What genres of music do you like? Current or older?

I have something to get out of my mind and it concerns the world of music. These days music is going in all types of places, some of it is good and some of it is bad. I remember back in in 1999 when I was a 5 year old child I didn't really care for music that much. I would hear it on the radio and listen to the cassette tapes of artists my father would put on when we went on long trips. As I was growing I began to like that music that my father liked and it was added other things that I liked such as watching wrestling, working with computers, and playing videos games. I only had the knowledge of mexican music and the music from the early 2000s. Fast forward to the year 2010 and I had received an ipod touch, I decided to buy a few songs and somewhat listen to them. Then everything changed when I attended my French class, the teacher played some french music and my ears embraced the lovely sound emanating from the stereo. For the next few months I had just about 150 songs on my ipod, most in english from the late 2010s, some spanish music , 5 french songs. In 2012 I took a history of music class in college where I had to listen to classical stuff for most of the class. At first I didnt like it but then I got used to it, especially after hearing lots of Mozart and Bach. After that I realized that the music of today is garbage in my opinion, about 50 percent is good and 50 percent is bad. So everyday for the past years I have looked up too much music and some i have added to my collection. Now it has flipped around because most of it is in spanish from the 80s or early 90s, with some music in english. I also have added Japanese music such as the rock group Hound Dogs. Some chinese cantopop like Alan Tam, and Jackie Chan. I have some french rap from MC Solaar and some current rap from Sexion D'assaut. I recently found this guy named Jean Jacques Goldman. I love 80s music in any language, but mostly in English or Spanish. I have one hot wonders like Frank Stallone to great bands like Queen. I got some tejano music and bolivian music. Theres just so much to find out there!! Recently I looked up the top 50 songs on youtube and I was amazed at what I saw. I thought the quality of some of those songs was just horrific. I don't really keep up with current music , my friends play it or they tell me about it and when I play my 80s songs my sister says the new stuff is better. I looked up the number one song and saw this Iggy Azalea chick singing and I was like what is this..... I really didnt like it or hate it but it did lead me to liking music from English artists like Charli XCX and Marina and the diamonds. I will say that I you like music and want more you can venture into other languages and even though you might not understand their is some good music out there. I do really wish that I was born in the 80s for the music but then I would miss the current technology. I really don't think todays music is that good as the older songs that had different sounds and lots of emotion put into them.

Is half of it bad or most of it?

The majority of music has always been bad, you just only remember the best of the best. There are amazing artists today making fantastic music they are just buried under shit.

Classical, rock, and videogame.

Exactly. Same can be said of television, books, and movies.

Maybe games? I'm not sure. There aren't a lot of flat out shit games anymo...oh wait, phone games. Games, too.

To say that most current music is bad is silly. Most of the super popular music might not be for you, but there is incredible music being made all of the time. You just have to seek that stuff out.

Oh, wow. I don't know what to say. Wow. That's actually terrible. I guess sentimental Canto-pop is still a thing.

I would say that the current technology allows for artists to get their music out faster and to more people faster than ever before. You just need to do your best to find them.

Oh, I like hipster music / the more alternative bands, with a sprinkle of some pop or soul. Or whatever Spotify suggests.

My parents first only let me listen to 50s and 60s music, but I discovered 80s music through pop culture, television and movie soundtracks. The early 90s was pretty much the same. When I was a little older, I got into 90s alternative rock. As the decade came to a close, I found myself getting interested in indie music, electronic music, punk, rap, and 70s music at right around the same time. These days, I pretty much listen to newer indie bands and solo artists, along with anything I've enjoyed in the past.

Currently listening to a lot of stuff like this

Classic rock, metal, and video game tunes. Classic rock and older metal seems to have the most staying power - I don't get bored of Boston, Rush, Iron Maiden, and those sorts of bands.

For metal, I tend to lean more toward progressive (Dream Theater, Opeth) or the less-generic metalcore bands (Underoath, Protest the Hero).

I didn't actually look into music all that much in college so I'm either still listening to a little bit of the stuff I liked in high school or looking for new stuff at the moment. I don't really like most of the stuff that I listened to in high school anymore, but I haven't been searching for new things long enough to have a big list of bands that I really like either.

About the only thing that I really just don't like listening to is rap. I don't think of it as "lesser" music or something like that, but it grates on my nerves anytime I hear it.

I don't really care, I like what I like. I will listen to anything if it's good.

I like whatever is pleasing to my ear. That said, I never heard a techno song I wanted to listen to for more than 30 seconds.

R&B, Rap, some rock and heavy metal, video game, and anime music...some porn music too.

