“I’m surprised you can even hear that” x1000.

No negativity meant here but I’ve had so many conversations with friends and family about playing bass and it’s somewhat shocking how universally they all say they can’t even hear the bass lines in most songs. And many of them are people that genuinely like and listen to a lot of music.

I’ve always wondered about this. As bass players we’ve trained ourselves to instinctively zero in on the bass in every song because it’s what we like. Even if it’s buried in the mix, we hear it because we can tune everything else out. But it’s not always the song!!! I’ve heard people say this even about classics.

Are bass players just magical mystic creatures with ears tuned to different frequencies from birth? Because I don’t ever remember not being able to immediately identify the bass, even before I got into playing one.

Sorry for silly rant. Just a funny observation I hear over and over.