Well actually no, I don't. That's just me playing with the title of a song that expresses the opposite sentiment. I'm pontificating on my musical tastes in a journal post rather than explain it in the limited space allocated for musical tastes in the artist profile. Note that I'm not a real music aficionado--indeed, the only concerts I've ever been to were "Weird Al" ones.

I see a fair number of artists in venues like this expressing their taste in music. As expected from this relativley young audience, most of it leans toward rock/metal/techno and similar youth-slanting genres. Another category of music noteworthy of its inclusion in these categories is rap/hip-hop/R&B. Noteworthy not because they're popular categories (they're not), but because of the number of artists who feel compelled to single these out as a specific target of *dislike*, above all others.

Now I'd like to think this is largely due to equating what is probably "indifference" to the terms "dislike" or "hate". For example, I'm *indifferent* to rock and heavy metal. I don't *hate* these genres, but I don't go out of my way to listen to them either. Now, probably as a result of my devotion to novelty songs and song parodies, there are a few examples of practically every genre (including rock, metal and yes, even country or classical) that I'd listen to a second time, or even punch the "record" button on my MP3/FM recorder if I knew they were about to come on the radio. I even bought Daft Punk's "Discovery', and dug the tunes the Chemical Brothers included in the Flash game on their site. For that matter, I also listen to the dance/disco station "Chrome" on XM satellite radio, so you know my tastes aren't particularly discriminating.

I was inspired to write this out by a recent (1/18) bit on the satellite-radio "Opie & Anthony Show" that got into a discussion about country music, and they made a game of attempts to predict the content of the top ten country songs by their titles. Comedian Patrice O'Neil (appearing as a guest) made a comment to the effect that he could see where many folks saw all rap and R/B songs sounded the same, since up to the point where this bit took place, he felt the same about country music, that they all sounded the same until he had an opportunity to examine their lyrics. Naturally, I could see this animating the viewpoints of so many artists who feel compelled to single out prominent urban music genres as targets of specific dislike. As if these same artists wouldn't be driven buggy by having to listen to classical, or country, or whatever their parents listen to. (Of course they would, who are we kidding?)

So where does this concern me? Before +watching an artist, I'll often look at their profile. And when I see that they've singled out urban-themed genres as something they specifically dislike, I admit to being less than comfortable adding them to my watchlist. Now, I don't count myself as a "fan" of rap/hip-hop/R&B (in fact I can point to many examples of each that make me get up and change the station), but I listen to *some* of them. And the thought of establishing some kind of contact with another artist who might take offense to the fact that I like *some* of this stuff is an uncertainty I can do without.

Now, I was going to let this post languish on a thumb drive, because I thought after I wrote it, that it wasn't such a big deal after all, that what was most likely a mis-stated lack of interest in a musical genre was nothing to be concerned about. ViVa la difference and all that right? Nothing to clutter up my journal with a long-winded post, right?

Now I'm not so sure.

On another artist community I joined recently (who will remain nameless--but some of its participants post here and they'll know who/what I'm talking about if they read this), there is a paint-chat hosted by one of the senior members and linked to through a dedicated forum thread. When you log into the chat. it pulls up a history of previous drawing and chat activity that went on during that particular session. So you can watch the pictures form as they were drawn, as well as see the comments that went on before you logged in. On this particular night this week, I logged in and was treated to a nasty, venomous rant by the paintchat host. How nasty? lines like "I HATE black slang", "I HATE black culture", and a number of other incendiary statements aimed at African-Americans that told me he had probably butted heads with some black militants, because they often spout combustible rhetoric on subjects that coincided with the other things he was screaming about, like reparations and denial of reverse racism and the like. Nevertheless, this *seriously* creeped me out, because if you hadn't figured this out yet, I happen to *be* black. And when you trash an entire group of people without even insinuating that you're talking about one sub-culture among many within it, then it's a pretty good indicator that you're casting a wide net on purpose. I felt physically queasy for a full two days after I abruptly dropped out of the paintchat, and I was all set to delete all the artwork I had posted in the site forum and never return, when I was reminded that the paintchat wasn't an official part of the artsite and wasn't under the control of the site admins. So for that reason alone I'm not deleting my posting account there. But it will be a while before I visit the paintchat again, if ever. And I've little enthusiasm for participating in the site forum, even though I know that the admins wouldn't have condoned the diatribe that made me lose interest in their site.

So now I have at least a somewhat plausible reason to think twice before +fav-ing or +watch-ing you if you've stated in your profile that you *specifically* dislike urban music genres. No offense intended.

And I still don't *hate* rock.