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What happened to "other genres" when you started listening to the classical?

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#1 ·
What happened to "other genres" when you started listening to the classical?

Although there are many people who have been listening to the classical right from the beginning, either through musical parents or other circumstances, I suppose the majority of us have taken it up at some point after a few moments of passing interest. So, before we started listening to classical, our first encounter with music might have been pop, rock etc. So, I'd like to know:

1. what other genres did you listen to before you started listening to the classical?
2. what happened to those genres after you developed your deeper appreciation?
3. did you take up any new genres after taking up the classical?

In my case:

1. pop, rock, metal, techno
2. they just sound funny now although I still find some pieces to be surprisingly musical
3. yes - ethnic and jazz

So, I am very curious about your answers. This thread might also be a good repository for our thoughts on how taste evolves over time.
 
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#119 ·
I'm thinking about taking the "John Cage" approach. I'll get a 16-channel mixer, and run 16 different sources of music into it, and listen to everything at once.:lol:
 
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#122 ·
you can open 16 windows in youtube and hit play. Not that I've done anything of the sort before ;)

topic:

1. what other genres did you listen to before you started listening to the classical?

actually, I did start out with classical, as that was what my mum owned when I was growing up. I discovered pop(ular) music in my early teens.

2. what happened to those genres after you developed your deeper appreciation?

nothing, my deeper appreciation of all genres has run along at the same time, just sort of "deepening". The only thing that came much later was opera and now that's running along with the rest of them. It gets pretty lively and there's the occasional manure to clean up ;)

3. did you take up any new genres after taking up the classical?

popular music ;)
 
#121 ·
"What happened to "other genres" when you started listening to the classical?"

There is an inherent bias in this thread question, so I hope everyone sees it. I'm going to go listen to some of that "other stuff" now, and watch "Rick Steve's Europe" while I eat a Polish dill pickle.
 
#124 ·
Although there are many people who have been listening to the classical right from the beginning, either through musical parents or other circumstances, I suppose the majority of us have taken it up at some point after a few moments of passing interest. So, before we started listening to classical, our first encounter with music might have been pop, rock etc. So, I'd like to know:

1. what other genres did you listen to before you started listening to the classical?
2. what happened to those genres after you developed your deeper appreciation?
3. did you take up any new genres after taking up the classical?

In my case:

1. pop, rock, metal, techno
2. they just sound funny now although I still find some pieces to be surprisingly musical
3. yes - ethnic and jazz

So, I am very curious about your answers. This thread might also be a good repository for our thoughts on how taste evolves over time.
1. A variety of "rock music" mostly.
2. They were ignored for a few decades.
3. Art music from around the world.
 
#125 ·
I was 12 so I didn't have any other genres. I liked to sing but all I knew were folk songs I learned in school.

Now I'm into metal (especially viking metal) and classic rock like AC/DC, Kansas and the like. Also love Nightwish but I only care for the Tarja era.

And I love some darker musicals like Les Mis, Elisabeth or Sweeney Todd.
 
#129 ·
I was 12 so I didn't have any other genres. I liked to sing but all I knew were folk songs I learned in school.

Now I'm into metal (especially viking metal) and classic rock like AC/DC, Kansas and the like. Also love Nightwish but I only care for the Tarja era.

And I love some darker musicals like Les Mis, Elisabeth or Sweeney Todd.
Tarja was by far the best era ;) but her solo career is thriving, so I suppose its alright that she's no longer with Nightwish. Actually, Annete is gone now too, so who knows what will happen??

I was into pop, rock, and metal. I still listen to metal (symphonic only) frequently, but the others not so much.
 
#127 ·
Before getting heavily into classical (I always enjoyed classical music but just never really put in the effort to learn about composers or works other than the really well-known ones), I was mainly interesting in two types of music: Progressive Rock & Jazz. Progressive Rock is a genre of rock that started as an attempt to use new influences in the music other than The Blues. It is mainly influenced (as I can see now) by late Romantic-Era Classical. We all know what jazz is - I like the acoustic type with the hectic rhythms, mainly mid-1960s bop jazz.

