Jo Whiley gets paid to interview musicians for a living and had never heard of a seminal piece of music or in fact the artist. It's not about what you like or not.

There's no reason at all to make yourself like things which patently you don't. I'd question your claim to be open minded though. As you say in the OP, "I like concise music with tunes, and ideally with the ability to make me either want to dance, or to want to jump up and down and push my friends over". Fine. That explains why you don't like Keith Jarrett, prog, Mahavishu Orchestra, etc. But it's hardly a manifesto for open mindedness, is it? I repeat, no reason why you should like them. Or I the latest from Lady Gaga, Beyonce, etc. No solos, you see! But I think I like most sorts of music, though as i sayI have a blind spot with brassy women prancing around in their underwear (or men too, I guess).

PS - you know this is not a troll! ;-)

I like being surprised. If I listen only to the artists whose albums I already possess I am rarely going to be surprised. Therefore I have a strong need to buy albums by artists I have never heard and,in some instances, never heard of.This is usually as the result of a review I have read that makes the reviewed album sound interesting. When I invest in said album I am usually pleased but sometimes disappointed. it's the chance you take. Went on something of a cd shopping spree yesterday with El Toro - came back with a bagful of cd's quite a few of which were by artists I have never listened to before. Will let you know what they are liken if anything falls into the exceptional category. An example recently is the latest album by Dawes which contains asong called Alittle bit of everything which without much exaggeration may be the best song I have heard in the last 5 years, certainly in the last year. I took a punt on the album as a result and it really is excellent. 6 weeks ago I had never heard of them. Mind you I had never heard any of The Hold Steady until I took the plunge after reading your comments. So there you are you increased the sales of your favourite band!!

From experience, I've found that there are several entire genres of music that I am unable to enjoy. The "wide musical taste" I like to flatter myself with is in fact narrower than a new-wave necktie. I've tried to dip my toe in all of these pools, and have proudly displayed critically-acclaimed examples on my shelves in the hope that the Random Visiting Music Expert (coming to your home soon) will be awed by my knowledge and appreciation of the wonderful diversity of music, but as the years pass I find my tastes tightening as much as the waistband of my jeans.

Genres, then, I dismiss entirely (or nearly so):

- Classical: exceptions: Mozart Clarinet Concerto, Haydn String Quartets.
- "World" music: pretty much everything ethnic and real and rootsy from anywhere in the world. Includes the legion of bearded UK folk bores (the Watersons, Martin Carthy etc.)
- Blues: from the original recordings through any number of white blues bands and guitarists, I tend to agree with Steve Martin - "isn't it kinda - depressing?"
- Rap: here's a pound, go away.
- Indie: oooh! I just wrote some songs! let's find a picture of some dead trees and make an album!
- Metal: in all its gruesome guises.
- House/techno/handbag/whatever: uhhhh ...
- Disco: never helped me dance.
- "Alt-" anything: like alternative comedy, I only have time for the real thing.
- Geek/math/post-rock: You are American, you are ironic, you can step off my porch.
- Country n' Western: "We got both kinds of music - country, and western."
- Rock n' Roll: All of it. I don't care. That means you too, Elvis.
- Hard Rock: exceptions: Led Zeppelin, Blue Oyster Cult.
- Punk: not the original Nuggets-y punk, but the UK phenom. Tried to like it at the time, tried since with diminishing returns, gave up trying.
- New Wave: exception: Television.
- "Nu-" anything: see "alt-".
- "Wyrd-" anything: see "Nu".
- Grunge: fine if you're in Seattle.

(I'm sure I'm forgetting entire areas of musical expression I could dismiss as airily as the above, and I'll edit them in if I can be arsed.)

(and because a woman I fancied invited me) I went to an opera and was bored to tears. I stuck it out until the half-time break, but I'm glad I went and gave it a go.

I've discovered bits of opera I quite like on Classic FM, but as a genre it's just never going to float my boat. Likewise reggae or electronica, there's the odd bit that I find listenable, but it's just never going to connect with me. So I'm happy to give new things a go, but within the genres that I already know I like.

This is my latest discovery - a Zack Galifinakis-lookalike and his sister.

music is a expansive and wide selection and sometimes it hard to keep up with everything.