I listen to a lot of classic rock and game music. (OCRemix etc)

But not against newer music if I like it. The internet makes it much easier to try before you buy, and to make smaller artists easier to find.

Most of music at any point in time is shitty. The renaissance and classical era have had the benefit of most of the really shitty stuff (and most likely some of the best) being entirely lost to time.

The very first music I can recall hearing was Jeff Wayne's Musical version of the War of the Worlds from 1978. Not a bad way to get interested in music, and I guess the synthesizers, sound effects and the apocalyptic cover artwork pretty much created my general taste for what music should sound like and what atmosphere it should evoke.

I've certainly found music I enjoy from pretty much every decade or century of the past 500 or so years, but the stuff I enjoy the most is from the late 1970's up until the mid 90's. Industrial, punk, post-punk, ambient, EBM, noise and some early Norwegian black metal are probably the genres I listen to the most often.

For me it's hair metal, power metal, thrash metal and classic rock. I do have a soft spot for 80's and 90's pop-punk and ska, but mostly metal.

• Big band and Swing
• Jpop
• Classical
• 80's

Hip Hop and Hard rock are my favourite genres and I like the modern stuff. I'll listen to anything that sounds good to me regardless of genre, artist or age. Modern music isn't bad, you just don't remember the shit from the past so old music seems better. Modern music is far more varied than old music so if you can't find a modern artist you like, you're not looking hard enough.

There was just as much shit music in the 1980s as there is today. Of course one would say music back in the days was better because you've only been exposed to the best stuff from those eras. Nobody remembers the bad music from the past...

I'll listen to anything that sounds good or makes me feel good, but hip hop is what I seek out the most. The way producers flip old samples and make entire beats around them is so cool, and if you can get a good 16 bars on that beat....

....or even if you have an entirely original production and off-beat rapping it can still be amazing (see: 400 degreez).

I'll listen to damn near anything. There are for sure some genres I'm a little wary of, genres like Classic Rock, more indulgent Progressive Rock and Glam Metal don't do much for me generally but that doesn't mean there aren't albums or songs from these genres that I enjoy.

I tend to have an affinity towards Hip Hop, Punk, Metal and a lot of the genres that spun off of them. Stuff like Hardcore Punk, Post-Hardcore, Sludge Metal and Powerviolence have been the genres occupying a lot of my time recently. I guess I like my music with a bit of harshness to it haha.

Although like I say I'll take anything. I saw both Neutral Milk Hotel and Dolly Parton live recently (not at the same time but that would be an amazing show) and they were equally fantastic.

Post-Hardcore
Punk
Alt-Rock (especially 90s/00s)
EDM (House/Club)
some Hipster/Indie Rock

Just going to echo everyone else and say that nobody remembers the bad music from the past and if you can't find good music today you just aren't looking hard enough. Maybe try looking outside the Top 40.

All rock starting from the 70's to current rock.

i think modern music is a as good as older music.maybe even better because there is way more variation in music now because of all the new types of music,especially in metal there is so many subgenres of metal its insane.

I'm not picky. There's something from every genre that I'll enjoy. Though I do have a certain fondness for New Wave and Electronic music from the 80s.

There are exactly 300 genres in my iTunes, from Aboriginal Music through 3rd Wave Ska. They amount to 4,512 artists and 182,889 tracks. A good chunk of it I probably don't like much at all but I don't have a problem with going from Shy Glizzy to Thelonious Monk to Madonna to Agalloch to Usher to John Prine in a matter of minutes. It's all in the game, baby.

My favorite genre is inarguably hip-hop, though. In fact, it's been bumming me out all year that I think I'm done updating these lists this year, and mostly done being a music critic, but here is my bible: Nodima's Hip Hop Handbook

My one regret is that I didn't think of how to include links to the actual reviews in the process until far too late, when I was formatting my 2013 list.

Oh, that list bit won't make much sense without these: Geek Down: Nodima's Hip Hop Index / All in Together Now: Hip Hop by the Year

I like everything from Hatsune Miku to Slipknot. If I find it rad I'll listen to it. Bring on the Hillary Duff playlists!

60s, 70s, 80s classic rock. I completely skipped the 90s era. When I was a kid in elementary school my father made damn well sure I listened to Doobie Brothers, Jimi Hendricks, Steve Miller, Led Zepplin, Van Halen, Boston, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd just to name a few. I listen to 90s music that people my age call "classic" now and I don't care for it. Dad FTW.

Honorable mention. FAR CRY 3 BLOOD DRAGON SOUNDTRACK

hawt summer jams. if it isnt catchy and disposable i dont like it.

