Why do you like the music you like?
Zeke
221 Posts
livejournal-esque preface (apologies to meatyogre and anyone annoyed by these types of posts)A little more than 3 months ago I got into a serious car accident, during which I believe I had my first non-drug induced "near-death, out of body experience." Since then I have spent a lot of time looking at what I'm doing in my life, and seriously re-examining many of the things that once seemed important to me. Until about a month ago, I was laid up on the couch at my mom's apartment (no shame) enjoying the prescribed pharma-opiate haze, spending most of my waking hours reading and talking to an ever smaller circle of friends. During one such conversation, a friend asked me how I could like both punk rock (and other more-or-less contemporary instrumental music) as well as hip-hop and other forms of dance music. My first instinct was to react with a diatribe about how "urban culture" attracts me and how punk rock and hip-hop are much more similar than most people are willing to admit. Instead I decided that the question "How?" wasn't as important as the question "Why?" Why do I like the music that I like? The following is an excerpt of an e-mail I sent him a few days later, posted here with the intention of starting a conversation about music that goes beyond just race, sex, age, ego, and geography./livejournal/...To answer your question Gxxx, I think I have finally figured out, at least on a surface level, why I enjoy dance music; immediacy. We, as humans, are on this earth for a relatively infinitesimal amount of time. In realizing this, I think that the concept of immediacy is something that should be of at least great consideration. That's not to say that one should occupy themselves with items of seeming importance at all times, but rather that even in just being, one should contemplate that they are living in a single moment in time. A time that, unless the current "rules" of time and space are transcended by rudimentary organics, will never occur again. Each moment, a step away from birth and towards organic death. Now, I'm assuming your question right now is, "Alright, that's what you believe. What does that have to do with music?" Living in the moment. That single moment when first bass drum beat hits, and a crowd of motionless, seemingly disconnected people begin to move in unison to a single set of vibrations. Although the concept has only become obvious to me recently, I can remember the first time I consciously thought about immediacy while listening to music. During a Descendants show when I was 15 or 16 this band called Handsome, who I had never heard of at that time, came on. I wasn't expecting much, but as soon as the opening drums kicked in, I was sent into a completely different world. I could feel the electricity in the crowd. I got goose bumps and couldn't stop moving....In retrospect, I can remember feeling this way on many different occasions; listening to John Coltrane records of my Dad's when I was much younger, the first time I listened to Wu Tang's 36 Chambers, when I saw Public Enemy live years ago, my first visit to a local "club" night, etc, etc. The names and people are as irrelevant as they are relevant, because I honestly don't believe it was the music alone that moved me and I certainly wouldn't presuppose that one group or person has intrinsically greater potential than any other. It was that feeling of being alive, it was sharing that energy with an artist and, more often than not, with a crowd of people who I didn't know. It's almost like many people's first psychedelic experience, the concept of "self" and "other" is washed away, leaving behind, at least temporarily, a feeling of being connected by an unknown force/energy....So, I hope that answers your question. Thanks for asking, and in return I ask you, why do you like the music you like?[/b]Peace,Zeke SoulStrut P.S. I'm not trying to be deep, I'm just interested in people's personal opinions on their own tastes.
Comments
Now as for why I like hip-hop, I like it because it was still a semi young artform when I was old enough to "claim" it as mine. So when my big sister was listening to Minor Threat and claiming it as hers, her path to take (away from the parental unit's music) I went with hip-hop, which was what was popular in school I guess. Make any sense? Environmental thing I guess.
Glad to hear you're okay, Man. I was wondering about you the other day and was gonna email you to see how things are going. I was thinking about how hard you took the election and how we hadn't really heard from you since.
Sorry I'm not really answering your question, but I hadda give you a shout.
Peace,
Ross
I was raised to consider music an important part of my life, but had no idea how important it would become.
There are things I don't listen to as much these days because I no longer feel the need (especially harder/angrier punk stuff) but I'm sure I'll come around again.
I like Linda Ronstadt because she said "I think I spend some of my most miserable hours on stage performing..." and yet she still sings to me, and the songs -- while sounding simple -- are really not, simple. My grandfather liked Ronstadt only the way a grandfather can like Ronstadt I suppose, and for that, I love her.
I loke those ehtnic Folkways records because they have extensive liner notes about cultural spirituality. I like drones. I like zoning out. I like listening to 40 minutes of chanting. I took an aptitude test in high school and they said I was best suited to be a monk. Yet I sold drugs and stole cars? Folkways reconciles those two, somehow. Lots of hiss too, which is good in life.
I like depressing British mope synth postmodern music. It's not like it's hard to find a way to make fun of it, and so there it is. Make fun of it. That's kinda what they are doing, yet the tough guys don't realize the joke is on them. I mean, he wears a fake hearing aid, hold gladiolas in his pocket, sings love songs to serial killers, and lies prostrate on J. Dean's grave. You think he's been called a fag? A child in a curious phase. A man with sullen ways. Oh, I know very well how I got my name.
I like genius black music for its contiguity. Am I there? You have to ask when you listen. Shit is like a breathing history lesson that sometimes spits on you. Hard.To.Ignore. It's nice to fuck to as well. And drive. And home alone late night low lights wondering what's next. touching or connected throughout in an unbroken sequence rhymes with JAMES FUCKING BROWN. Ask somebody. And Curtis Mayfield singing "Hard Times" or "Right on for the Darkness" is spelled out best in, being in actual contact. So yea, contiguity!