I find I often go through periods of obsessions with a certain artist or range of music and then move on.

Don't really care when \ where it comes from as long as it touches me in some way whether that be to reflectively suck a tooth or to sing along like a loon whilst pogoing.

I find rejecting whole genres of music as immature and a reversion to the fickleness of a teenager who only likes one sort cos of their peers or to belong. I don't like to close myself off to anything as you never know where it could lead. Used to have an aversion to Dylan until I found my personal key and that opened up a rich avenue with him and many other artists

Would say that anyone telling me an album changed their life does set you up to be disappointed however good it is cos music is as personal as who you fall in love with. Often you can't put your finger on EXACTLY why. Yes your interest may have been piqued by a shapely leg or nice smile (or big bazzongas) but the appeal is often undefinable.

I read about music a lot and won't skip an article in say a magazine just cos I'm unfamiliar with the artist or genre. OK if its about the RHCP's I might but I do like finding out about new people and sounds.

So people saying "you must listen to this cos its seminally important" is a turn off but someone saying 'I listened to this the other day and I think its great" is more likely to get my attention.

Some people are content to stick with what they know. I guess I'm just not that sort of person.

all sorts of music from all sorts of fields, so there are jazz and soul and blues and punk and electronics and pop and folk and classical and reggae and hip hop in my collection. I used to think I liked music with songs, but a long love of mostly instrumental dance music has told me that isn't the case.

I used to think I liked guitars, but actually I like very little guitar music, and the guitar music I like is either acoustic or sharp rather than heavy.

And I used to think my tastes were quite varied, but actually the music I like from the various genres above sits together very well, is sometimes stylistically quite similar. For instance Paul Weller and Jazz sit together alongside soul and punk in my head. ABC's Trevor Horn produced pop covered in strings as it is, sits alongside my classical and John Williams soundtracks. If you see what I mean.

But I'm always open to something new or at least new to my ears, because I'm still of the belief that the music I haven't heard could be as good as the music that I love. And to that end I'm still being proved right.

I kind of know what you mean Bob, because sometimes I feel like that, I've already got 1000s of songs that I know and love, where's the time for something new? But then I feel like exploring something different, finding something out of my usual things, something that might catch my excitement taste buds the way hearing Kraftwerk or The Clash or Patti Smith or Tim Buckley did for me too.

Albeit after years of a deliberate policy resulting in very very narrow tastes. When into post punk, nothing but white boys with guitars would make it to the turntable, one small epiphany later and it's funk and souls all the way, with an equally rigid but this time reversed race policy in place.

Anyway after this turntable apartheid I have reached a point now where I can listen to hip hop, some indie, old punk, funk and soul and disco, some Bowie, some pop, alt country, electronica, reggae and any period Paul Weller. This I presumed suggested very catholic taste. Not so. After talking with others and reading things here. It seems I am still closing the door on vast amounts of great music, but I'm pretty sure I can well live without heavy metal, folk, classical, opera, grunge, rawk music, prog, nu rave, dylan, the Beatles, the stones, led Zeppelin. This is not deliberate bloody mindedness, it's just that these genres have failed to move me in the past and life's too short for that much exploring.

I will however happily sit and read interviews or reviews of bands and people that I know I will never listen to their music.

Last christmas I feel in love with reggae. Head over heels. Still going strong. It's happened before - Richard Thompson was another coup de foudre. I can't explain it, any more than I can explain why Genesis suddenly became unendurable or my continuing aversion to Bowie.

I'm glad it happens though, that sudden realisation of something wonderful.

My musical tastes have broadened out as I have got older but although I don't necessarily seek out certain genres ( I will play the jazz card here)but if I heard a track that grabbed me it would be off to Itunes. I have recently come out of a period when I gave up on new music for a while and mostly bought greatest hits (usual excuses, work kids etc). Im now back in collecting mode as it were so am buying new stuff again so I think there's music you like and that you don't. I haven't got the time to persevere with stuff, nor have I the disposable cash to take a punt on something. One thing i have noticed there are many so called "classic albums" or indeed artists that do nothing for me. The thing to avoid is slagging people off because they dont agree with you. (That said I have tried prog by watching a couple of BBC 4 documentaries recently and it clearly is bobbins ;))

And would echo a lot of what the DogFacedBoy said above.