I lean towards older music. I've said for years that I wish my older brother and I switched as he tends to like the current stuff where I'm a huge fan of classic 70's rock and Thrash Metal. But ultimately I listen to just about everything. Only genre I really don't like is classical music. Every other genre will at least have an artist or two that I enjoy, i.e. Country.

I like a little of everything. There's good music in every genre. It's just not usually playing on the radio. :-) I like music that tends to be different or goofy. The bulk of what I like probably falls in alternative rock, but I like a little of everything.

I like stuff like this.

Sarah Chang and Vadim Repin both make really strong cases with this concerto but Oistrakh is still probably king.

And stuff like this.

Figure it out yourself because I'm not willing to.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of run the jewels and task force's music from the corner vol 5 (best albums of 2013) and bunch of mississippi sheiks, sam chatmon, bo carter, charlie patton, etc.

So bit of everything, really.

I am an almost everything guy. So, rather than tell you what I do like I will tell you what I don't like. I don't like Modern Country Music a.k.a lets shoehorn rap stuff in country lyrics. My level of interest in Country music probably comes from living in Texas all my life.

List below is some attempted off the top of my head list of various styles of music within genre.

Things I like:

Rock/Metal: Most of its sub-genres. Little picky about my emo/scream-o choices. Notable Artists: Type O Negative, DevilDriver, Kevlartak, Korn, Beck, Tune-Yards, Tegan and Sara, Queens of the stone age, Pink Floyd, Dir En Grey

Pop: Marina And The Diamonds, Diana Vickers, Charli XCX, Robyn, Jessie J, Daley (Mostly English/Europe Artists for Pop)

R&B/Soul/Jazz: Fabienne, Amy Winehouse, Fats Waller, Charles Bradley, Adrian Younge, Robert Johnson

Reggae/Dancehall: Shabba Ranx, Barrington Levy, Toots and the Mytals, Major Lazer, Wayne Smith, Buju Banton

EDM: So many sub-genres.... Soulwax, Richie Hawtin, Daniel Haaksman, Benga, Skream, Distance, TNGHT, Goldie, Kamo & Crooked, SubFocus, Caspa, Maya Jane Coles, Coonce, Yellow Claw, Joker, Evil Nine

Hip-Hop / Rap: Death Grips, Shabazz Palaces, Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, Childish Gambino, Cage, El-P, Danny Brown, Brother Ali, A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg, MIKE JONES, PAUL WALL (The People's CHAMP)

Latin: Wisin Y Yandel (5 Letras), Tego Calderon, Carlos Vives, Mana, Los Blancos, Santana, Ondatropica. There is some more stuff just can't remember right now.

Currently I bounce from 80's alt rock and new wave to modern EDM and indietronica. Throw in some shoegaze and trip hop here and there. Depends how I'm feeling.

• Stuff from the 70's and 80's.
• Classical
• Big Band/Jazz
• Techno/Dance
• Classic Rock.

I'll give anything a shot. Doesn't matter if I'm totally unfamiliar with the artist, if the song's not in my native language, if it's new or just new to me, or even if I'm unfamiliar with the entire genre. Can't guarantee I'll like it, but I'll give anything I haven't heard before the benefit of the doubt. I compiled a huge playlist of songs awhile back that people had recommended to me on Grooveshark, because the songs there are less likely to be deleted than on YouTube. I only use YouTube right now for songs with really good music videos.

Right now, here's what I listen to: Swing/Electroswing, New Wave, Indie Rock, Folk Rock, Ambient, Hip-Hop/Trip-Hop, Alternative Rock, Industrial/Metal, Chiptune, anything that fits under House/Electronica/EDM, and Classic Rock. I also have playlists for video game soundtracks, but I don't really consider "Soundtrack" a genre. It's more of a descriptor, video game OST's are too diverse for that.

Alternative, industrial, goth rock, rap, trip-hop, and steampunk (yeah, it's not just goggles and cogs anymore, we've invaded music as well) are my favorites, and the 80s and 90s are my decades of choice (although I'm rather fond of the 30s and 40s too).

Edit: I by no means limit myself to the above. For instance, I was on a HUGE Regina Spektor kick recently.

The age of music doesn't matter to me at all, yeah many of the genres I like only came around in the past 30 years but I will still listen to some golden oldies if I dig the sound. I think the perception that music today has gotten worse, which seems to be fairly common, is crazy. If you can't find modern music that you like then you are looking in the wrong places. One of my favourite genres is grunge and there is an endless amount of crappy post grunge stuff but at the same time there is a semi-local band that is a a great evolution of classic grunge. People are always gonna take inspiration from the classics and put their own spin on it, I am sure there is some dude writing a Bach inspired symphony at the moment just as there is some dude writing a brutal thrash song inspired by Slayer. Also yeah there is fucking terrible music on the top of the charts today, but that was no different in the past decades, I mean the 80s and 90s were full of god damn terrible songs that were crazy popular.

