The Horka Blog

I have a theory about why my personal tastes in music are so different from those of “professional” music critics.

It all starts with the fact that I know very little musical theory and play very poorly. So when I react to music it is at an emotional level, not an intellectual level. I like the music that has impact on me emotionally. Educated critics spend their whole lives listening to music. Over time they just get bored stiff hearing the same stuff over and over. As soon as they hear anything that is different or unpredictable, they jump on it as the greatest thing since – whatever turns you on. They will latch on to the fact that a piece might be very different, or demonstrate some incredible technical prowess, or other wise separate itself from most other music.

Not me, either I like it (it sounds good to my ear) or I don’t. Because a piece is technically brilliant will not move me to listen to it.

I have a similar cricisim of movie critics. They’ve watched so many movies that the only stuff that turns them on eventually are the oddball movies which are off the beaten track or unpredictable or unusual in some way.