Why do not many people here like mainstream music?

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I am one of the few aspies in this forum who loves mainstream music and tries to be mainstream as possible. Why is it that I do not find any people in this forum who tries to intergrate and love mainstream music like I do?

Because you are not being yourself. To pander to certain people is to lose your identity. You should enjoy mainstream music because it's the kind of music you enjoy and not to be popular, or more mainstream.

Most aspies do not choose their tastes based upon popular opinion but rather based upon analysis instead. Thus, their taste in music is far more varied than average. This is not to say that you need to be like the rest of us. If mainstream stuff is what you like, go for it. However, I wouldn't expect much agreement with your reason for choosing that style of music if the only reason you like it is to fit in. To most of us, that is an insufficient reason to choose a style of something.

Most of it simply does not appeal to me..........and neither does mainstream society so I don't really see a reason to try to be a part of it.

I think most mainstream music sounds generic, bland, and uninteresting. A lot of it is commercialization, appealing to certain crowds, and to me it's just plain annoying. I find that a lot of people who are mainstream don't look for music much, but they see what's usually on the radio, or music T.V. and those are not the best places to look for quality music. Just my opinion though... I'm not trying to be trendy by liking different things. I do like some music that can be considered mainstream, usually classic rock though. I used to like a lot of mainstream music when I was younger, but it all got too boring or sounded the same when I got older.

Because it just sounds like unpleasant noise. Dull, dull, dull.

I don't see how or why I should try to love something I find horrid, I could try to pretend but at my age it's becoming less necessary

But why does this matter to you? You like what you like, good for you - taste it's such a subjective thing. Unfortunately too many people seem to think that "you don't like what I like" means "you don't like me", such and irrational and defensive attitude.

I listen to very few mainstream sources, and when I do, with a few exceptions I find it uninspiring.

I think that seriously, from an Aspie prespective, one needs to socialize in order to know about subcultures that are really outside the mainstream. I still consider what I like mainstream, even though some people here wouldn't consider it pop - my knowledge of music is still rooted in popular music, ie. bands who sold records and got recognition from the media.

I don't really dislike mainstream music. I think it is valuable in that it is a commentary and dialogue on pop culture at large. It would be helpful for aspies to to give it a little listen at least for the sake of socialization.

Or to put it another way, it's kinda like contact sports. People in general tend to sequester themselves along gender lines, which has the effect of creating a male subculture opposed to a female subculture. In the American South, for instance, a man is going to have a difficult time conversing with other males if he's not up to date on the latest SEC football stats. If you don't know who plays for Alabama or you missed the game last week, you're not going to have much to talk about.

Mainstream music is like that in that it makes up the common folk language. If you have no use for that, then getting into sports and mainstream music isn't going to mean much to you.

It also represents conformity to a norm which we feel alienated from. I wouldn't say listening to mainstream is unhealthy, but it certainly can be disconcerting. We'd rather listen to something we can more easily identify with. Something unique, and unusual, just like us.

And, for many of us, it's just a matter of aesthetics.

I don't listen to mainstream music for several other reasons besides. I'm an on-staff musician at church, so as a matter of course I listen almost exclusively to Christian radio. But I'm also preoccupied with trends in praise and worship music. What I've noticed is that Christian music these days seems to be ahead of the curve in mainstream music innovation, or at least as close to it as you can get and still be commercial music.

Case in point is Hillsong. While retaining many pop elements in their music, there is a preoccupation with avoiding standard rock/pop patterns in their rhythm section. They also have a different focus than the typical Christian recording artist--rather than the focus being on making money and selling a product, Hillsong has long been interested selling a product that can be put to use in local church congregations. This has led to the music on their Live albums to actually be within a comfortable range that most of us can sing along to. Their music is congregation-tested, which means there is increased likelihood other church worship leaders will be confident using their songs in their own worship setting. And this is a concept that has really caught on with big Christian record labels and publishers like Integrity. Indeed, there's a noticeable change among artists like Christ Tomlin, Casting Crowns, Third Day... That kind of music is deliberately made to be more personal, more palatable, more listenable, and more singable by the fans whether they just sing in their showers, their cars, or as part of a church worship service. And because the music has wider application, those artists have a much wider consumer base than most other kinds of mainstream artists.

This kind of marketing hasn't hit mainstream pop yet, but for once Christian music is actually ahead of the curve.

Beyond that, I think aspies might tend more towards music that is more artful than mass marketable. The sad part is it will be between 5 and 10 years before the rest of the world is listening to what we listen to at any given moment.

Mainstream music, what's that?

All kidding aside, I don't feel that mainstream music is anything I could get used to. I find that I can tolerate it to an extent. But listening to it everyday is not at all my way of living. In my opinion, AutoTune is not a good replacement for talent. It never has and never will.

But that's just my opinion, you may feel inclined to agree/disagree.

Agreed. Although I will say this: Commercially recorded music has to conform to a near impossible standard of excellence to even justify releasing it. Even if you can't think of top-40 radio of anything else than turds, you have to understand that those turds are thoroughly polished by people with the skill and experience of polishing them, and those people are hired by professionals who have their fingers on the pulse of public demand. They aren't going to waste time and money polishing a turd that doesn't at least have just enough talent to shape into something presentable. The artists already have a vast amount of talent to begin with. The ability to at least sing on pitch is required, and you don't even get past the front door without that ability. If you can't do that, take some voice lessons, go back to singing talent shows at the county fair, do some coffee shop and night club gigs, and try again in a few years after promoting the hell out of yourself locally.

Once you begin recording, you're going to to multiple takes and get each of them as close to perfect as you can. You might have to redo a couple of spots if that doesn't work out, but no big deal--you have your best recorded material on a hard drive somewhere. The audio editor will take the best of all recorded clips in ProTools and splice them all back together to get a good composite of your singing. Inevitably there's going to be SOME pitch drift, no matter how good you are and no matter how many times you've sung the same material. There are ways of manipulating the most noticeable spots, and then you apply Auto-tune to what's left. If everyone has done their job and the singer is good, you won't even know that Autotune is even working. It's supposed to be the last step in the vocal editing process.

It can be used for a cool robotic musical effect, which I also like, as well as synthetic vocal sounds. It can work wonders stabilizing background vocal harmony tracks that you don't really want to spend much time on and which nobody is going to notice that much anyway. If you're a one-man-band, it's instant harmony. Autotune abusers are really just amateurs, so the prevalence of that sort of thing is going to be reserved for situations in which singer doesn't have to be really concerned with pitch. It's a trendy thing to do in rap and R&B along with some pop. The truth is if aren't going for musical effect and you're not even a good vocalist, Autotune can't save you.

Because mainstream music is terrible and mainstream people are stupid. You shouldn't disgrace yourself by trying to be like them.

I don't like mainstream music because I generally can't relate. A lot of it is about partying, drinking, being in love, sex, etc. I either haven't experienced these things or I don't enjoy it.

Also, there's little that mainstream music can offer me as a musician. It's just not interesting to me musically.

And why bother with mainstream music when there has been much better music made in the past few hundred years? There's stuff out there that is really inspiring, mind boggling, novel, and sometimes tear jerking. Why would I bother with mainstream music instead?

Most mainstream music simply just does not appeal to me. I have my own taste in music, and not just in music, but in many things. I listen to the music I listen to because I enjoy it, not because other people like it and it's popular. If people my age don't like Cri Cri or Cristian Castro, well, they don't have to listen to them.

Typical Songs For Typical People