[Bob in St. Louis]

What don't I get?  Pretty much any thumpy, one note rap.  I understand the storytelling apsect but I don't get the 'music' (and I use that term VERY loosely).

When you have an overwhelming desire to impress yourself with your systems lower octave capabilities it serves the purpose rather well.
If nothing else, it's just slightly better than trying to get your rocks off by cranking up test tones that are below 50Hz and over 115 Db.   

Bob

[kbuzz3]

Beatles

IMO good songs vs. output ratio is very low.
I hate it when they are called the "best". 
I like the conspiracy theory about them too, makes sense to me.

Lin

Zero-The Dan ROCKS!, but it is OK if you don't like them I can live with it. 

You're the only other person I've ever heard of who thinks like this!  Maybe we're the only two in the world!  The great Beatles tunes are excellent but they recorded so much crap too.  I don't 'get' why others can't figure that into their 'rating'.  It seems to be that the greatest band in the history of the world should have a more consistent output....

Agreed on the Neil Young and I'll even add Wilco (dodging hurled tomatoes right now).
I can appreciate Zappa but would never really listen to him.
Though I happen to like Radiohead I can understand why many don't get them.
Dvorak.  Why listen to watered-down Brahms when you have Brahms?
I've tried Joni Mitchell too.  Doesn't work for me.
Grateful Dead.  Yeah, maybe if I were stoned all the time I'd get them.  They're just plain boring when your not.
Schoenberg.  Neat in theory and on paper but not so interesting to listen to.

I must say one thing about the beatles now that my 6 year olds have taken a liking to them.  I can play most any rolling stone's album for listening pleasure..but i hesitate to play any beatle album except the 2nd side to abbey road. Not to stir up a decades old debate but i think the stones have stood up to the test of time and the fab four , who may the "first" (arbuably) but not the best, have not...   ( im sure i will get excommunicated on this one).

Parenthetically, to deliberately add fuel to the fire regarding "first" there is a long standing rumour that early early on ( i think it was 64 but i have to check the dates) jagger sat front row for a few "them"  shows while peniless Them were trying to make it in london and living in a van down by the....  The insinuation being that mick learned much of what to do on stage by a then already seasoned Van Morrison. I dont think this can ever be verified and certainly jagger is no one who would ever admit such a  thing, but I believe this story however "glorified" [pun intended] it may be.  Then again im firmly in the camp that Them was one of the first "real" rock and roll bands. Arguably the first "grunge" band or punk band depending on the elastic definitions of both. Then again im a biased van morrison fan.....

Also well said on wilco...thats something that just really sucks and must put in the overrated category. LEt me add another one since ive been reading the some stuff about the stones circa 70-73:

Graham Parsons: "revolutionary, groundbreaking the first to synthize country and rock" NOT 
Much like some politiicans just becuse you keep saying it does not make it correct or true.  Jeez i heard about him all my life and remember a few years ago finally putting some fallen angels stuff on the cd player and just being in shock at how bad it was. Shocked I mean laughing out loud it sucked so bad.  Repeated playing did not help. And yes this is all totally subjective that's the whole fun point of this thread

[Don_S]

To emphasize the difference between do not "like" and do not "get".  I do not "get" what all the fuss is over the Beatles.    I am just a couple of years younger than they are/were so I am intimately familiar with their music.  I grew up with it.  The point being, I grew...and now my home is a "Beatles-free" zone.


RAP--top of my don't like and don't get list.

[ted_b]

Pet Sounds. 

[jrebman]

Don't get?  Most Romantic era classical (with very few exceptiions), although I love ancient, early, early baroque, baroque, post modern, post-tonal, etc.  And yes, Mahler .

Opera?  Can't stand it, don't get it, never will.  I've been to more performances at the Met than I can count, seen many of the greats, and with the exception of a few select arias, it doesn't work for me.

Beatles? Have to be highly selective and then only in small doses.

Zappa, sure do get him -- a true genius, and absolutely amazing musician, but I can't say I have any of his recordings.  Generally don't miss not listening to him.

Grateful Dead:  took me a long time to get it, but once I did, and tempered with a bit of selectivity, something I truly enjoy.  Lots of crappy performances and recordings out there, but the good ones are wonderful.

Don't get new country or new "formula" radio rock.  Whenever I turn on a radio there is just so much that sounds like the song before it, and singers seem to be getting seriously bad.

One artist whose music I like is Ben Harper, but he just can't sing or play guitar to save himself.  So, while I enjoy it, I don't get how he even got in the door of the first recording studio.

Rap, what's rap?

Lithuanian marching music?

Polka?

It's easy to get carried away here.

-- Jim

[zybar]

One artist whose music I like is Ben Harper, but he just can't sing or play guitar to save himself.  So, while I enjoy it, I don't get how he even got in the door of the first recording studio.

-- Jim

Have you ever seen Ben Harper live?

His guitar work is extraordinary!!   

Personally, I like his voice, but that is a debatable topic, his guitar playing simply isn't.

George

[mcullinan]

Brian Wilson or the Beach Boys
The Who
Bob Dylan

[soundbitten1]

Neil Young - He can't seem to sing or play the guitar.

