Pretending To Like Stuff

[Ted]

I know that a lot of us are grown-ups now and don't do this, but I've been thinking a lot about pretending to like certain music - to appear hip, to impress a girl/boy etc, sometimes just to fit in.

My first thought was how awful it was, should be true to your instincts etc. etc. But the fact is that its one of the key ways that as listeners we get taken outside our comfort zone. I mentioned a while back that I pretended to like the blues because I'd been forced to buy an album. But looking back, there have been very few times that I've heard an unfamiliar style of music where I've just gone "wow". King Sunny Ade and Zydeco maybe. I suppose nothing really sounds completely alien any more. Thanks to WM. There's no need for the painful months/years of pretending until you find out whether you really DO like something. Although I do miss the days of walking the streets with record bags from the right shops(or sometimes, appallingly, albums under the arm).

I suppose none of you has ever pretended to like anything...

[Des]

I pretended I like Mozart for many years.


I pretended I didn't like jazz last year on SOTW.


I pretended I didn't like Blues then found that I didn't not like it.

[Dominic]

As a sales assistant, I do sometimes have to pretend to like things. I never manage it with Radio Tarifa though.

[That Was Jonathan E. Then]

What you don't like Radio Tarifa? That should be in the Confess Your Sins topic!

[Dominic]

I know. I was trying to keep it quiet or my customers won't trust me no more.

[CantSleepClownsWillGetMe]

Dominic confided -

I know. I was trying to keep it quiet or my customers won't trust me no more.

Oh dear Dominic, I feel so ... so .. betrayed!

Anyway, I'm sure nobody noticed. It's been at least an hour since you posted it. Hopefully something else will be at the top of the page now ....

[c hristian]

i for one will never buy anything from dominic ever again. where do you work, dominic? don't say sterns dont say sterns.

[Dominic]

Stern's.

[c hristian]

ouch

[Des]

I think Dominic should write 'rubbish' on the invoice next time I buy a CD from Sterns!

[Ronald]

I can honestly say I have never pretended to like anything I didn't like.

[Dominic]

In 1978 or so I had a crush on a girl from school. My chance to get to know her better came at a party, but when she said that Supertramp was her favourite band, I couldn't pretend I liked them & that was the end of that.

[Paul S]

If that phrase ' get to know her better' is the euphemism I think it is, then you really must have hated Supertramp...

[Dominic]

As I said, it was 1978, not long enough after Punk's Year Zero to forgive Supertramp their crimes against music. Still isn't. I wonder what I'd do now if I were to find myself in a similar position :-)

[Adam Blake]

As I said, it was 1978, not long enough after Punk's Year Zero to forgive Supertramp their crimes against music. Still isn't. I wonder what I'd do now if I were to find myself in a similar position :-)

I was at a teenage party around that time and found myself deep in conversation with a pretty girl. I thought I was on to a winner until she said her favourite band was Barclay James Harvest. It just killed the conversation stone dead. Even in my worst excesses of bad taste, I could never stomach them!