Has Your Partner's Musical Taste Ever Been A Dealbreaker?

But most people, I suspect, don’t even make it to the relationship phase if musical tastes are a dealbreaker; with dating sites asking you to list your favorite things, it becomes easier and easier to weed out potential candidates based on things like listing what you perceive to be a heinous band. The lady or dude of your dreams might be out there, but if he or she admits that they listen to say, Nickelback, the dream just might die, hard.

Though it’s not entirely fair or accurate, it’s very easy to stereotype people based on their favorite bands, assigning them entire corresponding lifestyles based solely on the fact that their ears and brains find a particular set of noises somewhat pleasurable. It’s also a matter of questioning someone’s judgment on non-musical things—if this person thinks Creed is the greatest band of all time, and I think Creed sucks, why should I trust his or her opinion on anything else? If Creed guy says this restaurant is great, will it really be great? Or will it be the gastronomical equivalent of “With Arms Wide Open?”

At the same time, however, who’s to say that Creed Guy or Nickelback Lady (I’m using these two bands for their tendency to sharply divide public opinion—people either love them or hate them—so don’t be offended if they’re your favorites) doesn’t have much more in common with you than you’d think? I suppose it’s a matter of getting to know someone beyond the list of their favorite things, but it might be hard to do so if your date picks you up blasting a mix that consists of every song that has ever made you want to stick your fingers in your ears for eternity.

So what say you, commenters? Is music a dealbreaker or no? And if you and your partner disagree on music, do you share similar tastes in other things?