Listening to some Japanese music, you start chatting with your friends about it. They say that they like it and ask you for some of the songs and recommendations, then when listening to a few more a friend asks “are these from an anime?” A genuine question, but it saddens you to see that they think that it’s all similar to the style of pop music used in anime. This is how people stereotype music. They may not mean to stereotype it, but when exposed to only one type of music from that place or only one song, people tend to just expect it. People either diss the music before trying it, think that one genre is the only type that is listened to, or because of religion or belief it’s considered bad.

When exposed to one type of content you tend to expect the same thing. For when something that is repeated and has a few differences is shown to you and you don’t know what other things are a part of that type of music, you tend to believe that it’s the same. Similar to the “Mojave Phone Booth” podcast, “[he] really didn’t think anybody would ever pick up the phone.” He was used to just hearing the ringing with no reason to think it would be different. People expect similar things once they see only one thing over and over and that leads to stereotyping it. This can lead to people not being willing to listen to it if they didn’t like what they’ve seen on media platforms or when just skimming the top layer of the genre. 

People may not be willing to listen to that type of music because they expect that it’s not gonna be something that they like. People have an implanted idea of one thing or another, “every [idea] has a … connotative (associative) role” and it’s rare for it to change if the person has no experience with it. This can be applied to J-pop and every single type of genre that has been made. People might not listen to J-pop because they think it’s just hyperactive music, but that is mostly just the most heard and most seen music. Some people may expect it to sound like “Happy encount” by TRUE, which is the stereotypical J-pop, anime opening that many people believe that’s what almost all J-pop sounds like. People will associate that to J-pop and some may like it and others may just hate it. If they don’t like it and they’ve heard songs similar to it from the same genre they’re more likely to not listen to other songs that are a bit different but still in the same genre. J-pop is a very diverse genre and can have songs that range from the up beat hyper songs to something like “Paper Doll” made by KikouHana. There is never one way to judge music and every genre has its own mini genres that make it up. It isn’t right to just judge that type of song with its stereotype, at least give it a listen before giving it up.

Even with stereotypes and believing that it’s going to be the same all the time, some music is out right just told not to listen to it because it might have some “underlying message” that goes against a religion. In some religions, music sends “a message consciously or unconsciously into your spirit… you [will] go in the direction of that message that you’ve been listening to” and that “listening to the carnal music that’s gotten the wrong message after a while you will act in that direction.” Music is considered pretty powerful in religion, and while it is powerful in many ways, it won’t always lead to sin. Some music that has been considered ill-moral is rock. Some Christens believe that rock music “create[s] a subtle confusion in the minds, wills, and emotions of the listeners.” They believe that Satan is behind rock music and is trying to lead them astray. Similar to how Lago had said that “the devil will make a grandsire of you” when telling Brabantio that Othello had gotten married to his daughter. Back then people with darker skin were considered to be working with the devil because of the belief that they were descendants of the people that were marked by God for doing something sinful. While not all rock music is sinful, a few songs make it seem like it’s one of Satan’s plans. Similar to how Othello had made some mistakes, there is a religious stereotype that causes all of rock to be grouped into the rock songs that are considered sinful. Not only does rock have this treatment but many other types of songs. 

Stereotyping music is common, whether it be religious reasons, just skimming the top music, or not wanting to hear other songs in the same genre. Is it okay to do this? No. is it common? Yes, but there will never be a time where nothing has a stereotype. It’s natural for people to group things together and to use inductive reasoning instead of deductive reasoning. It leads to it being natural and creates certain opinions about the music even if it’s just about the stereotype. That’s why it’s common for people to stereotype music.