The knee jerk reaction for me is country, though by that I mean contemporary country, or country that has been made since about the mid 1970s. But even this has exceptions. What I don’t like specifically about most modern country is that it lacks originality and imagination. It often treads the same cliches…I mean if you see a mildly humorous saying printed on a T-shirt, chances are eventually it will become a country song. It also treads in a very specific sound, twang and drawl are key elements, but they are there for their own sake. Now you have to admire artists like Patsy Cline, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash…these were great songwriters, incredible tune-smiths who did not stick to the same formula that everyone else was using at the time. But what you saw in the 1970s was that country music basically ripped off the sound and instrumentation of what was pop/rock 20 years before, enhanced it with a bit of twang and drawl and incorporated highly cliched lyrics…it basically became formulaic…in fact, much like most of the hits in the 1950s were written by paid songwriters in an office somewhere, much of country has gone this same direction in the past 35 years. Now of course, there has been good country music and talented country musicians continuously throughout the history of the genre…you have to respect some of what Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and a few others who became stars around the time country lost its way, and even 2006–2007, I would consider the Dixie Chicks’ “Taking the Long Way” album to be among the best albums released in those years hands down.
And the things I don’t like in country music are present in most forms of music….death metal was mentioned. Now I will agree, I don’t care for music with completely unintelligible lyrics that are growled/screamed rather than sung. And like in country, this is the majority, but there are exceptions to this as well. I do find heavy metal as an overreaching genre to be often some of the most creative, listenable, enjoyable and energetic music out there, some of it would “qualify” as death metal because the topic matter is death, but where there still exists melody, harmony and intelligible vocals which are sung.
Rap is a similar case…much of what is mainstream is unimaginative…I once heard a comedian say that rap is country music for black people, and though that’s a somewhat racist way of looking at it, but there is truth, in that a) rap (much like rock and roll) has its origins in black culture (though all races utilize this form of musical expression 30+ years on), and b) a lot of rap does lack in imagination, creativity, originality, etc. Rap, just like any other “popular” music is slavish to trends….most recently we had this whole auto-tune where every damn song sounded like it was sung by a robot. But I like heavier music, so I’ve always been a fan of more hardcore rap, something with a little pep…I’m not much into hip hop, with the focus on being “soulful”...it’s all been there done that. I like things like Public Enemy, Ice-T, Eminem, House of Pain, Cypress Hill, DMX, Ludacris, stuff with a kick to it, often times with extremely clever wordplay, which is every bit as amazing as Dylan when you listen to what they’re saying (and how they’re saying it).
Now I have to say that the one form of music which I feel like I “should” like, but absolutely don’t is jazz. In theory, I like the idea of a musical art form without rules or limits, but that utter lack of defined structure just seems like musical masturbation to me. I have to admit, I just plain don’t get it, though I have to respect the talent that goes into it…just not for me. Just like a lot of really popular rock and roll (which is what I primarily listen to) is not my bag. I don’t care for some people that everyone seems to like….the Rolling Stones, U2, Coldplay, Radiohead, Bruce Springstein, all these just plain bore me to tears and I find them to be highly overrated. Not for me….I like passion, intensity, originality, aggressiveness, melody, harmony, complexity, texture…some combination thereof. If I don’t hear enough of it in a particular song, I don’t like it.
But overall, I guess my answer boils down to one simple fact. I don’t like genres…I don’t like a system of enforcing labels on music to say this belongs to “death metal” and this belongs to “country”. For me, the most successful music transcends genre. Look at one of my all time favorite bands….Queen. They were a “rock and roll” band, but some times they were metal, some times they were glam, some times they were rockabilly or even country, some times they were operatic, some times they were jazzy, some times they were Broadway, some times they were even electronica….they transcended genres. Or the obvious example, the Beatles…they changed everything, and they did it by not repeating themselves…by continuing to innovate with every single album. So, the point being that regardless of what label ends up slapped on it, if it’s boring, routine, cliched, unimaginative, uninteresting, simplistic, basically not unique in any way, it’s not for me.