While I have a decent amount of music in my collection that I consider "old", pretty much anything older than a decade, most of my music is from the past decade. That is largely because there wasn't much of the genres I tend to like before then. For more standard rock it tends to be a bit older but I still like a lot of new stuff and for metal it is mostly newer stuff.

I love all kinds. I don't like Modern Country with that weird guitar twang thing, but I'm usually game for most genres.

I have deep affinity for Hardcore Punk like Big Black, and I'm starting to get into some more electronica industrial that doesn't feel like it exists to be dark and brooding.

I also really love poppy beatles-esque(Not the best example I know) throwback music like Mikhail Cronin or She and Him

Finally there's some really good alternative folk. The best I've got is the well known In the Aeroplane over the Sea but really it's that great.

Rap is my primary genre, Gucci Mane, Juicy J, Kendrick Lamar, Gunplay

Black metal probably comes second, Blasphemy, Teitanblood, Xasthur, Blut Aus Nord, Revenge, Cultes Des Ghoules,Mgla

Death metal rounding third, Devourment, Immolation, Angelcorpse, Antediluvian, Mitochondrion

And Brian Eno is supa dope

This song 24/7

Society began and ended with BTO.

I listen to mostly older music. Not because I necessarily dislike modern music, it's just that the genres of music I like (blues, folk, soul, 60's rock) aren't being made too much anymore.

I've found some success in neofolk music, such as Barren Harvest, but if anyone has any other suggestions for other folk artists I'd appreciate it!

Blues/Rock/Metal. Basically anything with guitars that doesn't put me off.

A little bit of everything, mostly older. Except country. I don't really listen to a lot of it outside of the classic stuff from the 50s and 60s and so on.

I particularly like Jazz Fusion,Big Band stuff, and a lot of 80s Pop music.

My current biggest jam is this:

I'd love to say that the time period doesn't matter and I'll give anything a fair shot, but I generally try to avoid hearing anything that's Classic rock or clearly inspired by rock bands of the 60s/70s. I have a vague, highly hypocritical idea of what kind of music I really don't like and more often than not 70s rock/80s hard rock (think Guns n Roses) falls under that.

As for music I'm into? Some modern rap music, 80s Pop(?), 00s alternative/indie stuff, RnB and various kinds of electronic music. I also wholeheartedly believe these two songs are the greatest songs ever made:

I like everything but my big cut off for music is 2005.

I suppose my favourite Genres are Jazz and Grunge (well, i'm a 90s kids) But my phone has damn near every genre of music

Johnny Cash, Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Womack, Gorrilaz, Ronny Jordan, Led Zeppelin, Beethoven, Public Enemy, Marvin Gaye, Mos Def, Alice In Chains, Prodigy, Curtis Meyfield.

I, in general don't like pop music or most easy listening, I find too much of it has no edge or depth and sound samey.

I don't think I like most singles now, the "hits" that sell well and appear on the charts, but I do think there is still a lot of music that's worth searching for even in the top music of the moment. Usually I find that if you hear a song that you think is okay, it's worth finding the album and checking out the other music.

For instance, I heard the track "Pompeii" from Bastille. I thought it was okay though a little contrived and looked up the album. From there I heard songs that were a lot more diverse than their singles seem to imply that I genuinely like (some of them took a while to grow on me, but I guess I'm just an optimest and give an album a chance before I judge the entire thing): the album became worth a purchase for me after hearing songs such as "The Draw" or "What Would You Do" (which is a more serious cover of a song by City High which was a rap/R'n'B single from a couple years back - I find interesting how Bastille's re-arrangement of the song turns it from something I find boring into something that I like).

I also find that sometimes the song itself can be incredibly well-written or feature a nice motif, but the mastering or arrangement of the song can ruin it. This is where I think looking up other versions (either by the original artist - e.g. an acoustic or live version - or covers from others).

It's always worth looking a little further into a song, band or artist and seeing if there is something there that you really like. It's all about having an open mind and listening to the music itself. You said that you did a music history class, it might be worth trying to figuring out what parts of the music you love are the bits that you really like - you'll find that it will open you up to even more music, and you'll be able to hear the subtelty to some of the music that you thought was bland or generic. Some of the chart-toppers are actually much more sophisticated than you give them credit for (especially if you take into account entire albums, some of them have an impressive level of detail in the symmetry of the songs within the album - and you'd be surprised how many musicians are aware of the way that people think of them, and actually play off that in their music; sometimes even teasing and stripping apart the singles and the well-known songs that they are renowned for in the lesser-known album-only songs).

