Oxford: musical signaling

Apparently music is no longer a big deal culturally. Perhaps related to how being a person who listens to punk music no longer says much about you. Every man and his dog, and his dog’s dog, happily listens to punk music. And rap, and opera, and synthetic orchestral beebop fusion. I guess the story would be that music was never fundamentally important, but random things become the rallying points for cultural groups that they happen to neatly select, and then they and their movements become shaped by each other. And sometimes music just isn’t one of these centers.

This would somewhat explain my sense of confusion when looking at dating profiles. Everyone seems identical. They like some movies. They like some music. They like some books. They like some travel and sports and relaxing with friends. Why don’t dating sites have sections that would distinguish between people? But if music tastes used to distinguish between people strongly, then maybe they still do for some people, or maybe some people still think they do. Or maybe I’m just completely wrong that they don’t much. Or maybe there are subtle differences between an Adele lover and a Taylor Swift lover that are lost on me.

If music tastes don’t say much about you because these days anyone can just come along and like any music without dying of shame, then they can still say something if you just seek out music that would be very hard to like for some people.

Somehow I find myself largely liking music that is embarrassing: objectionably corny, passionately religious, patriotic… Maybe this is a last ditch effort to signal something, in a language that is increasingly gummed up by open-mindedness. Or maybe I’m contrarian. Or maybe I just like having my spirits raised by choruses of people singing in harmony about goodness. Happily, nobody can really know.

Some of my favorite music, for your judgment: