Music Banter - View Single Post

Geekoid · 08-11-2012, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Great work, Geekoid! I'm dead-straight not into Bjork or Italian disco, nor do I ever think I would be, but the most important aspects of these journals I find is not that you're necessarily into the music (though of course that helps, or if you get into it via the journal entry/ies), but that they're written well.

The articles should be interesting, engaging, different and above all understand that not everyone is going to be necessarily into this music, and to accept that and not villify them for it.

Your journal scores on all counts, and I'd almost put it on a par with Anteater's work --- high praise indeed.

Keep it up!

Thanks. That really is quite a compliment

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I've kind of let things slip a little bit over the last week. It's been tough over the last few days- low energy, a bad sleep cycle and constant headaches (nothing I'm not accustomed to, of course). But I'm slowly coming back out from the fog. Let's get this thing running again.

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So, this time around, I'm stepping a little more toward the acoustic side of things with some 90s Adult Alternative favorites. The 90s were a gold mine for AA classics, and set the overall tone of top 40 radio then, with slower pop-rock music aimed at the 20+ age demographic. Demographics, however, aren't set in stone, and so Adult Contemporary music has also reached a lot of young people. It's the kind of music that parents can play in their cars, not needing to worry too much about the lyrics their kids are singing along to. Often the subject matter can provide some good conversations about life in all its curiosity. From the Barenaked Ladies to Sheryl Crow to The Tragically Hip to Tracy Chapman; these artists were like friends of mine growing up.

What makes this genre meaningful for me is the fact that it's music with mature (or at least witty), and intelligent lyrics about everyday life, sung by ordinary-sounding people. It's peoples' feelings and experiences placed in a form that melds perfectly with things like going to the grocery store, the doctor's office, or heading back home from grandma's house, watching the countryside roll by outside your window.

I'm the kind of guy who responds best to sensitivity and insight in lyrics. Too much turbulence really upsets and drains me. I tend to pull energy from low-key situations and intimate conversation instead. I'm a small town guy with interests that suit the city- quiet cafes, park benches, that sort of thing. In a way, AA music represents that kind of feeling for me- it builds a sheltered, rustic place where it's always like evening in the fall. It's like sharing my most intimate thoughts with a friend or loved one over a hot cup of cider, and everything is just casual and relaxed. Each song contains a memory of something irreplaceable and good in my life- treehouses and backyard parties, road trips and trips to the park, hiking in the woods, the people I used to know who have moved on, and people I've known for years who aren't like they used to be... Adult Alternative music is something like a home video or a polaroid camera to me- capturing those small moments that mean more and more as time passes.

And so, as summer begins to wind down here in Southern Ontario, the first few leaves are beginning to change color... it's barely perceptible, but the days are getting shorter... and I'm able to pull out a long sleeved shirt or a sweater on increasingly cool summer nights. And just like clockwork, I've really gotten into the mellow mood of 90s soft rock and its popular singer-songwriters as August presses forward.

Spoiler for 7 tracks of Adult Alternative:

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