Like whatever music you like

I often play music for my students and have them write a short paragraph telling me whether or not they like it and why. Most of the time my students are respectful when they don’t like a piece of music. Sometimes they’re not. And I always remind them to like whatever music they like, but on the condition that they leave people alone if they like other types of music. Like whatever you want, but don’t make other people feel bad or not liking that type of music.

If you like hip-hop music and nothing else that’s awesome. It doesn’t say anything about the quality of other styles of music.

If you only like classical music that’s fantastic, but again, it doesn’t say anything about other types of music.

Other types of music are valid forms of art, whether or not you like them.

I use the example of Justin Bieber. I’m personally not a fan of much of his music. For many reasons I’d rather listen to something else.

BUT.

He’s an amazing singer. I can appreciate his vocal abilities even if I don’t like the specific style of music that he makes. And me disliking his music says nothing about his singing abilities.

I often hear people saying that other types of music are “bad”, when in reality they just mean that they like it. The same thing goes for saying a song is “good.” What specifically did you like about the music? What specifically makes you say it’s “good?” That’s what I want to hear. Just hearing someone say that it’s “good” or “bad” tells me nothing about the music.

The goal is to be able to describe what you like about a song in such a way and with such detail that the person you’re talking to can imagine what type of song it is.

Doing this repeatedly and regularly will also help you more deeply listen to music and listen in more detail. You’ll eventually start to hear more details in music.

ISJ