One question I seem to never tire of
being asked is “why do you listen to such weird music?” I've never
had a good answer. And I'm usually drunk when I'm asked it so I
really can't make anything connect. But I really do like the
question, and I think maybe I like it because I don't have an answer
and it forces me to constantly evaluate my interests and ideas.
Which is something no one does nearly enough. People need to stop,
breathe, re-evaluate and either make alterations or decide the path
they're on is the right one for them and continue on. Either way is
fine, as long those considerations are made and accounted for every
so often. Be a crazy-ass murderer. Just WANT to be a crazy-ass
murderer. Don't do it because your parents pushed you to follow in
their footsteps.
Back to the topic at hand. Music is
what you make of it. Music sets the mood, it sets the tone of the
day, of the hour. Really fun music can be great. It can also be
really boring. Or really grating. Or just not what you need.
Sometimes you need to be depressed. Sometimes you need to feel like
your brain is being slowly and inefficiently worn down by the
rhythmic ripping of a dull cheese grater. Sometimes you need to get
angry. Sometimes you just need to dance. Sometimes you need to feel
as insignificant as possible. And sometimes you just need to get
LAID.
But what about when you're not looking
to “set a tone” or get some drunk chick to feel sexier than she
probably looks. What about when you're just at home. Alone.
Nothing to do except listen to music. No real mood to set. No
depression to feed or stave off. I'm rarely trying to completely
numb myself. Everything I listen to ends up being a lesson. A
lesson in myself, in the world around me, in my friends and who they
are and why they're like that, in forces greater than we can know.
Music has this incredible power to not only shape our moods and
define our emotions but to give weight and viability to concepts and
ideas. It's more than just feeling good. I know this sounds stupid
because it always does no matter how it's said or who says it but
music is truly mind expanding in ways that few other things are.
By mind expanding I mean to say that
music can show you not simply new paradigms with which to create
music, but full-fledged maps of social, political and philosophical
realities. Sound itself is simply a medium, stuff, material, in the
same way that paint and paper scraps are the “stuff” of painting
and collage respectively. A red dot means nothing on a canvas until
you ascribe meaning onto it. Even a fully-realized, figurative
painting means shit without some context. The less context you give
it then it becomes the audience's job to interpret. The more context
(aka, “meaning”) you impose the less interpretation and the more
concrete it becomes. That's not to say that the best figurative
painting doesn't have loads of hidden messages and interpretable
content. It just means that it's more outwardly understandable.
With sound it's very much the same. The more easily-apparent
structure that's imposed the more easily interpretable it is. That
doesn't mean that great music isn't well structured and seemingly
nondescript. It's the interpretation of subtleties, the hidden
messages, the slight differences between one song and a similar song
that make one or the other more or less interesting.
With modern, radio-friendly pop music,
there's rarely much to talk about. Bump-bump-bump-bump. That
doesn't mean I don't listen to Britney almost every morning (these
are hard facts, people). But at the same time for some people they
find a lot of pleasure in listening to nothing but pop music. Music
that speaks on a very simple, but emotionally/psychologically
resonant level.
Taylor Swift is a great example. She
makes really sweet, beautiful (let's not call it country, because
it's not) pop music that's heartfelt and emotive. She talks about
issues that most of us have endured or at least fantasized about
(also we've all fantasized about her so it's not hard to think of
yourself—if you're a guy—as the guy in each of her songs): bad
break-ups, new crushes gone bad, budding romances, and the
uncomfortable truth of seeing your ex move on whether you have or
not. It's powerful stuff and she's got a killer voice and a great
set of producers that really help build beautifully sappy pop gold.
I listened to her new album CONSTANTLY for about 4 months. I
listened to it in the car. With friends (yes, in a room full of
guys). Playing Call of Duty. Writing job applications. Cooking
dinner. Me and a couple friends got hooked to that shit. And that's
because it's great. It's silly, it's cheesy, but it really allows
you to visualize the stories and the stories really connect. And so
with pop music you have the heartfelt music and the strong
story-based lyrics to draw you in. Either that or a great hook, a
catchy beat and some awesome synth or guitar work to get GROOOOOVIN'.
More on this in part two, in which I talk about the stylistic origins of my tastes.
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