I can only guess at the reasons for this, but through much of my childhood I was forced into a state of duality or multiplicity. My parents went through a messy and rather acrimonious divorce when I was 4, something that I was very much involved in, and I spent a lot of my time between two households. I went to a strict private school which promoted multiple religious virtues, chiefly Hinduism and Christianity, so while on the one hand I was learning Sanskrit prayers I was also singing Western classical music in the choir and learning to play it on the piano, so from an early age I was taught of the benefits of multiculturalism both spirituality and musically.

I spent a lot of my time in churches since my form master was obsessed with English history, I learned about English ecclesiastical history and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms whilst also having a brother who introduced me to sci-fi and horror at home. If you meld a lot of those things together you get what one can essentially call on the one hand an interest in the Gothic - darkly extravagant culture which is more classically elevated than other forms of modern dark [sub]culturalism such as punk - and the 'metal' world, which has a more gritty, primal and at times historic/medieval focus in its imagery. My wife once said to me that in spite of everything that I was exposed to from a young age I ended up "surprisingly sane".

The Gothic/metal communities were the perfect subculture[s] for someone of such an upbringing to explore, appreciation of the dualism of light and dark, of the elevated and the bestial, of high spirituality and horror, of musical proficiency/virtuosity vs raw emotion. Listening to such music was also attractive because it was abject, something I was told to avoid at school but which became increasingly alluring because it felt familiar in some way. Hinduism constantly spoke of the cyclical nature of creation, of the Kali Yuga, whereas Dennis Wheatley in his introduction to his book The Devil and all his Works mentions how light and darkness both need each other in order to form a point of balance which creation works within [also ref. Alan Watts]. Everything is about duality but also about challenging convention to order to proceed. Then, in my early 20s, when I discovered bands like After Forever I felt the nail had been hit perfectly on the head - clean [at times operatic] vocals, complex string orchestration with a dark, sensuous feel and heavy guitars. It made total sense.

As a result I find it highly limiting to only have an appreciation of one style of music. The one theme that permeates all my music listening is that most of the music is dark, melancholic or intellectually challenging in some way. Take Radiohead as just one example: creative, educated musicians who constantly experiment and push boundaries. Even their songs in major keys feel rather dark, the 'major' is just a smokescreen for the minor, and you'll see a lot of their songs change from, say, a C major to a C minor one chord after another with the minor being the more natural feel, it always wins out. I always felt that entropy is the natural state of the universe since, if unmaintained, everything has a tendency to deteriorate, but the instinctive human mindset is that of survival, and again, we see those two states working against one another in permanence.

We tend to listen to music which reflects who we are and mirrors our identity, or parts of it. Really, for me, music listening is a constant expedition to find out who I am and to immerse myself in companionable sounds which put me into an almost spiritual - and maybe regressive - state with something deeper and darker with which I identify. I absolutely hate being disturbed when listening to music since listening to music is like meditation, it's about absorption, being in an alternate state of consciousness which effects self-discovery and self-understanding. Metal music, classical, jazz, dark ambient, electronica, even pop, are just different peoples' interpretations of similar emotions expressed through the lens of alternate [and alternative] interests, abilities and influence, but the underlying feeling is what we all relate to. It's enjoyable to see these feelings expressed in different ways, it goes one step further to helping us understand the complexity of emotions we so often experience in reaction to the world around us.

Well Lysander thank you for that as it is both fascinating and perfectly On Topic for this thread. It seems to me to flesh out each and every important poll option. Nice.

You're welcome, and that's a nice way of looking at it.

NP: Machinedrum - Room(s)

A Masterpiece:
José González - In Our Nature (album playlist)

Molly Tuttle - "Take The Journey"

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

Radiohead - Kid A

I remember listening to this when it came out and being fascinated by it. Now, 20 years later, it is still innovative, dark, twisted, emotional and surprising. Hard to choose between this and OK Computer, they're both phenomenal.

Two amazingly beautiful ends of the spectrum....

As raw as it gets... right down on the dirt floor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm8B...ature=youtu.be

Jazz is like where it's at, Man. It's like there, Man. It... it...it... but I mean Jazz!


https://youtu.be/AnZjhc3005k

So much said between ^those^ its:::
https://youtu.be/7HUL5xevK1I
The Record Company - The Movie Song (Lyric Video) from All Of This Life

same here.
I heard it on the radio, or maybe the teenage kid of a friend used to listen to it.
I then went to the MegaMart and bought the album. I was amazed that they had such cool, weird music in stock.
Then I've been listening to it on repeat for - weeks, I guess.

You might be interested in this. Free download! And it's very good; I even like some versions better than the originals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeADaAg0f_w

Y.M.C.A. by Village People

Just been stuck in my head for a while now.

this is good, that 27 string guitar sounds amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo5mvTfYSQY

Excellent - didn't know this existed. I'll definitely give it a listen, thank you so much.

NP: Rainer Veil - New Brutalism

Excellent EP. These people are probably the most exciting project I've come across this year. Fascinating and varied garage/ambient techno done with heart and conviction.

Behemoth: Ov Fire and the Void, off the Evangelion CD.

I listen to Bach (and other composers).

The 'C Major Prelude."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA1MyWlosbU

Vivaldi the way he was meant to sound....
Avi Avital plays Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto in C Major | The 8th Osaka International Mandolin Fes..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OJ0bsyIryc