The Sound of Music
This will be a two part blog entry. If you are a friend who is reading, feel free to skip to the second part.
I know I just did a blog about the emotional impact of actors. Now I'm starting to think that my love of emotionality (or authenticity, which may be a better term) extends to music. I am very picky about the music I like. But I think I have it narrowed down to three things that will make or break a song for me.
1: Beat, melody, or rhythm. (An aside: the word rhythm is a bitch to spell. I just learned how to spell it about 3 months ago, but I can really only spell it with a certain learned keystroke, as if I was playing piano. Normally I'm an amazing speller. I don't ever use spell check.) Ok so, getting back to the topic. I will like most songs that are performed in a minor key. I've always hated the major key, but maybe that goes hand in hand with my dark and twisted personality. I'm a sucker for string instruments, which sound wonderful in a minor key. I also love bass and drums. Needless to say, I am LOVING this dubstep trend in music. There are other things about the actual music of a song that make me enjoy it more, but those things are very hard to put into words. I know it when I hear it.
2: The singer's voice. I can't stand Incubus, Sting (or The Police), or the Bee Gees. Something about each of their voices really pisses me off so much that I hate all of their songs. I hate guys that sound like they have whiny voices, like Dashboard Confessional. In contrast, most women singers don't bother me, but their songs tend to be more upbeat, so that can be a turn off, unless you are Lily Allen and you sing upbeat songs sarcastically. I love smoky female voices, like Brandi Carlile's voice, and various male voices, like Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, and lower voices like Nick Cave.
3: Authenticity. This is a new category that I've just been thinking about recently. I love to hear emotion in a performer. The way Brandi's voice breaks at 2:53 on The Story gets me every time. The way Muse's Matt Bellamy sounds like he is in anguish when singing Hysteria is intoxicating to me. Even if they aren't emotional in a dramatic fashion, it still sounds better when it's authentic. If someone sounds like they are having fun while they are singing, like pretty much anything by Louis Prima, or being quietly seductive, like Poe, that falls under the same category. I wondered recently why I wasn't getting into Liz Phair's music. Now I think it's because I doubt her authenticity. I AM able to like songs with mediocre emotion to them, but only if they have a great beat or melody.
There is another category, but it is extremely subjective, as in, you can't apply any rules to it. Nostalgia. I can think of a ton of songs that remind me of family, or high school dances, or driving in my car, or even playing Snood during the winter of 2000, and those songs I will always love, regardless of how I would feel about them under normal circumstances. Because I am getting old-ish (almost 30 now!), I'd like to trace back some of the memories, in case I somehow lose these associations later.
I could name about a thousand Christmas, Disney, and 60s songs from when I was young that remind me of my family, but that would get old fast. So I'm going to only list the most socially interesting category: friend-induced musical nostalgia. I think of these people almost every time I hear these songs. If you happen to be my friend and your name isn't here, it doesn't mean I don't love you, it just means I don't associate you with music. :-) Chronologically (in order of meeting people) seems like the best way to go:
Lauren: Losing My Religion, Layla, every song from the Rusted Root and Pulp Fiction soundtracks
Kelly G: Who Put the Bop in the Bop in the Bop Shoo Bop Shoo Bop
Becky D: Gangsta's Paradise (Coolio), Zombie (Cranberries), Hero (Mariah Carey), everything by Boyz 2 Men, Cotton Eye Joe
Cory H: Metallica's Black album
Abby R: I Love Rock and Roll, Shoop
Jessica O: Most songs by Nirvana or Hole, I Love Rock and Roll, the Dazed and Confused soundtrack, Hotel California
Angelo C: The Pina Colada Song, London Calling, The Rocky Horror soundtrack, Higher and Higher (Jackie Wilson)
Angie A: One Headlight, Faith (George Michael), Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily album, That Thing, Everything is Everything (Lauryn Hill), Guantanamera, Gone Til November, Yele (Wyclef Jean), Still Not a Player (Big Pun), Just the Two of Us (Austin Powers), Mockingbird (Carly Simon), every song from Sister Act 2, Seasons of Love (Rent), a million other songs I'll remember later
Joe P: Anything by the Spice Girls (of course), Man of La Mancha, any Kelly Clarkson song, the Chicago and Moulin Rouge soundtracks, any famous quote from Xena (probably doesn't count but whatever), My Immortal, Superman (Five for Fighting), Papa Don't Preach, Magic Stick, Adiemus (Enya), Man in the Mirror, I'll Stand By You (Pretenders), Holiday {random} (Green Day), En Vogue's Masterpiece Theatre, Bang Bang my Baby Shot me Down, Cest La Vie (Bewitched), Can't Hold us Down (Christina Aguilera), Lollipop (Mika), Cruisin(our karaoke song!) and also so many more
Sue O: Sarah Mclachlan's Surfacing, Motownphilly and Sweet Caroline because of softball, the I am Sam soundtrack, many Counting Crows and Moby songs, I Think My Dad's Gone Crazy (Eminem), Yeah! (Usher), King of Spain, Lullabye (Ben Folds), When I Think About You...(Divinyls), Baby Got Back, Island in the Sun, Katie Holmes' version of On My Own, and again, many more.
