Music you are surprised you like

[rumborak]

Might be interesting to talk about. I was driving the other day and this tune came on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vx7MTU-UVE (wait for the break, it's awesome)

The song is kinda ridiculous, but that's partly why I enjoy it.

What songs do you like that are entirely outside your usual taste in music?

[Stadler]

Taylor Swift.  I say that with no irony, no "hipster swag" or anything like that.   I love her last two albums, and while its not like I'm going to go out and stock my cabinets with the latest Selena Gomez and Katy Perry albums, these pop nuggets just seem to satisfy.

Eminem is another one. 

[Crow]

Dream Theater

Though lately that's genuine since i haven't liked the last two albums

[MirrorMask]

The occasional pop song I lhappen to isten for whatever reason and it's suprisingly good, I guess.

Pink's U + Ur Hand, Christina Perri's Jar of Hearts, Lana Del Ray's Gods and Monsters are some examples.

[Phoenix87x]

Rap and hip hop. Hated it as a kid and now its all I listen to, lol

Maybe synthwave as well. I listen to that stuff ALL the time now a days.

[Cool Chris]

Interesting. I have definite interests that are outside my musical wheelhouse and it amazes other people when I say I love disco or techno. But I am not personally surprised by anything I listen to.

[The Walrus]

Pretty much anything outside of metal. Well, I'm not surprised per se, but 10 years ago if you had shown me what I'd be listening to nowadays I'd have reeled in horror at it. Now I've grown up and really just am not angry or upset enough to want loud, heavy music apart from what I grew up loving. I'll sit and listen to pop and new age and folk far more than I'll ever listen to metal or hard rock...

Honestly I'm not surprised by anything. I just want to listen to music that sounds good to me, regardless of genres. That makes finding new music a nightmare (choice paralysis ahoy) but it's worth it to hear a whole variety of genres and styles.

[bosk1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

[Phoenix87x]

Pretty much anything outside of metal. Well, I'm not surprised per se, but 10 years ago if you had shown me what I'd be listening to nowadays I'd have reeled in horror at it. Now I've grown up and really just am not angry or upset enough to want loud, heavy music apart from what I grew up loving.

This is a really good point and describes me as well. Extremely aggressive and angry music really helped me when I was younger, because my ass was breathing fire back in the day. (for a wide range of reasons). Now, at 30 I have my own life and make my own decisions and things are super chill for the most part, so I just don't feel the need to listen to it that much any more.

[Cool Chris]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

I used to be a frequent visitor of WhatCulture on youtube, and when I entered W-H-A-T in the youtube search bar, the first auto-fill result would be "What does the fox say?" I thought that was the most random search query, like it was a legitimate question people would enter in Google. For the longest time I ignored it till one day my curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on that entry and saw that video. And whoa nelly did I regret that decision.

[jasc15]

My wife is a Hanson fan.  I am pretty impressed with their songwriting skills.  Almost all their songs are very well structured and they are experts at writing great melodic hooks.

[JayOctavarium]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

I fuckin' knew you were going to post Friday.

[The Walrus]

Pretty much anything outside of metal. Well, I'm not surprised per se, but 10 years ago if you had shown me what I'd be listening to nowadays I'd have reeled in horror at it. Now I've grown up and really just am not angry or upset enough to want loud, heavy music apart from what I grew up loving.

This is a really good point and describes me as well. Extremely aggressive and angry music really helped me when I was younger, because my ass was breathing fire back in the day. (for a wide range of reasons). Now, at 30 I have my own life and make my own decisions and things are super chill for the most part, so I just don't feel the need to listen to it that much any more.

Haha, I like that, "my ass was breathing fire." Describes me perfectly, too. Now the fire is out, doused by a cool river of post-rock and Enya 

[Adami]

Jinjer.

Hardcore Ukranian band that I absolutely love, but unsure exactly why.

[The Letter M]

Interesting. I have definite interests that are outside my musical wheelhouse and it amazes other people when I say I love disco or techno. But I am not personally surprised by anything I listen to.

Same sentiment. I don't love JUST prog and classic rock. I could say stuff like Daft Punk, Hans Zimmer soundtracks, or Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, and that would surprise OTHER people, but certainly not myself.

Usually, if something surprises me, I end up loving it or hating it, and rarely is there a middle point where I dislike it for awhile and come back to it later and love it, though I suppose Marillion is the one band I could cite that fits that bill - I first heard them not long after I discovered Transatlantic and went to listen to Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings, and Marillion, but of the three, Marillion was the one that I could not get in to for some reason or another (both Fish and H eras). Fast forward a few years and I revisted them and fell in love. Did it surprise me? A little, but not any more, as they have fallen into a field of prog that I enjoy these days (though I don't spin them as much as I used to a few years ago).

