Overuse/misuse of the word 'Eclectic' to describe music tastes
 

Rant:

Does anyone else find this word is used waaaaay to much by people when they're asked what they listen to? And that people still don't understand what it actually means?

It's one thing to say "my music tastes are very eclectic", whist it's a hidiously overused phrase (and often actually refers to razor thin tastes), it does make sense.

However, lots of people mean to say the above, but actually come out with a rediculous statements like "i listen to alot of eclectic genres".
What the fuck does that mean?!
'Eclectic' and 'genre' is an oxymoron, eclectic means miscellanous, assorted, random... which surely is the total opposite of what a genre is?

BENDER HIPPY SCUM BASTARDS!

;)

It's a cop out, but sometimes it has to be used.

When I'm asked "what sort of music do you listen to?" I have no idea what to say. I don't say 'eclectic', I say "oh, you know, lots of stuff, really.." and then I sound like I have no taste in music at all.

Yeah sure, I know that feeling. You feel like saying "oh, you know, lots of stuff, really... NO, REALLY. I REALLY DO." but then you'd just sound like a cunt. I tend to pretend I just like Primal Scream and be done with it. Ha!

Just tell them you are into the Jonas Brothers. That will at least ensure that they stop asking so many questions.

I pick a genre at random now. People who ask that sort of question don't really care anyway.

Yeah, I hate that question. Especially when you're speaking to someone who's not very knowledgable about music. One of my teachers asked me what type of music I listen to and I just said, "oh you know, mainly indie and alternative bands" and she said, "oh you mean stuff like Snow Patrol?"

...

also worse is when you say you like emo music (as in Orchid, Jeromes Dream, Sunny Day Real Estate even) and they think you listen to teenaged goth shit. I try and avoid that question as much as possible.

The Jonas Brothers are largely so unheard of in the UK if I said that they could well be assumed to be some sort of underground psych-folk duo or something.

Huh? EVERY girl I talk to in my high school listens to the Jonas Brothers.

Oh shit, you mean the plague has spread over the Atlantic? That's why that ocean is there dammit, that's why it's THERE!!!

When you go to college, every girl listens to The Kooks and there is nothing you can do about it.

The neverending trail of bad music never ends in life it seems.

For the most part, it is all relative. People are going to like different stuff, and others will disagree. But I'm sorry, I have to draw the line at bands that play mediocre, formulaic music and that are literally formed by large corporations with marketing aimed at rich white kids in suburbs who have a free flow of money and will pay for whatever the Disney Channel or Nickalodeon tells them is cool. I'm sorry, I just don't care much for that.

Actually, that was a lie. At least one of them listens to Wu Tang Clan and Bad Brains.

When you go to uni, every girl listen to the Dresden Dolls and Kings of Leon ALL. THE. BLINKING. TIME.

How else would I describe to someone in a very concise way that I listen to noise, pop, classical, jazz, punk, or whatever else I think sounds cool to me at that moment?

I find it more tactful to say my taste is eclectic rather than saying "I listen to a lot more music than you do."

But if you want to be puritanical about it, jazz-pop-rock-punk-noise is a logical progression, and I doubt you mean 'the classical era' by classical music. Not to say you don't listen to a broad selection of music, but you haven't mentioned a single genre that comes from a mindset other than Anglo-American (even if you list Kraut or Neubauten).

hm, guess you're right -
it's not like I'm dropping in Turkish dervish music or Bollywood soundtracks.

Classical = the typical, Bach, Lizt, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.

I try not to get roped into talking about music with too many people, half the time it just turns into something really self-indulgent. Usually I'll say whatever I'm really into at that moment, or I'll say I like "the social music" (the phrase Miles Davis used to shut people up with) and get bizarre looks. I don't feel like clarifying my equal love of free-jazz with, oh, Beyonce's last record.

What I loathe more than the 'eclectic' tag is when people treat anything non-Anglo as "world music" and relegate someone like Oum Kalthoum's work into the "exotic music for rock singers" category (as Diamanda Galas likes to say).

Surely you can't consider Eastern sound recordings to be "music."

I usually tell people I listen to "lots of stuff." If I feel like the person asking cares enough, I'll say something like, "I like any type of music, but I'm picky within genres," only not as asshole-ish cause I don't have time to compose it like I do on the internet. They generally don't consider foreign genres as existent, and just ask, "even rap and country?!" I say "sometimes, sure," and they go back to talking about themselves.