Chris C: Istanbul (They Might Be Giants), Meet Virginia (Train), Bawitababa (Kid Rock), Dragula (Rob Zombie)
Charles R: Come on Eileen, Rock the Casbah, Rockin in the Free World (Neil Young), Summer of 69 (Bryan Adams), The Joker (Steve Miller), most of the Sublime songs, When I See You Smile
Steph F: Machine Head!
Angela S: The Hardest Part of Breaking Up (2gether), Break Ya Neck (Busta Rhymes), Yeah! (Usher), Kelly Clarkson, Can't Deny It (Fabulous), Retarded (Black Eyed Peas)
Maura P: Come What May and Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend (Moulin Rouge)
Sara R: Someday Out of the Blue (Elton John), The Color of the Wind (Pocahontas)
Nate B: Smooth Criminal (Alien Ant Farm), some Smashing Pumpkin songs
Pat S: Into the Mystic, Moondance
Sjene K: Moonlight Shadow
Ben D: The Seed 2.0 (The Roots), I'm Not Okay (My Chemical Romance)
Doug C: Garden State Soundtrack, Dido's No Angel album, Teitur's Poetry and Aeroplanes album
Andrew M: Hello My Treacherous Friends, Come With Me (Special D), Banditos, Title of the Song (Da Vinci's Notebook), Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams album, Green Day's American Idiot album, Calling You (Blue October)
Mike C (not sure if my husband should count but whatever): Travis' Singles album, Run and Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol), Arcade Fire's Funeral album, Be Gentle With Me (Boy Least Likely To), Gavin DeGraw's Chariot album, most songs by Gomez, Wait (Get Set Go), Harvey Danger's Little by Little, Dolphin's Cry (Live), At the Stars (BTE), 23 and Polaris (Jimmy Eat World), Beautiful (Flickerstick), Under Heaven's Skies (Collective Soul), My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade album
Ben C: Anne Elephant
Andrew C: Kill! Kill! Kill! (The Pierces), Flying High (Jem), many Rasputina songs, Den Me Agapas (Buddha Bar), some Elane songs, My Pace (Bleach), Frosted Flake Wood, Rooks (Shearwater), The Decemberists' Hazards of Love album
Igor S: Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, Human (The Killers), Rhythm of my Heart (Rod Stewart)
As you may have noticed, I slacked off with some of the bands/singers and just put the song title. That was just me being lazy.
Also, some of these may not make sense. Some of them I heard once with the person and it just stuck in my head in that circumstance. I invite anyone who wants more info, or remembers me when they hear a certain song, to leave a comment below.
And thanks for indulging my random writings, as always. :-)
I know I just did a blog about the emotional impact of actors. Now I'm starting to think that my love of emotionality (or authenticity, which may be a better term) extends to music. I am very picky about the music I like. But I think I have it narrowed down to three things that will make or break a song for me.
