Last time I saw Thomas, he talked about how his sister planted seeds in his mind that turned him against the White Stripes.  I thought it was ironic, because he did the same thing, somehow, to me and I stopped liking Dave Matthews.  I remember reading something about the lead singer for Blue October is just one of those wankers with a guitar you see at parties trying to act hurt and artistic to pick up chicks.  I can't listen to them anymore.

It is a weird process, you enjoy something without thinking about it, someone says something, and when you listen to the music, you can't help but think about what someone told you when you hear the music. You either lose interest or become so annoyed you can't stand it.

It's annoying, but rare.  It is not like every bad thing someone has said about music I like has taken root in my brain.  It usually comes from someone with similar taste. It also has to be a bit of a revelation that is undeniable, once made apparent.  Again, I am going to borrow from Thomas's experience.  I believe his sister said they were too much like Led Zeppelin (or trying too hard to be Led Zeppelin).  Either way, I thought the same thing years ago. There is something to it.  I think there are other problems with their music, like too much of it sounds the same and some albums seem to drag on and get caught in a rut with too-slow of a beat (Jack White is best when his music is energetic).  But it never kept me from enjoying the White Stripes when I was in the mood to listen to them.

Josh recently shared an article from You are Not So Smart: The Perils of Introspection. One of the points of the article was that when people had to rationalize their taste in art, they enjoyed it less. I wonder if this is related to planting seeds of distaste. You enjoy something, something causes you to think about it in a different way, then you no longer enjoy it. Perhaps it's a stretch.  It wouldn't be the first time I saw a link between two things that wasn't really there.

It still doesn't explain why, though. Why do these seeds--certain seeds in particular--have such a devastating effect on our ability to enjoy things we once loved?
whatever.