Music Banter - View Single Post

Gavin B. · 10-19-2009, 09:51 PM

I once revisited the thing I hated the most and I'll never go to another high school class reunion again. My advice is don't look back. Life is too short to linger on the those very things we already know we hate.

I think most of us become hard-wired in our musical tastes by age 21 and the stuff we hate at age 21 is inevitably the same stuff we'll hate when we're 64 years of age and collecting Social Security. That's the down side of the equation.

Now here's the up side: I'm constantly discovering new and exotic forms of music that never cease to amaze me. Your musical development doesn't end at age 21 and in hindsight the scope and depth of my appreciation for music has grown by leaps and bounds as an adult. You don't need to love heavy metal music to become a fully functioning adult.

Nearly every day I discover some new musician or musical genre that I've come across by word of mouth or stumble into in at some off-beat internet website. My degree is in history so I have a naturally curious mind about the origins and history of nearly every song I come across. All music is part of the folkways of a culture and every song, no matter how trite or banal is a first person musical narrative that tells of a story of the era the musician lived in.

I'm with you on heavy metal. I'm have an appreciation for Led Zeppelin's music but I'm not sure if they're considered a legit metal band. I loved Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett was a member but they lost me somewhere in early 70s. I've since revisited their catalog and found 20 or so select songs I really like. Ironically Pink Floyd lost me when they recorded Dark Side of the Moon which was their best selling album and the record that every hard core Pink Floyd fan tells me I just have to love... but I don't.

I'm not sure why you dislike Radiohead but I'm not crazy about them either. I'm not saying a lot about Radiohead because the jury is still out on the extent of their musical talent. Radiohead reminds me a lot of another quirky alternative band, the Flaming Lips. Everyone tells me I'm supposed to like both bands because of their avant garde sensibilities but neither band has produced any music that I find interesting or groundbreaking. To me Radiohead blends into the landscape of thousands of hip alternative bands that do just enough not to annoy me.

My appreciation for rap is limited to a few early 90s era socially conscious rap groups like A Tribe Called Quest , Arrested Development, Digable Planets, De La Soul and PM Dawn. I think M.I.A. is totally sick but I'm not sure if her brand of Bollywood hip-hop is even considered rap music by hard core rap fans. Hip-hip really lost me when NWA and gangsta rap came along. Gangsta rap brought hip-hop to MTV and it became the music of choice for overly pampered, affluent whiteboy gangsta wannabes who lived with at home with mommy in suburbia.

I've always loved country music and would suggest you purchase 40 Greatest Hits by Hank Williams, Dust Bowl Ballads by Woody Guthrie, and one newer America album by a female country music traditionalist like Hell Among the Yearlings by Gillian Welch or Escondida by Jolie Holland. All of those albums have a simple unadorned beauty that is stunning.

10-19-2009, 09:51 PM	#8 (permalink)
Gavin B. Model Worker Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1,248	I once revisited the thing I hated the most and I'll never go to another high school class reunion again. My advice is don't look back. Life is too short to linger on the those very things we already know we hate. I think most of us become hard-wired in our musical tastes by age 21 and the stuff we hate at age 21 is inevitably the same stuff we'll hate when we're 64 years of age and collecting Social Security. That's the down side of the equation. Now here's the up side: I'm constantly discovering new and exotic forms of music that never cease to amaze me. Your musical development doesn't end at age 21 and in hindsight the scope and depth of my appreciation for music has grown by leaps and bounds as an adult. You don't need to love heavy metal music to become a fully functioning adult. Nearly every day I discover some new musician or musical genre that I've come across by word of mouth or stumble into in at some off-beat internet website. My degree is in history so I have a naturally curious mind about the origins and history of nearly every song I come across. All music is part of the folkways of a culture and every song, no matter how trite or banal is a first person musical narrative that tells of a story of the era the musician lived in. I'm with you on heavy metal. I'm have an appreciation for Led Zeppelin's music but I'm not sure if they're considered a legit metal band. I loved Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett was a member but they lost me somewhere in early 70s. I've since revisited their catalog and found 20 or so select songs I really like. Ironically Pink Floyd lost me when they recorded Dark Side of the Moon which was their best selling album and the record that every hard core Pink Floyd fan tells me I just have to love... but I don't. I'm not sure why you dislike Radiohead but I'm not crazy about them either. I'm not saying a lot about Radiohead because the jury is still out on the extent of their musical talent. Radiohead reminds me a lot of another quirky alternative band, the Flaming Lips. Everyone tells me I'm supposed to like both bands because of their avant garde sensibilities but neither band has produced any music that I find interesting or groundbreaking. To me Radiohead blends into the landscape of thousands of hip alternative bands that do just enough not to annoy me. My appreciation for rap is limited to a few early 90s era socially conscious rap groups like A Tribe Called Quest , Arrested Development, Digable Planets, De La Soul and PM Dawn. I think M.I.A. is totally sick but I'm not sure if her brand of Bollywood hip-hop is even considered rap music by hard core rap fans. Hip-hip really lost me when NWA and gangsta rap came along. Gangsta rap brought hip-hop to MTV and it became the music of choice for overly pampered, affluent whiteboy gangsta wannabes who lived with at home with mommy in suburbia. I've always loved country music and would suggest you purchase 40 Greatest Hits by Hank Williams, Dust Bowl Ballads by Woody Guthrie, and one newer America album by a female country music traditionalist like Hell Among the Yearlings by Gillian Welch or Escondida by Jolie Holland. All of those albums have a simple unadorned beauty that is stunning.