Music, Ignorance, and You

Music and radio have always been important parts of American culture and society. The past century has possibly brought the most radical changes in music history. We have seen huge diversity in surfacing musical genres over this time, such as the beginnings of blues, jazz, pop, hip hop, and rock and roll just to name a few of the hundreds of categories and subcategories. A person's musical taste, if any, has obviously always been a matter of preference. One listens to something, and decides if this is right for them or not at that time.
In recent years, musical taste has become no more than adapting to time for many people. I find it hard to appreciate something that has absolutely no value other than its birth in a very recent year. If one listens to most “current” radio stations, they play nothing more than “top 40”, flavor of the year songs. This is not an attack on certain musical genres or calculated assault to change your personal tastes; it is a way to think of ignorance and variety in regards to music and yourself. At my place of work, there is a colleague of mine who listens to only “current” and “new” music stations. Another colleague of mine came into work one day wearing a t-shirt of a “classic” rock band, specifically which band is arbitrary. The former colleague asked the latter, “Do you like them? Their old, how can you listen to that? Get with the times.” It makes sense for someone to appreciate music on the basis of personal preference, but not just because something is new. It is ignorant to like a new idea just for the sake of change. Its humorous to listen and watch people that can be complete hypocrites. Time is a completely irrelevant factor in decision to like music. Yes, we change what we like all the time, but that is because what our taste in everything changes as we age. If I were to say for instance, that I do not like Frank Sinatra because his music is outdated or just old, with the same logic I could argue that I do not like democracy because it is old. A person close to me changes the music on her portable music player approximately every two months. I thought the reasons for which could have been the possibilities that she gets tired of the repetition or just has constantly changing tastes. When asked why she does this, she claimed that “they”, whomever “they” may be, do not play many of the songs anymore on the radio or at popular dance clubs. This is very hard to follow because how can one base enjoyment on popularity or presence in society. This is like saying that a film is no longer worth viewing once it's out of theaters.

By Dillon Tener