[BobbyDavis]

I am a Musician, Songwriter, Guitar Tutor and a part-time Music Journalist and growing up music has always been an important part of my life and I currently own over 3900 albums. My sister bought me my first guitar for my 14th birthday and I spent almost every afternoon teaching myself how to play it so I could write and sing songs to my best friend/first girlfriend. She was musically talented and I was going to be in a country music duo with her when we were older but she passed away when she was 17 and after that I went through depression and tried to kill myself. During those years I found music to be one of the few things that made me happy and I taught myself how to play the piano, bass and drums and wrote at least a thousand songs.

I also started collecting albums by the dozen from artists and bands like Journey, Cheap Trick, Moody Blues, Todd Rundgren, The Beatles, Uriah Heep, Kiss, Ryan Adams, The Cars, Frank Sinatra, Letters to Cleo, Juliana Hatfield, Tears For Fears, Blue Oyster Cult, Better Than Ezra, Barry Manilow, Amy Grant, The Goo Goo Dolls, Black Sabbath, Foreigner, Wings, The Beach Boys, April Wine, Aerosmith, Joe Lyn Turner, Glenn Hughes, Addison Road, Pat Benatar, The Cure, Brad, Heart, Triumph, Nazareth, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Sammy Davis Jr, George Jones, Duncan Sheik, Pearl Jam, Heather Nova, Bachman Turner-Overdrive, The Guess Who, The Innocence Mission, Kiss, The Lemonheads, Iron Maiden, John Lennon, Jill Sobule, Martina McBride, George Harrison, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Helloween, Axxis, Van Halen, Alice Cooper, Trisha Yearwood, Deep Purple, Waylon Jennings, Aimee Mann, UFO, The Byrds etc and yes, for those reading I am aware I am obsessed with music and you can blame that on my ADHD, Asperger's Syndrome or OCD. I am pretty sure it is one of the three

Most of my friends say I am a music genius and while I think that is going a bit too far my Wife says it is not and she is my biggest fan along with my Sister. My Wife isn’t as obsessed with music as me but she had a very large collection of albums when I met her too and her Father was a well-known Music Journalist here in Australia and she was the lead vocalist of an Alt Rock band when she was younger and they got to play support for Killing Heidi in Victoria a few times. Our love of music and the type of music we liked was one of the things that brought us closer together and I couldn’t picture myself being with somebody that didn’t love music as much as me and share the same tastes.

How important is musical taste to you?

[Slamjammer]

"How important is musical taste in a relationship?"

It isn't... But then music isn't my life. That doesn't mean it's unimportant. In fact, I spent my Army enlistment as a musician, traveling Europe in an Army Band...string bass and Tuba. I also played professionally for a bit after discharge, while finishing college. So, music is important to me too...good music...and I loath some of crap that's being produced today.

However, my wife likes Country music and I can't stand it...especially the fiddles and twangy guitars. Like I said, though...music isn't my life, nor does it define our realationship.

[lilypup]

It isn't for me either. I love Keith Urban and my husband loves Frank Sinatra. Music is but a small part of a marriage.

[~Christina]

Its a non issue ... I dont really understand how or why it would matter

[ifst5]

Yeah personally i think there are bigger things in a relationship to worry about - like ill health, money, living arrangements etc etc. But if this is something very important in your life i can understand why you'd want to share that interest with your partner. Personally if i love someone they could listen to elevator music for all i care...

[Trippin2.0]

How important?

It's irrelevant to our relationship


When we first started dating his taste in music mortified me.


Music is important to us both too, both of us grew up in musically gifted homes, and both use it as a comfort and a coping mechanism. So while I don't for the life of me understand how someone can actually enjoy today's hip hop, since I'm more of a metal / alternate fan myself, I understand how important music can be.


To be blunt, we silently hate each others music, (yes we take a playful jab at each other every now and again) but we simply respect each others tastes. Neither will complain, insult or switch off the other's music.


We live and let live.


Besides, I love the fact that we're so different, yet fit together so well. Whereas before, I was under the impression I need to find someone with similar tastes as it could be an issue, but that's just because my asshat ex always berated my taste in music.


Also, as mentioned above, much bigger issues creep up within relationships, and in comparison, music just doesn't even make it on the relationship radar in the grander scheme of things.

[IchbinkeinTeufel]

Not very. I'm a guitarist who plays classical and blues, mainly, so I'd say it's pretty amazing if she were to love that sorta stuff, because then not only would my guitaring not wind her up, she'd get a kick out of it, too! But, if she hated that stuff, it would probably be a bad thing... the guitar is very much a part of me. I dunno... maybe it's more important than I thought?

