Forums » Smalltalk » Gush about your favorite music genres here

Hi! I haven't been here long enough to see much in the Smalltalk Forum, so I hope this is the right place to put this.

I wanted to make a thread for people to talk about their favorite musical genres, why they like them, and discuss other people's favorites and so on. Obviously, be nice! Art is subjective and people can like what they like! However, you can feel free to ask people more about what they see in niche genres. Like, I get that some people don't get death metal...but I love it! Just be discussion oriented and chill.

Also, feel free to ramble as much as you want. Be self indulgent. Or be succinct! I don't care! You can talk about falling out of love with genres, too! That's always sad.

Anyway, I would say that my top music genres, at the moment, are:

• Death metal (especially tech death)
  When I moved in with my husband, I hadn't really been able to stomach extreme metal lyrics. It always gave me headaches and I couldn't stand it. But now that I've gotten over my preconceptions about it, I can really appreciate the artistry! Some lyrics just need that extra punch to communicate, and death metal as a whole is just perfect for where my brain is at a lot of the time. It's always so overwhelming and I love it!!! It really helps me focus! I actually won't list my favorite bands publicly, because a lot of their lyrics are pretty violent, and I don't want to send people unknowingly into that. (If you do want more recs, DM me!) But The Ritual Aura is awesome, they have an album about Morrowind called Velothi that I would consider pretty accessible for death metal noobs. I'm still kind of a noob, I've only been listening to extreme metal for a year and a half or so! But I think it's awesome!
• Shoegaze (/dreampop/whatever, I do not care)
  Ahhh...shoegaze...I don't have as much to say about it, but the kind of droning hypnotic effect always speaks to something in me, I don't know! It's similar with doom metal, sometimes, too. But shoegaze can be so easy to listen to at times, and then so jarring and dissonant and NOISY other times, it's really interesting to me! I love the distortion. Um, I think what counts as shoegaze is pretty vague? So these may not all be shoegaze bands, technically. Some are dreampop or whatever else. But my favorites in this general genre include Piano Magic (Low Birth Weight is my go-to feeling bad album, lol), Pale Saints, Lush, and...like...earlier Blonde Redhead. Their 2004 album and earlier. I don't like their later stuff!
• and...um...I don't know, I thought I had a third one? I listen to a lot of other metal, especially prog lately, but I guess you're off the hook from my rambling now, because I don't really have as much to say about the other ones, haha!

Anyway, feel free to reply with your favorite genres! You can be as niche and specific as you want, or as vague and broad as "rock" if that's how you feel. Whatever!

lmao yall aint ready for my eccentric, somewhat obscure music tastes. hand me the aux cord and you’ll regret it in seconds



i also have an indie/acoustic psychedelic folk lore list but i think for the sanity of everyone involved i'll stop here

My music tastes are all over the place.

Though I've mostly been listening to trance recently, because it fits well with the Star Wars books I've been reading.


In fact, when it came to music, trance was my first love. Though my childhood got kinda dominated by the stuff my parents preferred to listen to, so I didn't get as much trance as I'd have liked. Mostly, from my parents, I came away with a fondness for Coldplay and Keane, though I've kinda got bored of Coldplay recently. Mostly because I've enjoyed Coldplay enough to get their whole discography as it was released... aaaaand then Everyday Life came out. And I really did not like it. Which kinda put me off. Still love Keane, though.

From what little metal I had been allowed to hear during my childhood though, I quickly developed a fondness for that particular genre; and when a friend introduced me to his music collection, metal became the main part of my music preferences well up until a few years ago when I stopped listening to music as frequently (mostly due to less travel and a new fondness for D&D game podcasts, changing how I dedicated my listening time). Nowadays, I listen more to music that fits with what I'm doing. Of course, whilst that friend mostly shared metalcore and thrash metal and the like with me, I developed my own taste off the back of that, largely delving into black metal, doom metal, avant-garde metal and symphonic death metal.


I also went through a J-rock/metal phase. Largely dominated by Dir en grey, though musically I preferred their earlier work (which is thematic problematic in the current climate, due to some of the songs being about abortion, so I haven't really been all that comfortable with revisiting it lately for obvious reasons... I understand the cultural reasoning and Japan's issues, at least at the time those themes were common in their work, but that doesn't make it any more comfortable listen to, even if my Japanese is poor at best).


Nowadays, my tastes are a lot more eclectic. My favourite songs are listed on my profile. Though some notable bands I like who didn't quite reach my top 10 include Nightwish, Bloc Party, Pink Bomb, Netherbird, ODESZA, Radiohead, System of a Down, Savlonic, The HU, 2814 and Matenrou Opera.