When I first started my classical journey about nine years ago, I listened to the other genres just as much, still far overshadowing classical. Then about four years ago, I started to listen to classical just as much as Progressive & Jazz. Then, somewhat to my actual disappointment, around a year ago, I started to find myself listening to jazz very little anymore. I tried to get back "in" to it but I just can't like it as much for some reason. I still don't know why.

As for Progressive, I still listen to it quite a bit, but within the past SIX months, I have stopped listening to many of the band which I used to love. Again, this makes me sad. But I go back to them and just don't like their music as much. Life comes in phases, so I am certainly open to listening to that stuff again in the future!

I just feel like classical music can carve itself deeply into my brain, bringing forth strong and unusual emotions which I rarely experience otherwise. I am still a bit sad over "losing" the passion for some of my favorite old music, but life is constantly changing, so I am not going to get all sobby about it.
 
#128 ·
When it comes to music I think only in extremes, in a state of depression I got rid of all other genres of music that I listened to and only listened to Classical and the more I learned about Classical the more I put aside the music that aroused passions that I did not feel were productive (mostly the Romantics/Impressionists and the Classical) following the Doctrine of Affections (as well as the Augustinian thesis on music) I put even more aside (did not get rid of them because I value Classical above all other genres) and now I only listen to Baroque music and that genre alone.
 
#132 ·
I've listened to classical for a while...however, Orthodox Christians do not listen to secular music during Lent, and so I've decided to listen only to classical as a compromise. It's a strange sort of compromise, since I often prefer 'edgy' compositions that do not at all sound like the kind of thing one ought to listen to during Lent (would Scriabin's 'Poeme Satanique' be going too far?) -- but oh well. So what happens to the other genres? I'll return to them after Pascha, of course. Mostly post-punk stuff like Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, Wire, etc.
 
#133 ·
I'm was and still am an all rounder when it comes to music. But I can't say I didn't have a special love for the electronic style: Techno, progressive trance and house, tribal etc. Not the commercial type! No Tiesto or David Guetta or whoever's on the hit parade this week! I've been to the Love Parade several times, I've been to many parties, events, festivals and clubs. I've seen so many DJ's from around the world, each DJ has a specific style of music and performance.
Parties were huge fun! But I can't do that anymore so now I don't listen much to that type of music.

I always liked classical music, silently and secretly. I just never explored the area, now I do.
And I still do listen to other music. Let's say: 70% classical - 20% jazz - 10% other.

So what happened with the other genres when I actively started listening to Classical music? They slowly disappeared in the unknown.
 
#134 ·
I grew up in an era where light classical and pop co-existed. Before I started listening seriously to classical I listened to lots of folk music and C&W (is that music?). Now I'm heavily into classical, I still listen to all sorts of folk and world music.

About the only style of music I don't actively like is modern jazz.

I find that knowing more about (classical) music simply improves my experience of folk and other music.
 
#136 ·
Since the start of my "classical" exploration, the other genres of music have slipped to the sidelines a bit. (something had to give, there wasn't enough time in a day)
However I have taken a new look at Jazz, an area I didn't have much exposure to previously.
I'm also reviving my appreciation of blues.
The greater part of my listening time is spent with classical music, closely followed by Jazz with Blues bringing up the rearguard.
A small smattering of "other" types creep in, but not much.
 
#137 ·
I only really got into classical music in 2011 despite playing the cello for thirteen plus years beforehand. Before then, I listened mainly to popular music from the 60s and 70s, which I still like but don't really listen to much any more. These days, the only other music I regularly listen to is German-language pop/chanson (and occasionally Schlager, if I feel the need for the musical equivalent of a sugar overdose). Classical would make up about 95-98 per cent of my listening.
 
#138 ·
The story of my musical life: childhood - whatever came wanging from the TV or radio - gems like 'Twenty little tiny fingers' or 'Hello, Patsy Fagan!'. Teens - the Beatles, Kinks, Stones, Hollies plus classical music I was 'forced' to play on my violin. Twenties & Thirties - Traditional English, Scottish & Irish Folk. Forties, Fifties - Scottish dance music, but little listening for fun.
Post-Sexagenarian Age: Taggart goes pianoforte, I go fiddle - classical music ushers in a grand renaissance of any music with a good tune. We are now T-EM-B-a-C-C-ans: Traditional, Early Music, Baroque and Classical, Carolan auditory nuts. :)

Classical Music is big enough to welcome rivals.
 