Now, if you had asked "what is music you are surprised you don't hate", I'd say musical theatre showtunes. I don't like it outright, as in I don't make a conscious effort to listen to Broadway stuff, but I don't dislike it. During and after college, I drummed for a musical theatre workshop course and they put on a show every Fall semester, either a full single show, or a compilation of songs from various shows to fit a theme, and it was always enjoyable and I liked the songs and music, but outside of those times, I never sought out that kind of music.

-Marc.

[Cool Chris]

Now, if you had asked "what is music you are surprised you don't hate", I'd say musical theatre showtunes.

My wife's head explodes on those infrequent occasions I break out in a song from Cabaret or My Fair Lady. I don't make any effort to listen to musical theater, but I often find myself enjoying the music when I do.

[The Letter M]

Now, if you had asked "what is music you are surprised you don't hate", I'd say musical theatre showtunes.

My wife's head explodes on those infrequent occasions I break out in a song from Cabaret or My Fair Lady. I don't make any effort to listen to musical theater, but I often find myself enjoying the music when I do.

While I don't go THAT far, I at least find myself drumming along to those tunes whenever I heard them, because there's probably a 50/50 chance I've played that song before.

-Marc.

[Fritzinger]

This might disqualify me for many people here
But I actually find this song pretty cool in a VERY strange way.........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVj0ZTS4WF4

It's so unbelievably ridiculous, but at the same time it's sung incredibly well
I mean, I know a lot of good singers and I don't think any of them could pull this off.

Ok, I'll hide in my cave now

[LordCost]

Last week I discovered the album 666 International by Dodheimsgard and I think it's really good. I didn't expect to like an industrial black metal album honestly

[rumborak]

Randomly Google Music showed "The Summoning: With Doom We Come" and I listened to it. Total doom metal, but strangely I enjoyed it.

https://summoning.bandcamp.com/album/with-doom-we-come

[JayOctavarium]

This might disqualify me for many people here
But I actually find this song pretty cool in a VERY strange way.........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVj0ZTS4WF4

It's so unbelievably ridiculous, but at the same time it's sung incredibly well
I mean, I know a lot of good singers and I don't think any of them could pull this off.

Ok, I'll hide in my cave now

I...

umm












































































































wat

[wolfking]

This might disqualify me for many people here
But I actually find this song pretty cool in a VERY strange way.........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVj0ZTS4WF4

It's so unbelievably ridiculous, but at the same time it's sung incredibly well
I mean, I know a lot of good singers and I don't think any of them could pull this off.

Ok, I'll hide in my cave now

I love how this prick doesn't even have a name.

[Fritzinger]

I TOLD YOU GUYS 

Seriously though, it's not like I put this song on to listen to it. But a friend tagged me under the video on Facebook (the video is huuuge here in Europe, I see it every two days somewhere on FB) and I couldn't get the melody out of my head. And you have to admit that what he is doing is not that easy

Ok, I should probably just stop right here, because every other person I told this to reacted this way 

[King Postwhore]

My wife is a Hanson fan.  I am pretty impressed with their songwriting skills.  Almost all their songs are very well structured and they are experts at writing great melodic hooks.

same here.  I saw them in 2010 and they we very talented live.  Their last 3 studio albums minus the Christmas album are very mature.

[Cool Chris]

Cool Chris Prediction, Chandra Brambra Chandra Chandra Bendram will become this year's Whahíbrido Pickingant

[Accelerando]

I'm not a country fan by any means, especially country music nowadays (Bro-country is the current thing now?), but I try to keep a good open mind about it

However, this fella, Drake White, is the real deal. I love his voice, and this particular song is very, very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTBQ05KuaZE

This might disqualify me for many people here
But I actually find this song pretty cool in a VERY strange way.........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVj0ZTS4WF4

It's so unbelievably ridiculous, but at the same time it's sung incredibly well
I mean, I know a lot of good singers and I don't think any of them could pull this off.

Ok, I'll hide in my cave now

Vitas!!! This guy is weird and crazy but has an insanely good voice

[Anguyen92]

Well, country is not really my kind of thing, but I really do like Zac Brown Band (they got great harmonies in their vocals). 

Also, one band that I surprisingly like is Owl City.  I heard about Adam Young's one man band back around 2015 when I was listening to a song of his for my "Technological advances of music class."  The song was called Fireflies (his most popular song) and it was pretty darn catchy and what I liked about it was that it had that sense of childlike innocence and purity in the music and lyrics.  Owl City is also known for that song with Carly Rae Jepsen, Good Time.  Man, you talk about that feel good summer hit.  That song that gets plugged a lot in commercials.  That song was it.  It had a good beat and all, but the chorus is so dang annoying.

