For me, itās unmistakable. Iāve appreciated many styles of music throughout my life, but there were some that I never chose to explore much. Now, understanding a bit more of music theory and what goes into writing and playing songs, I feel like thereās no reason to exclude anything - well, other than a finite amount of time.
Iāve long been into rock, blues, jazz, pop, R&B, funk, blues, Afro-Caribbean, a bit of classical, flamencoā¦ but never much country or hip hop. Now Iām much more open to country, and Iāll even give a longer listen to hip hop than I used to. Oh, and microtonal and non-12-TET music are increasingly intriguing.
My musical taste has expanded greatly! Like you, Iāve enjoyed music without locking myself into any particular genreā¦
My neighbor was laughing at me last year when I was doing yard work & listening to & singing along with mariachi music, he said he didnāt know that I spoke Spanish & thought it was hilarious when I told him that memorizing lyrics was a lot different than knowing the language!!!
Back to topic thoughā¦ I never thought that Blues & Jazz were much my thing. Listening to Blues music always turned me off because of the lyricsā¦ Justinās lessons in Grade 2 made me revisit Blues & I discovered Acoustic Blues where the music is so moving and real! You simply donāt need words to convey emotions & get the message out to your audience! Revelation!!!
Same with Jazzā¦ I have always loved Jazz from the 30s & 40s but nothing more modern than thatā¦ auto-play on streaming services has changed thatā¦ I will be listening to something I really love & then those pesky algorithms put something on that is pretty coolā¦ turns out to be by a Jazz artist!!!
I love that from Spotify & Pandora!
Cool topic! Iām looking forward to reading other responses!!!
Iām somewhat opposite to you two in that I did have a pretty ālocked inā taste in music. Rock and metal was my thing almost exclusively. A few other individual bands from other genres got a listen occasionally, and I turned to classical whenever I wanted to completely chill, but that was about it.
Learning guitar has given me a much better appreciation of any music that features the instrument. I think it can be easy to ignore the talent it takes to play when you have no understanding of how it works, but putting some time in and picking up the basics makes you realise just how much effort musicians have put in to get to their level.
As well, many of the songs I enjoy playing the most are not from the genres I listen to the most. While I do enjoy smashing out some power chords with massive distortion, my daily practice is exclusively more relaxed songs with full chords and finger style. Even country songs feature in my practice, a genre I used to strongly dislike and take the mick out of my wife for listening to. (I even got annoyed when I heard Nine Inch Nails cover of āHurtā by Johnny Cash the other dayā¦ they ruined it!)
So yeah, my musical taste has definitely expanded since picking up a guitar. Certainly not to the extent where I will ever, ever willingly listen to genres like hip hop or the absolute computer generated garbage they call āpopā these days, but expanded none the less.
Maybe I appreciate artists outside of the genres that I like most but itās not expanded the range of music that I listen to greatly. Iām (mostly) learning to play songs that I already like and I donāt have enough hours in the day to listen to the music I already love so Iām not actively looking other genres.
Itās not to say that there isnāt something that comes up on YouTube or these forums occasionally that I wouldnāt have otherwise listened to but thereās not many that Iāve gone back to again and again
I think itās a trap weāve all fallen into with cover versions over the years - thereās so many covers that are much better known than the original
Hip hop, country and electronic music (in the sense of techno and EDM) are the genres Iāve been probably the least interested in, and playing the guitar has not changed this situation. However, Iāve found that since Iāve been playing the guitar and learning about music theory, I can appreciate a nice melody, regardless of genre, more than before.
Biggest thing for me has been watching Reaction videos on YouTube, Iāve found so many different bands and music styles that I wouldnāt have found otherwise; what itās made me realise is that making your own music rather than copying others is the best way forward, but obviously you have to understand how to do that which means you have to thoroughly understand music first.
Absolutely. I had never listened to classical guitar music until I decided to start playing one! Now I think itās one of the most beautiful sounds on Earth (except when I play it). I am especially fond of the music of Andrew York. His music will put you in a good place every time. I do also like the old masters like Giuliani, Carcassi, Tarrega, etc.
I guess Iām the āodd man out.ā I still listen to, and try to play, the same kind of music Iāve always liked. So, no, it hasnāt expanded my musical taste.
Back in the days I was really closed minded for everything related to music.
Iād very much listen to the same bands and songs over and over again.
Anything new presented to me was eagerly responded with a grimace and a rejection LOL.
I donāt know how much of that is related to me learning to play the guitar and how much is just because well, I was a teenager so thatād explain a lot of my stubbornness.
One genre that Iām getting more and more excited about and for sure is related to me learning the guitar is Blues. The more I learn and the more I play, the more I like Blues.
So many great blues guitarists out there, from so many eras. Buddy Guy, SRV, and Johnny Winter are well-represented in my music collection as personal favorites.
