Listening to new music can be a very challenging experience. Suppose you hear a brand new song by a group that you really love. You might be a little bit sceptical. Just give me what I’m used to. That’s what I came here to hear you in the first place. My favorite song off of your last recording would be good enough.
Maybe you sit there and patiently wait with the attitude that the musicians are bored with their most popular material and simply want to play something THEY like for a change. Your attitude might be “let’s just get this over with and get back to the good stuff we all came to hear.”
What do you do if you hear a new tune by a group you love and trust but you don’t like it? The answer is usually: just listen to it a few more times. Once you get your brain around the more complex territory of the unfamiliar it might become one of your favorite pieces of music.
This phenomenon of initial rejection followed by eventual warm embrace has happened so many times for me across all genres of music. I have experienced it with jazz, Schubert, Southern Rock, you name it. And very frequently the tunes I am most fond of in the end are ones I didn’t like on first hearing.
A couple of years ago I went to Wintergrass in Bellevue Washington and flocked with many others to see the Kruger Brothers, one of my favorite bands. When they announced that they would play something off their Appalachian Concerto album I had mixed feelings. I had bought the CD but I had been disappointed with it and rarely listened to it. I’m glad I sat there with an open mind because the beauty of the composition and the playing of it there finally sunk in and it was a surreal experience.
I think the best music takes some time to digest. People need second chances and so does music. Keep your ears and mind open to new things. The test of time will reward you if you have patience.
