A music preferences experiment.

[TenebrousReflection]

I've created 5 groups of different music styles of music with 3 bands in each group. In each group there is one band I consider to be slightly out of place compared to the other two (some more obvious than others). With several of the catagories, I know someone that likes 1 or 2 of the 3 bands, but does not care for the other bands that I consider to be similar. I thought it would be interesting to post these here and see if others have similar tastes.

I'd like to know how many people like just 1 or 2 of the bands in any of these groupings and how many people like all the bands in a specific group (if you don't like any of them, then you can either say nothing or post that you don't like any of them). My theory is that some of these groups will have a much stronger appeal to certain types, so knowing how much you like these groups and what type you consider yourself to be will be more meaningful as well.

I have two very specific curiosities, but I'll wait for a variety of responses before I divulge those.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

 

[Octarine]

Right, after a break, I'm done.

Group 1.
Since I am going to base this on just the selection of songs that you have posted, I don't think any song particularly stands out much more than the others. The overall musicianship of Dream Theater (thanks for informing me about the new album), is simply excellent. Although the style of the vocals is obviously different from the other bands and not the most inspired in the song you posted. I'm not the biggest fan of the vocal style of the other two bands either. But on the other hand, it makes a nice change from the other vocal styles in the metal genre.

Group 2.
Disturbed is obviously the odd one out. All of the bands are going for a particular 'commercial/mainstream' sound though. None of them are particularly offensive, but not entirely fresh either. I like the Nickelback song least.

Group 3.
I guess the Blackmore's Night tune is the odd one out (and my least favourite), it seems to be concentrating on an older new-age sound, whereas the others are trying something else. I hadn't heard of those German folk groups before, but I might check them out.

Group 4.
All of the tunes are offshoots from the old EBM/Industrial genre, but the Steampunk Studio tune takes it in a different direction. I'm not the biggest fan of VNV Nation either, those monotonous vocals tend to grate after a while.

Overall there is definitely a common theme in the groups (except perhaps for group 2). In terms of preferences, Group 3>Group 1>Group 2~Group 4. As for my type, you'll have to guess (sorry).

 

[TenebrousReflection]

Regarding song slection, there was not a consitant pattern.

Group 1 - to my ears the music sounds similar, but one of my curiosities was if thinkers noticed more of a musical style difference between the groups than me. I had not considered the vocal style differences as a factor, but thats a good point too.

Dreamtheater - I chose their most recent song, I considered going with Pull Me Under which was the first song of theirs I heard so I think I have a bit of a bias toward that one, but I felt it doesnt reflect their current sound as much.
Kamelot - I didnt care for their most recent album, so I went with one from the album before that.
Serenity - A song from their most recent album.

Group 2 - I wanted a group with stuff people had probably heard of to serve as a reference group. I also see a bias (at least in the songs I chose) toward a feeling preference. Disturbed does have a much harder edge to them and I want to see how that plays out in in peoples preferences.

Distrubed - one of my favorite songs of theirs
Lincoln park and Nickelback - I wanted to find songs that I though showed a clear feeling preference.

Group 3 - I can see where the tempo of the blackmore's night song I chose does not fit with the others, and they are the only one of the 3 that use modern instruments, so they are indeed the odd one out.
I chose favorite songs for each group.

Group 4 - The common bond is an origin is the origin in electronic music. The other common bond is that I think these are all bands that have a lot of songs about social issues (although its not refelcted in my song choices)
For The Cruxshadows, I chose my favorite song, for the other two, I chose newer material.

 

[Silveresque]

Group 1 - I like all of them
Group 2 - First one is okay, I like the 2nd song, the 3rd song is annoying
Group 3 - They're all boring, the 2nd and 3rd ones start out interesting but then never really go anywhere
Group 4 - The first two are boring, the third is decent

I think this is an interesting idea. I'd like to see more groups though, since most of the music I listen to doesn't fall into any of those four groups.

 

[TenebrousReflection]

If you (or anyone else) would like to add some, thats a great idea.
For the sake of consitancy tho, please start your group numbers where the previous poster left off (ie group 5 would be next) and please stick to the rough concept of groups of 3 bands that have some unifying theme in your mind (if you want to reveal it or not is up to you).

