tin ear

Noun

tin ear (plural tin ears)

1. Insensitivity to and inability to appreciate the elements of performed music or the rhythm, elegance, or nuances of language.
   • Despite their careless scholarship and a less tangible quality that some would call a tin ear for poetry, Morris Halle and S. J. Keyser, as metrists, have the considerable virtue of explicitness.1973, Thomas Cable, “A Garland of Pomposities: Comment on Halle-Keyser Prosody”, in College English, volume 34, number 4, page 593
2. (figuratively) Insensitivity to the nuances of the current situation or the subtleties of a craft; indifference to somebody else's attitudes, moods, and dialogue.
   • Japan has often displayed a tin ear to South Korean sensitivities over the island, which it calls Takeshima, having acquired it in the process of annexing Korea.2012 August 18, “Ripping yarns: A revived spat between Japan and South Korea unsettles the United States”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 11 Oct 2012
   • With the economy as it is, I think the RMT has a tin ear to think it will find sympathy or public support for strike action. I hope sense prevails,2020 December 2, Philip Haigh, “A winter of discontent caused by threat of union action”, in Rail, page 63

   Synonyms:

   tone-deafness