I often joke that, essentially, I have no critical faculties whatsoever - and that may be true. However I do like to think I can find something to like in most genres, and also to recognise what is 'good' and what is 'not so good' in each genre as well. Or maybe I just have my own prejudices!

Finding new music is still one of the things I enjoy most, whether that's a new band in an area I know well or a whole new genre (like the South American music I discovered earlier this year - Venezuelan funk, anyone?).

I dread the day when there's nothing new or undiscovered out there to excite me.

in fact I only buy those cds that are music for people who don't like music.

I'm afraid I am one of those annoying open-minded types.
My collection is ridiculously eclectic and there are very few genres that I just can't get on with at all. And right now I struggle to remember what they are...but I know they exist!
I think the reasons for my borderless tolerance towards all kinds of music are two.
1) I grew up hearing very different genres from the start. The attitude was always that if it's music, it's good. Even music you don't like is better than something that isn't music.
2) As soon as I started to buy music for myself I developed a principle: unless you're buying a new album by an old favourite, don't buy it if you know what it sounds like (it helped that I never was much of a radio listener).
So I would go to record stores and search for interesting looking sleeves, band names, album titles, song titles. Buy unknown albums by artists I knew very little or nothing about and had almost no preconceptions of, other than what I imagined they would sound like from those record sleeves.
And without preconceptions it's very difficult to be disappointed.
I still buy music this way to a large extent, though I'm not as stern regarding that principle anymore.
I'm far more likely to be disappointed with a new album when it's a new album from a favourite, or an album that I've heard too much about.
It's not all good, being this open-minded can get rather expensive! The amount of favourite artists that I need to keep buying albums by...but thankfully sooner or later they become less interesting and I can remove them from the "Must Own Everything By"-list and move on!
But of course there are many (many!) artists and bands that I cannot stand to hear a single note from, some because I've heard a lot of them and don't like it, and some for some completely irrational reason making me refuse to even give them a chance to convince me of their greatness. But that irrational reason is never based on genre alone.
But I don't care if others just stick to what they know that they like. It's not like you're spoiling my fun in any way!

You like what you like. It's not something you can force.

There are genres I don't actively go and pursue, because a very high percentage is unappealing. There's always one or two gems in any genre though, and I'd like to think I'd at least listen to something before dumping it. I listen, for example, to each track on the monthly CD. Some get 4 stars on iTunes, some get no rating.

Does that make me open minded or close minded? Dunno. I like what I like. Same as you. Just enjoy what you listen to, I reckon.

I will listen to anything at least once.

Except Westlife. But even that problem has now thankfully solved itself.

in any if its multifarious nefariousness. Ooh! there's fake blood! Hey! look improbably breasted Valkyries! Ouch, there goes my eardrum! Oh no! a world full of death and destruction and death! Pop! goes my last brain cell! Wow! Pig's innards thrown at me! Satan! I am your nemesis! Mum! what's for tea?

but just recently have been listening to Yes and finding the whole experience quite exhilarating. Maybe Genesis next.

and so if I hear something and it connects with me then that's that. The dreaded word "genre" doesn't really come into it, although I obviously like some kinds of music more than others.

and the band, Darts.

but I'm quite obsessive about catching stuff while it's still fresh.

When I'm going through new releases I'm looking for something exciting, but I'm also looking for bands that I can go and see live. I'm not trying to be 'down with ver kids', I've nothing to prove, I just love to see live bands and I'm more interested in watching a band I've not seen before, on their way up.. rather than going to see old favourites.

A lot of this comes via my local indie record shops, trawling for things to spend my eMusic credit on, Pitchfork, Quietus etc so this is at the expense I suppose of digging through the back pages of Rock & Pop, or getting into Classical or Jazz..maybe I'll start on that if or when I tire of 'new' and going to gigs.

I like a good tune, but I'm always after something sonically interesting..there is so much technology and possibility and yet a lot of artists just come up with the same 3-4 chords and the same sounds. Combine a good tune with some interesting noises and I'm there! I like things that are a bit perplexing or mysterious..that just makes me want to get my head around it more.

