The Importance of Liking Bad Music
(No sad post this time! 🎊)
My music taste was heavily influenced and somewhat formed early on in high school. I was a big tennis kid, and during away matches the team would bring a speaker and take turns playing music. Of course wanting to fit in, I started listening to rap and hip-hop music; I started liking Kendrick Lamar after hearing swimming pools there and going home to search it up. Over time, I put emphasis to grow my taste to like all genres of music, all the way from slow jazz to heavy metal. I’ve picked up some very niche genres, ones that traditionally don’t have the largest fan bases. There are some songs I really like, and every person I’ve shown it to has irreparably stared at me with a look as if to say “you really listen to this?”. To me, this is something that is invaluable to experience.
Everyone knows music is subjective, and to some extent it is just a way to connect and figure out your sense of self. I think the inherent desire for conformity can easily dissuade people from branching out to music that most people don’t like. But I think that has incredible value, if you can break past the barrier once. If you can find a new song, artist, album whatever that resonates with you, and you show it to someone with a similar music taste, the best thing they can do is look at you with disgust. If you can keep your head up from that and still enjoy that song, you are free. You can go ahead and explore all these avenues of yourself through music without the fear of being coerced into a societal mold.
So to the people who don’t read this: go ahead and find some unconventional song you love, and put it out for the world to show. Some of my favorite songs have been songs not a single person I’ve shown them to enjoys, but that just makes the forbidden fruit all the sweeter.