I love Neil Young despite the fact that he can't sing or play the guitar . But I know that I like that type of rudimentary music also  . Virtuosos need not apply .

[S Clark]

Music appreciation is much like out taste in compatible mates.  A friend of mine once told me that it was a damn good that we all liked different things or we'd all be chasing the same anorexic blond cheerleader.  Sorry for those that don't like ___________.  Most of the time I find that I don't appreciate an artist, I just haven't found that little something different that piques my interest.

Now, having said that, I have even heard interesting rap, but am not likely to own any.

[funkmonkey]

You guys have hit on a couple that I don't get:

-Neil Young (first to pop into my head, but I like his Arc, or Weld album which ever was all feedback; no vocals)

-Radiohead (I "get" them, but don't care for the droning, whinny vocals)

-"Bluegrass" music in general (some of my friends really like it, but to me it has no soul)

-"Christian Rock" (maybe not highly rated but I really don't get this one, isn't it an oxymoron to play the Devils music and sing about God?)

Just a couple of thoughts...  Great idea for a thread, fun read.
Cheers,
-Funk

[bunky]

Brian Wilson or the Beach Boys
The Who
Bob Dylan

I used to feel the same about the Who until i listened to Whos Next. I now regard it as one of the finest rock albums of all time. thanks....WCW III

[jrebman]

George,

I have seen him live; once.  It was a fantastic show, and I think he's a terrific songwriter and incredible performer with a real presence.  I just took out the only easily accessible track of him playing "You Look Like Gold" from the NY rave demo disk.  The guitar solo sounds like that of a real beginner -- searching for notes, sloppy timing, etc.  It's at least enough for me to have some doubt as to his virtuosity on the guitar.

In general, I'm pretty tolearant of all kinds of music and always try to keep an open mind, but I've found two artists in the past couple of months that are among the very few things that can make me get up and turn off the stereo.  Jeffrey Gaines is one of these, and David Johansen is the other.  These two I really just don't get the appeal in any way shape or form.  Apparently Gaines has been around since the early 90s, and I'm just hearing about him now?  That's pretty amazing.

Well, enough negativity for one day.

-- Jim

[sts9fan]

Pretty much ALL classical from large to small.  I don't dislike it really but it does nothing for me. 
Wilco took time to grow on me.  When I first listen to YHF I thought Tweedy was a whiny bitch.  Now I think about as far the other way as possible.  I celebrate his entire collection.  Moving into Neil Young who does not do it for me and is having Wilco open for him which pisses me off.  Lame. Now I have to pay NY prices to see an opener.     

[Double Ugly]

Neil Young
Radiohead
Bjork
REM

Joni Mitchell 

Grateful Dead.  Yeah, maybe if I were stoned all the time I'd get them.  They're just plain boring when your not.

RAP--top of my don't like and don't get list.

Despite repeated attempts to find some incredible, previously overlooked "ah-HA!" element, I have yet to "get" any of the above. 

I'm a little ashamed to admit it because it shouldn't matter, but it's comforting to know I'm in such good company.  Some of those landing in my person "don't get" category seem to enjoy near universal acclaim, and it's easy to think some unfortunate genetic flaw is at play, preventing discovery the aforementioned "ah-HA!" element.

Conversely, there are some songs/artists I like but wish I didn't.  There's an old thread entitled "Guilty Pleasures" which didn't last long, but I think it'd be interesting to see what the current crop of active members are brave enough to admit to liking.  I dare say my list would leave most perplexed and/or feeling sympathetic to my plight.    

[woodsyi]

I don't get fugues but I get cantatas. 

[doug s.]

i don't get rap, smooth jazz, metal, or most "pop" or "easy listening" music.  or opera.  (sorry, rim - janis joplin and ella fizzgerald are awesome, but not opera!)   

besides that, i "get" most all other music.  i can even tolerate small doses of country, as long as it's not typical "pop" country.  and, i like bluegrass a lot.  my fave music over the last fifteen years or so has tended to world music.  but, many of my faves are on folks' "don't get it" list here, like dylan, dead, neil young, the beatles, zappa, the who, joni mitchell...

music is personal...   

doug s.

[opnly bafld]

-"Christian Rock" (maybe not highly rated but I really don't get this one, isn't it an oxymoron to play the Devils music and sing about God?)

Rock=disobedience
Christianity=obedience
has always been my argument.

How does one water it down enough that people can agree on what is being sung? 

Lin

[opnly bafld]

I don't get REM, I love the first 4 or 5 albums and can't stand them after that.

Lin

[doug s.]

I don't get REM, I love the first 4 or 5 albums and can't stand them after that.

Lin

all rem's stuff sounds the same, to these ears.  jackson brown, too, for that matter...

doug s.

[opnly bafld]

I don't get REM, I love the first 4 or 5 albums and can't stand them after that.

Lin

all rem's stuff sounds the same, to these ears.  jackson brown, too, for that matter...

doug s.

IMO their early "college band" stuff is different than say Monster on, in the 2 previous albums I start to hear the transition to the "pop rock". I didn't know what was going on at the time, thought the band was just trying to grow/mature.

Just my valueless opinion,
Lin