This is kind of interesting for me to read this thread.
There are two mutually exclusive conclusions I reach as I read it...it has to be one or the other:
1.) People are waaaaaaaaaaay too narrow in their musical tastes
2.) My taste in music is so broad and promiscuous that people would think I am musically crazy.
I listen to, and enjoy such a wide range of music that the best and worst of what I like is encompassed in the breadth and width of this thread.
I listen to classical, jazz, folk, swing, a cappella, big band, drum corps, reggae, marches, hard rock, soft rock, barbershop, do wop, country, western, movie soundtracks, disco, be bop, new age, popular music from every decade from the twenties up through the eighties.
I confess that I largely stopped enjoying new music in the early nineties. I subscribe to the theory that each generation must have it’s own music, and part of the draw of that music to the current generation is the fact that it pushes the older generations away from them.
For me, that is most (not all) of what new music sounds like to my ears since 1990 or so. I do despise rap. I hate it. It is an attempt to to make music out of anger, or make music into anger.
I think people who really like rap should do one of two things: play it in headphones so not a sound wave of it hits the ears of others, or...just whack your fingertips with a ball peen hammer. In the former, all it will do is rot your own soul and damage your own ears. In the later, it is a lot quieter for everyone around you, and you can still fill yourself with all that pain and anger.
That is how I feel about rap. I guess everyone has their weakness...:)
You’re musical tastes are much narrower than mine. I also find myself liking the latest music even though the music I first loved was Fifties and Sixties music. The latest CD I downloaded onto my iPod was Hollan Holmes third effort. I liked his first one too. Second one not as much. I also like Amon Amarth and Russian liturgical chant (especially with basso profundo). To each his own.
I’m with you. best musicians in the world played fusion jazz and most people never heard of any of them. Ponty, Corea, Di Meola, Ryne, etc. Unbelievable talents. Prog Rock is the new fusion and where the best musicians are today. I’m 57 and just can’t get enough Dream Theater or Symphony X.