How Not to Convince Someone to Listen to Your Music ft. Hayden - Jack Budofsky

     So my brother Hayden has been annoying me for about 3 months now to listen to this one band he likes and I still haven't listened to them. Its not that I don't think I would like the band, they actually seem like exactly my musical taste, and I've enjoyed a lot of music similar to them. No, the reason I haven't listened to them is because of the way Hayden's gone about convincing me to listen to them. You see, he's been giving a masterclass in how not to convince someone to like something you like.         What Hayden does is he marches in to my bedroom every other day and says "You should listen to X," with the occasional added, "They're really good." And then he leaves. Thats it. It seems he chooses to perform his little skit at the worst times, too, like when I'm doing homework, or about to go to bed, or worst of all, when I'm already listening to music. The last thing I want to do when listening to music is to be interupted and told to listen to something else. So what could Hayden do better?
     Well to start, he shouldn't ask me so frequently. Its gotten to the point where every time he mentions the band I immediately tune him out, because I already know what he's gonna say.                      Secondly, he should ask me when he knows I'm not doing anything else. This one seems obvious enough, I don't want to have to stop what I'm doing totry some new music I'm not even sure I'll like.          Lastly, and most importantly of all, he should tell me where to start. A lot of bands, including the one Hayden wants me to listen to have daunting discographies and its difficult to know where to start. Starting with the most popular seems like the easiest option, ut a lot of times a band's most popular work is not representative of what that band sounds like. Starting at the first album or the last album also seem like good starting places, but those rarely reflect what the band sounds like at their best. So being given some guidence can really make getting into new music easier.
     Hopefully everyone can learn a little bit from Hayden's shortcomings next time you want to show a friend your music. And maybe if Hayden follows these rules I'll actually listen to the band. Although, I problably wouldn't just to spite him.

Here's the band that Hayden has been trying to get me to listen to They're a Swedish neo-progressive rock band that apparently sounds kind of like Yes, but more fusiony.


*side note: Hayden told me every other second while I was writing this that this is not a blog post, this is stupid. Frankly, he's right, it is stupid, this is terrible advice that should not be followed ever.