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Can bad or different taste in music ruin a relationship?

Would you go out with someone if you thought they have terrible taste in music?
Reply 1
Not at all. I'm the last person who can criticise people's tastes in music because I listen to rock and rap, a lot of what I listen to is trashy but I love it and it's an important part of my life. I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to be into the kind of music that I'm into. So it wouldn't bother me at all if a girl liked listening to One Direction, Olly Mars, Bruno Murs, Little Wayne, James Brown, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, etc. Wouldnt matter to me, I'll listen to my music and she can listen to hers.

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One of the things my boyfriend and I have in common is liking a lot of the same music, and it's what we first got talking about when we met. We've also both introduced one another to new music that neither of us had listened to before, and go to a lot of gigs together too. But there's still a lot that I listen to that he doesn't like and vice versa. Music is one of my biggest interests and I do like how my boyfriend and I have similar tastes but I'm glad it's not all the same because agreeing on everything would be boring. I would still go out with him if he listened to completely different stuff to me.
Reply 3
Original post by TrinityLaban
Would you go out with someone if you thought they have terrible taste in music?


Slightly ashamed to say that it would probably put me off asking them out. :/
Yes, when you're living together you have to really think before you play a song/album in case it puts them in a weird mood. That gets exhausting after a while, and resentment kicks in because you don't feel comfortable playing the music you like in your own home.
Reply 5
Not as such, but if someone has undeveloped tastes in everything artistic in additionl to their bad musical taste, then it could be a problem. At best it means there are unlikely to be many shared cultural interests, and at worst it suggests a lack of intellectual/cultural maturity. If they just listened to pop music in isolation then that wouldnt be a dealbreaker but if you combined that with only watching Hollywood films, reading best seller novels, etc then it starts to add up.

In general I'd say that I dont care whether someone likes the same thing as me as long as they have the maturity to form their own tastes and at least make an effort to analyse what they like. Music is a fairly abstract artform so its more subjective than film/literature/etc, so its hard to judge people's character based on their musical tastes - liking bad music is usually more to do with not having much musical education/exposure rather than having bad values/taste. With film/literature its different since those are more explicitly about values, although if someone (eg) only liked ugly music (rap, punk, etc) then you could perhaps infer something about their character (not that there is anything wrong with ugly music as such)

In 99% of cases though: no
(edited 9 years ago)
Couldn't care less. It would be nice to share music taste, but it hardly matters in the grand scheme of things. I like awful corny pop music and opera/classical music. I don't expect my partner to rave to ABBA with me and nor do I expect them to attend classical concerts with me.

We can do other stuff together. It's moral values/attitude to life that matter the most, not superficial interests.

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