Hey, kids!--it's Sigmund Freud Week here at Psychic Spy Satellites: an entire week of blog posts examining the Id, Ego, and Superego behind all the little things I love about life.
First up under the operating table: my taste in music, or rather: my Id's taste in music--something of a complement to whatever somethingorothers I wrote just a few weeks back.
So here's the question: what sort of music do I really enjoy listening to--by which I mean the sort of stuff I'll love regardless of my ENTP friend's opinions, the stuff I might even heap one hot coal on myself over for every goosebump I get.
Here's the lineup (and I might regret posting this):
-Numb, by Linkin Park
-Love Lockdown, by Kanye West
-It's My Life, by Bon Jovi
-Drowning, by the Backstreet Boys
-It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish, by My Chemical Romance
(or that song which has retained its status as my favorite song for well over a year now)
-Invincible, by Muse
-Kiss the Rain, by Yiruma
I have more, but I feel I'm on the brink of losing my indie-music-snob-dom...
So what sort of music do I really enjoy listening to? And what is it I love in those songs?
1. Emotionality (or the reason I believe I'll never come to appreciate IDM):
I want to know about the musician.
I want feel whatever it was the musician was feeling when he or she wrote the song.
I care about the vocals and the words because I feel as if they have an ability to move listeners like no other part of the music. I'm not certain, but I think much of the feelings brought about by other instruments are heavily tied to the listener's culture and whatever associations it has made for the listener.
I've written a whole post about this a while back, and I'm not feeling a need to elaborate.
2. Melodiousness (Kill me, ENTP friend!):
Much to my own chagrin, I can only get into a song if it's harmonious enough.
As much as I'd love to love Joy Division, something about the melody in "Love Will Tear Us Apart" seems off. As much as I love Radiohead, I can't stand "Faust Arp" for the same reason. And the discordant music I pride myself on loving--Crystal Castles, Nine Inch Nails--is actually quite conventional (and sometimes surprisingly cheesy--"Untrust Us" and the entirety of Pretty Hate Machine) melodically.
3. Catchiness (or why "Grounds for Divorce" by Elbow makes me happier after a listen than anything by Jeff Mangum):
I have a short attention span. I like songs that propel themselves forward for me with simple beats--I like electronic body music and KMFDM dancefloor hits. I like Britney Spears' "Circus." I like "Let It Rock." I like the Backstreet Boys.
(Side note: I found myself distancing myself from the Pink Floyd and Dream Theatre crowd as soon as my ENTP friend called them "cheesy." Sadly, progressive anything, in my own observation, is usually antithetical to catchy. )
And there we have it: emotionality, melodiousness, catchiness--the very antithesis of the aristocratic "art" music I try to listen to these days, and also (sadly) the reason I enjoy music much less than I did before.
Wow, I'm glad I got all that out. Now let's talk about our weighty, intellectual topics and their implications again, while listening to "Oh, Comely."
First up under the operating table: my taste in music, or rather: my Id's taste in music--something of a complement to whatever somethingorothers I wrote just a few weeks back.
So here's the question: what sort of music do I really enjoy listening to--by which I mean the sort of stuff I'll love regardless of my ENTP friend's opinions, the stuff I might even heap one hot coal on myself over for every goosebump I get.
Here's the lineup (and I might regret posting this):
-Numb, by Linkin Park
-Love Lockdown, by Kanye West
-It's My Life, by Bon Jovi
-Drowning, by the Backstreet Boys
-It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish, by My Chemical Romance
(or that song which has retained its status as my favorite song for well over a year now)
-Invincible, by Muse
-Kiss the Rain, by Yiruma
I have more, but I feel I'm on the brink of losing my indie-music-snob-dom...
So what sort of music do I really enjoy listening to? And what is it I love in those songs?
1. Emotionality (or the reason I believe I'll never come to appreciate IDM):
I want to know about the musician.
I want feel whatever it was the musician was feeling when he or she wrote the song.
I care about the vocals and the words because I feel as if they have an ability to move listeners like no other part of the music. I'm not certain, but I think much of the feelings brought about by other instruments are heavily tied to the listener's culture and whatever associations it has made for the listener.
I've written a whole post about this a while back, and I'm not feeling a need to elaborate.
2. Melodiousness (Kill me, ENTP friend!):
Much to my own chagrin, I can only get into a song if it's harmonious enough.
As much as I'd love to love Joy Division, something about the melody in "Love Will Tear Us Apart" seems off. As much as I love Radiohead, I can't stand "Faust Arp" for the same reason. And the discordant music I pride myself on loving--Crystal Castles, Nine Inch Nails--is actually quite conventional (and sometimes surprisingly cheesy--"Untrust Us" and the entirety of Pretty Hate Machine) melodically.
3. Catchiness (or why "Grounds for Divorce" by Elbow makes me happier after a listen than anything by Jeff Mangum):
I have a short attention span. I like songs that propel themselves forward for me with simple beats--I like electronic body music and KMFDM dancefloor hits. I like Britney Spears' "Circus." I like "Let It Rock." I like the Backstreet Boys.
(Side note: I found myself distancing myself from the Pink Floyd and Dream Theatre crowd as soon as my ENTP friend called them "cheesy." Sadly, progressive anything, in my own observation, is usually antithetical to catchy. )
And there we have it: emotionality, melodiousness, catchiness--the very antithesis of the aristocratic "art" music I try to listen to these days, and also (sadly) the reason I enjoy music much less than I did before.
Wow, I'm glad I got all that out. Now let's talk about our weighty, intellectual topics and their implications again, while listening to "Oh, Comely."
Invincible's your favourite or MCR?
ReplyDeleteAnd yay for psychology terms? :)