It is a very real phenomena and I am a living example. With most people, they generally align their musical tastes to a small handful of genres; that's just who they are and what they like and that is absolutely fine. There are, however, a select group of individuals who simply cannot describe their musical preferences with a few artists or genres. I am one of these people.
My love of music began far back in my childhood before I could even form lasting memories. I only know of this from what I've been told by my parents and my brother. My dad is a snob for classic rock -- and I mean that in the most affectionate way possible. My dad was in a rock bad through high school -- of which my mom was a major groupie -- and has loved all things rock, blues, and jazz for his entire life. Naturally, he did his best to raise my brother and I on the best music ever made, playing us his old Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughn albums whenever he was at home with us. This began my brother on the right track musically and I thank my dad greatly for raising us right on great music.
When I was younger, my preferred music was always classic rock, no question about it. When I first got an iPod, it was full of Rush, Boston, The Who, and Van Halen; needless to say, I was a black sheep musically around school. Through my adolescence I had nothing but the highest level of disdain for all modern music. Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Katy Perry; I absolutely resented it, I found it annoying and didn't even think of it as real music. The only modern bands I even considered were the Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys, two amazing modern rock bands with infectious sound. I was a tight-wad classic-rock snob for so long, until one day; the day I discovered Daft Punk.
I was watching a video my favorite movie reviewers, RedLetterMedia, discuss the film Tron Legacy when they mentioned the only redeeming quality of the film was the score which was written and performed by the French electronic/house duo Daft Punk. Being a curious little thing, I looked them up and what I heard was absolutely astonishing; it was like my eyes had been opened to a world I had no idea existed, only it was my ears being opened, but that doesn't sound as poetic. And with this moment, my musical tastes forever grew from a classic rock purist to a Frankenstein's monster of rock and electronic genres. Daft Punk led me to slowly discover deadmau5, MGMT, Kygo, and several other amazing electronic artists. I even managed to turn my parents on to some of their stuff, a feat which I believed to be next to impossible.
Over my time with these two vastly different musical loves, I came to find some great artists that managed to find a melodic middle ground between the two genres; finding groups like Vampire Weekend and Matt and Kim. My musical tastes were expanding faster than Manifest Destiny and my iTunes library was coming to look like it was run by seven different people who didn't even know each other. With the introduction of Pandora into my life I came to find more and more groups I absolutely loved with my favorite station, 90s Pop, bringing my to the Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind, and Sugar Ray. And get this, Pandora brought my into the world of hip-hop when I discovered my inexplicable love for the rhymes of the Beastie Boys; seriously, listen to "Intergalactic" and you will understand. And these guys led me to have a very, very small piece of my that really digs hip-hop and rap; I like a select few songs from the genre currently. Rap is just very hit or miss for me, with a lot of misses; most of the time the lyrics are far too angry for my delicate sensibilities.
As I sit typing this article, I'm listening to my carefully crafted Spotify playlist which I feel truly encompasses my musical tastes. I can listen to this and have my shuffle go from the Spin Doctors to Childish Gambino to Michael Jackson to Foo Fighters, it truly is something to behold.
My experiences with music have slowly granted me the ability to find qualities in just about any genre there is. I may not be in love with every artist ever but if you put on a song, chances are I will find at least some part of me really enjoying it. This goes for pretty much any kind of music, well, with the exception of country; nothing against anyone who likes it, but I'm sorry, country music is just the worst thing ever and has no redeeming qualities (in my own personal opinion that is). But with that being said, everyone's ears are different and everyone likes different things so I say this; like what you like no matter what. Don't take grief for having your own personal tastes, however vastly different they be from other people, and ALWAYS be open to things, you never know what you like until you give it a try. Music is awesome, so love it, whatever form it takes.
