Why Some People Have a Basic “NPC” Taste in Music: A Friendly Chat About Preference and Personality
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ค. 2024
- What is a basic, or, for the terminally online, “NPC” taste in music? Is your annoying roommate who only listens to Ed Sheeran an uncurious bore? Are you a better person because you like jazz? Am I being sarcastic in this description? Find out with this quick chat on how personality can influence our level of musical adventurousness!
My Intro to Jazz Video:
• How to Like Jazz: A Gu...
Instagram:
/ charcuteriesound
Sources
Rentfrow PJ, Gosling SD. The do re mi's of everyday life: the structure and personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2003
Patrick G. Hunter, E. Glenn Schellenberg,
Interactive effects of personality and frequency of exposure on liking for music, Personality and Individual Differences,
Volume 50, Issue 2. 2011 - บันเทิง
![[TH] 2024 PMWC x EWC Group Stage Day 3 | PUBG MOBILE WORLD CUP x ESPORTS WORLD CUP](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VnOqutfqWqU/mqdefault.jpg)
i always think some people are just more casual music listeners! others enjoy diving deeper or have specific tastes. It’s fun to tap into all these during your life!
Was looking forward to hearing what you say eagerly until you mentioned it's not a crime to like npc music...
I'm kidding 😆
Lovely video. I am musician myself. Music at the end of the day what you enjoy listening to.
It's engineered to sound good and be immediately appealing, if that's all you're looking for in music then of course you'll like it and have no reason to go looking farther.
The way I like to think of this is that I was exposed to more complex or “elite music” (Classical, Jazz, Classical and Jazz-inspired Rock, etc) at an earlier age and have been conditioned to enjoy it more, whereas others may have not had that experience so culture and upbringing definitely play a role
Secondly, specifically with regards to Jazz, the musical form has certain musical characteristics which I have come to enjoy that pop music lacks (varied harmony, sound design / tone, groove, etc.) that I wish others could pick up on and enjoy but instead of expressing that I express disgust due to how simple pop is
I think what makes “Kind of Blue” such an accessible record is that it has all the predictability of pop (as does most non-post-bop modal jazz) but all of the unpredictability of jazz in the form of improvisation over the top (Blue in Green repeats the same chords, Flamenco Sketches is a two chord vamp, So What is a a two note vamp, etc.)
I've always been a fan of melodic complexity over bread and butter chords, or crazy chords with a chicken soup melody. You even see this kind of stuff with bebop-I totally agree with you about Kind of Blue, the accessibility is baked into the handshake between structure and melody.
great video! I find that learning more about a band, following them on social media or listening to interviews helps me appreciate songs so much more, even if it's not something I would usually listen to.
I really appreciate this approach on why many pop listeners, well, listen only to pop. glad to have found your channel!
Thank you!
Speaking of Radiohead, the thing I love about them is that their discography is so diverse that it covers both pop/accessible tracks as well as esoteric and plenty of overlap. A gateway band, if you will. Come for the Creep, stay for the OK Computer, Kid A, In Rainbows…
Leave at In Rainbows as it's crap
One man's crap is another man's In Rainbows, Keith! The subjectivity of the experience of music and all that-except for Babyshark and Mmmbop by Hanson, which, as we know, were designed by scientists to test the physical limits of the human ear.
@@CharcuterieSound mmmbop is a great pop song but I'm guessing you're a music snob
Nah, just a failed attempt at humor. Honestly, you're right, it is a perfect pop song.
Interesting little video!
I often find it really hard to go out of my way to find new music, I am the type of person who to puts a single song on repeat and listens to it for a few hours/days/weeks until I am sick of it. I find looking for new music a tough exercise.
At the same time I am really into metal and folk (especially folky and metal stuff mixed with other genres, I also love different international stuff, movie scores) and most TikTok/pop songs that are currently popular annoy me - most people hate when I am responsible for the party tunes, so I wouldn’t call my tastes very NPC.
I also know a few people who are into quite generic pop but they try to find new songs to listen to and/or like listening to random shuffled pop playlists - very generic NPC tastes but quite adventurous in finding new stuff.
What I am saying is surely there is more to the NPC tastes than just familiarity. I would definitely tune in for your next video if you find something 😊
Oh for sure! Culture, upbringing, and how you're introduced to certain music, I'm sure all matter immensely. I think I was too hard on pop as well. I like a ton of different pop styles, and there are certainly pop heads out there that can collect and dissect with the best of 'em. Down the road, I'll likely do a longer, more fleshed-out video on musical preferences and what the lit says about how and why they form. Thanks for watching and commenting!
great video, held my attention all the way through, perfect length. keep it up man
Appreciate that, thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Fascinating video! I kind of am a musical NPC myself (calling people NPCs is gross, I agree with you there, but I don't mind doing it for myself in this case). The funny thing is I'm the opposite of that in all other media: Movies, video games, books, ect. I seek out strange and fringe elements, new experiences, experimental works. I also have a high "Openness to Experience" score every time I take a 5 factor personality test. But...I don't tend to seek out music. I love music. I find it very powerful. But I don't enjoy sampling new, random music to find things I like. I tend to hear something in a TV show or movie or something, and then I'll dive into it from there. I also don't really enjoy just sitting and listening to music. I listen to audiobooks most of the time. I had a period in middle school where my life was mostly about finding new music, but I moved past it and never went back (I'm 42 now, BTW). It's a little frustrating to me because I really am very, very moved by good music. I just can't engage with the process of finding it.