I like early '80s industrial music. Skinny Puppy defines horror/porno/political movie sample ring modulator "can I say 'dog shit' here" with pig blood smeared all over my face and hands era roughness for me. The drum machines are pretty unstoppable too. Red vinyl 12" with ghouls on the cover. And people that dress like this will always get my respect.
I like folk/country music, primarily, because as a kid, I spent my summer in the country -- killing muskrats, driving bulldozers, eating off trees, and not showering. Songs about "riding the rails" remind me of when I was
homelessfree. They sound simple, like Linda, but they're not. Van Ronk, Guthrie, Leadbelly, Phillips, Sorrells, Butter Boy (eephy!). Twangy guitar with a dork country accent (real or not) makes me want to walk away from concrete things and bust my hymen riding a horse. Donkey (norape).I like hip-hop because it's accidentally all fucked up and atonal. No one making music the "right" way would just slow something down to make it match with something else. Yet, that's perfectly acceptable in hip-hop. Dissonance. Off key. Pitchless bravado. Dudes talking about how big their dick is and why they won't lick beaver. Slick. The bass from the Dangerous Crew is a big attraction. When you are cruising around Lake Merritt and the four 18s are hitting so hard your stomach feels like it's going to collapse... When you are doing rap beats in the bedroom and hit the LFO switch on accident and all of a sudden the soundwaves are the size of sea vessels... yes to all that shit. BOOOM!
It's hard for me to classify moods, so I put everything away alphabetically and clusterfuck my way through the stack when I want to feed a mood. It makes it perfectly acceptable to segue from Leonard Cohen to Maria Callas to JVC to Mingus to Ogre to Tears for Fears.
I am interested in different things for different reasons at different times.
Physically I like to get down to good Soul or Progressive Hard Rock. Intellectually I need my 20th Century Classical and Ethnic Folkways and certain Jazz artists. Spiritually I need my Independent Jazz, Fragile Folk and Private Issue New Age.
I guess what I am trying to say is that different music serves different purposes.
I need my Classical and Early Music to get me through the morning workdays. I need my Fragile Folk for those drives through the desert or the woods. I need my Mono Jazz and Classical when I want to have the sonic experience of hearing what my stereo system can really do.
I guess what I really need is variety. I need new music for new moments. Not just one genre of music.
I think one of the things that is most difficult for me to understand is when someone is just a Jazz collector or just into Funk 45's. Well, most people who like Funk are into Jazz and other shit but I have noticed people who are into vintage Jazz are often just into vintage Jazz.
I mean what up with that?
" Oh I only listen to antiquated music that is 50 years old performed by junkies who play the same 100 songs over and over again ".
Oh shit... Someone is going to beef with me on this? It is the way I feel. I like Booker Ervin. I think John Handy is really quite good. Coltrane is one of the most important figures of the 20th Century in regards to music but whatever... Anyone who is just into " this " and just into " that " is not in the real world in a way that really interests me in regards to music.
I guess I exhausted certain genres of music personally and I know this is saying a lot for a 36 year old but I have listened constantly for the past 10 years.
This is why in my search for something new I scrape at genres that are overlooked and dismissed with the urgency to find something new.
Ethnic Music
Private Issue New Age
20th Century Classical and Avant Garde
Electronic and Experimental Music
Private label Singer Songwriter and Folk
Christian and Relegious Music
Undiscovered Classic Rock and Singer Songwriter tracks on Common 70's LP's
Mono Classical Recordings pressed in the 50's
The whole Jazz, Soul, Rock thing seldom reveals anything that I did not already understand or know at this point but it sure is good listening.
Good topic.
ap
Ditto...except the part about Folk and Private Issue New Age.
Everything else, shit, it's like you read my mind.
----yyyeeaaaahhhh thanks. AP has some of the best one-liners!!!
my moms Otis Redding, Crystal Gayle and Ted Nugent records mixed in right behind my father who liked Smokey Robinson, Elton John, and Rod Stewart. my neighbors father was an east san jose lowrider dude. he had all the shit for the rides like the Brenton Wood and the Sweet Soul records like the Whispers and the Stylistics. their mother was an older white lady who was into Elvis Presley and Chet Atkins and more country music.
with the siblings, the eldest sister (7+ yrs our age) was into the current soul sound of the time. i guess you could say like The Time, Prince, and earlier she was listening to the disco records of the time. the next sister was the rebel. i remember her talking about everything from Adam Ant, Bauhaus, Iggy Pop, and more. she also got us to start listening to the Cure, and Pixies, and other groups from that time. the next was a brother who listened to rap music. we listened to Grandmixer DSt, Kurtis Blow, Run DMC, and learned all the BBoy moves and would break down at Fishermans Wharf for money bringing all these type of records and tapes.
besides this my aunt used to really be into the old doo-wop music. she used to make me tapes of the Drifters and the Nutmegs and other groups. there was a time in my life when my mother made me stop listening to it cause she thought it was weird that i was just listening to music from the 50s. she made me listen to Aerosmith and Foghat to get over it... hahaha...
that was the time though that taught me what i liked and didnt like. i know exactly what i like and what i dont like doesnt impress me. sometimes i change my mind but like everyone else it all depends on my mood.
anyway... this is the track list of tunes i listened to while writing this:
Elements of Love - Let's Try Making Love (Brown Duck)
Freedom Machine - Stop Doubting My Love (Alarm)
Mighty Generation - For All the Beautiful Things You Do (BER)
Fire Sound - El Bendra (GAF)
Los Juniors - Ensalada Para Todos (CBS)
i like everything else i listen to cause it sounds good when i am high, and for the most part when i am not