If people post a list of their favorite books, chances are I have heard of most of them. Same with favorite movies or TV shows. But when people post their favorite music, I see whole lists where I don't recognize a single piece of music. It's become worse since people download individual songs rather than CDs.
Are we more divided in our tastes when it comes to music than with other pastimes? Or am I more out of the loop here? Is your musical taste the same as your closest friends, your partner, anyone?
31 comments:
I read a quote from Morrissey (formerly of The Smiths) who said, "I haven't listened to pop music since Herman's Hermits broke up." Although I'm not quite that extreme, I do tend to listen to music from my favorite eras (roughly Beatles through Nirvana--or from music from my childhood through early motherhood) to the exclusion of newer music. Having teens & tweens in the house means that I do hear a lot of rap & hip-hop & other contemporary music (although even my youngest ones loathe Justin Beiber, so I figure that I must have done something right)--but I don't seek it out on my own. For dinner/background/ironing (I listen to a lot of music when I'm ironing) I like the "classics"--Ella, Mel, Frank, Tony, Miles.
So, to make a long story short, I'm with you--I hardly ever know any of the music on any of the year-end Best Music lists--but I know the songs on "Beggar's Banquet" backwards and forwards.
Good point. When I had kids at home (late eighties, early nineties), I knew the new music even if I wouldn't choose to play it. But over time, that music has come to seem like my music too. I wonder if this will happen to you.
Jackie and I have mostly similar tastes, with some exceptions - she likes Manilow and Rod Stewart doing standards, while I prefer blues - from late 50s do wop and most 60s and 70s stuff and scattered stuff since then.
We do NOT download individual songs. Unlike a lot of people we know we still go to concerts - in the last year or so we've seen Jimmy Buffett, Steely Dan, John Fogerty, Boz Scaggs, Meat Loaf, Allen Toussaint, the Neville Brothers, Levon Helm, George Thorogood, Willie Nelson, Aretha, Earth Wind & Fire, a large variety of people at New Orleans Jazzfest, and several oldies & do wop concerts.
The prices have gotten ridiculous but if we can afford it, that's our choice.
Deb: Herman's Hermits broke up?
;)
Jeff M.
I know a lot of people who never listen to anything but music that they grew up with or music that resembles it. I on the other hand am always looking for something that sounds different. I still listen to the music I grew up with(Stones, Dylan, Beatles, Velvet Underground etc.) but also listen to newer stuff such as Arcade Fire and Black Keys as well as tons of stuff they came in between.Never warmed up to Jazz tho except for some Miles and Coltane.
There is such a range of things to experience, and most commercial radio has been so bad for so long, that it is unsurprising that musical experience is at least as atomized as literary experience, and moreso than that of drama.
Jeff's challenge to Morrissey is apt--it's kind of hard to "break up" what was a studio fiction almost from the outset. Though I must say that John Paul Jones's work with the Hermits rates a bit better with me than his work with Led Zeppelin. Not that I'd trade any but the worst of the Kinks for anything by either of Jones's "bands."
I'm always a bit saddened that so many people will say, oh, Davis or Coltrane or just maybe Mingus, and never take the time to hear so many others ranging from, say, Randy Weston to Jimmy Giuffre to George Russell, to say nothing of the folks earlier and later. But part of the reason I read JAZZ TIMES and DOWNBEAT is to help keep up with the younger folks.
I'm spottier with all the other music clusters, but as an ex-dj on various non-commercial stations, and working with a variety of folks who are music fans as well as well as participating in Scott's "Forgotten" music roundups (such as tomorrow's), I see and often hear at least interesting things coming from various directions.
Most of what I find new, I find on NPR. And I love to find new music I like. Familiarity is nice but not essential.
Jeff-that is quite a list. You really do support the music you love. I am lucky to get to one concert a year (beside classical) although I go to fifty movies and a half-dozen plays.
Todd-is there anything you don't keep up with!
There are always fantastic new bands, songs and sounds to hear. My tastes are fairly eclectic and you never know where you'll stumble across something new (latest interest via a friend, The Constellations). Right now in my car as "cruisin'music" I have The Fall, Lady Gaga, Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, Radiohead, Harry Nilsson and Madonna, Bisonics and probably a few other things. I'm always willing to give new things a listen. Like everything else now, there is a barrage of stuff and finding your way through the noise to the signal you want is the real challenge.
Jeff said--
Deb: Herman's Hermits broke up?
Well Jeff, they did according to Morrissey. But they never will while I can still play "No Milk Today" or "She's A Must to Avoid."
I kept up with pop music until Madonna's first album. Don't ask me about anything since. The big divide in our house is over country music.
I pretty much enjoy it all but old Jazz is where the heart is. I have a feeling my on the way daughter will keep me up to date with current pop soon enough.
My wife and I have opposite tastes in music but come together on long drives and appreciate the differences.
Todd-I have listened to tons of Jazz over the years. Have many friends who listen to nothing but Jazz. Worked in a bookstore that played Jazz 24/7. Still don't care for it. It just doesn't resonate with me.
Steve--jazz as Muzak probably doesn't help appreciation, I fear.
Patti--There is Entirely too much I don't keep up with, sadly.
Lana and I share some musical tastes and have others dramatically oppossed. She likes Frank Sinatra, for example. Egads.
Patti - I think there is such a diversity and variety in music that there are more niches than there are, perhaps, in books. I agree that it seems that people are more divided but I wonder how much of that is the number of options available...
My husband and differ on FS too, Charles.
Margot-but why are there so many options?
I've been listening to Springsteen's "new" album The Promise. For those of you who adore the boss, particularly his output from the 70's, this album is pure gold.
