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andrewduckerI'm somewhat a slow learner when it comes to music. I started late (first Album, 1988, Guns and Roses, Appetite for Destruction, aged 16), and it pretty much always takes me several listens to get into music. There's literally no point me buying more than 2-3 albums a month because I just won't take in that much new music.
My music taste runs generally towards the darker end of the spectrum, although there are happy, joyful elements in there too. Staring at my music folder, there's Bowie and Coldplay and DJ Shadow and Depeche Mode and Alanis and Fatboy Slim and the KLF and Ministry and Mr Bungle and Nine Inch Nails and Pink Floyd and Pop Will Eat Itself and Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins and Suzanne Vega and The Beatles and The Prodigy and U2 and VNV Nation and numerous others that put me squarely into the 'alternative' charts.
I don't like being 'alternative' in anything, mostly because I'd vastly prefer it if the music I liked was mainstream and the drek that mostly populates the top ten was relegated to somewhere else. I've spent a lot of time thinking about music, about why I like what I do and what it is that categorises the music I like. This is mostly because people keep asking me "Why on earth do you listen to that??? The only answer I've managed to come up with is "It sounds how I feel" and that's generally true. Music, to me, is a primarily emotional experience. Sure, I've liked some music because it was technically incredible, or because the lyrics were well written, but that rarely carries a song past its third hearing. For something to be played more than a few times it really needs to sink in deep and pull out hanfduls of emotion.
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spidermonster was whining the other day that nobody else shared his taste in music. So I asked him for some recommendations, which I'm listening to at the moment (the joys of MP3, he simply copied a bunch of files into a "Nick Says" folder). Nick's taste runs towards the industrial. Well, that and really trashy pop music. So I'm mostly listening to Germans shouting over a drum machine that's obviously had a deeply unhappy childhood. Bits of it leave me cold (the very simple stuff), but bits of it are actually quite inventive, and even tuneful. I've never been into complete noise (except for the occasional blast of anger that catches me just right, like Ministry's TV II), but things which lie a few meters off the shore of complete noise can be very interesting and very satisfying. What I tend to like most is juxtaposition, where there's a really noisy background with beauty floating over the top of it or vice versa.
I've got nigh-on 100 tracks of various types lying here, which will no doubt keep me going for the next few weeks, by which time some of them will no doubt have inserted themselves into my consciousness and others will be gingerly picked up and deposited in the recycle bin. But it's definitely a good experience, pushing myself further into areas that I don't normally listen to, something which has always brought excellent results in the past.
My music taste runs generally towards the darker end of the spectrum, although there are happy, joyful elements in there too. Staring at my music folder, there's Bowie and Coldplay and DJ Shadow and Depeche Mode and Alanis and Fatboy Slim and the KLF and Ministry and Mr Bungle and Nine Inch Nails and Pink Floyd and Pop Will Eat Itself and Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins and Suzanne Vega and The Beatles and The Prodigy and U2 and VNV Nation and numerous others that put me squarely into the 'alternative' charts.
I don't like being 'alternative' in anything, mostly because I'd vastly prefer it if the music I liked was mainstream and the drek that mostly populates the top ten was relegated to somewhere else. I've spent a lot of time thinking about music, about why I like what I do and what it is that categorises the music I like. This is mostly because people keep asking me "Why on earth do you listen to that??? The only answer I've managed to come up with is "It sounds how I feel" and that's generally true. Music, to me, is a primarily emotional experience. Sure, I've liked some music because it was technically incredible, or because the lyrics were well written, but that rarely carries a song past its third hearing. For something to be played more than a few times it really needs to sink in deep and pull out hanfduls of emotion.
The ever spiffy
spidermonster was whining the other day that nobody else shared his taste in music. So I asked him for some recommendations, which I'm listening to at the moment (the joys of MP3, he simply copied a bunch of files into a "Nick Says" folder). Nick's taste runs towards the industrial. Well, that and really trashy pop music. So I'm mostly listening to Germans shouting over a drum machine that's obviously had a deeply unhappy childhood. Bits of it leave me cold (the very simple stuff), but bits of it are actually quite inventive, and even tuneful. I've never been into complete noise (except for the occasional blast of anger that catches me just right, like Ministry's TV II), but things which lie a few meters off the shore of complete noise can be very interesting and very satisfying. What I tend to like most is juxtaposition, where there's a really noisy background with beauty floating over the top of it or vice versa.I've got nigh-on 100 tracks of various types lying here, which will no doubt keep me going for the next few weeks, by which time some of them will no doubt have inserted themselves into my consciousness and others will be gingerly picked up and deposited in the recycle bin. But it's definitely a good experience, pushing myself further into areas that I don't normally listen to, something which has always brought excellent results in the past.
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no subject
Date: 2002-06-08 07:22 pm (UTC)Brillant. And the funniest thing I've read for days.
l@mer!
Date: 2002-06-09 04:43 am (UTC)You're weak! WEAK I TELL YOU!
If it doesn't shatter your puny eardrums, it's not worth listening to!
Well... unless it's S Club. There ain't -no- party like an S Club party.
If you'd wanted more melodic bleepy stuff I'd have reccomended that. Try the Project Pitchfork and Flesh Field.
Re: l@mer!
Date: 2002-06-10 05:39 am (UTC)if you dont nearly pass out dancing to it, then it's not music!
no subject
Date: 2002-06-10 05:48 am (UTC)I want my music to stomp on me!
Re: l@mer!
Date: 2002-06-10 06:26 pm (UTC)