I suppose people would call my tastes fairly narrow, because they are more or less confined to 'classical' music, though eclectic within that. I've always tended to put this down to my background and generation, but if Salymap listened to John Peel then I am obviously wrong! I was a child in the 40s, a teenager in the 50s. Until I was perhaps fourteen I heard very little 'popular' music. There was virtually none at home or school. I vaguely knew some songs from Disney films like Snow White and The Wizard of Oz (though I was never taken to the films) and my grandfather had some Paul Robeson records. Everything else was 'classical' or sometimes folk song. My father liked French popular music (Edith Piaf, Jean Sablon), so I suppose I knew some of that.
In my teenage years I was aware that some people at school listened to Radio Luxembourg, but I never did. I quite liked Harry Belafonte, but Bill Haley I found absurd (his followers still more so) and Elvis Presley repelled me - still does. I don't think I felt snobbish about pop and rock (well, perhaps a bit - my parents certainly did), but I regarded them as a separate world that simply didn't concern me. My friends shared my tastes, and I didn't feel at all left out.
By the 60s I was so immersed in the classical world, particularly singing, that the pop scene largely passed me by. I was aware of the Beatles, of course, but pretty much unaffected by them - though I did buy the EP of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields, because I knew the places.
It still surprises me that anyone can listen to Elvis Presley and Schubert lieder - if anyone does. I don't really understand why Presley doesn't hurt their ears. I also think that 'wide tastes', fashionable at the moment, can just indicate lack of judgement sometimes. It's not always a virtue. (And talking of hurting ears, my brother played in a jazz band that sometimes rehearsed at our house, so I didn't like jazz either!)
There is so much 'classical' music - I still have many gaps in my knowledge of it although I've been listening and performing it for very many years. I simply don't have time for everything!
EDIT: I should add that by 'folk song' I don't mean the real thing, which I hadn't experienced. I mean folk songs as sung at school from the National Songbook, or on the radio by Peter Pears or Kathleen Ferrier.
In my teenage years I was aware that some people at school listened to Radio Luxembourg, but I never did. I quite liked Harry Belafonte, but Bill Haley I found absurd (his followers still more so) and Elvis Presley repelled me - still does. I don't think I felt snobbish about pop and rock (well, perhaps a bit - my parents certainly did), but I regarded them as a separate world that simply didn't concern me. My friends shared my tastes, and I didn't feel at all left out.
By the 60s I was so immersed in the classical world, particularly singing, that the pop scene largely passed me by. I was aware of the Beatles, of course, but pretty much unaffected by them - though I did buy the EP of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields, because I knew the places.
It still surprises me that anyone can listen to Elvis Presley and Schubert lieder - if anyone does. I don't really understand why Presley doesn't hurt their ears. I also think that 'wide tastes', fashionable at the moment, can just indicate lack of judgement sometimes. It's not always a virtue. (And talking of hurting ears, my brother played in a jazz band that sometimes rehearsed at our house, so I didn't like jazz either!)
There is so much 'classical' music - I still have many gaps in my knowledge of it although I've been listening and performing it for very many years. I simply don't have time for everything!
EDIT: I should add that by 'folk song' I don't mean the real thing, which I hadn't experienced. I mean folk songs as sung at school from the National Songbook, or on the radio by Peter Pears or Kathleen Ferrier.
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