[Lemongrab]

Music is a huge part of my life too. I am a singer and very passionate about the music I enjoy. I am lucky enough to be dating someone who shares my tastes in music, and we can listen to and discuss music for hours.
I was involved with someone for almost 2 years who disliked my music and had no interest in my singing, despite being a musician himself. He liked completely different music and looked for vastly different qualities in his music. At first this did not bother me too much. We had a "live and let live" attitude like Trippin, but what eventually got to me was this: I'd never be able to go to an opera or metal concert with him. He'd never enjoy or appreciate going dancing at a goth club. All these things I'd have to do without him. And he'd never have me accompanying him to a drum and bass party or an underground rave because that just wasn't my scene. Music was a big part of both our lives, our social lives revolved vastly around the music scenes we were involved in, and having such differing tastes meant that we would always be in separate crowds, never being able to enjoy the mutual appreciation of an art.
In the end we broke up (not because of the music issue), and though we are still friends I realised that in the end the enforced separation by our different tastes would have driven an even deeper wedge between us.
So yes, my partner's taste in music is important to me.

It's very important as music is a big part of my life.

[ChipperMonkey]

Perhaps the question is more along the lines of "if you have a passion in life, how important is it for your SO to be in tune with that passion?" That is, I can see that music is your passion so it is important that your SO be in support of that, whereas others have different passions. Regardless of what your exact passion is, I think its important to have a SO that supports it. I don't know if there are a lot of relationships out there that would last a long time if one person was passionate about something that made up a big chunk of their life, but the SO couldn't care less.

[Trippin2.0]

Originally Posted by Lemongrab

Music is a huge part of my life too. I am a singer and very passionate about the music I enjoy. I am lucky enough to be dating someone who shares my tastes in music, and we can listen to and discuss music for hours.
I was involved with someone for almost 2 years who disliked my music and had no interest in my singing, despite being a musician himself. He liked completely different music and looked for vastly different qualities in his music. At first this did not bother me too much. We had a "live and let live" attitude like Trippin, but what eventually got to me was this: I'd never be able to go to an opera or metal concert with him. He'd never enjoy or appreciate going dancing at a goth club. All these things I'd have to do without him. And he'd never have me accompanying him to a drum and bass party or an underground rave because that just wasn't my scene. Music was a big part of both our lives, our social lives revolved vastly around the music scenes we were involved in, and having such differing tastes meant that we would always be in separate crowds, never being able to enjoy the mutual appreciation of an art.
In the end we broke up (not because of the music issue), and though we are still friends I realised that in the end the enforced separation by our different tastes would have driven an even deeper wedge between us.
So yes, my partner's taste in music is important to me.

I can see how music helped cause a rift between yourself and the ex, that must have sucked. Lucky for me my bf and I can tolerate each others music, be it at clubs or concerts, but also enjoy regular separate activities. And since these music related activities aren't regular occurrences, I doubt it could pose an actual problem in future.


Great insight though, so thanks for sharing your experience. I guess as with all things, this topic is individual and context based, even though on the surface it may not seem like it.

[healingme4me]

It helps. I like long drives, having a musical interest similarity helps, truly helps.

[BobbyDavis]

I think it depends on how important music is to you.

My Sister (Kathy) used to say you could tell a lot about a person’s character just by the type of music they listened to and I have come to find that is true over the years and the same could be said about a number of other things such as their likes, their dislikes, the way they interact with others, the type of people they are friends with and look up to, the way they spend their weekends, the subjects they are passionate about, their beliefs, their values, their views etc. For me, a person’s musical tastes are important along with their knowledge of music because music is important to me and while I am not exactly saying they need to have the same favourite artists as me they need to like the type of music I like listening to if I’m going to live with them and that excludes Rap, R&B, Death Metal and Techno.

Maybe that might sound a little picky to some people but that is just me and most people I know are the same way with musical tastes too. Thankfully, my Wife and I have similar tastes in music and she grew up listening to Alternative Rock and Country Music and her favourite artists and bands are Bob Evans, Jebediah, Divinyls,Alex Lloyd, Pete Murray, The Whitlams, Something For Kate, Powderfinger, Magic Dirt, Melinda Schneider, John Farnham and Veruca Salt. I have literally lost count of how many concerts and music festivals we have been to together over the years because we are both obsessed with music and that is why I couldn’t picture being with a person that didn’t love music and have the same musical tastes as me. My Wife’s love of music and the fact she could sing and play instruments was one of the things that attracted me to her too and I have a thing for women that can sing.

It is good to see I am not the only musician on here.