by Santi Meintjes

Created on: May 21, 2008

Shakespeare said "If music be the food of love, play on". Music can be romantic, and sexy, and if you think that women have stopped swooning at the sound of a man's serenading you should have seen them at the Pavarotti concertsOr if that image makes you groan, the front row at the Julio Iglesias concerts was pretty bad too.

There is music for every taste and for every mood and every occasion. Every generation has had its favourite kind of music, way back to Oz and Og who probably knew only percussion (you know, hitting something rhythmically with something else and perhaps experimenting a bit with different stones or sticks). And of course every generation throws up their hands in despair at the unintelligible junk that the new generation calls music.

It is hard to believe but in the 1800's the Strauss waltzes were regarded as degenerate music not fit to be heard by civilised ears and were in fact banned in some places. So start off by borrowing someone's CD and listen to a Strauss waltz. Then ask yourself, if this was regarded as evil noise, how much music is there that I could not bear to listen to at least once?

The greatest stumbling block to expanding your taste in music is to refuse to listen to certain kinds of music. I do not particularly like Country and Western and would not willingly spend an evening listening to it, but I can if I have to and I grant that there are a few C&W songs that are not too bad. "Sundown, you better take care."

Most people are willing to try anything, except classical music. What a great mistake. Yes there are heavy, sombre, hard-to-digest compositions that leave you feeling drained and suicidal, but hey, Leonard Cohen achieves that for most people too. Give classical music a chance.

Once you have listened to Strauss try something that you nay recognise, like Song of Joy - that's by Beethoven, famous for his heavy music, but this is light, and airy and fills you with hope and yes, joy. It's the fourth movement of his Symphony No. 9. That sounds terrible but it is equally known as "Ode to Joy". So there you go. Once you have recognised the tune all you need to remember is the 4th of the 9th and you can sound like a classical buff.

With every genre it is important that you start listening to light songs, preferably those that have been reworked into popular tunes. It will lead you gently into the music and enable you to decide whether it really will never please you, or it might start to grow on you.

Jazz, for instance, can be really difficult to like. Uneven rhythms, tics when you thought there would be a toc, sudden stops, and the wailing of some sax maniac. Start with the "The Jazz Singer" and the "Great Gatsby" music - these are jazz songs that actually have a tune that you can learn and words to sing along to. Then move on to the more esoterical stuff. Go to a bar where jazz is played (any music becomes more tolerable when your ears have been oiled by a bit of alcohol). Soon the music just might start to make sense.

The main point is, listen to stuff you don't usually listen to with an open mind, and above all, enjoy yourself!

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