1: Beat, melody, or rhythm. (An aside: the word rhythm is a bitch to spell. I just learned how to spell it about 3 months ago, but I can really only spell it with a certain learned keystroke, as if I was playing piano. Normally I'm an amazing speller. I don't ever use spell check.) Ok so, getting back to the topic. I will like most songs that are performed in a minor key. I've always hated the major key, but maybe that goes hand in hand with my dark and twisted personality. I'm a sucker for string instruments, which sound wonderful in a minor key. I also love bass and drums. Needless to say, I am LOVING this dubstep trend in music. There are other things about the actual music of a song that make me enjoy it more, but those things are very hard to put into words. I know it when I hear it.
2: The singer's voice. I can't stand Incubus, Sting (or The Police), or the Bee Gees. Something about each of their voices really pisses me off so much that I hate all of their songs. I hate guys that sound like they have whiny voices, like Dashboard Confessional. In contrast, most women singers don't bother me, but their songs tend to be more upbeat, so that can be a turn off, unless you are Lily Allen and you sing upbeat songs sarcastically. I love smoky female voices, like Brandi Carlile's voice, and various male voices, like Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, and lower voices like Nick Cave.
3: Authenticity. This is a new category that I've just been thinking about recently. I love to hear emotion in a performer. The way Brandi's voice breaks at 2:53 on The Story gets me every time. The way Muse's Matt Bellamy sounds like he is in anguish when singing Hysteria is intoxicating to me. Even if they aren't emotional in a dramatic fashion, it still sounds better when it's authentic. If someone sounds like they are having fun while they are singing, like pretty much anything by Louis Prima, or being quietly seductive, like Poe, that falls under the same category. I wondered recently why I wasn't getting into Liz Phair's music. Now I think it's because I doubt her authenticity. I AM able to like songs with mediocre emotion to them, but only if they have a great beat or melody.
There is another category, but it is extremely subjective, as in, you can't apply any rules to it. Nostalgia. I can think of a ton of songs that remind me of family, or high school dances, or driving in my car, or even playing Snood during the winter of 2000, and those songs I will always love, regardless of how I would feel about them under normal circumstances. Because I am getting old-ish (almost 30 now!), I'd like to trace back some of the memories, in case I somehow lose these associations later.
I could name about a thousand Christmas, Disney, and 60s songs from when I was young that remind me of my family, but that would get old fast. So I'm going to only list the most socially interesting category: friend-induced musical nostalgia. I think of these people almost every time I hear these songs. If you happen to be my friend and your name isn't here, it doesn't mean I don't love you, it just means I don't associate you with music. :-) Chronologically (in order of meeting people) seems like the best way to go:
Lauren: Losing My Religion, Layla, every song from the Rusted Root and Pulp Fiction soundtracks
Kelly G: Who Put the Bop in the Bop in the Bop Shoo Bop Shoo Bop
Becky D: Gangsta's Paradise (Coolio), Zombie (Cranberries), Hero (Mariah Carey), everything by Boyz 2 Men, Cotton Eye Joe
Cory H: Metallica's Black album
Abby R: I Love Rock and Roll, Shoop
Jessica O: Most songs by Nirvana or Hole, I Love Rock and Roll, the Dazed and Confused soundtrack, Hotel California
Angelo C: The Pina Colada Song, London Calling, The Rocky Horror soundtrack, Higher and Higher (Jackie Wilson)
Angie A: One Headlight, Faith (George Michael), Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily album, That Thing, Everything is Everything (Lauryn Hill), Guantanamera, Gone Til November, Yele (Wyclef Jean), Still Not a Player (Big Pun), Just the Two of Us (Austin Powers), Mockingbird (Carly Simon), every song from Sister Act 2, Seasons of Love (Rent), a million other songs I'll remember later
Joe P: Anything by the Spice Girls (of course), Man of La Mancha, any Kelly Clarkson song, the Chicago and Moulin Rouge soundtracks, any famous quote from Xena (probably doesn't count but whatever), My Immortal, Superman (Five for Fighting), Papa Don't Preach, Magic Stick, Adiemus (Enya), Man in the Mirror, I'll Stand By You (Pretenders), Holiday {random} (Green Day), En Vogue's Masterpiece Theatre, Bang Bang my Baby Shot me Down, Cest La Vie (Bewitched), Can't Hold us Down (Christina Aguilera), Lollipop (Mika), Cruisin(our karaoke song!) and also so many more
Sue O: Sarah Mclachlan's Surfacing, Motownphilly and Sweet Caroline because of softball, the I am Sam soundtrack, many Counting Crows and Moby songs, I Think My Dad's Gone Crazy (Eminem), Yeah! (Usher), King of Spain, Lullabye (Ben Folds), When I Think About You...(Divinyls), Baby Got Back, Island in the Sun, Katie Holmes' version of On My Own, and again, many more.
