Blarobbarg

Howdy all, I've had this thread idea bumping around in my head for awhile and decided to go ahead and throw it out there. If it crashes and burns... oh well.

The general idea of this is having a musical topic and everyone coming in and putting down, once and for all, your official stance on whatever it may be. Maybe just have a topic for a week or so and then move on to the next.

So start throwing out suggestions on topics, and I'll compile a list for us to vote on. The list will remain the same, new topics can be added to it, and once we're done with a discussion old topics will be thrown out.

My official topic suggestion is listening to music while eating.

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Paedantic Basterd

I don't feel strongly opposed or in favour of eating to music.

Final answer.

Guybrush

If we're to converse and stuff during dinner (f.ex), then I'd rather not listen to music that I feel demands a lot of attention, like most black metal for example. Some lovely jazz in the background can be just fine.

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Something Completely Different

Janszoon

I don't personally think black metal demands any more attention than jazz—in fact I'd probably argue the reverse—but the image of some kind of formal dinner with black metal in the background does make me giggle.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Guybrush

Although there are certainly a lot of demanding jazz out there, I feel (to me) it is much harder to mentally "filter out" black metal than it is some laid back be-bop or modal jazz. Instead of being something I actively listen to, it provides a pleasant background setting of sorts. Black metal on the other hand would be harder to ignore and I would likely find it more distracting. That's what I mean by demanding attention.

People are different too so others might feel different. I have a lot of friends who I suspect would find even laid back modal jazz to be attention grabbing and annoying.

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Something Completely Different

cledussnow

I agree. A lot of Jazz would be a nice backdrop to dinner. Black Metal would be distracting to me.

Blarobbarg

Well, I guess we'll be discussing this then! Haha.

I enjoy music when eating by myself... which happens a lot. Anything is fine, but it ends up being a whole of jazz, simply because I listen to jazz most of the time. And yes, I've listened to black metal while eating... though I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, mostly because I just don't like most black metal.

When eating with a group, I really, really don't like listening to music, perhaps with the exception of solo piano music or soft classical. Music is typically just too attention grabbing to me, and if I'm listening to it, I'll talk about it. Typically nobody I would be eating with wants to talk about music the whole time we eat.

Although, yes, the idea of Behemoth blasting while at a formal, wine-and-dine sort of thing... sounds hilarious.

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Trollheart

Didn't someone once have an album called "Eat to the beat"? Blondie, I think...

Seriously, I always (and I mean always, at least when at home, which is, well, always) watch TV when eating. I occasionally watch music programmes, but usually not. I feel it's unlikely I'd listen to music while eating, as I prefer to relax when listening to music, and eating is a thing you have to do. Of course, the other side of that is that I tend to listen to music when doing most other things, including doing the dishes, ironing (yeah, right!), washing my hair (what there is of it!), mowing the garden (did you just hear a cat shriek?) and so on, so why not eating?

Not sure. I'm not totally opposed to it, but I just generally don't do it. Then again, when I did work, if the radio was on in the office I wouldn't leap up and switch it off, though I do hate today's radio so if everyone else went out and left the radio on I would turn it off. Course, then I might put my mp3 player on. But then you can't hear the phones. I'm rambling. Quelle surprise!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Mrd00d

Firstly, excellent thread Blarobbarg, this could be a thread of the year if the interest increases, which I can see happening.

To the topic of eating and listening to music:

If it were up to me, the answer would be always. I used to be an absolute loner and I would have no trouble going from wakeup to bed listening to music. All day: making coffee, breakfast, surfing the web, shower, walk to work, during work, walk home from work, dinner, smoking pot/drinking, while I'm falling asleep, while I'm sleeping, etc. I ran my computer's music library for 3 days without turning it off once. That was a 'weekend' where I didn't leave the house. Otherwise I switch to the mp3 player. And at work, I'd bring my speakers.

But to be more specific, when I'm with my current house-mates, one dude adamantly disagrees with my infatuation with music. I don't know if he's jealous of how much joy it brings me or what (because I don't necessarily try to impose it on anyone), but he's brought up to me how he thinks it's ridiculous that I want to listen to music 24/7 or even 16/7 or even 8/7. He's got an ipod with... 9 artists on it and hasn't added or removed anything in all the years he's had it <to give you a picture of dude, he's got a decent mix of Beatles, Led Zeppelin, pirate rappers Captain Dan, rapper Busdriver, Metallica, and 2-4 others I can't recall. If that was my musical selection, pssh, yeah, I wouldn't be able to listen to music for more than an hour or two a week either hahaha.

So when I'm alone, I listen everywhere all the time. It's part of the reason I want to have my own little pad. Being around other people, even strangers, I will attempt the idea - finding what kind of music they like, finding something similar in my library, turn the volume from 80-100% down to 10-40%, and see how they react. I'm finding unless you're a music fanatic, even if it's a band they're into, or a genre they're into, it's not doing them any favors and it's not doing me any particular joy because I can think of something I'd rather hear, so it's almost a total loss.
Other times, I'll try to put in some jazz, as recommended earlier, or ambient/psybient/chillout electronic, but at least with the one guy I have in mind that I live with, he literally would rather have silence than music. If we aren't having a conversation, my idea is okay, music.... and his idea is, ahh, peace and quiet.

So it depends. I need to associate myself with more music fanatics. It's not just a preference with me. If, even in the limited example of eating dinner for example, we are going to sit in silence I feel like I'm wasting time I could be using listening to tunes. It's not neutral for me. If there's nothing going on, and you'd still rather no music, I might as well go get my mp3 player. And if I need to do that, the chance of a conversation arising at that point is pretty much null. At least if we had something mellow going on in the background we could talk if we thought of something.

I need to be more concise, but the 'too long; didn't read' is yes, I love listening to music while eating to the point where if I don't get to hear some good tunes it will ruin my meal (or I'll scarf **** down just to finish faster so I can get back to tunes).

As a P.S., I noted the 'it depends on if its jazz or death metal or what'. I would understand if people around me felt distracted or uncomfortable eating while listening to something technical or abrasive, I guess, but I can't understand the 'if there's noise coming out of the speakers, I can't concentrate on putting the fork in my mouth' argument (especially if the volume is lowered drastically). Would I want to eat a meal with Linkin Park or Borgore or Katy Perry or Ministry or something I don't typically listen to? Probably not. I'd probably want to change it, get my headphones, or move.

This reminds me of a conversation we had somewhere else on the board about clubs/bars and the music played therein, where I was arguing if I go to a bar and everyone's having a great time but they're listening to like... Kanye West or Black Eyed Peas or some ish, I'm going to leave and go find the nearly empty dive bar with the jukebox that's not being used with the vagrant ****housed drooling on himself in the corner.

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Mrd00d's Last.fm

Blarobbarg

Thanks Mr! That really means a lot!

And wow, sounds like you need a new room mate. If you can't get along on something as basic as that a change is needed!

I used to be the same way, I could listen to music literally all the time, including when I slept. I actually forced myself to take a break and get used to silence, because, like you, I was beginning to annoy people around me. Now I still want to listen most of the time, but a bit of quiet is okay. For instance, I've been listening to music all day at work and I just came home, and I'm not listening to anything. Interestingly, I'm also eating.

Now, people need to send me some suggestions for the next topic! I have one if nobody suggests anything, but I'd like some participation!

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