I tend not to be particularly interested in Lyrics, I know I'm not alone in that. Not sure why, but it's always about the music for me. This means something like Dylan, or some of the very sparse acoustic folky stuff doesn't quite 'connect' with me..it's more like poetry than music. So although I can turn my ear to most things, I'm always looking for an unusual seqeunce of notes or a strange bit of production. I'm aware that leaves huge gaps in my musical appreciation!

it's only music after all, and there's a lot out there. I'm entirely comfortable binning a band's whole output based on a small sample. Two minutes over on Colin H's thread about the Mogadishu Orchestra told me all I need to know about that. Play it loud and despair, Colin said, so I did and I did.

I also know, based on the flimsiest of premises, that I will never again listen to Rush or Yes, and therefore by extension Genesis and ELP and so on, and that this will free up countless hours in which I can explore music that's new to me and from which I may get a lot of enjoyment. It's simple percentages really.

until I've heard it. If I haven't heard it, I have no opinion on it. And sometimes when I hear it again, I have a different opinion to the one I had when I heard it before.

I found this blog to be more open minded. Steely Dan and XTC are two discoveries I will always now enjoy but and this is the thing, when i get time to listen to music I want to savour every moment and for me that comes with familiarity so i will always reach for something I know I'm going to enjoy. If something finds me well that's all well and good but going through what i did say with The Associates (nothing else sounded like Club Country) 30 years ago to almost force appreciation I doubt I will do again.

A record I could love might come from anywhere - I try to be open to that, regardless of genre. But the best transcend genre, mostly. In recent years I've come round to Steely Dan and early Roxy Music, which for most of my life were dismissed, so never say never to the acclaimed works, usually there's a reason they endure. I am a music more than lyrics listener. I can appreciate the less pop end of the spectrum of long, largely instrumental pieces as much as the short sharp singalong stuff, though I do think that the former blurs into jazz territory. You can like both of course. I do have prejudices due to stereotyping - what they used to call 'roots' when I worked in a record store has always been a bit of a turn off, as are huge swathes of classical. Other than that I'll give it all a go.

Which is hating U2 and Sting whilst knowing loads of the drivel they have spewed out over the years.

Honestly, I'd be a lot jollier if precious headspace wasn't taken up with informed critiques of exactly why Pride (In The Name Of Love) and If You Love Somebody Set Them Free are shite. Open minded schmopen minded, life is happier when crap is not listened to.

Which is why I have never listened to a Yes album all the way through. Five minutes of The Yes Album really was enough to realize it was "not for me tah."

*returns to his folk music*

One difference about listening to popular music now and when I first became interested about 1979 is the relative lack of tribalism. back in the day liking one band's output or a genre was seen to preclude you from declaring admiration for anything distinctly different.

The town I grew up in was still heavily influenced by the music that came before Punk and New Wave. At school the most popular artist was probably Led Zeppelin and in the main anything newer was derided and even if you liked something more recent it seemed almost impossible to say - actually that's quite good.

As I grew older and heard more material this position was revealed to be utterly ludicrous; as someone else has already said music is either good or bad, dependant on your judgement, and who made it almost becomes irrelevant.

So, after they had ceased to exist I came to understand and love Joy Division and even later read that that Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner were in their youth huge Led Zeppelin fans which is possibly why the records appealed to me.

These days eclecticism is seen to be an admirable thing as it removes any barriers to seeking out new worlds, new civilizations, to boldly go......

The finest artists generally make music that everyone appreciates and, as such, I have a very wide selection of genres to which I listen.

Urban / grime / dubstep, however.. Fucking racket. Can't abide it.

If I see anyone under forty on "Later" brandishing an acoustic guitar then I immediately switch channels because I know they're going to be shit. Similarly, if more than one of your band has a beard and your publicity photographs show you stood by a tree, then I won't even give you the time of day.

Recently, that picture of CW Stoneking done up in his pre-war fancy dress and the mere mention of the name "Delta Maid" were enough to convince me that I'd be skipping the podcast in the weeks they appeared, which is something I've never done before or since.

Worst of all, I decided that I would never let myself listen to Gillian Welch once I discovered that her name was pronounced with a hard "G"; I hated her immediately.