Still, Owl City has a fair amount of songs I enjoy a lot.  I really enjoyed Vanilla Twilight, Dementia (had Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 on vocals), Not All Heroes Wear Capes (it is just a very lovely laid back rock song that is praises his dad), Up All Night, and Beautiful Times (had Lindsey Stirling in violins, who is another artist that I did not expect to like).

I may also get into this Youtube music Channel, Monstercat, that I see a lot of Twitch Streamers use as background music during their streams (so that their VODs do not get muted due to copyright music).  I heard a few tracks from that channel and I like what I hear from it and it's not really something that I thought I would like.

[wolfking]

Vitas!!! This guy is weird and crazy but has an insanely good voice

I feel this guy and song deserves its own thread.

[Cyclopssss]

J-Rock. Really. There's so damn much to explore!

[SystematicThought]

Some rap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEJ2b6IaGWU
It's catchy, especially that bass line

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsWsmH2d_Qg
I like the music behind it. It kinda has a horror vibe to me, it's driving and constant. The B-side is an instrumental track of the song, so they must have realized the strength of the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AYY4EqFBWM
Classic. And I can play it on keys 
______________________________________
Love me some Django Reinhardt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpmOTGungnA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNRHHRjep3E

It just sounds so cool. I can just imagine myself in a club in France in the 1930s hearing this guy play. He's amazing. His unique playing came as a result of his handicap in which, after he fire, he could only play using his thumb and two fingers- index and middle finger. To me, his music is timeless

[Polarbear]

As a young metalhead, i couldn't have imagined that i'd listen to more pop than metal nowadays.

Everyone who hasn't yet, should try CHVRCHES! Really great stuff, not your average pop music..

Also a lot of Electronic music from the 80's.

[The Curious Orange]

Now, if you had asked "what is music you are surprised you don't hate", I'd say musical theatre showtunes.

My wife's head explodes on those infrequent occasions I break out in a song from Cabaret or My Fair Lady. I don't make any effort to listen to musical theater, but I often find myself enjoying the music when I do.

Snap. We have this guy over here in the UK called Jonathan Wilson who tours with a 70 piece orchestra basically playing show tunes (don't know if he's made it over to the US or not). I've been to see him every year for the last few years and people who know my taste in music are often amazed. He performs at the BBC Proms every year, lots of clips on YouTube. This year he did a full concert performance of Oklahoma! which was truly stunning. Those old songs, Rogers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Gershwin, Irving Berlin - there's nothing quite like them.

But to me, it's not a surprise. I love prog music and I love concept albums. There's a clear linear progression from Opera through Gilbert and Sullivan to Rogers & Hammerstein musicals to 60s rock musicals like Hair and Godspell to rock operas like Tommy, The Wall and The Astonishing.

Don't get me wrong, rock music is at its best with guitar/bass/drums, 3 chords and 3 minutes. But most of the time I wanna listen to something a bit more challenging. Something with a story...

[Fritzinger]

Now, if you had asked "what is music you are surprised you don't hate", I'd say musical theatre showtunes.

My wife's head explodes on those infrequent occasions I break out in a song from Cabaret or My Fair Lady. I don't make any effort to listen to musical theater, but I often find myself enjoying the music when I do.

Snap. We have this guy over here in the UK called Jonathan Wilson who tours with a 70 piece orchestra basically playing show tunes (don't know if he's made it over to the US or not). I've been to see him every year for the last few years and people who know my taste in music are often amazed. He performs at the BBC Proms every year, lots of clips on YouTube. This year he did a full concert performance of Oklahoma! which was truly stunning. Those old songs, Rogers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Gershwin, Irving Berlin - there's nothing quite like them.

But to me, it's not a surprise. I love prog music and I love concept albums. There's a clear linear progression from Opera to Gilbert and Sullivan to Rogers & Hammerstein musicals to 60s rock musicals like Hair and Godspell to rock operas like Tommy, The Wall and The Astonishing.

Don't get me wrong, rock music is at its best with guitar/bass/drums, 3 chords and 3 minutes. But most of the time I wanna listen to something a bit more challenging. Something with a story...

I love a lot of compositions by Kern, Rogers, Hammerstein II etc.! Many of their songs became Jazz standards as well. Which proves the great potential their music had (has). It works in many different styles and arrangements.

[Kwyjibo]

I'm never surprised what music I like, but I'm often surprised what music others like. 

[PixelDream]

Janelle Monae's Electric Lady album. It's modern R&B, but then again it IS a sci-fi influenced concept album with musically lots of cues from Prince, Stevie Wonder etcetera. Really good stuff musically, but vocally she's very modern sounding like Beyoncé. Yeah.. that's what I'd describe her like: Beyoncé, but way proggier.