shout outs to allie for getting me into this. hi allie. she'll be here on dec. 27th and we will have great adventures in the economic hub of the largest empire in the history of man at the height of its power and influence (well, just past the height).
shout outs to mac users everywhere. so, i have an external hard drive with lots and lots of gigs of music, and what i've been doing is transferring a few gigs in and out of itunes every month. i'll keep a few things each time but change a good 80% of the music. i've found this to be a great way to keep my personal listening fresh and gradually wade through the endless hours of music i own. right now i have a bunch of beethoven quartets that i find refreshing as hell. i'm sick of american pop music. by and large it sucks. not worth going into more than that. i'm also fed up with my friends saying things like i'm not open minded when i'm complaining about some shitty music. c'mon. we're musicians, we're supposed to have a sense of taste. it's not being closed minded to know why you don't like something. and if we were really concerned about being open minded we'd be seeking music that challenges us to think of things differently, not challenges us to find some shred of beauty in shitty music.
so...this blog of mine may often turn to bitter rants like the above paragraph. hopefully it will be informative and amusing as well. a nugget of amusement to remember for the ages: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uIj0YvDBKE
oh my gosh. you already are a blog aficionado! look at your post. it's perfect! what a great voice and tone! oh it's amazing, i love it. i love jon the blogger. please stick with it!!!
ReplyDeletei agree with you to an extent about taste in music. saying one should give britney spears or avril lavigne a chance when they have done nothing but make pop music even more redundant and un-exploratory is not the same as saying, give beirut a chance. by saying iron and wine is the same thing as beirut, THAT's being closed-minded, and i see why your friends give you a hard time about that.
"finding a shred of beauty in shitty music"
does this apply to something like beirut? the form of those songs is pretty much pop based, with easily singable melodies, but i enjoy listening to it. it's not "thought-provoking" per se, but the orchestration is interesting to me, and i just really like singing dramatic poppy melodies, from time to time. there isn't ANYTHING wrong with that at all. That isn't searching for a shred of beauty. Music serves as communication, thus beauty is subjective. Beauty to you may be thinking about things differently, but in fact i have a very different opinion of great music. i enjoy music that makes me think differently OF COURSE, but my *favorite* music reaches me on an emotional level, namely through the communication for it.
the only time i have loved a schoenberg piano piece was when i was witnessing ben play it. he was communicating the music, whereas had i heard the same piece on a recording, i don't think i would have experienced the same enjoyment. not that i only love live music, i'm just saying that different things speak to different people.
i guess i have no argument for britney spears and avril lavigne's shittiness anymore. they suck, but they obviously communicate something to people. or people feel they can communicate their trite and surface level problems through their music. oh well. what am i even saying anymore?
i have a mac. i need you to explain to me why it's so great...aside from garage band. so when my brother tells me i get more and more nauseating by the minute i have something to say besides...garage band is really cool!
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