>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 definitely understand what you're saying here and often feel very similar... for me, it's not about liking or disliking the music, but instead finding something unique/interesting to pull me in. This is often theory-ish ("wow, that chord progression is crazy but it works"), or else it frequently has something to do with the arrangement and can often be isolated to just one or two elements (a drum track, a bass line, whatever).

That being said, that hook is often what then becomes enjoyment (if that makes any sense). At some point the closer listening falls away and allows a bit more of an emotional connection to be made. The whole song can start to sound different at that point.

It's one of the reasons I rarely feel inclined to say I dislike something. Something either grabs me or it doesn't, and from grabbing me it evolves into something else.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~