How do your feelings regarding music differ from that of your spouse/friend/sibling/etc. etc.?

My brother listens to nothing but death metal on YouTube out of my old KSC75 with the volume maxed.

 

My mom won't listen to anything that doesn't have lyrics.

 

My dad is busy reliving his childhood and hasn't yet realized that The Who isn't the only band in existence.

 

I regularly spend 8-10 hours a day listening on shuffle to almost every genre under the sun, and listen to a whole album if I happen to land on track 1. I'm constantly in search of new bands and music. I have a new favorite song every day. I celebrate when a good song gets stuck in my head. My library just cracked 20,000 tracks recently. I keep posting here for some reason.

 

So yeah, I'd say I appreciate music more than the rest of my family.

My beet friend listens to YouTube recorded rock music with some headphones that he got for free off an airline (the crappiest headphones I've ever tried)

 

I listen to just normal pop almost all in 320 mp3 or FLAC with my GR07 and Cowon J3. 

My fiance and I like the same music...there are hardly any discrepancies, which makes car rides pretty easy on the psyche.

 

My mom likes nearly everything I play for her, from Opeth to Burial to Mahler to Unto Ashes.

 

My dad likes classic rock and music that sounds like classic rock.

 

My sister likes most of what I show her, but she tends to stick to what she already knows - doesn't seem to explore too much. Still, she hasn't rejected anything I've played for her.

 

As far as "dedication" to listening to music goes...I think I have everyone I know beat. I spent money to get the sound I wish to hear, and I consider the money very well spent. Thankfully, my fiance understands and even loves using my gear. None of my friends understand, however. While youtube is good for discovering music, the sound quality in most cases is hideous and most people I know seem to not realize this. Then again, they still haven't heard a decent setup before, so maybe I can't really blame them.

I have a certain empathy with Merck, my better half cannot understand how I can become absorbed in a Symphony, Mass, or Concerto and be oblivious to all around me while it's playing.

We were in Amsterdam in 99 and the Concertgebouw under Chailly were playing Bruckner 9 and Mahler Totenfeier and I had tickets for same and decided to risk divorce and brought her along. The amazing thing was that she really got it and enjoyed the event thoroughly. The downside of the miracle wads that once at home again there was no way she would consider sitting down to listen to a piece of music.  My wife's listening experience is limited to listening to pop music in the car or as background noise.

However one of my motto's has always been 'To each their own.

 

My wife listens to the lyrics, I think of the voice as another instrument.  The other major difference is that my wife can never devote her entire attention to listening to music, whereas I can sit and listen to music for long periods of time without doing anything other than opening my consciousness to the music

My wife loves house,chill out tunes while I more into rock and indie. I will listen to her tunes but she hardly ever listens to mine. Always music playing in our house

It differs a lot. I have only a few people on last.fm because not many have heard of it (and I spend a lot of time there discovering new artists), my compatibility with anyone there is medium at best, I've given up discussing music with most people because nobody has ever heard of anything I listen to (and it's not that I'm a hipster, it's just that people here are music-illiterate/don't care for anything other than the top charts).

 

I dropped a nice sum of cash on a pair of 8" studio monitors and I have satisfactory headphones which I can't afford to upgrade at the moment (and I only use them in the evening anyway so they are good enough).

 

People look in awe at my FLAC collection and wonder why I waste so much space. They don't get me when I say I can't listen to modern music for a long time because it's squashed to death, ask me why I constantly listen to early 90's stuff and have no idea what I'm talking about when I explain to them how important dynamic range in music is.

Well, the cat looks irritated when I crank the speakers. Which reminds me, did you know that cats hear up to around 57kHz? Amazing.

So I don't crank it up too much when she's inside.

As for a spouse, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. At least I'll go in already having the gear. No negotiation over buying stuff and she would know up front that I have a bunch of audio stuff. And it would be wonderful to meet someone with overlapping tastes, especially with an appreciation of jazz and classical. I like to leave quieter pieces playing all day long. A happy wife and a happy cat would be nice.

My wife and I don't have a lot of overlap in our musical tastes, but there is some and we each remain curious about what the other's listening to.

 

I ripped all our albums to lossless and put them on a music server so I've got a pretty amazing range of music to listen to. But when she's working she might put the same 3 minute k-pop number on repeat for hours, which for me would be torture (the looping, not the song itself). For my part sometimes I like going for days without music to reset my ears. Hooray for headphones and separate offices.

My brother listens to nothing but gospel and light classic rock which is like a polar opposite of my taste which is almost exclusively metal (take your pick on genre lol...). I don't really know why there is such a divergence in our tastes. I suppose it could just be a case of sibling rivalry while we were growing up. We have always been pretty close, but there has always been a sense of competition between us when it comes to alot of things. I suppose you could say that I was more of the rebel.

The last thing my girlfriend and I really enjoyed listening to together was Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie (live) at Hartford recordings. 

 

Bowie is absolutely her favorite musician ever and while I appreciate a little of his stuff it's just not my style. 

 

I listen to mostly EDM and anything made before the 80s. She listens to everything made in the 80s...and that's really it. 

 

I suppose it works out because she's not into music much at all anymore and will pretty much listen to (and enjoy to some extent) whatever I put on. 

 

Whenever we listen to the radio I quiz her on classic rock artists that come on. She hates it, but she is learning. Her 598s still barely see any use...

Going beyond just tastes in music, I find a difference in what (for want of a less pompous term) I can only call taking music seriously.   For most of the people around me, music isn't much more than background; the idea that by trying to speak to me when I'm three quarters of the way through a Bruckner symphony or Bitches Brew they've stolen an hour of my life is not one that enters their heads.  And I've never found a polite way to mention it.

My wife actually made fun of me last night - on Facebook of all things - for having BT's These Hopeful Machines on while I made dinner.  She said, and I quote, that I was playing music "that required acid or ecstasy to enjoy". 

 

I was not pleased.

 

She has obviously forgotten all of the music that she would have never heard if she wasn't the indirect benefactor of my very diverse appreciation of music.  But I guess coming from someone who thinks Lady Gaga is talented, I shouldn't take it to heart.