Changing Tastes

[Qlip]

My tastes in things like music, movies and art has developed radically in the last coule of years. That's easily explainable, since my new environment has allowed me to do a lot more exploring. But, that doesn't explain why I bought 'The Best Of Henri Mancini' from the Vinyl store, and why I momentarily regret the lack of a Martini in my hand while listening to a swinging Bossa Nova. Have you ever had to stop an ask yourself "Who the hell am I?"

 

[Ava]

No, I haven't, at least not so drastically. I've had that happening, though, the surprising realization that I love doing something completely different. And it's been utterly enjoyable rather than strange or shocking. I chalk it down to some inner restlessness maybe. That something inside me, something I haven't acknowledged yet, needs change and I end up going about things in a new way to change my perspective. I consider it as personal growth, possibly casting away something 'old' that is not useful anymore.

 

[Tyrinth]

Have you ever had to stop an ask yourself "Who the hell am I?"

Quite often actually. My interests tend to change drastically, both with my mood and over time. And due to those changes I spend quite a lot of time trying to answer the above question. If you're happier I really don't think the rapid changes are a big deal, the problem is when you change and it does nothing for you.

Figuring out the catalyst for these kinds of changes can be difficult, if it's even possible to narrow it down to one reason. It's best to just go with it as long as you keep it under control. Changing your taste in music = fairly good, deciding to drop your job or education in order to pursue a career in yodeling = probably bad...

 

[Lark]

My tastes in things like music, movies and art has developed radically in the last coule of years. That's easily explainable, since my new environment has allowed me to do a lot more exploring. But, that doesn't explain why I bought 'The Best Of Henri Mancini' from the Vinyl store, and why I momentarily regret the lack of a Martini in my hand while listening to a swinging Bossa Nova. Have you ever had to stop an ask yourself "Who the hell am I?"

I love it when that sort of thing happens is all I can say.

 

[KDude]

My tastes always change. As long as I'm actively searching and in getting into things, then it develops. But it's always result of the older tastes and just branching out slowly from those things. For example, I might like Soundgarden. From there I could branch out into where they got their sludgy sound (Black Sabbath) or branch into other multi-octave vocalists like Cornell. Like Jeff Buckley. From Buckley, I might get into Nina Simone or Leonard Cohen. From Simone, I might get into Theolonius Monk. And soon enough I'm in a completely different musical world than Soundgarden.

There are also periods where I just settle and like where I'm at, and don't explore artists' influences.

 

[Redbone]

It's all about swimming in strange seas of sound.

 

[Thalassa]

No, I think it's healthy to grow. I listen to a lot more electronic music than I did ten years ago...and I really get sick of hearing any music that was only a decade ago. Like for example I got really effing irritated with people who "brought back the 90's" too fast during the 00's...with the exception of a few of my favorite artists who I always loved. No, I don't want to hear something a lot that I heard as recently as ten years ago. Like pop music from the late 90's still kind of irks me, because it wasn't as long ago as it should be.

I think it's healthy to appreciate a variety of music and art and things.

I mean I don't get hardcore old-school Si doms who say things like "well I didn't grow up with that." I know this guy who is an Si dom, I swear, he's about fifty - and he won't even eat much Asian or Mexican food because he grew up on the Eastern side of Canada. It's too "strange" for him. He looks askance at me when I cook for him and suggest he might enjoy warm tortillas with his eggs and chorizo.

I don't get it. I feel like my personality continued forming and shaping up through my twenties and now my thirties. I absorbed a lot of SouthWestern culture (Latino elements, for example) during the six years I lived in Vegas with my ex. I didn't even realize until I returned to West Virginia how much it had become a part of me, and how it feels more comfortable to me now to be back out West in Southern California.

I've always liked culture, though. One pervading interest I've had throughout life is culture: music, art, film, dance, theatre, language, cuisine. It's pretty much defined my life and I'll explore culture in whatever direction seems interesting to me at that time in my life, whether it's Russia or Argentina or France.

I think it's the same kind of thing, really.

Of course I'll always have things that kind of "define" me, though, I think. Like how I've read certain books or seen certain films over and over again.

What would be truly odd for me would be if I suddenly became wildly interested in American football. Now that would be strange.

 

[mmhmm]

My tastes in things like music, movies and art has developed radically in the last coule of years. That's easily explainable, since my new environment has allowed me to do a lot more exploring. But, that doesn't explain why I bought 'The Best Of Henri Mancini' from the Vinyl store, and why I momentarily regret the lack of a Martini in my hand while listening to a swinging Bossa Nova. Have you ever had to stop an ask yourself "Who the hell am I?"

i don't think my taste in music/films/art defines who i am, so that question doesn't come up.
but my tastes change as my horizon expands, i'm always introduced to new things as much as
i'm always out looking and discovering for new things. that's one of the things i like about art
and culture. i love having an eclectic experience, and adding things into it. the mish-mash
is what makes it fun and gets me to come back, because it just lets me to branch out even more.

like i don't understand these pseudo-intellectual hardcore culture/music snobs, nor do i understand
those that resist to try anything new. i mean, it's never one or the other for me, i'll try, try, try.
and some stuff will stick, some will only last for a phase or two, and some will just make me laugh.
i think i just like looking into the minds/marketing that put their stuff on display.

 

[KDude]

i don't think my taste in music/films/art defines who i am, so that question doesn't come up.

Agree with this too.. I never understood how that happens. Like sometimes, if I criticize something, some people take it personally. It'd be different if it was something they themselves created, but not someone else's work.

 

[Kurt.Is.God]

It doesn't define who you are, but it gives insight into who you are. I think that's where snobbery comes from. Aesthetics covers a lot. In just music, for example, part of it might be the understanding of a symbolic depiction of some intellectual theme through sounds, images, etc., or part might be the understanding of complex rhythms or melodies and how they build and resolve expectations (maybe I'm explaining this one badly). People will like certain melodies and moods for different reasons--someone might like fragmented "chillwave" electronica because she was born to think a postmodern aesthetic is cool (I know of an ESFP like this) while another might like it because she appreciates postmodernism, and another might like it because she suffers from a looming sense of uncertainty in her life--whatever the case, though, when someone admits to liking a certain kind of music, he's disclosing something about, say, his understanding of rhythm, or his "thematic" preferences. I think this is going a bit far, but one ENFP friend told me he felt like my dislike for his music was almost like a rejection of certain values he held. Music snobbery is like this--it's an attempt to sustain the virtues of certain aspects of themselves they hold (or want people to think they hold) in the music. Then there's one ESTJ guy I know who is the biggest snob in every field of art ever. He tries hard to appear competent and appreciation of more "difficult" art would boost his cred.`

 

[Such Irony]

My tastes haven't changed much but they have expanded more. I still like most of the things I used to like. Maybe I'm not obsessed with them as I used to be because I've made time for new interests.

 

[21%]

I went through a weekend of depression and suppressed anger and stress a couple of weeks ago and I suddenly understood rap music