[The Man]

Me, I tend to go for the bold, epic stuff. I general prefer not to listen to music detailing generic adolescent or romantic angst, and I tend to prefer music dealing with social, political or philosophical themes. An anti-establishment stance is certainly a plus in my book; in fact, very little I listen to even qualifies as mainstream anymore. I tend to prefer complexity in songwriting and structure, and I often prefer music that develops over a large number of minutes rather than the three-minute pop song. Finally, I tend to prefer heavier stuff. I'm especially fond of the contrast that can be achieved in the context of metal between shrill, dissonant passages and airy melodicism; plus, loud guitars and double bass pedal just sound damn awesome to my ears.

But, I can take some variation from any or all of those characteristics if the execution is flawless enough, the innovations are bold enough or the songwriting strong enough. I love music enough for its own sake that I'm willing to try pretty much anything. As long as it's not schmaltzy overproduced commercial crap. I hate that stuff.