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As someone who still enjoys disco, I have no trouble keeping an open mind in regards to what I hear. I have heard plenty of music that was considered "avant-gard", "cutting-edge" or whatever label you choose to describe or encumber your music with. Some I liked, some I didn't and some I learned to like.

Most of it is incomprehensible to me. I just can't seem to get into it. But YMMV!

Some I love, some I like, some leaves me indifferent, some I dislike, some I really hate, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER KIND OF MUSIC! You're not going to get any useful data if you ask people to generalise so much.

As long as someone is getting a musical experience from it, then I'm for it.

I'm still waiting to hear Eddie Van Halen in 5.1 on either DVD-A or SACD.

It was big news, sixty or eighty years ago.

It

It is just not worth the bother.

I have no idea what avant garde refers to in music.

Intuitively, "avant-garde" still means any music that does not fit traditional Western harmonic and melodic conventions, even though music like that has been written for a hundred years now. As far as how I feel about it -- as always, I evaluate each piece on its individual merits, and end up enjoying some of the works and not others. Expressing an opinion on a class (for a lack of a better word) of music as a whole, especially one as broad as this, is meaningless.

I even hate it on vinyl!!

I don't have a define it? Cage? Glass? or for me Hip Hop? Each musical offering must be evaluated as individual experience. I loved Glass peices when i saw it a the NYC Ballet but Einstein on the Beach is just to much for me. So Jazz is fine but much recent Jazz never caputures my attention. Live classical music esp Ballet Opera and Chamber music, that's me. My home system is to remind me of the live experience or to expore music I can not get to hear.

The avant-garde is all that is progressive and usually challeging. It dominates what I listen to but like all "genres" can not be consumed consistently. Listen to Derek Bailey.

Way back when I was a young kid, I used to seak out Avant-Garde music. To many lame purchases have me looking better music. Avant-Garde is usually the forfront of musoc style, but more often not most lead paths to no where!

I love hearing brand new compositions by aspiring new composers. I have been very impressed, for example, by several selections I have bought from Naxos under their 21st Century classics listing. Also, I have been impressed by the wonderful catalogs of New World, CRI and ECM to mention a few other great labels.

Meredith Monk, Diamanda Galas, John Cage, Morton Feldman, George Crumb, Harry Partch, Pauline Oliveros, Iannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi, Joan LaBarbara. Why do you ask? Stereophile never writes anything about them.

Well, not only for me but in general "avant-garde" is a term used in the arts to denote those who make a radical departure from tradition. You must not love it right away but should consider it a very important part of modern music. It takes time and some effort to get into it but once you're there you can feel quite comfortable. The tough part is to distinguish jokers from serious artists. But to give it a try is exciting!

Really like Philip Glass.

As examples, Miles Davis and Brian Eno pioneered new schools of thought for jazz and, in Eno's case, rock and then ambient musics. Now these branches of the larger genres are near mainstream to many serious music lovers. And little if none of Mile's and Eno's groundbreaking works sound dated today.

Avante-garde jazz is really best appreciated live to witness the interplay between the musicians. Some really good recordings, on the CIMP label for example, allow this interplay to be appreciated on a fine stereo system, but live is best.

the equivalent of modern art (e.g. a painting that does not portrait a crying gypsy child)

In my personal opinion the genre will come to pass relatively quickly. I believe that we are moving towards a simplification of musical forms that attempt to more accessible dialogue between instruments rather than explorations into Deconstructionist (Post-modernist) art. I personally site such "up and comers" as The White Stripes, Nickel Creek, as well as tried and true innovators like Daniel Lanois.

It doesn't really exist anymore. There isn't any fresh and new that I am aware of. Just new and reconstituted/tired. Maybe a crooner, from the ranks of am radio would be considered avant garde.... A Mel Torme rising up from the ashes of current pop drivel.

Never heard of it before.

Avant-garde is what's covered in "The Wire" magazine from England and I love it.

a horn loudspeaker !!! 'I cried when the music ended'

Not everyone wants to listen to "smooth jazz" - thank goodness for avant-garde music!

Avante garde musics primary virtue is to stretch the foundations of music, so that some other, less esoteric musician can go 'aha' and include a bit to something actually listenable.

Like most kinds of music, you will find from master works to worthless trash. As a whole, I find it interesting to listen to it trhough there are just a few pieces I would like owning for repeated playback.

I can't be worse than hip-hop.