I just don't get why that's popular

[Dahak]

Clubbing/Dancing. I can't see anything worthwhile in it. I rather be at a good restaurant than in a loud, crowded club.

And I'd rather be dancing (but not in an overcrowded club). Actually, I'd rather do both in one night, to be honest. One thing I've noticed though (and I'm not making an assumption about you) is that people who hate dance clubs usually can't dance. I wonder if this affects (or effects?) their views on the matter.

Well, I can dance worth shit
But I have found no drive to try to learn it, even though my boyfriend is trying to make me.

[Phantasee]

Clubbing/Dancing. I can't see anything worthwhile in it. I rather be at a good restaurant than in a loud, crowded club.

And I'd rather be dancing (but not in an overcrowded club). Actually, I'd rather do both in one night, to be honest. One thing I've noticed though (and I'm not making an assumption about you) is that people who hate dance clubs usually can't dance. I wonder if this affects (or effects?) their views on the matter.

Well, I can dance worth shit
But I have found no drive to try to learn it, even though my boyfriend is trying to make me.

Learn...to...dance? In a club? Man, at the very least, just throw your hands in the air, and wave em around like you just don't care. Traditional Punjabi dance, they call it 'bhangra.' Not like you need to learn the waltz or anything.

[Jaepheth]

I went to a club once. Too many people for my tastes and too many nauseous fumes. It was a bit fun "dancing" (i.e. moving about randomly and laughing at how ridiculous we looked) with my friends though.

Can't say I hated it, but I'd rather have my $25.

[Qwerty 42]

Packer reminded me, I just don't get mosh pits. Why in the world would I want to do such a thing?

[Ted C]

Beer. I don't understand the appeal of beer. It has a bitter taste by design (that's what the hops are for), and I don't particularly like drinking bitter-tasting things.

Well, technically the hops are a preservative to delay the transformation of the beer into vinegar, but some people apparently like it. I generally go for low-hop beers myself, and I prefer wine (which has its own issues: lots of people hate dry wines, for instance).

[Diomedes]

Well, technically the hops are a preservative to delay the transformation of the beer into vinegar, but some people apparently like it. I generally go for low-hop beers myself, and I prefer wine (which has its own issues: lots of people hate dry wines, for instance).

Funnily enough, I love vinegar. I stick it on a lot of my food, and sometimes drink it, especially apple cider vinegar, or balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar is nice too. If they'd allow the beer to turn into vinegar I'd likely find it more appealing

[Ford Prefect]

But people here really seemed to have liked it. What am I missing here?

What you're missing here is a deep seated love of Optimus Prime.

I don't get how people can call Anime a 'genre' with a straight face. It's a medium. I like some anime stuff, but only stuff that is already in a genre I like. For example, I like semi-realistic space opera, so I like Cowboy Bebop. However, giant robot stuff bores me shitless.

Quite frankly, anyone saying 'I don't get the popularity of anime' is making a comment somewhere along the same lines of 'I don't understand the popularity of books'. It's nonsense, really. I don't quite get the popularity of generic shonen fighting anime (well, I actually do, but whatever), though conversely I also don't get the popularity of rommantic comedies (I also actually get why these are popular with some people, but work with me here, I'm trying to stay on topic).

I suppose it might have something to do with the fact that animation isn't as 'real' as a bunch of actors, and thus making some people completely unable to focus upon the plot, character development or whatever.

Though if you're going to put anything up in this thread, it has to be CG animal movies. I mean what the fuck. Okay, they're designed primarily to appeal to children, and children like bright, colourful animals (presumably), but Christ Almighty. There's a new one every month, and it's killing CG movies in mainstream cinema.

That and Lovecraft's popularity. I have to admit that his ability to put together a vidual metaphor leaves me in the dust, chewing on the bitter jerky of defeat, but you'd think that a story would require some more substance to be as popular as his prove to be.

[Gullible Jones]

I think Neil Gaiman summed up Lovecraft pretty well, as the rock-and-roll of literature. Consider him to be something like the Elvis of horror.

(Alright, that analogy hurt. I'm not a Lovecraft fanboy, but the guy at least had a hell of an imagination. Whereas Elvis... Eh, I suppose it's better that I withhold my opinion on Elvis, because I really don't need to offend that many people. Nonetheless, they did inspire better artists in their respective fields, and they were both assholes, so it kind of works.)