#139 · (Edited)
1. Prior to discovering Western Classical Music, I was listening to rock, the more experimental or avant-garde sort, never mainstream or popular; and a little bit of jazz to take the edge off and somewhat fuelled by friends' interests, I guess, but it had never been a huge interest.

2. Once I developed an interest in Western Classical Music, my marginal interest in jazz was pretty well extinguished, and I began to lose interest in rock, too, ceasing to follow the newer bands and ending up getting out of touch with the popular music scene in general, that had largely come to seem juvenile and overly simplistic, although a certain enthusiasm for the more interesting artists still remained.

I am still interested in artists that are on the fringes, but I have difficulty discovering new ones, due to a lack of time and an inability to realize the degree of satisfaction that I had once enjoyed with those forms of music. I am so out of touch with rock that I didn't discover Rammstein until about 2 years ago and I didn't rediscover Einstürzende Neubauten until about the same time. When I first knew EN in the early '80s, they were too strange even for me, so I had forgotten about them. These 2 bands are now the only rock artists that are still currently active that I still follow enthusiastically. The rest of the rock I still occasionally listen to is the offbeat stuff I knew in the '70s and '80s.

3. Concurrent with developing an interest in Western Classical Music, I also discovered Turkish/Ottoman Classical, Arabic Classical, Persian Classical, Japanese Classical, Chinese Classical, Korean Classical, Indian Classical and Balinese Classical, which have all become enduring sideline interests.
 
#143 ·
I started listening to classical because I wanted to be awesome and I kept listening to other genres because I wanted to be normal.

I was extremely disappointed to find out how many mediocre weirdos have the same strategy. It's a mystery to me. Maybe someday I'll figure out how that happened.
Either great minds think alike or fools seldom differ - one of the two. ;)
 
#141 ·
Ok, that was just a joke and I really hope no one takes it seriously.

The truth is that when I started listening to classical I had very little experience with any genre of music except American Protestant hymns and white Southern gospel music. Of course I'd heard a bit of top-40 radio, classic rock, new country, and rap, but I wasn't "into" music yet, and when I got into it classical was the first genre I began to explore.

I think classical music hasn't hurt my appreciation of other genres, although it's certainly made me a little more insightful and thus probably pickier.

I've never really been in any music scene so it hasn't affected me that way. Of course most of my friends prefer other genres of music but I'm rarely in a situation where I have to sit through anyone else's music.

The one thing classical has definitely helped me with is jazz. I don't know whether I would've gotten into jazz eventually anyway (several of my friends are serious about it, so maybe...), but classical helped me that way.
 
#142 ·
1. Many genres of rock, from Beatles to Death Metal. Bossa-nova, some reggae and jazz. Had an electronic music phase when younger but it didn't last. Some brazilian MPB, like Chico-Buarque.
2. I still love Bossa-nova and Chico-Buarque, but doesn't listen to it that often anymore. Jazz is still interesting but the last time that I stopped to listen to a Miles Davis album was ages ago. I don't mind to listen to some heavy-metal with my friends, but I also don't listen to it alone anymore. Pretty much everything else almost ceased.
3. Nope.
 
#146 ·
1. Listened to pop and rock from the '70's and early '80's
Discovered classical music fairly early at about 15. In the next ten years I would listen to all music, side by side
2. Very suddenly I got very tired of rock and abandoned it completely; but it kept coming back with a vengeance every now and then (still does)
3. At some point I got into electronica , dancable or not. There is incredibly rich music in dubby techno, moody drum&bass and ambient. not just for clubbing (too old for that now) but for home-listening; armchair techno so to speak.
I guess classical music has always been the constant. Other music comes in "episodes".
Cheers,

Jos
 
#148 ·
Classical has always kind of been there in the background, but I've been through several phases with music.

Went through a very long funk stage, a short country/bluegrass phase, a blues phase, a big-band phase.

These days I'm just listening to whatever random stuff my friends recommend. Feel kinda lost in the big wide world of music on my own. Hoping that will change as I learn more about what's out there.
 
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