Well, the way I look at it is that you can do two things: you can listen to music for pleasure or you can analyse the crap out of it (isn't there a reason why the word analyse begins with "anal"?)
Personally, I prefer the former.
If someone hates my music taste, fine, **** them. I know what I like, to quote Mr. Gabriel, and that's what I listen to. I'm quite aware that not everyone will like what I do, but that doesn't invalidate my musical choice. If we all listened to the same thing there would be no need for or point in a place like Music Banter. I do take some recommendations here, and generally speaking I pay more attention to the words that recommend than the music --- which is possibly a bit silly, as I could determine, probably, with one press of a "play" key in a few minutes what it might take me ten or twenty to read, but that's how I prefer to do it. However, someone slagging off the music I like might occasionally get a response, but generally I would just think they were entitled to their opinion and leave it at that.
I'm not into deep analysis of music. My reviews are, or try to be, more than just "ooh what a guitar solo" or "this guy can really play the keys", but I don't delve heavily into the
raison d'etre of a band or what their music is symbolic of. I prefer to look at it on a much simpler level. As I think I've stated before, where someone will sneer at band B for being a carbon copy of band A, as long as I like band A and band B sound as good, I really don't care. Most of the time. In fact, once I find a band I like it's gratifying to find another who sound like them: double the pleasure for me. Parodies, or bad copycats, however, are another matter altogether.
I would be, in any case, academically lost in some of the discussions/theories even sometimes treatises put up in various journals here, and I can recognise my limitations. That stuff is way over my head, and all I want to do is slap on my headphones and listen to the music I like, and then tell you why I like it. Or not, as the case may be.
As one of the (many) sections in my journal has it, "keep it simple".
And now, I go back to whatever it is I do...