I've been following this one with interest. Lots of great writing. Only on The Word blog etc etc.....

I like a good song. I guess around 90% of my music is song based. The song can come from anywhere at all; from The Carter Family in 1927 to Nick Lowe's new one - just good songs. Even Spandau Ballet can contribute a great song in Through The Barricades.

Non-song, I love Duke Ellington and most pre-bop jazz, Booker T and the MG's and pieces that are a lot more concise than Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I'm sure there are exceptions to my self-imposed rule but that's where I find my taste lies.

Surely you mean "Chant Number One"?

Well, not everything, but I'm open to offers. My ipod is goes from A-ha to 999, from Gentle Giant to Aneka, from The Thompsons to Smokie, from Roxy Music to Nik Kershaw, with a bit of everything in between.

Like what you like and don't feel bad about it. Just enjoy it.

Why is pushing the boundaries of one's taste considered to be such a good thing?

My answer is, because you don't know what you don't know, and there may be wonderful things out there that you're unaware of. This presupposes you actually want to discover new things. Personally I'm always up for trying new stuff, by which I mean new to me, not necessarily recently released. And I also accept that you have to give it a good go. Listening for 15 minutes and thinking "yep, wank" isn't giving it a good go. Some music requires a bit more effort for the penny to drop. You may well think you shouldn't need to make an effort, but I'd disagree. That way lies banal sugar coated easily digested pap. Much of the music I really love took me some time to get into, but was well worth it. But you have to want to. Which is where good music writing comes in. Someone writing passionately about music can motivate me to really dig in and explore something new. Or someone enthusing down the pub. Or on here. I even tried that unspeakable Nicole Roberts album you recommended. Dreadful, dreadful. But I did give it a few listens.

ie - The stuff I like and the shite everybody else listens to.

I wonder what defines the boundaries? Is it an actual aversion to a particular sound, style, type of lyric? Or is it just defined by the stuff you've spent your hard earned cash on?

The reason I ask, is that I feel I don't have any boundaries since Spotify came along.

I gave up on the idea of defining what music I like by genre many years ago. The more music and types of music I heard over time the less satisfactory labelling that music became in terms of conceptualising or describing my enjoyment of it. Labels limit.

It is an age thing as well. There is a conscious decision being made here based on a realisation that I'd missed out on great music in the past through prejudice largely borne of tribal ignorance.

So I don't think of the music I like in terms of genres but in terms of particular artists and particular records. For example, I have a number of Miles Davis albums but my two favourite records by him are Kind of Blue and In A Silent Way. They are two very different albums both of which have been labelled "jazz". Both of them have ideas and sounds to them that qualify as jazz but, to my ears, aren't exclusive to that genre. Calling them jazz records limits them and limits my ability to discover other forms of jazz music.

For me, great music becomes great because it makes you feel and think differently either about music or about yourself and any number of variations of those two themes. To reach that level of enjoyment or emotional investment does, in my mind, require the listener to have an open mind. You have to want to be affected by music that you've never heard before, to be open to the idea that labelling it "prog", looking at how many minutes it lasts and worrying about how competent the musicians are/aren't is going to drastically affect your ability to listen to it with an open mind. Listening implies an active sensory and emotional participation in the event. If you come to any new music with preconceptions you are setting limits on yourself and that your senses operate during the listening experience.

I think what I do has a big effect on this. I'm my own boss and my company makes software from open source technologies. I work in an environment where openness and making things accessible is paramount alongside an inate willingness to defer to new and different ideas in the expectation and belief that by doing so it will make the product and the service better. Which is kind of how I approach music really.

..."As I told Burt in another thread a few days ago, my default position is that I like concise music with tunes, and ideally with the ability to make me either want to dance, or to want to jump up and down and push my friends over..."

You would have seen this lot...

For me, despite dabbling in many genres and really trying, in the end it all just boils down to uncomplicated three minute power pop with catchy tunes and harmonies that stick in my brain and "make me want to jump up and down and push my friends over" as you brilliantly summed up Bob.

I'm at the st/age where I just want energy, fun and a bit of oomph! Life's too short to be bored shitless by dreary music! Have this bonus track as a little gift to brighten up your day...check out the harmonica on this baby...