Overall, I find it easier to enjoy stuff like Foreigner and Toto via their 70's material than the 80's stuff which is too sappy and weak for me. Also, bands that came into AOR from a more hard-rock/metal side (think Rainbow in their 79-83 era) is easier for me to get into than the straight radio-rock rooted bands. Overall, this music is quite a challenge for me because I always hated it.

Also, I take a weekend every year or so when I listen to nothing but Queen's 70's albums which is a band I REALLY don't like but I still find fun to listen to every now and then.

Basically, I don't need to think that music is good to still enjoy listening to it. That may sound strange but I'm quite nerdy and immediately hear music from a more theoretical perspective so I can weed out the enjoyment factor and still get into the music if the structures or ideas or whatever are cool. Hard to explain but maybe someone can relate. Anyway, it's quite challenging for me to listen to music like that because the enjoyment becomes purely intellectual and has very little to do with a more "basic"/primal appreciation which I obviously (?) don't have for Queen or Foreigner or whoever...

>I don't think I'll ever get tired of jangly guitars, big
>melodic hooks and introspective lyrics.
>

>
>Do you think it's healthy for a music fan to do this?

Of course. One of the things that always annoyed me about music criticism/thinking/whatever is that a more analytical/intellectual appreciaton is frowned upon. Meanwhile, people can talk about everything from movies to litterature to fucking sports in the most academic manner but when it comes to music, it suddenly just HAS to be about ''feelings'' and emotions and blah-blah. Listening to music where the emotional enjoyment is non-existant can be very fulfilling because you can focus more purely on the sheer mechanics of music-making without getting distracted by emotional issues...
>
>Do you hate when people go overboard and try to flaunt their
>"eclecticism"?

It depends. i get pissed off when people claim that they don't care about genres and only listen to music they find "interesting" or whatever; usually, a word like interesting is just a code-word for a set of values that may transcend genres but is ultimately more often than not even more narrow-minded and set in stone than any genre-conventions...

If someone appreciates a bunch of different styles of music on the musics own terms (interpret that as you will), I obviously don't have no beef with that...

>
>What's your greatest discovery, if you do indulge in this sort
>of listening?

Ever? That's a bit hard to say since my taste has broadened so much over the years. However, in the context of the time I got into them and how they related to my general taste at the time: Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Parliament's later stuff, early Napalm Death and first Carcass album (I was obviously into fast and hard music but this shit was so rugged and OTT I could barely believe my ears as a kid; it truly made me ''immune'' to abrasion/extremity/ugliness afterwards and set the stage for me getting into stuff like free-jazz and Beefheart with a minimum of effort), Pentangle (the most recent one even if it's been a couple of years now) and some others all come to mind...