My roommate once told me that my taste in music was Hitler and that the songs in my iTunes playlist were the holocaust survivors. This comment followed after multiple discussions about how I manage my iTunes playlist. I don't really think that what I do is that uncommon, but Phil feels it a bit wrong that I delete songs from albums in my playlist.
I delete songs because I don't like them. They are "erroneous" as I've said to Phil before. If I don't like listening to them, they don't belong in my library. If a song is in my playlist, I know that I like it and will enjoy listening to it. If I grow tired of that music or for some reason feel like a certain music shouldn't belong in my playlist, I archive it. Sometimes, I'll hear a song that catches my attention, find that I've already deleted it, and then regret my actions, but my gauntlet of music filtering has results that I personally think are worth it.
Obviously, I don't believe strongly in the "album as a complete art" argument. I delete tracks from my favorite bands, and there are very few albums that I enjoy entirely. Songs are complete. If they are not, they are erroneous. If they happen to be complete both as a song and as a part of an album, sweet deal.
I don't feel ashamed to say that I have high standards for music, because music is something that I must take seriously. Music is my passion: my first passion and my biggest passion. I find it interesting to look back on the music that I once listened to, to see the phases of tastes and genres that I have "conquered", and to think about why I don't listen to that music anymore. It is an incredibly difficult task to try and understand the concept of a "taste" in music and why people listen to music. Knowing why you listen to music and what you listen for when listening is necessary for fully understanding your own "taste" in music. I used to ask my friends why they like certain styles of music, and it was rare to receive a thoughtful answer. Most people say, "I just like it," or "I've always listened to this," or something along those lines. What is it about the Strokes that gets me to think, "Yeah, this is good," when I listen? Is it the gritty vocals? The unique quality of the recordings? The simplistic nature of the songs? The infectious melodies? It's almost impossible to decide what exactly floats your boat in a particular song, but it seems that if there's not enough boat floating material in music, people don't like it. Some people require more boat floating than others. I feel like I am a boat floating parasite. There needs to be alot of things that float my boat for me to like a particular music. The more you dive in to try and discover what it is that you really like about a certain music, the more you'll find yourself being bored. You will ruin music for yourself. You will become desensitized to music. Its like a drug. Your demand for quality will become bigger and bigger until your air craft carrier sized boat needs oceans to float it instead of rain puddles that used to float your bath tub toy. Unfortunately, oceans could be puddles for some people, and a puddle could be someone else's ocean. Music is such an unknown and mysterious art that few areas of the gift can be defined or applied universally.
I wish I could still enjoy boring music. It takes such an effort to enjoy listening. When I was young, it didn't take much to interest me. Gimme distorted guitars and rocking drums and I'm good. Upon looking back, I see that things are much different now. I need something better than all the music I've ever listened to before, something new, something fresh, something incredible.
I feel like this is how I must listen to music.
However, there are many ways to listen to music.
The medium through which music is presented is important. Headphones or speakers? Live or recorded in a studio? But, how you listen is infinitely more important. There seem to be at least four main kinds of music listeners that I can think of:
1) The casual listener. These people listen to music without giving it too much thought. Most of it is commercial quality or from the radio, and they probably wouldn't be able to describe why they like what they listen to. This type of listener is influenced by what's popular and what they are exposed to daily on TV/Radio/etc. They don't seek to understand or overanalyze music, but just to enjoy.
2) The packrat listener. These people horde as much music as possible. A symptom of this kind of listener is someone whose status in life seems to depend on how many gigs of music (probably illegally downloaded) they can accumulate in their music library. This kind of high exposure to vast amounts of music (once they stop downloading and actually start to listen to it)
inevitably leads to:
3) The elite listener. This kind of listener knows what they like. They don't always know why, but they know what they don't like and that what they like is better than that crap everyone else listens to. These listeners can be snobby or arrogant, close-minded, and very confident in their taste in music. Vinyls are a big deal and bands that most people haven't heard of are also a big deal. Hopefully, this stage leads to:
4) The educated listener. This happens when you combine the exposure of the packrat and the zeal and drive of the elite listener with an open mind. This is how metal heads learn to like Jazz. This is how indie rock kids can learn to appreciate things about country. This is how pop-influenced products of culture learn to explore what's thriving underneath what's popular. This listeners are open-minded, exposed to a lot of different genres and bands, and try as hard as they can to appreciate as much music as possible.
Unfortunately, at least for me, I feel like the struggle is breaking out of the 'elite listener' stage. It's so hard to break past what's familiar, to open yourself up for more, to keep an open mind.
Most people are probably floating somewhere inbetween one of those exaggerated profiles of music listening. Regardless of where you think you may be, keep searching for music, find out what you like/don't like about it and why, and repeat.
Cheers,
Moriah
Monday, November 16, 2009
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