For me, finding new music is a habit. I lost it for a while-but like any good habit, the hardest part is starting(or starting again). I totally get it, though. I've felt that way about a bunch of stuff over the years. I haven't read fiction in years and felt like I could no longer find joy in it, but my sister recommended this great book and I forced myself to get a few sessions deep. All those old feelings are coming back, and it's magic again. Life is funny.
@@CharcuterieSoundI would watch the hell of a video on how to develop that habit
Honestly, the “deeper” into music I’ve gotten and the more open I’ve been to new genres, the more I appreciate mainstream artists.
The least musically curious and open people I know personally aren’t the ones who love Taylor Swift, they’re the people who dismiss the Taylor Swifts of the world and refuse to experience popular artists on any level deeper than radio hits.
Whoa this is so true… I often find that the early records of popular artists are cool to listen to because its when you hear them before the fame “mainstreams” their sound
A good example would be Elton John, whose earlier records are amazing but whose records after 76 (to me at least) sound like bland pop
Or J Cole, who I think was amazing on his first 2 records but then all of his stuff after sounded like “mainstream rap”
I disagree with that second part, at least when we're talking people who *exclusively* listen to top 40 pop. Anybody musically curious is at least going to seek out other channels for new music besides what's already charting, and my experience with a lot of people like that has been pretty dismissive
@@awol.oper8rI guess I should clarify-Taylor Swift is a good example because she’s so centered in music right now. But I’ve seen countless discussions where someone will say “she makes music for NPCs” or something similar. When a fan tries to explain the tracks they enjoy with deeper themes than her top 40 singles, it’s usually dismissed.
It’s not just Taylor Swift, it’s any popular musician. I’m constantly baffled at people who seem to think that singles produced specifically for radio play are representative of an artist’s entire body of work and prefer to maintain their musical elitism than give credence to the idea that a mainstream popular artist can write worthwhile music.
I enjoyed listening to your thoughts! Subscribed!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Great vid! I'd love to see a deep dive on something rap related as I enjoyed checking out the country genre through your past vid
Thank you, goosebumps! I've been looking for a way to approach the beginnings of hip hop.
I listen to a lot of experimental music, some free jazz as well as punk, post-punk, hardcore... etc. But when I was 11-13 I couldn't give a flying a f about music and only listened to top 40 radio, my favorite artists at the time were Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Chainsmokers... etc. I still find vapid 2010s pop music kind of endearing, so yeah I can see how people develop an "npc" taste in music, you just don't have to really care about music that much, it's only when I got into the Beatles and Pink Floyd that I started to really care about music and explore more, those bands were gateways to me to a bunch of other genres, but people might have other gateways. When I was a kid I just liked a song if it had a good catchy chorus that got stuck in my head, there was no point delving further, you were already satisfied with top 40 radio and have other things to do so why go find other music?
I don't think my musical taste is very adventurous... But maybe I have to face facts. Yesterday I went to a live concert yesterday that was full of middle aged Japanese women headbanging.
That sounds like a pretty great concert to me!
@@CharcuterieSound It was! I’ll go to another in Sept.
you're very animated, not a bad thing just funny
My ex’s entire family only ever listened to stuff like Florida Georgia Line and Hozier. I tried showing them Nightmares on Wax and got laughed at for liking it. I’ve never understood why there are people out there who don’t branch out their music tastes
Hozier is genuinely amazing tho once you stop listening to the two songs that blew up on radio.
@rhithym I'm assuming Take Me To Church is one of the two songs you're referring to. If so I'd put it in the genuinely amazing category albeit overplayed when it came out but that happens when you place high on Billboard. Out of curiosity what other song has he had on the charts?
I can understand the concept for something like Jazz or whatever, but i just can't wrap my head around how SO MANY people can like music such as Niki Minaj. Even after 2 million years that type of music will never sound good to me.
There must be a factor which would be akin to principle. In order to like that music, you must first be willing to like it. For those of us who view it as superficial garbage, we would never enjoy it from exposure because we feel only disgust when exposed to it.
this is a really well-paced video, but i'm not too convinced i possess the familiarity principle: no matter how many times the radio at work plays noah kahan i still can't stand him 😭😭
Ah well it does have it's caveats-after listen 1468 I'm still going to avoid babyshark 🫠
I disagree with everything you said. Being a Weezer fan, an Ed Sheeran fan, a Taylor Swift fan, a Death Grips fan are all the same thing.
Some people delete comments like this, and I've never understood why-one of the benefits of releasing something in a public forum is that you get to interact with people who disagree with you. Thanks for the watch and for sharing your perspective. For the record, I don't think there's a hierarchy of fanship or anything like that-so I think we might actually agree on that point.
L take
Pointless video tbh