If that’s a serious response I would recommend several years of music theory and its accompanying composition class, and maybe playing guitar in a stage jazz band.
I already loved all sorts of music prior to that and the experience helped me understand how music of all styles works and to appreciate it.
Eh... I'd humbly disagree with this, a bit.
If something doesn't immediately grab you, gaining an innate understanding of the theory behind it won't really help. There are plenty of contemporary artists out there who I completely understand the theory and composition behind what they do and I'm bored within minutes, or listen through once and move on to something else.
'Aesthetic empathy' is one way I've heard to describe it, in that yes I understand where you're coming from and what it takes to create this piece of music. That extends, for me anyway, to even a lot of electronic synth music or modern dance stuff, having produced that for some other artists. Much of it is nothing I'd choose to listen to on my own but it's cool to understand how it was created, and why certain elements were chosen, but that doesn't mean it's on my daily playlist.
Huge Aristocrats fan here. Not so huge Zappa fan, and to an extent, earlier Vai stuff, or say even Mahavishnu Orchestra. Of course I appreciate the talent, composition, theory, background, and everything that goes into producing those pieces of music. You just won't find it on any of my playlists. The weird thing is some of my friends who are big Zappa fans, or of groups like Consider the Source, Lespecial, etc are not musicians at all and couldn't give a shit less about the theory.
The fact that the Aristocrats have sold out pretty much every venue on this tour, and also their previous one, makes me think they're crossing that gap as well. I was fortunate to be at the Aristocamp in 2019 where we had 20 participants one-on-one with the band for 4 days. At least 2-3 of those people didn't even play music, they just wanted more insight on the band and the stories and where the music comes from.
All I'm saying is that while learning theory and composition might make you appreciate something more, if you don't like it initially that probably isn't the thing that's going to save it. And that's ok.
to add one more thought: there are many bands I've heard that made me want to learn more theory after hearing them, to understand it better because I dug the music that much...and many bands that I can tell you to the note what they're doing, and have no desire to listen to again.
) extended improv playing in I Want a Parrot... And really all over the whole set.
