galt54

MY TASTES IN MUSIC – THE WHAT AND THE WHY

My ambition is that this essay will explain not only what I like in music – but also why I like it.

To begin with: I am a Swedish male who was born in 1954.

This essay will first show the reader which specific pieces of music I like after which I will try to induce why I like those particular pieces (i.e. I will seek to answer the question: What do those pieces of music have in common?).

First of all – the only genres of music which I like are modern rock and pop. Mostly, I only like the popular music made during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. I have a hard time finding any music made before 1960 or after 1990 which I like.

What does this say about me? Well, consider the fact that I do not like prog music very much. The only prog albums I ever listen to are the Yes albums of the 1970s, King Crimson´s masterpiece debut album, Nursery Chryme and Foxtrot. Apparently I like relatively simple music. Complex music merely overwhelms me. I am not up to the task of taking in and enjoying complex music. And I am bored by virtually all classical music and jazz!

Now, let´s be more specific: Which pop and rock music do I like?

Here are my favorite artists/bands – in the order that I like them. One criterion for this list is that the artist/band must have made at least five good albums and also at least twenty songs which I really enjoy listening to.

1) Madonna
2) Pet Shop Boys
3) Blue Öyster Cult
4) The Beatles
5) The Queers
6) The Punkles
7) Blondie
8) The Rolling Stones

There are a whole slew of artists/bands that I also like but am too lazy to rank in any order (they come behind my eight favorites, of course). One criterion for this list is that the artists/bands must have made at least three good albums and ten songs which I really like:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Cream, The Beach Boys, Steely Dan, Van Halen, Yes, The Police, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Wishbone Ash, Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa, The Supremes, Abba, AC/DC, The Village People, David Bowie, Budgie, Slade.

Now some of my favorite songs by my eight favorite artists/bands:

Madonna: Where´s the Party, Into the Groove, Vogue, Holiday, Express Yourself, Hanky Panky, Rescue Me, Who´s That Girl, La Isla Bonita.

Pet Shop Boys: You Only Love Me When You´re Drunk, You Choose, Pandemonium, Red Letter Day, West End Girls, The Truck Driver and His Mate, Se A Vida E, Girls and Boys, Girls Don´t Cry.

Blue Öyster Cult: Hot Rails to Hell, The Red and the Black, Dominance and Submission, Blue Öyster Cult (the version on the Imaginos album), Flaming Telepaths, Astronomy, Tattoo Vampire, Transmaniacon MC, Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll.

The Beatles: Penny Lane, I Saw Her Standing There, I Feel Fine, Daytripper, Drive My Car, Sgt. Pepper´s Lonely Heart Club´s Band (reprise), Here Comes the Sun, Strawberry Fields, All You Need is Love, Lady Madonna, Back in the U.S.S.R., Only a Northern Song (plus many, many more).

The Queers: Kicked Out of the Webelos, Rambo Rat, F*ck the World, Punk Rock Girls, She´s a Cretin, I Only Drink Bud, Another Girl, Love Love Love, Tamara is a Punk.

The Punkles (they only did covers of Beatles songs – so these are my favorite covers of theirs): I´m Looking Through You, Lady Madonna, And Your Bird Can Sing, Drive My Car, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Looking Through a Glass Onion, Get Back, All My Loving.

Blondie: In the Sun, 11:59, Dreaming, X Offender, Maria, Nothing is Real But the Girl, Atomic, Forgive and Forget, Island of Lost Souls, Call Me, One Way or Another, Pretty Baby.

The Rolling Stones: Ruby Tuesday, Paint it Black, Mother´s Little Helper, Satisfaction, The Last Time, Jumping Jack Flash, Brown Sugar, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Have You Seen Your Mother Baby etc., In Another Land, Citadel.

As you can see, my taste sprawls all over the place – within the confines of rock and pop. I see one common thread in this selection of songs most especially. I only like songs which have “strong” and distinct melodies. By strong, I mean that the melody leaps out at me. The melody is “in my face”. It is based on a great hook. I am “not amused” by subtle music.

Why do I only like simple tunes? Well, according to my esthetics, the only value which music has is: entertainment value. I only listen to music because it makes me feel good. Simple music enables me to relax and enjoy. I do not need to concentrate and to flex my gray cells in order to enjoy music with simple, obvious melodies.

Another pattern, which emerges from my list of favorite songs, is that I tend to prefer fast, lively, up-tempo songs over slow, quiet ones. This is probably due to my basic psychology. I am a cheerful, happy-go-lucky, chronically optimistic person. I am in love with life. Therefore I pursue values very actively. And my mental life is also active, both in respect to thoughts and emotions. Actually, ever since I went through a psychosis during my teenage years, my mind is hyper-active. So “it figures” that I feel most comfortable listening to music which also is a fortiori “lively”.

Why do I place such importance on good melodies? Why not focus on harmony or rhythm? The answer certainly lies in the philosopher Ayn Rand´s observation that the melody is the element of a piece of music which integrates it into a unified whole. The melody is the attribute of a song which makes it that particular song and no other. The melody gives the song its identity and its distinctive “personality”.

Listening to music takes up a major part of my waking hours. I take my iPod everywhere I go. It is my most cherished material possession, along with my PC. I listen to music on the subway, at work, when I am at home reading – all the time except when I am sleeping or when my wife objects.

I love variety in my music. I have amassed a collection of roughly six hundred cds, most of which I have purchased from CD Universe and Amazon during the past eight years. In addition, I have purchased and downloaded roughly 2,600 individual songs from iTunes. I have never downloaded any music illegally. It would be beneath my dignity to rip off either the musical artists or the record companies (big business firms have property rights too, you see).

I am immensely grateful to: the good ones among the popular musical artists, the record companies and Apple Inc. They have filled my life with extra enjoyment and happiness.