[Rye]

I feel compelled to note which things I find cool that people seem to not understand.

I thought transformers was great, I got what I paid for which was wish fulfilment and shit blowing up and looking cool with enjoyable characters without any glaring bits that I really wanted to get in there and change.

I thought 24 was great, an asston of subplots, tension expertly built up at the end of every episode and walking the highly entertaining line between silly and convoluted and emotionally powerful. It went too far for me when the President was the baddie.

Lovecraft is cool because he pioneered several baselines for modern paranormal horror. The stories themselves can be a bit "meh" after reading them, but he's good when it comes to creating a good mythos as a background, as well as flirting with really alien ideas. I think he's great because he inspires similar set ups that talented writers can remake in their own images and make awesome (e.g. 40k, Ghostbusters, et al).

Metal, including extreme metal especially, is the stuff of kings. It's all about your hairs standing on end because you hear something so impossibly awesome and satisfying that you want to hear it more. If you can deal with aggression and like to hear the various ways artists explore violence and evil and other subjects in audio form rather than actually being violent, it's cool. It's just another way of putting together a creative text that other people can "read" and enjoy. Of course, if you're one of those people that claims it's all "yahrugh" or that african music is all "bombowombo" or classical music is all "wheewheeewhee plonk plonk plink" you're ignorant and than's about the size of it.

Dance music - only as boring and repetitive as the particular artist you're listening to, and if you want to listen to those rhythms, synths and samples outside of a club then it's obvious why you would. Aphex Twin, for instance doesn't repeat much throughout a song. This leads lots of people to not "get it" of course, but see above about metal.

Mosh pits - why would you want to do it? Adrenaline rush. Pretty straightforward.

Dance clubs - humans dance. In every culture, people have found that attempting to move their bodies to a beat is fun and attractive. If you can't fathom why this is meant to be fun, I suspect you're holding yourself back out of some sort of insecurity in yourself.

Animé - it's not something I ever really got into aside from a superficial appreciation for the artwork, boobies and special effects, the appeal is pretty obvious. It's a style over substance medium, people like the style and feel like they're part of something a bit exotic when they get into it.

As for what I don't get...hmmm...

I'll have to weigh in on beer, it tastes like ass to me and always has done. It's also considered a "manly" drink, and people drink it to get drunk. When a drink is only 4% it's not particularly "hardcore," and nor is it going to get you drunk very fast.

I get the overwhelming appeal of sports. It's basically organised open-ended conflict and us-them grouping. It doesn't appeal to me, but it seems pretty graspable why people get hooked on it.

I don't get why it's cool to let your pants fall down past your ass. In december too.

I don't get a lot of things attached to the "hardcore" music scene.

I don't get those earrings that have a big hole inside and stretch the skin so when you take them out, they leave a gross subvagina of skin.

[Superman]

Anime, anime and anime...

[Stark]

That and Lovecraft's popularity. I have to admit that his ability to put together a vidual metaphor leaves me in the dust, chewing on the bitter jerky of defeat, but you'd think that a story would require some more substance to be as popular as his prove to be.

Lovecraft is popular? Really? I might like his work, but as you say outside the visual element it's hackneyed, cliche-ridden badness. I've never met anyone who liked Lovecraft that I didn't introduce to it. Is this some giant internet conformist fad I have missed?

[Ford Prefect]

Lovecraft is popular? Really? I might like his work, but as you say outside the visual element it's hackneyed, cliche-ridden badness. I've never met anyone who liked Lovecraft that I didn't introduce to it. Is this some giant internet conformist fad I have missed?

I'm pretty sure; his stuff gets splashed over the internet, particularly Cthulhu, all the time, and the word 'Lovecraftian' is used far too often.

[The Spartan]

Lovecraft's world has taken on a life of it's own that goes beyond his work. That's why it's endured as much as it has. It inspired a great deal of horror authors of the time (and he encouraged this) who then inspired the next generation and the next.

[Stark]

Oh jesus Ford I see what you mean.

[Death from the Sea]

I don't get the whole Guitar Hero craze. That would also include other similar crazes and imitations, like Dance Dance Revolution and Rock Band.

[Darth Ruinus]

Halo,
Yeah, I play it with my friends and find it entertaining (probably because I am playing it with friends) but c'mon! Halo was just running from room to room shooting the same enemies over and over. People complain about repetetive gameplay, but Halo? No, Halo is the PWNZORFL!O!111!1

I never got beer. It makes you stupid, and makes you do stupid things and stupid mistakes. The fun is?

