What is the most disliked genre of music?
The subjectivity of art is what makes it so beautiful. Music retains its relevance, not because of bands like The Beatles, but because of how divisive it can be. If you speak to anybody claiming to be a music lover, it’s more than likely that they will have genres they adore and despise. They are right on both counts and wrong on both counts. The art form speaks to us all in different ways; as such, there is no such thing as one genre being worse than another and vice versa. There is, however, as is the case with all subjective things, the law of averages.
Ever since people have had the capacity to hum a tune or whistle a melody, there has been preference. As music develops and the instruments used to make it change, and the meaning that can be embedded within music evolves, so too do our preferences towards it. What was once used as a form of praise and worship became something of a leisure activity, which then became something emotional and heartfelt, and in the modern age, it exists as a bundle of all of the above.
In the face of evolving musical meanings, we are given different genres. Thanks to the technology available to us, genres have such distinct styles that one end of music is so different from another that you would be surprised they are a part of the same art form. Pair noise with pop, black metal with country, and you realise just how much separate different genres.
In the modern age, genres overlap a lot more than they used to. Jazz and hip hop have formed their own successful subgenres; modern punk bands incorporate metal, ska, and reggae, while Vampire Weekend’s most recent album, Only God Was Above Us, fuses indie with classical music.
Despite the vast differences between genres becoming lessened thanks to modern fusions, there are still some styles of music that people just can’t get on board with. There is something about rhythm or melody, tone or execution that just doesn’t resonate with some people, as is the subjective nature of any kind of art. Nothing can be done about it; these differences will always exist, but it does beg the question, which of the different music genres is the most disliked one?
So, what is the most hated genre of music?
It’s impossible to determine the most hated genre in the world, given the cultural differences in various countries and the fact that some popular music in different countries barely manifests in others. However, a study carried out in America tried to assess people’s music taste now and compare it to a similar survey carried out in 1970.
It revealed that there had been shifts in taste over a generation. One of the most notable was that fewer people were inclined to listen to classical music. This wasn’t necessarily because of sound but because of who they associated with said genre.
“Highly-educated young people associate classical music essentially with the high-status music of their parents and grandparents,” said Omar Lizardo, who helped carry out the study, “That leads them to say they dislike it.” The amount of people who don’t like the genre increased over 30 years from 8% to 15%.
Genres of music that are generally given a hard time include dubstep, rap, rock, and metal; however, classical music seems to have had the biggest increase in the number of people who dislike it. The overlap of genres means people are more open-minded to harsh experimental sounds; as such, something as agreeable as classical music may be left by the wayside. Only time will reveal whether this trend with classical music will continue, but for now, it’s one of the most disliked genres available.
