I’m such an extreme “music nut” that I’m practically a musicologist. I’m opinionated. There’s plenty that I ignore or even disdain. I try to be polite about it if asked saying “This music is not to my taste!” I read books and articles about music and music history, and I keep listening. I keep my ears open. I love a lot of music.
I’m not a big classical music guy but I do have a sense of it and know a lot of the greatest hits. I like the moody works, the oddballs and experimenters.
I like a lot of old music, recorded before 1940. This includes world music as well as American music. I like a lot of the popular songs: show tunes for the stage and for the movies. These are often taken up as jazz standards, both vocal and instrumental.
I’m crazy for blues and jazz. These genres cast a wide net and encapsulate a lot of my favorite stuff.
I like a lot of movie soundtrack music, both the songs and orchestrations.
I like much of the classic country and western work from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. I’m more selective as regards the country music of the last fifty years but there are artists and songs that I like. There’s plenty of great work in the folk music tradition as well.
Jump blues, swing and novelty tunes helped spawn the development of early rock ‘n’ roll. I’m really into the major 1950’s rocking recording artists including such genres as doo-wop music and rockabilly. The “girl groups” came to be popular in the 1960’s. I love much of their work as well.
Of course, there’s been a lot of good rock music over the last 70 years. I know what I like and keep discovering new stuff. Genres include punk rock, power pop, garage rock and psychedelic sounds.
Gospel, soul, disco, rhythm and blues have also given us many amazing works and artists. Memphis, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia are some of the cities that first come to mind, sites and sources.
I love a lot of music from all over the world: South America, Africa, Europe, China and various far flung places have all produced sounds and songs that I love.
My favorite hip hop music is the early stuff from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. There’s been good to excellent stuff since then but I’m selective. It’s interesting how rap has traveled from New York to the rest of the United States and then around the world. There are rap artists that I like who rap in Spanish, who come from Canada or other countries.
I like experimental music and the whole avant-garde tradition: those who start off as academic and studied and then go somewhere else and (especially) the outsiders, the eccentrics and the tricksters.
Some music serves a purpose. If I’m reading or making some visual art, it’s usually better to have music without words, just the music. If there’s singing, it works better in a language where I don’t understand most of the words. There’s a large variety of music with a great mood and beat, which makes it good for dancing, whether slow or fast. Medium tempo dance music can also cut a good groove. Some of us have favorite music for doing housework or dishes.
People have music they like for exercising. Be careful about wearing headphones out walking, running or biking. If someone honks their horn at you or yells “Watch out!” you want to be able to hear it. Headphones are great, but if you’re not careful about the volume, you could damage your hearing. Some music sounds better when played fairly loud (or very loud) over some good home stereo speakers. I listen to music on vinyl, CD, radio and audio cassette more than I do on streaming it and downloading it.
There’s nothing like a good 78 RPM or 45 RPM dance party or listening party.
I’m sure that I’m forgetting to mention whole genres and types of music that I love or like.
Music! What would we do without it?
I Hear Music 
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