I think we all change our opinions & contradict ourselves,it could be because we evolve throughout our lifetime.
I think it is perfectly OK to change one's views and opinions, and even one's values. Especially with respect to music.
It just means that:
a) we have grown
b) our priorities have changed
c) we have found "truthier" truths
d) our horizons have expanded
And contradicting oneself is part and parcel of this process. We grow, we learn new ways and new things, we unlearn the old ones where called for, or continue to hold them in our warm embrace.
Let me try to explain from my rather shallow experience:
Grown up (a least a bit
) - one could grow up listening predominantly to a certain type of music. Like me. I listened to hair metal (as in the heavy metal played by long haired musicians wearing tight spandex pants and tanktops, exposing as much of their tattoo-ed bodies as possible) and hard rock when I was a teenager to the exclusion of all other forms of music. At one point I woke up to realise that I have been missing so much good music in my life. I opened my ears to alternate forms of music and I am really glad for it. Now, I no longer think rock, hard rock and metal are the greatest musical gift to mankind
Changed priorities - I had always appreciated the subtleties in music but it wasn't my priority. But it is now. A well-placed grace note gives me the goose bumps. Which is why I have new-found respect for the subtle intricacies in western classical (Tchaikovsky's Concerto for Piano and Violin in D Major, anyone?). Hard driving and hard charging pace no longer drives me. I am content to listen to the swish of metal brush against the jazz cymbal. Or the tonality of standing bass in small ensemble jazz. Or compare how similar yet different are the tones of the Chinese erhu and western violin.