Just remember not to just go along with the way that everyone else talks about a musician, band or genre. If you bother to look past them and try and make your own mind up about music, you may find that you actually like some of the music and disagree whole-heartedly with the general view. As an example, I used to not like Taylor Swift (her music never stuck out to me - it seemed fine but clearly not aimed at my age group) until I listened to her latest album "Red". I gave it a chance since a bunch of musicians I followed praised it. I was genuinely surprised how much I liked it. Tracks like "Sad Beautiful Tragic" or the title track "Red" (though admittedly, I prefer the demo version purely because the guitar solo feels out of place in the final version) stood out to me as songs that, while clearly written in the aim of writing a popular song (due to the repitition and layering involved in the arrangement), are very good songs. I finished the album continuing to dislike the singles from it, but happy that she was successful because she definitely had some talent. And I wouldn't have thought that if I didn't bother to actually listen to her full album and give it a chance.

It doesn't matter what parameters you give, you're bound to find something that you enjoy (whether looking at a specific era, or genre, or place of origin of the music, etc...). Fantastic music is being made all the time, to knock them off as contrived it incredibly short-sighted. Limiting yourself to just a specific style or era of music is fine if you enjoy them, but don't just look at ones outside of it as if they are inherently worse.

I'd also recommend learning an instrument, you'll quickly figure out things that may have seemed complex and impressive before that are actually very simple and disappointingly written (a large minority of renowned classical music fits into this) and will also allow you to hear the minute details in music that seems simple that actually show the beauty behind it.

Sorry for the long post. I guess I'll just leave one last example. Do you remember Kris Allen, one of the previous winners of American Idol? He released an album in 2012 with the mediocre "The Vision of Love" as the title track. It didn't sell well. But the album itself, "Thank You Camellia" is actually very impressive and includes my favourite song on 2012: "Out Alive".

-Edit- I guess I didn't actually answer the original question on my favourite genres. These are going by the genres as listed on my itunes catalogue that I've given high ratings to - since I don't really limit myself via genre, I don't have a great concept on what differentates them to the point of giving a nuanced answer. I have music from all sorts of genres but I'll list the most common 3 (the ones including my favourite music of all time):

• Video Game Soundtracks (and other instrumental music)
• Indie Rock, Alternative, and Singer/Songwriter (I'm putting these together as they fit the same sort of style that means I wouldn't really differentate them directly).
• Pop and Melodic Rap

That said, my favourite artist is Utada who makes J-Pop music (so I don't really stick to a specific genre as "This is my favourite" - I'm capable of liking an array of music outside of this). And as for time frames, most of the music is from late '90s onwards (so modern music mostly).

I listen to new and old of the genres that I like ... in terms of Pop music I kinda go back to the good old stuff like Cat Stevens or Abba , Queen etc.not to keen on the current popstars.... except Miku :P

There are some genres that I just plainly dislike which are ususaly latin american in origin ... cumbia , salsa , norteño , rancheras , mariachi , texmex , reggeaton etc. I just dont like those ; oh and also jazz , I hate hate hate jazz ( I admit that jazz musicians are very talented and skilled but I just dont like jazz) and electronic music is kind of so so for me.

Ha I love Mariachi, i'm a miserable person but that always makes me smile :)

I'm curious what about Jazz do you not like? I know quite a few people who said that to me but they usually only refer to one style of it, i show them another and they prefer that.

Like me for instance as much of a Jazz enthusiast as I am Dixyland Jazz (say for a few songs) I can't stand because it's... well it's the "Elvis Effect", watered down, vacuous, commercialized. *Yuck*, They did to Jazz what they did to Grunge. gits!

You're young. Your elitism is strong. You'll grow out of this feeling, and you'll see why people like what they like more objectively.

No one will argue that much of what is at the top of the charts is very intricate, or complex, but it is of extraordinary merit for reasons that differ from what you look for in music. For example, Lil' Jon's "Turn Down For What" is a club song. Iggy Azalia's "Pussy" is a braggadocio track, and is highly sexualized. People draw energy from songs like these, especially in groups, and it's easier to do so with simpler songs. Jay-Z has lyrics that state, "If skills sold, truth be told, I'd probably be / Lyrically Talib Kweli / Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense / But I did 5 mill' - I ain't been rhyming like Common since". Popular music is easy to sing along to, easy to dance to, and easy to aspire to. The more dense or intricate the song, the less likely someone is to enjoy it without actively paying attention.