 

[Lady_X]

group 1
i liked the first one for about 3 min...i guess until he started singing....his voice is just too theatrical for my taste. i would've liked it a lot less without the video.
2nd song i felt was well done...meaning i think they're very skilled musicians...but it's just not my style...it bugs me...again...too theatrical...i only listened for 50 secs
3rd...hated...getting way tired of this style haha

group 2
song one...bleh
song 2 didn't work
song 3 yuck haha

group 3
first song i liked...didn't watch the video...i lied down and zoned out...it was relaxing haha
song 2...thought i was going to like it but after a min realized i didn't
song 3...bleh

group 4
okay...this is hours later because i left haha

song 1 is a welcome change from the rest of the music...still not something i'd download but better
song 2...ehh...kinda bored by it
song 3...i hate the guys voice...can't bring myself to listen to it....altho i might dig it alright w/o the vocal

not sure if this says much of anything but it was sort of fun

 

[sleuthiness]

bout group 5?

 

[OrangeAppled]

I glanced at all of this & told myself I would hate it all because it's sooo not my taste, so forgive the bias going in.....

Group 1:
1 - Tolerable until the cheesy guitar & vocals came in
2- Bad, cheesy, sounds like it should be the theme song for a vampire TV show
3 - IDK....more cheese
Bottom line - I liked none, but disliked #1 the least. #3 was the odd one out, although I found them all extremely similar.

Group 2:
1- tolerable for the first 30 sec until the harder guitar came in, vocals are grating
2- my bias towards this band means I disliked it before I heard it....it's generic to me, but tolerable in the sense that I tune it out more easily than the above
3- bias here also....more generic crap, extra boring though
Bottom line - I disliked all of them rather equally. #3 was the most dissimilar, being less "aggressive".

Group 3:
1- I feel like this should be on a sndtrk to a fantasy genre movie. Again, I find it cheesy.
2- The music was okay until those fairy-folk melodramatic touches came into it, & the vocal melody is boring to me. Cheesy again...
3- The chanting style singing screams CHEESE to me...the "long ago in a land far, far away" musical touched turn me off to it. The music is the least annoying of the bunch.
Bottom line - I disliked #3 the least, and #1 was the odd one out, sounding more like Celtic folk music (or whatever) than the other two.

Group 4:
1- I wouldn't go so far as to say I liked this, because it still had that theatrical, fairy-tale aspect I find cheesy, but I don't hate it or actively dislike it. I would allow you to play this in my car, but we'd have to keep the windows rolled up, and I would have to be permitted to make fun of it, especially the "drunken pirates" bit.
2- I feel like half these songs are or should be made for goth-metal-electronic musicals...the vocals are waaay overdone for me. Again, there's this cheesy element to the dramatic musical flourishes & vocals that I can't get past. The atmospheric & electronic touches to the music is okay though.
3- I probably like this the most. The music is not too bad. I can't say I'll be downloading this any time soon, but it's tolerable & less cheesy than some of the other songs.
Bottom line - I disliked #3 the least, followed closely by #1. The odd one out for me was #2 because it was the least pop, but then #1 was different in that it seemed more rock than electronic. I guess this group wins for me, if I had to pick one.

 

[TenebrousReflection]

Group 5

Relaxing, and the video was somewhat interesting, but insturmentals and solos in general don't do much for me - vocals and lyrics tend to be what I focus most on. I think this song would be good background music for a console RPG tho.

I guess cheesy and theatrical are a lot more appealing to me than most people (at least so far)

Decided to add another group...

Group 6 (Nerdcore)

 

[sleuthiness]

Plus she's so stupidly pretty and studies sound for a living.

Don't put much thought into stuff these days.

Which reminds me

 

[Orangey]

Group 1: I only liked #3. The other two...nah.
Group 2: I only liked #2 (though I really wouldn't listen to it of my own volition. And the video is hideously corny.) Oh, and I'll join the bandwagon of Nickelback hate.
Group 3: I liked #1 and #3.
Group 4: I liked all of them.

 

[pinkgraffiti]

cool idea!
Group 1:
- no, too pop.
- no, same as previous.
- same as before. I'm not even going to lose time to identify which one is different,because i don't like gothic music.

Group 2:
- better, but it's too mainstream rock.
- don't like linking park
- hate nickelback

Group 3:
- no
- no
- no

Group 4:
I'm not a fan of the metal/gothic, up to now I've just noticed Group 1 was more like gothic, Group 2 more like rock/metal and Group 3 is metal/traditional music. Group 4 sounds more pop. But all groups are really mainstream (I don't mean to sound like an arrogant person, but it's just how I feel about this). I can't listen to more than 30sec of each because everything makes my ears want to vomit.
- no
- no
- not available

Group 5:
- boring

Group 6:
- uuh, back to life. this is nice(r). but nothing new and ultimately it's boring.
- see before
- pfff

I was looking forward to this exercise, but there was not a lot of variation in the music (except for rap in Group 6, but that's not enough).
I'm sorry I wasn't of much help to you, but at least you can count me in as someone that doesn't appreciate anything of what you posted (if that helps for your stat analysis).