Radiohead....emo?

[likedylan88]

Alright, so my friend is moving away for the summer in the morning, so we did one last epic burn cruise as a farewell. We somehow got into a discussion of best bands of all time, and I threw Radiohead into the conversation, which he shot down immediately.

So, I played him 5 Radiohead songs to try and change his mind. I chose what I believed were good starters, a little OK Computer with "Paranoid Android", "Let Down", and "Karma Police", as well as some of The Bends, ie, "Just", "My Iron Lung", and "Street Spirit".

After these songs were completed, he immediately reached for the dial and changed it, claiming it was horrible music, and calling it "emo trash" and "synthesized techno rubbish". I have no problem with people not liking bands I enjoy, but I found this assessment of one of my favorite bands to be very short sighted and downright incorrect.

Was this perhaps due to my choice in introductory songs to the Radiohead catalog, or is it just a case of differing taste in music?

[mikeyskywalker]

Sounds like someone's too cool for Radiohead.

[SquishypuffDave]

Perhaps telling us what music he does like would be helpful in understanding his condition.

...and by the way, synthesized techno rubbish? WTF? My only theory is he'd previously heard Kid A, didn't like it, and didn't actually listen to anything you'd just played.

[likedylan88]

His favorite bands are moe, Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, RHCP, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc.

[cartoken]

he's just into old classic rock apparently, and may be one of the puritan rock lovers who never followed and liked the introduction of the synth/electro sounds ...... or he's just a dumbass (in music.....hihi)

[Mr. Shankly]

It's funny how the terms "classic rock" and "emo"have been bandied about so much of late.

Have you tried The White Stripes? Based on the list you gave us, it seems like a band he might like. He might like The Hold Steady too.

[Freddie55]

[Kiki]

Has a least one person in the world linked this "emo" tagging to some Brave New World conspiracy theory... ever? I'm not saying I believe it but what if someone somewhere used this phenomenon as a way of attaching a stigma to all music with emotion.

[Charicature]

First of all, Radiohead was part of the "shoegazer" scene and predated "emo" by a decade.

Secondly, yes - many people never took to the whole synth thing. You'll notice though that very few musicians that didn't adopt some aspect of synth in their sound are still all that popular. It's a completely different type of music from classic rock, so people who are limited in their appreciation of music in general who are fans of guitar and/or drum-driven rock would not like them. And don't think you're better than them - many people who like synth-driven music don't appreciate other styles of music, either.

The thing is, both synth and traditional instrument music requires most of the same conventions when composing music, and both have their challenges to learn and master.

That said, your friend clearly knows nothing of music and wasn't really listening to the music you played, since Bends is guitar-driven rock with real drums whereas OK Computer was mostly synth, so to label it all the same shows he had an opinion that can't be changed by fact. He's not going to be reasonable on this topic, and if you were to try to argue with him he'd give you an answer along the lines of "I like what I like".
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[videoheadcleaner]