On the other hand, there are people whose musical preferences barely change in decades. Those people were often part of a subculture in their youth and for whatever reason just can't let go. They continue to listen to the same music and refuse to try anything outside of their preferred genre and time period. Some people prefer familiarity and are not very adventurous. They are not open to experiences and their musical preferences never grow as a result. I know a guy who still listens to the same electronic club music from the 90s and early 2000s and won't listen to anything else.
My own musical tastes have evolved considerably over time. What I listen to today bears almost no similarity to what I used to listen to when I was a teenager.
Early Teenage Years
During my time at secondary school, I primarily listened to Nu Metal. It was the early 2000s and groups like Limp Bizkit, Korn, Slipknot and P.O.D. were all the rage. I got into Nu Metal because my small circle of friends were into that kind of music and often shared their favorite albums with me and also because the genre's aggressive and psychotic sound quality resonated with my tough guy persona of that time
. It was also the genre of music most frequently used for theme songs at WWF/WWE pay per view events and so as an avid wrestling fan I discovered a lot of Nu Metal artists that way. Back then I listened to some absolute shit. I owned albums by Drowning Pool, Linkin Park and even Papa Roach and genuinely thought that they were awesome. Lol! I was confused as to why so many older metal fans were saying that Nu Metal was fake metal and terrible. Of course, the genre would fizzle out around the mid 2000s and is remembered by many as a joke.At the same time I was also secretly a fan of late 90s and early 2000s R&B with sexy light-skinned Black female artists like Aaliyah, Ashanti, Kelly Rowland, etc. I found this style of music smoother and more pleasant than the aggressive, head-thrashing Nu Metal that my friends and I listened to and it had a certain cool factor and I would often jack off to the sexy female artists when nobody else was at home. Of course, at the time I hid my interest in R&B music from my Nu Metal-obsessed friends at school. Many of them had the attitude that anything other than Nu Metal was "gay" and effeminate - even though Nu Metal itself was never taken seriously by other metal fans - and so I only listened to it in private. I suspect that R&B music videos might have contributed to my love for Brown/light-skinned Black women to some degree.
Late Teenage Years
In sixthform college, I somewhat distanced myself from Nu Metal and began to listen to some more obscure and niche subgenres of metal instead. One of these was a subgenre known as "Power Metal" which combines elements of traditional heavy metal with harmonious symphonies and often with fantasy and mythological themes. As a result of this the subgenre is generally more uplifting and less dissonant than other types of metal. There are two distinct styles of Power Metal: US Power Metal, which is harsher and more thrashy and influenced by speed metal; and European Power Metal, which has more synth and is more melodious. I'm talking about the latter. When I started listening to Power Metal I was already obsessively learning Spanish. As such I quickly got into some Spanish Power Metal groups such as Tierra Santa and Avalanch/WarCry. For some reason Spanish-language Power Metal is really good.
I also went through a phase of listening to old-school Reggae music while I was in sixthform. I hung around with two acquaintances who were major stoners and into the whole Rastafarian Reggae thing and the music sounded quite exotic and pleasant to me. I listened to Bob Marley and Peter Tosh and some lesser-known Reggae artists. But it was just a short-lived fad. Today I can't stand Reggae music with its glorification of pot culture as well as all of its Jewdeo claptrap and references to Zion. Blacks are not children of Zion, notwithstanding the outlandish doctrines of certain cults like Rastafarians and the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. They're another race exploited and subverted by the Jews just like everyone else. Now I refuse to listen to Reggae music.
As I advanced with my Spanish learning, I also started listening to Latin styles such as Salsa, Bachata and Merengue. I loved the joyous feeling that they produced and would often listen to them on my I-pod at work to counteract the boredom and misery. I loved listening to Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Tito Puente, and many others. I still listen to Latin music to this day but sometimes I find it too enrapturing and mania-inducing and it also overstimulates my base sexual desires and exacerbates my sex addiction. So I have to listen to it in moderation.
Adulthood: My 20s
During my 20s I just went full retro. I realized that most of the new music that was being released was absolutely shit and of considerably lower quality than anything that preceded it and so I just started listening to older music especially from the 80s. To this day I'm a total 80s mark!
I love all kinds of 80s music from the totally mainstream pop and post-disco music to more obscure genres. Michael Jackson and Prince were both great. Even Madonna made good pop music in the 80s. Even the most mainstream pop music and all of the one-hit wonders were still mostly good in the 80s and I like most of what I hear from that period. I don't even care that it was flamboyantly gay!
In my 20s I became heavily into 80s Funk and Soul music. I have extensive playlists with all kinds of rare grooves. This is the kind of music I listen to when I just want to relax.
I also became a big fan of a European genre of disco music known as Italo Disco and known for its electronic sounds and oftentimes silly and over-the-top lyrics. The style was never popular in the Anglosphere and was regarded as a cheesy fad. But I always found the sound happy and joyous and would listen to it when I was depressed.
I got into some types of 80s metal too (even Glam Metal) and really prefer their melodious sounds to the harsh and abrasive sounds of the Nu Metal of my teenage years. I'm particularly a fan of Dokken. I'm on the side of Glam Metal in the rivalry vs. the Grunge music that would follow. I hate that depressing Seattle Sound shit. I wanna make myself happy through music, not depressed!
I also like Latin Freestyle music, a form of electronic dance music which emerged in New York City and Philadelphia in the 80s, particularly among Hispanic and Italian Americans. Groups/artists such as C-Bank, Sa-Fire, Lisa Lisa, and Company B come to mind. Oh, and Amoretto's "Clave Rocks".
Conclusion
My musical preferences have become considerably diverse in my 20s and early 30s. They barely resemble those of my teenage years. Even my taste in Nu Metal gave way to more harmonious forms of metal from the 80s, my interest in contemporary (early 2000s) R&B music evolved into a love for more old-school R&B, and I ultimately went full retro, largely embracing diverse genres of music from a bygone era which I never got to experience in the flesh. I also notice a progression from more dissonant and psychotic genres of music towards those characterized by greater harmony and euphony. I think that this reflects a marked evolution of my soul and quality of consciousness as I become more attracted to that which is high-vibrational, joyous and uplifting.
What genres of music do you guys like and how have they evolved over the years?
@Pixel--Dude, @Tsar, @Winston, @WilliamSmith, @gsjackson, et alia
