Where's the Folk, the Trad, the Celtic and the Early music?!

Interesting question: I'll listen to all of it, for different easons, and when I'm in different moods.

It is the quality that matters - not the genre

For many genre I'm not certain I could tell which grade of quality it should belong to.

Even though I do enjoy a wide range of music (eg. folk, rock, heavy metal, early, classical, fiddle music and more ),
I am certain I do not want to spend time listening to country & western or rap .. whatever the quality!

Interesting you should raise Country. At one time (not too long ago) I would have dismissed it as "whining trailer park trash music". I don't know quite how it happened (probably via English folk) but I started listening to some proper "old-timey" stuff, Appalachian, Bluegrass, that sort of thing, which led to listening to some "genuine" country music (i.e. not the modern dross dressed up as country - Garth Brooks for instance ).

There is some really good stuff out there if you care to dig below the surface a bit. I got a good insight into what country was actually all about and who was worth listening to by reading an excellent book "In the Country of Country" by Nicholas Dawidoff - well worth it for anyone interested or vaguely curious in either the music or that "Grapes of Wrath" environment which gave rise to much of it. Of course there are still some old school country artistes hanging on - Emmylou Harris anyone?

Oh and don't forget that a lot of "so-called" rock is in fact thinly veneered country music. OK Led Zep may have been mainly blues (with a bit of English folk thrown in) but the Stones always were a Country band.

At the moment I'm well into Ligeti and Stockhausen, along with Aphex Twin and 65daysofstatic. And of course there's always Beethoven, Mahler and Mozart - my "big three".

What comes out my stereo most? Probably a toss-up between pop, folk, rock and roll, classical and big band/swing.

What do I actually listen to most, and I mean properly listen? Classical, without a shadow of doubt.

Pity only a single reply as my music taste is very wide and I listen to a lot of genres.

I love listening to classical, pop (although not cheesy pop stuff!, I mean artists like Delta Goodrem and Leona Lewis), and easy listening

I also like the odd bit of rock, like Queen, a bit of bluesy-type stuff from Katie Melua, country-ish-ness from Eva Cassidy (some of her songs anyway!), a little bit of folk and loads more!! I have a quite big range of music taste really. I'm not a great fan of Hip hop or dance music anymore...since getting into music and more appreciating 'non electronic' stuff!!

Laura

I have a wide range of music I listen to, I'm not a great fan of contemporary music, I like Classical, rock, Jazz, Big Band, Soul, Pop, Gospel and more. For all her troubles I do enjoy listening to Amy Winehouse, her Frank and Back to Black are very good albums. Although I know, not everyones cup of tea, and I don't enjoy seeing her in the papers everyday...

i would really love to place 20th century/contemporary classical in the first place then jazz (not the modern one!)

20th century/contemporary classical - debussy , rachmaninov (actually a bit late romantic), bartok, gershwin, prokofiev, many more hehehe

jazz - i don't really like jazz with electric instruments such as electric guitar and electric bass or electric keyboard, would really prefer to accoustic one in the form of jazz quartet or trio
really love billie holiday, ella fitzgerald, diana krall

i just realised that i love the 20th century itself - mostly the composers and musicians from 20th century hehe

^^

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kkG7a3GQnSg

I also like the keane type of music!

I most often listen to "classical" music. When I listen to modern music it's usually U2, Queen, Bob Seger, stuff like that. As for weird taste in music. I tend to listen to the main themes of certain videos games. The Morrowind theme and Fable theme in particular. Surprisingly these are actually great music and very well composed. If you've ever played the games (I was once a very heavy gamer) you realize that the music goes perfectly well with the game and world of the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWuNf4gxwuM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG0wVbwGYWo

Agree!!! I'm not into games at all but one of my colleagues is and often makes me listen to some tracks. I'm particularly fond of that one which you probably know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIb1KdFy4-c

Thank you missypiano. In fact, I've never heard this before. It's scary though how detailed games are becoming. Music in video games has progressed quite a ways in the last few years and is becoming a primary aspect of creating the game.

I'm lucky enough to have classical music coming out of my ears, from studying at music college. So I don't listen to much classical music in my own time. At college I hardly get time to digest listening to some amazing other student playing before someone says "are you going to the lunchtime concert? It's the Brodsky Quartet/Scottish Ensemble/some insanely good pianist?", and there I am taking in more amazing music.

Makes me think music is a bit like alcohol - good in moderation but so much of it takes some time to digest and get over!

So in my own time I like going for a complete change. Tango (Sexteto Major, virtuosos from Argentina with about 300 years' tango experience between them, they've been playing it for so long), or hiphop - at the moment the Roots from Philadelphia (their album Illadelph Halflife, amazing poetry), and the London artists LowKey and Doc Brown. Great music, and a complete mental change from what I do all day...

Right now: Tortoise, Magic Flute, Schubert, Mozart horn concertos, Devon Sproule, Eivind Aarset.

nick

Right now works of Franz and Karl Doppler.