidents were isolated to be sure, but they go me thinking, what is so wrong about buying an album because you like the artist?  I have liked Super Junior’s previous songs so I bought the new album without listening to every single one first.  Why is this a crime?

Yes, some people may think that the new album is bad and that I only like it because I love Super Junior, but they are a bit wrong.  I bought the album because I like Super Junior and because of the past percentage of good songs.  The songs are not crap, at least not to me, because I don’t listen to stuff I don’t like listening to.  I don’t force myself to listen to a song because a band I like wrote it.  After all, I like the band because their songs are good!  I’m not going to listen to a song over and over out of loyalty alone.  Most band supporters are loyal because they like the songs anyway!  I guess one could say that ELFs listen to Suju because they are attractive, but if that was all that mattered the fans would just go to concerts and look up pictures right?  No one purposefully listens to crappy music to prove something (unless they have a really good reason I suppose).

Music guitar (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

I just don’t like being turned into something because of the music I like.  This happens to everyone.  I know that people who like rap or country music are often stereotyped because of the type of music they like.  If you think about it that idea is kinda ridiculous.  Yes, some music is a cultural thing, but people predominately listen to it because they like the way it sounds in their ears.  I don’t buy rap it’s rap, I buy a rap song because it sounds good.  I don’t listen to a lot of alternative to be thought of as “original” or something, I just like listening to it.  This idea of choosing music because it sounds good should really be applied to all those people who choose to say that music they like “isn’t music.”  Of course it is!  Someone listens to that type of music and it gives them pleasure to hear it.  Music is subjective and you can’t define it by those sort of ridiculous standards.  Rap is music no matter what anyone tells you.

On the other side of things I don’t like music being defined by its fans.  Why is boy band music automatically delegitimized because there is dancing and it appeals majorly to females (I could debate the feminist viewpoint of that statement for hours but I’ll move on)?  There are people of all different sexes and cultures that would enjoy listening to a boy band song for its musicality, but if you like it you are considered lame because of the fans of that type of music.  If you like listening to country, you shouldn’t be counted as a hick-like farmer should you?  You should listen to country music if you like it.  I decided a long time ago to put songs on my iPod if I like listening to them, no matter who wrote them.  Justin Bieber can write a good song regardless of who he is and what he looks like.

I just wanted to mention that we shouldn’t be so quick to judge others on the type of music they like to listen to.  If someone likes rap, they’ll listen to it because they like the music, not so you can decide who they are.  Music is just another small part of a group of inconsequential things that we decide to judge others on.  Just get to know someone before you judge them guys!  And most importantly, stop judging me for loving Korean boys bands!

Related articles

• KIP WINGER – “Musical Prejudice Is Like Any Other Prejudice; Basic Ignorance And Lack Of Knowledge For Another Person’s Point Of View” (bravewords.com)