Objectifying people with special interests

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I kind of worry that when I have a special interest about an ethnicity, group of people or individual I’m objectifying them. At the moment my special interest in Judaism and Jewish people. I know I have to be careful about that interest because some aspects of that special interest could make me look antisemitic to some people.

I guess as an outlet for that special interest I do some dumb shitposts online and listen to Israeli music. I know regular Jewish people don’t go around listening to Israeli music. Just like people of Japanese descent don't obsess over anime. So this particular special interest makes me feel weird around Jewish people. I’m also guessing my taste in Israeli music isn’t the greatest. I have no clue what music is considered cool there. I just listen to anything I can find or enjoy. I’ve tried some Israeli indie music, but it was boring. I prefer lame mainstream music and classic rock.

Same thing with nordic music. I used to listen to a lot of Nordic music and still kind of do. Probably more than the average Nordic person. Because it’s a freaking special interest/obsession. I always got nervous that about how Nordic people would judge my taste in Nordic music. Or be weird because I listen to it more than them. I feel even weirder because I’m Hispanic.

In my case I couldn’t care less about white people being interested in Hispanic culture. Unless they butcher some aspect of it or act weird around me when they learn I’m Hispanic. I don’t even think people necessarily butcher it all the time. I love Finnish tango for example.

As a nordic person I hereby proclaim myself the ambassador of all the nordics and extend my super-official assurance that you can obsess about nordic music as much as you like. As a music lover, however, I am going to look at you funny.

As for ethnicity, I'd be cautious but not exaggeratedly so. A certain detachment is required when one studies a subject, and that includes the study of people.

Why would you look at me funny? Is there something weird about enjoying Nordic music? I agree I need some detachment when I study groups of people. But sometimes I might overcompensate a bit and end up seeming cold.

There's plenty of good nordic music. Lots of metal and folk-type music from here is nice. Your mention of finnish tango led me to believe you're more the Dansband-type. Which conjures images of middle-aged men singing upbeat, sickeningly sweet and transparently insincere love-tunes, compounded by their members proclivity to be involved in, shall we say, "extramarital sexcapades"?

It could be worse. You could be listening to Finnish choirs sing Elvis Presley tunes in Latin.

...or...



..and you should have seen this coming....

All I got is..... if you have any overlapping interest in Israel or Electronic Music, I think it's worth checking out the band Infected Mushroom.

Infected Mushroom is an Israeli musical duo formed in Haifa in 1996 by producers Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani.[1] They produce and perform psytrance, electronica, and psychedelic music. They are one of the best-selling groups in Israeli music history in terms of both domestic and international sales.

As for nordic things, I personally like some of the work from film composer Johann Johannson(Iceland).

I also like the electronic band Daft Punk from France.

I guess my thoughts on this is I didn't come into these bands because of their countries or culture directly, but primarily from music genre I like or sometimes the app Pandora. If you can comfortably say your exploring music from Israel that fits into a preferred genre you like from any country, it might feel less awkward.

My one exception to this is Germany or Europe in a broad sense because my ancestry is German/Irish with some Scandinavian so maybe I feel more cultural curiosity in that direction.

Most of the Nordic music I like is indie and folk. Not much into metal. With Finnish tango I’d rather just play it myself on accordion. A lot of the arrangements can be cheesy. I listen to a lot of cheesy music because I like the idea of it.

Yeah. I like this stuff a well.

You do you, my dudette, I'm just teasing.


Some offerings:

the archetypal modern/folksy stuff:




And some folk metal from my own home town:

Last edited by Wolfram87 on 17 Mar 2018, 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Don't worry about it so much.

Europeans are more into American classic jazz than Americans are.
Americans got into American roots blues only when British rockers like Eric Clapton starting playing roots blues.

The French revere the comedy of Jerry Lewis more than we Americans do.

Grew up on the Beatles myself, and by way of George Harrison I got into listening to sitar music, and became an instant expert of ragas back when was an aspie teen.

But to the average Indian Ravi Shankar is probably like Leonard Bernstein is to us (their equivalent of classical music, that only a minority are actually in to). Most Indians consume pop music generated by the Bollywood movie industry, and Indians who can carry on an actual conversation about Ravi Shankar are probably as few and far between as Americans who can carry on a conversation about Aaron Copeland.

Jamaicans considered the Rastafarian cult to be an embarrassment to their country until Rastafarian music(reggae) became all of the rage in London, and then the world.

On the other hand an Israeli friend was awestruck that actually knew who Ofra Haza was, and exclaimed that "you're not even Jewish!". So sometimes an artist does have honor in their own country and the folks from the place DO think that you're cool for digging that artist. Go figure!

Most Jewish people in the United States listen to the same pop tunes as "gentiles" do. Only extremely Orthodox or Hasidic types might be very much into the "old time" Jewish music such as "Havah Nagilah."

I've met a few Israelis in my life. During the Disco era, they were into Disco. Nowadays, they are primarily into contemporary pop music. They just might only dance the Hora at weddings.

The only "Israeli" music I listened to as a child growing up Jewish (on my mother's side) was in a commercial for El Al Airlines.

Israeli music is definitely not necessarily purely "Jewish" music.

I prefer the band Astral Projection. I generally like rock from Israel anyways.

As a musician I’m not too impressed by chill piano composers. Mainly because that music is so easy for me. I’m thinking of getting into making ambient piano music for Spotify playlists. I know there’s demand for it.


That’s how I got into Nordic cultures. I was getting into indie and I noticed a lot of the indie artists I liked were Nordic. So I explored more Nordic indie artists and eventually got interest in the culture. With Israeli music I did only listen to it at first because it was in Hebrew, Israeli and they were Jewish. But I legitimately stared to enjoy rock music from there. I’m normally not that into rock. I’ve enjoyed it before of course, but I could never call myself a rock music fan. If it was just because of special interests I would have gotten way more interested in Nordic rock music. I guess Hebrew and rock go well together. But no one is really seeking it out.



Thanks. I’m pretty nervous of course, but I wonder what Israelis would think of me enjoying Israeli rock.

That's actually hard to say about any country.

But if you encounter Israeli people at a party you might just converse about music in general, and not beat them over the head with interest in their country's pop artists (odds are the folks you meet from most countries listen mostly to the same top 40 that we north americans listen to). And get a feel for what the individual person is into. Mention you like certain Israeli artists, and are more aware of Israeli rock than the average American, and then take the conversation from there. If you're not too obsessive about it they will probably be impressed, and like you.

Met a cute Brazilian girl once, and mentioned that my sister got me into listing to Gal Costa, and other of the then new wave of Brazilian artists. She said that she was into "Phil Collins, and...(other White bread stuff that you hear on American radio)".

On the other hand I deejayed for a party of middle aged Koreans once. They didnt exactly object to the American top 40 I played, but they really craved their own Korean pop music and lent me some of their CDs to play. Just as slickly produced as American pop, but all sung in Korean. BUT...they loved Frank Yankovic doing Polish-American polka music. They requested doing a brief polka segment, and that's what I played for that fifteen minute segment.

Go figure.

If I encounter someone from Israel I’ll just try to chat normally with them. I just notice my special interests do have a way of sneaking into conversations. One problem I have is that when I’m chatting with new people I purposely avoid special interests. But then someone like my sister will bring them up and ruin things.

If they mention some bands from Israel that I enjoy I’ll say so, but other than that I probably won’t mention it. I guess I remember the days on last.fm when people have a reason to know what I listen to. But I guess Israelis in real life have no reason to know the lame Israeli music I like.