I like all kinds of music

Oh boy, am I tired of this one. I have heard it a million times, and absolutely zero times have I believed it. Zero. I have even gone so far as to find kinds of music that the person wouldn’t like, and it rarely takes 20 questions to succeed in my goal.

Now, I love music, and I do love many different kinds of music, but this statement – ‘I like all kinds of music’ is in answer to a question. And that question is, ‘What kind of music do you like?’

Arguably, the question could be phrased more succinctly, because when we ask someone this, what we really want to know is, ‘What kind of music is the most important to you?’ But we all understand what people are asking when they query us on the ‘music we like’.

I also understand that when we say ‘I like all kinds of music’ that we’re doing a couple things. In no particular order, what we’re really saying is ‘Please don’t judge the music I like’ and ‘I don’t want to offend your musical opinions if they happen to be different from mine’.

This is really a shame, because there is a lot of great music out there that most of us haven’t heard. Especially in this age of inexpensive digital production, really good music can be made without the backing of a large studio, and we lose the chance to hear about it from the people around us when we don’t ask the right question. On the flipside, when we don’t answer that question as truthfully as possible, maybe we’re keeping a gem hidden that should be shown to the world!

Now, I will say that I suggest a lot of music to my family, especially. And they tell that most of the time, they could take it or leave it. But, every once in a while, they let me know that the suggestion was a huge hit, and they can’t believe they’d never heard it before.

So let’s ask the right question – What kind of music is most important to you?

And then let’s give the best answer we can, instead of the one that feels the safest.

Try something new and learn today! The Music Momma