Do You Understand Music?

I have a much simpler approach to music, if I like it I listen to it. If I don't like it I will not try to understand (listen) it. I simply, do not have enough time and what time I do have I would rather spend on something I like. There are already too many challenges in life and listening to opera shouldn't be one of them.

I like the analogy about food, I would never ever try to understand (eat) why fried liver is good for me.

I think I'm with you Marakanetz-I like to challenge myself musically.
I really cannot tell straight off the bat (not unless it really turns my stomach but that is usually stuff I find really derivative)wether I will like a piece of music or not.
In fact it takes some time for me to make a definitive decision about any new music(obscure or mainstream) sometimes I think I'm going to love something but that instant appeal can fade into mediocrity.
Of course as you grow older you understand better as your knowledge widens,if you continue to listen and to expand your tastes.
The 14 year old me would not have considered listening to jazz,now I'm a big fan but there is so much to take in.

One thing I find that proves your knowledge has expanded is if you listen to some music you loved back in your teenage years( or a decent distance back) and haven't played it for a long time,you'll find you will hear a lot of influences in it you've never heard before, even though you know the music really well...............
I remember vividly being about 14 and hearing Led Zep 3 for the first time-it seemed like the weirdest thing I'd ever heard,in fact the first few listens just didn't register at all,some 24 years later I can't imagine how that could ever have been, but it was.
So everything is relative.
My biggest problem now is my tastes are so eclectic that finding the time is the biggest problem,my collection grows and grows.
The other problem in the contemporary popular/rock field for me is that I am very aware of most of the reference points,that can get in the way when listening,you can dismiss stuff unfairly and without repeated listens.
As for difficult stuff, if you take a band like Autchere,(pretty harsh electronica),I have about 5 of their CD's and I doubt if I like much more than the odd track per album but I'm glad I've heard them even though they haven't widen my tastes but rather signaled the end of the line on a particular adventure.....................

I have found that in music, as in some "art", there are some pieces that are works of genius, and some that are gibberish. In music, simply flailing away with abberrant musical scales is similar to flinging paint at a canvas and calling the result, art. Sometimes, if you're lucky, it might come out okay. But mostly, it looks like paint flung at canvas. It is inaccurate to assume that all avant-garde music is art. Perhaps this is why some of it seems to be impossible for you to understand. I think that many times the "artist" himself does not understand it. He's just hoping that someone will see something in it. Sort of like an audio Rorshak(sp?) test. In many other cases, just a few well placed notes in a song can be the most artistic expression you've ever heard. With a music lover, like yourself, it is unlikely that you would be completely ignorant of the meaning of a piece. Unless that piece was meaningless. I have read your posts, and you are an intelligent guy. I doubt you would fail to see the meaning in an artistic piece.

Good thread. I guess it's pretty common not to be real absorbent or appreciative when initially exposed to unusual or brilliantly put together artforms.
IMO, the sense of discovery that comes when you really dig something that was previously inaccessable is hard to beat.
Can, Massacre(w/Frith), Herbie Hancock-Sextant, Miles Davis (Jack Johnson, On the Corner, Agharta), Present, Blast, Ruins, Squarepusher, most Van Vliet (Beefheart) and FZ's Uncle Meat taste alot better now than they did at first. Still can't seem to get through an opera without tripping the ol' gag reflex though.

I push my boundaries, but slowly. There's nothing better than putting on an artist you've never listened to before and being floored - that's at least as fun as the latest equipment "revelation". I will often not be as blown away as I would like, but I kind of have a token system - any new music starts out with some tokens (say 3) - every time I play it, if I don't like it pretty well, it (mentally) loses a token. When something gets down to 0, I probably won't play it again for a while. There are definitely cases where music or genres grow on me, and I try to never forget that. -Kirk