And to tie into Steve's comment, my adoration of Bruce led me to a much more recent band, The Gaslight Anthem, which sounds like Bruce combined with Social Distortion.
Now if we could just find the next Tom Waits.
I'm with K. A.: I listen to an eclectic mix of music. Smooth jazz, pop, classical. My students are always telling me about new bands. Patrick and Katie share their music. NPR alerts me to some intriguing music. Right now I'm listening to Robyn's BODY TALK.
Patti--you sound almost as if you resent the amount of musical options there are...unlike literature, which is at least as diverse as music (recall your frequent refrain even in the heavily cf-oriented FFBs, Why have I not heard of this?), music doesn't even need to be translated, though you do need to keep your ears open. Beck's fascination with the "Brazilian Beatles" Os Mutantes ("the mutants", not loved by the dictators) was the source of the most "left-field" new (or covered) thing I've listened to this past week.
Some Sinatra, sure. His versions of "Sunny Side of the Street" ("all those chicks at my feet!" hup hup) or "Mrs. Robinson," no.
I don't resent them, I just feel bad when I see lists of favorite music of the year and realize I know none of the artists, let alone the tunes.
I am getting further behind in certain areas every day-and this includes music and technology. Where will it end?
I know what you mean, Patti. It must be terrible to be a music performer today. In the Olden Days, you'd get a record contract and the record company would market your album. Radio would play it. Music magazines would review it. That's almost all gone now. Few of my students listen to music on the radio. The music magazines are mostly gone. Record companies are hemorrhaging money. Finding Good Music now is hit & miss.
I'll have to disagree slightly again, George--there are comings and goings, but still quite a few music magazines (particularly those which are sustained by instrument advertisements). And then look to the web-magazines.
In the olden days, the record companies would rip the artists off, funnel a relative few through as much homogenization as they could, and radio would play what they were bribed to play, too often. The atomization has always been with us in that industry...recall how much "race" records and other ethnic rigidity was enforced for entirely too many decades...
Good one to ponder. Saw T Bone Burnett last month -- he gave a really thoughtful talk about this. He sees the return of analog records and a new way of recording in analog form. Downloads are like a giant jukebox, I guess. But comparing notes is always fun. Have you heard this one? How about that one? I'm eclectic in my tastes, but have been going all the way back to the first recordings and forward again. Amy Winehouse has a powerful voice and excellent production values -- and on and on . . .
Todd, we agree on Sinatra. The "Wee Small Hours" years, absolutely; "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" was another huge mistake.
I draw the line at hip hop. And please, don't tell me how wonderful and creative and blah blah blah.
*hands are covering ears - do not want to hear it or about it*
Also, teen idols who can't sing without the magic of studio enhancement. This is nothing new, however. Every time I read something about a Janet Jackson "comeback" I wonder, have they ever heard her little itty bitty baby voice without the enhancement?
Jeff M.
I always seem to come to these questions late, but it's an interesting question so I can't resist. My wife and I share few musical tastes. Before we met she never listened to any classical or jazz other than what might have occurred incidentally, in a commercial, on a TV program, and so on. Those are just about the only musical genres I listen to, so not much sharing. Now she tolerates, but doesn't actually listen to classical. It's background, elevator music for her. As for jazz, she says the horns bother her (fingernails on a blackboard) so I don't even play it when she's within hearing, or wear headphones.
I love soundtracks, and she's okay with most of those - except the jazz ones - so that's a commonality, but she absolutely will not tolerate country & western, old, new or maybe. I never listened to much of it, but some songs I liked, though I don't own any, so we're pretty synched on that.
What's interesting to me is that she never voluntarily plays any music. She listens to new radio in the car, or NPR, and at home she'd rather have the TV on a new station than anything. She watches the news from 4:30-8:00 every night, first local, then national, then an hour on WGN. That's WAY too much for me, so I usually wander off someplace to read or put on the headphones.
As for the "best" music lists, look at who is making them, Patti. It's not people in their 4th, 5th or 6th decades! Plus, "best" often - usually - has to do with the market and sales plus music critics trying to make look-at-me reviews.
As for the variety of music, it's pretty wide open these days, and the market encourages the nearly infinite splitting of genres into sub-genres for marketing purposes.
I tend to listen to what I like, and have liked for a long time, and with classical music that's easy though I do discover classical composers and performers new to me with alarming (to my bank account) frequency.
Oh, as for Sinatra, Ella, etc, I like a lot of it, but Wife likes none. I especially like listening to my June Christy CDs. If I could find one, I'd put it on right now.
I am closer to Barbara than you, Rick. I would far rather listen to NPR on the car radio than music. Also if I am doing household chores or treadmilling I always have NPR on.
I listen to music when my husband plays it mostly-which is constantly. Classic most but also more recently some jazz. He finally acquired an ear for it.
Yes, actually. Except for my son who also likes modern music, we almost only listen to classical music in this family, and Johann Sebastian Back is our favourite. It was not like that when we married, though, so to some extent it is education plus our very musical daughter who have influenced us over the years. Just like my reading, reviewing and writing crime fiction has influenced my children.
Rick & Patti,
I never listen to talk radio, other than the all news station. We always have trouble getting NPR anyway, and Jackie is just not interested.
We both do like some country but I'm more into blues and soul than most jazz. I do like classical too but we just don't listen to it much any more. The same goes for soundtracks.
Jeff M.
We are so different yet so alike. And as this started, more different with musical tastes than others.
Patti:
This year, you and Phil out did yourselve's with your front yard Christmas decorations.
A house on Lakeshore, Chuck. We have never figured out how to get any lights lit outside.
Post a Comment