That mesa song and that gasolina song. Maybe you guys dont know these songs, but when I am dragged to parties with my family, its always that "mesa, mesa, mesa que mas applaude le mando le mando la nina!" and "dame mas gasolina! quiero mas gasolina!"

Hell, spanish music at parties. It's always the same shit, at every party, and the same songs are always popular.

[Rye]

I never got beer. It makes you stupid, and makes you do stupid things and stupid mistakes. The fun is?

If by beer you mean a generic term for alcohol, that's been done to death before. If you're asking why people might alcohol appealing for its effects (not all negative, by any means), to cut a long story short, it's a depressant that cuts down the normal amounts of anxiety humans feel. Cutting down anxiety makes socialisation much easier, thus making it easier to have fun in social groups. Unfortunately, it also diminishes sensible anxiety-causing activities and impairs judgement. In a more general feeling, it makes you feel calm and slightly jolly.

Perhaps you are one of those people who feels no social anxiety at all and is the life of the party wherever they go without drinking. Most people aren't like that.

[The Yosemite Bear]

DDR I sorta half way get...

for some unknown reason Team XX chrom really, really likes DDR...

for reasons that I will probably get shojo hammered for this, but I understand watching women play DDR.

[Phillip Hone]

I don't get facebook. Sure, you can talk to people you don't see a lot in real ife, but more often than not you end up talking to people you don't see a lot for a reason. And the conversations never really go beyond "hi wuts up?" and "lol nt much how r u?".

I've never tried facebook. There seems to be a fair bit of social pressure to join, though: my wife has received repeated requests from acquaintances to join their little "friend" communities on facebook, and she's starting to get the sense that these people are reluctant to communicate with her any other way.

In highschool, or at my high school at least, almost everybody assumes that you're a loser if you don't have one. Granted, that's just high school being high school, but it still points to how overblown the whole thing is.

I'll admit that facebook is kind of useful for communicating with people who have moved to other countries or states, but there are other ways that are better, IMO. Email, for instance.

[SCRawl]

I don't get most of the reality TV, especially the various flavours of "Idol", "Dancing with the Stars", etc. The appeal is hard for me to understand.

[Aeolus]

I don't get most of the reality TV, especially the various flavours of "Idol", "Dancing with the Stars", etc. The appeal is hard for me to understand.

I avoided Dancing with the stars for 3 seasons because I assumed it would be stupid and I would not like it. But I started watching with friends and now I love it. It's just about the most fun I have watching TV.

[Balrog]

I'll admit that facebook is kind of useful for communicating with people who have moved to other countries or states, but there are other ways that are better, IMO. Email, for instance.

Facebook's popularity is best summed up as appealing to peoples' sense of voyeurism. They want to know what you're up to today, why are you listed as Single now, and can you post the pics you took from last night's party plz kthnx? It can be handy for planning events though.

[speaker-to-trolls]

There's many kinds of TV shows which are popular for no easily understandable reason to me. I'm hardly rocking the boat by saying this, but I've never seen a reality TV show, talent contest or teen drama that didn't make me want to change the channel instantly. Well, that's not quite true, I used to watch the OC despite all the characters being incredibly annoying, and Skins because it was quite funny. Anyway, the thing I really don't understand is 'aspirational' shows or whatever they're called, "fabulous life of X, y and z", that kind of thing. What are you supposed to feel watching a program about how someone gets to live basically like a god just because they were on Friends? Are you supposed to feel envy? Awe? respect?

And Facebook, Myspace, etc. I only have two real friends, but at least for me that word actually means something substantial.

[PeZook]

I don't get most of the reality TV, especially the various flavours of "Idol", "Dancing with the Stars", etc. The appeal is hard for me to understand.

The reason is called "getting laid tonight".

I only ever watched "dancing with the stars" with my wife

I noticed that this particular show is only popular with women.

[wautd]

Out of the top of my head

Pop music, urban music, reality TV, World of Warcraft, the current Starcraft 2 hype, McDonalds, modern porn compared to classic, Japanimation, sports...

I totally understand a lot of people dissing beer, but I think that's more an issue of aquired taste and even more, the huge quality differences between the hundreds of types of beer.