Chris C: Istanbul (They Might Be Giants), Meet Virginia (Train), Bawitababa (Kid Rock), Dragula (Rob Zombie)
Charles R: Come on Eileen, Rock the Casbah, Rockin in the Free World (Neil Young), Summer of 69 (Bryan Adams), The Joker (Steve Miller), most of the Sublime songs, When I See You Smile
Steph F: Machine Head!
Angela S: The Hardest Part of Breaking Up (2gether), Break Ya Neck (Busta Rhymes), Yeah! (Usher), Kelly Clarkson, Can't Deny It (Fabulous), Retarded (Black Eyed Peas)
Maura P: Come What May and Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend (Moulin Rouge)
Sara R: Someday Out of the Blue (Elton John), The Color of the Wind (Pocahontas)
Nate B: Smooth Criminal (Alien Ant Farm), some Smashing Pumpkin songs
Pat S: Into the Mystic, Moondance
Sjene K: Moonlight Shadow
Ben D: The Seed 2.0 (The Roots), I'm Not Okay (My Chemical Romance)
Doug C: Garden State Soundtrack, Dido's No Angel album, Teitur's Poetry and Aeroplanes album
Andrew M: Hello My Treacherous Friends, Come With Me (Special D), Banditos, Title of the Song (Da Vinci's Notebook), Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams album, Green Day's American Idiot album, Calling You (Blue October)
Mike C (not sure if my husband should count but whatever): Travis' Singles album, Run and Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol), Arcade Fire's Funeral album, Be Gentle With Me (Boy Least Likely To), Gavin DeGraw's Chariot album, most songs by Gomez, Wait (Get Set Go), Harvey Danger's Little by Little, Dolphin's Cry (Live), At the Stars (BTE), 23 and Polaris (Jimmy Eat World), Beautiful (Flickerstick), Under Heaven's Skies (Collective Soul), My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade album
Ben C: Anne Elephant
Andrew C: Kill! Kill! Kill! (The Pierces), Flying High (Jem), many Rasputina songs, Den Me Agapas (Buddha Bar), some Elane songs, My Pace (Bleach), Frosted Flake Wood, Rooks (Shearwater), The Decemberists' Hazards of Love album
Igor S: Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, Human (The Killers), Rhythm of my Heart (Rod Stewart)
As you may have noticed, I slacked off with some of the bands/singers and just put the song title. That was just me being lazy.
Also, some of these may not make sense. Some of them I heard once with the person and it just stuck in my head in that circumstance. I invite anyone who wants more info, or remembers me when they hear a certain song, to leave a comment below.
And thanks for indulging my random writings, as always. :-)
Comments
1. Interesting and complex instrumentals. For the last couple of years I've really gotten into symphonic, gothic and pagan folk metal. These bands tend to use a lot of different instruments (strings are big) and have a powerful sound.
2. Interesting lyrics. This isn't absolutely necessary if the instrumentals are good (some of the bands I listen to don't even sing in English) but it a definite draw. I love Nick Cave, Tori Amos and Leonard Cohen for their thought-provoking lyrics (and great instrumentals).
3. Emotional depth/lack of insipidity. This isn't something I can analyze easily; I just know it when I hear it. The reason I can't stand pop music is because it is emotionally shallow and insipid (probably because the songs are generally written by someone other than the singer, with the sole purpose of making $$$.)
4. Sexiness. I get aroused when I hear certain Tristania songs, for example. ;)
I know I'm an oddity, but even when I know lyrics by heart, I don't really listen to them. I'm not sure why, but I've never been able to focus on the meaning behind what someone is singing unless I try VERY hard. If I focus solely on the lyrics, they can impact me, but I rarely remember to do that.
I think that I pay attention to lyrics in more of a "song flow" sort of fashion. They need to fit with the music. It's difficult to describe exactly what I mean though.