I find the concept of this entire thread flawed. It’s going to fall into the same traps as every other music discussion I’ve seen on the forum, and in uncountable other places online and offline too. It’s not a bad reflection on anyone who, with all the good will in the world, wants the thread to be interesting, just that the parameters are all wrong.
Here’s the thing:
There is no conversation to be had about music which is based on particular bands, or artists, or albums or anything like that. It always devolves into:
“I like this!”
“I don’t like that, but I do like this!”
“Well if you like that, you might like this.”
“That doesn’t do it for me. Does anyone like this?”
And the conversation dries up.
Apart from people who are meeting due to a shared musical taste or experience, say at a live show or in a forum dedicated to a single band, no set of people have enough music in common that same the pieces of music to elicit the same emotions.
No matter how hard you try, or how many recommendations you make, you’ll never convince anyone to be able to have the same emotional reaction to a piece of music. All the things that have happened in your life to make something fit your musical tastes exactly will never be recreated in someone who isn’t the same age as you, from the same country or background, or innumerable other parameters.
This was illustrated perfectly by my girlfriend putting on an episode of the podcast Strong Songs" about Paranoid Android by Radiohead on a long drive this summer. Juliane didn’t recognise the name of the track, and had never heard it before. So her first experience was an in-depth breakdown of the structure and chord progressions and vocal techniques. She was 12 years old when it came out, of course she has no idea.
But as a 39 year old from the UK, and 17 when the song was released, this song was simply part of my life. So much so that a few years ago I was at a friend’s 40th birthday party in a bar here in Berlin, and late on the DJ played Paranoid Android and we were all singing along and jumping up and down to the rocking parts. Of course we were, because we were all about 35-40 and English/English speaking people in Berlin. The younger people would think we were weird for being so into such a crazy song, and the Germans thought so too, probably.
Yet even between us fans of the song, there probably wasn’t anything to actually discuss about the song itself. We all just looked at each other with the same look in our eyes, communicating: “Oh shit I’ve not heard this song at a party in the last 15 years… it makes me feel like I’m 18 years old again!”
All this to say: you can try to “talk about” music all you want, but it can’t be based on trying to find a common ground with someone. That’s impossible ground to find across ages and cultures.
And if you already have that common ground, there’s very little that needs talking about, because the shared experience is its own reward. By then, writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
The common musical experience I have with this forum is discovering the world of K-Pop via Scott’s video links. It’s great to get to know the faces and bands and music styles and dance routines and TV shows like this. And if other people on the forum are also following along, starting in a position of ignorance (like me) and slowly discovering favourites (like me) and getting to know what levels of drama there is… etc, etc, etc… that’s cool.
But like someone said in another thread, no matter how much I’m now into something via this forum, like Mamamoo, there’s not really much I can contribute about the topic. It’s now just something I like.
Which is why I’m fine with a music thread which is mostly people sharing interesting music videos and live shows.
There doesn’t need to be long explanations of why you like it or why you’re sharing it. That’s because every comment might as well be:
"I had an emotional reaction to this. You will not have the same reaction, so it’s not worth trying to explain it, but by sharing this, you’re getting to know me as a person a little better."
That’s it. That’s all I need.