I have this concept called a “music comfort zone.” These music comfort zones are what you’re comfortable with. Something you’ve listened to forever, and most of your music is based on that comfort zone. You listen to everything in that general comfort zone. You don’t like to stray away from it.

I kind of group them in general genres, because most people have a music taste consistent with genre. Metal, pop, Top 40’s, Indie, Classical, Rap/Hiphop, Jazz, etc.

Most people don’t stray away from their comfort zone. My comfort zone used to be metal. I love ALL SORTS of metal. But I absolutely hated anything remotely soft, as I thought it was stupid or something. That was my comfort zone. I didn’t stray away from it. If I heard 5 seconds of something soft, I dropped it. Left it behind. Got rid of it.

This started to change when my girlfriend at the time listened to a lot of indie music, and to kind of get into it to have a musical familiarity with her, I started giving more things a chance. In addition with a friend who listened to a lot of various genres, I got more into classical, jazz, etc. I was becoming cultured.

By about a year later, my musical comfort zone diminished. I have no comfort zone. I guess you can say my comfort zone is indie, but I will give everything a chance. At least 3 songs. And at this point, there’s only one band I truly abhor.(Brokencyde, for those who are curious) But my musical taste is vast now. I give everything a chance now. I can spot all the reasons why someone might hate them or love them. I listen to music before I decide if I’m going to say I dislike them or not.

My band… my band. My band pisses me off sometimes, because most of them have musical comfort zones to an extent. And it causes problems, especially when deciding covers.

I lectured them on that today on our Facebook chat. Of course, I felt like a hipster.

But my general point here is that people need to give all sorts of music a chance. Stray from your comfort zone. Gain a little culture. Take a look at your iTunes or WMP song selection and try to add a variety to it. Wikipedia some genres. Look them up. Gain some interest. Don’t just sit there and listen to one general genre. Believe or not, things outside of your comfort zone can be good. And overall the effects can only be good.

I mean, sure, you can dislike music, but that doesn’t mean everything in that general genre is bad. That’s a terrible misconception. Give different genres a chance. Odds are, there will be things you like, and things you don’t like. But focus on the good. Expand your horizons. Break your comfort zone. Don’t stay so restricted. 

It bothers me when people listen to strictly one genre(like deathcore/metalcore) and say everything else sucks.