Now, I am no musical genius. I do know positively, without a doubt, what I like. I took a History of Rock'n'Roll class to meet like one of my history requirements in college, with this girl actually (ya, I mean, it WAS art school but I too was surprised that it counted! Maybe it was social studies or something? I can't remember now! It was great though!) So I do know SOME stuff, but this is not about any of that. This is about appreciation. I was recently asked on Formspring, what type of music I listen to. Here is an excerpt of my answer:
"All Kinds," while a cop out, is accurate but not completely true. I have decided I like a specific mood or feeling of music that may span across genres. I have a theory that people fall on a scale of music appreciation with lyrics on one end of the spectrum and feel on the other, meaning that you are either a sentimentalist, valuing words and meaning of songs, or an emotive listener, driven more by sound, rhythm and mood. Most people feel both are important, but I think you may find that you tip to one side more than the other. I tip toward the emotive end, and the mood I enjoy changes periodically, but right now it's an eyes closed, body moving slowly like a snake, upturned mouth sort of mood.
So to elaborate, I, OBVIOUSLY NOT A GENIUS, have a theory that people generally fall on a scale from maybe one to five, one being that the sound and beat of the song is what primarily draws you to it (So like songs in other languages, songs without singing, pop songs like Gaga songs or Sexy Back, maybe trance or other dance music that makes you move, etc.) and five being very lyrics driven (I don't have a million examples of this since the lyrics YOU like and the lyrics I like may differ and may create a conflict, but you understand what I mean right? Where the message of the lyrics is more important than the music they are written over.) SO, that being clarified, I think I am a 2. DON'T get me wrong, there are plenty of songs that I love that have AMAZING lyrics, but the music or sound is almost ALWAYS what drew me to the song in the first place.
When I play all of my FAVORITE songs in a row, I notice two things, they all make me want to move in the same way (as described above) and they are all about LONGING. I personally do not identify too strongly with longing since all of my needs are very well met, but perhaps I am infatuated with that feeling? I don't know, but that mood is a common thread in most of my favorite songs. If I were to make a mixed CD for someone, with all of my favorite songs on it (ahem) I think it would be very important to know where the person receiving it fell on the scale. Are they going to focus on the words and read too far into it? Are they going to need a disclaimer stating that I am not trying to "send them a message" or anything like that. Or, are they going to get that that is just my personal rhythm and mood preference? Hmmmm. Is this making any sense? Is there a book about this anywhere or does all of this just exist in my head? A person gets to thinking when they have long stretches in a car.
If you were to make a list of your VERY favorite songs EVER, would you find a common thread? If they all sound wildly different, is it then the lyrics that draw you to each? Take your time. You don't have to even answer here, Or maybe tell me when you figure it out. I am just curious. . . to know if I am a weirdo.
Poncho, Purse: the Sac Antique Faire!!! aka Heaven.
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27 comments:
Fab look! i especially love that poncho :D
Day By Diva
Day By Diva
Day By Diva
What a great fall look!!! That poncho was a perfect find for this season and I have commented before on how awesome those boots are!
http://www.afashionfixation.blogspot.com
I love this poncho. Looking forward to seeing what your going to put in the shop next. I get your music ramblings. I personally listen to a wide range of music, I think the older I get the more I appreciate instrumental music. I love Ray LaMontagne on rainy tea drinking days because of his soulful voice, but if I need to get stuff done, I need something more upbeat and light hearted. It's all about mood.
I like what you put about music. I am glad you are not a 'music genius'-- music is for everybody, not just Juliard grads.
And I think that poncho is so sexy-- what's she wearing underneath? :-)
You hit the nail on the head with your music theory. now that I think of it, im an emotive listener too. Half the time I cant even make out the lyrics in the songs I love... But if it drives me to move in any way then im sold. My preferred genre is indie rock, chock full of emotive tunes.
Love your poncho. So southwestern.
I love the way you've described this. I always feel weird when people ask me how I feel about music. I want to say "everything! I don't have a favorite!" but, as you said, it feels like a cop-out, because it's not entirely true. Indie rock, acoustic guitar, soul, blues, jazz, pop, country; each has a place in my heart, and I can hardly favor one over the other. But I love music that makes me FEEL, whether through the beat and the sound or the lyrics and the voice. I want my music to take me to a place where I'm no longer in control of my emotions, where I rise and fall with the sounds in the song.
Beautiful post, Christina. Big hugs.
i moved away from home for college a year ago. and i'm talking a 2000 mile away move - to a landscape that is completely different. and as my music tastes have developed, i've noticed that all of the songs i listen to feel like home in some way. or remind me of something from home.
this could change obviously, and i'm probably the only one who could describe exactly what about a song feels like my home. but, such it is.
as someone who did study music for years, i want to add that music shouldn't be for "music geniuses". isn't it supposed to be for people - everyone? i hate pretentious music theory/history know-it-alls who think their taste is superior. dude, john lennon couldn't even read music! who is anyone to say what is good or bad or better than anything else? if music was only written for the "informed" no one would enjoy it.
i love your 1-5 scale, and i wouldn't know where to place myself. it changes all the time. i go from needing to hear intense lovesick heartbreaking sad songs (even while being in a very happy, loving relationship...yep, don't know what that means) to 80's pop binges or only listening to otis redding for weeks on end.
i couldn't even being to compile a list of favorite songs. when i was in high school in a college prep music program (meaning regular classes in the morning and all music classes in the afternoon), we were often asked and discussed "desert island" lists. you know what, im REALLY happy i'll (hopefully) never be stuck on a desert island. there is too much music out there, and i would hate to be missing out on bands i dont know about, new music, etc. its an impossible list to create, and an unnecessary one. seriously - if you're going to be stuck on a desert island, you probably wouldn't know about it in advance with time to compile such a list. i'd probably be packing sunscreen and food, not CDs.
anyway...sorry for the wordy reply! i loved reading your thoughts and i cannot wait to see the capes and ponchos!!!
duuude, you were in Sactown. you need to call me next time, eh?
A mix cd is worth ten thousand words especially coming from the person in question...
music has to be a marriage of lyrics to melodies and beats, otherwise it might as well just be a poem, right? they kinda go hand in hand, in my opinion. i actually think it wouldn't be that hard to compile a list of my favorites songs. here, i'll even give you a few:
sweet child o' mine-the first song i remember totally loving when i was little, cuz my brother always listened to guns n roses.
crash into me-this song IS sex and what's not to like about that?
you oughta know-i was in a very volatile (in a good and bad way, lots of highs and lows) relationship when i got the jagged little pill cd and listened to it NONSTOP.
making love out of nothing at all-because i rock out to this song like nobody's business.
time for me to fly-it has a good bass line and makes me run faster.
i wish i could say that i was ultra cool and hipster and listened to all this indie stuff, but well, i'm a bit shallow when it comes to music. i just like what i like!
oh and you can wear a poncho like no one else. this is super cool :)
okay, so weird, but i was just talking about this with my friend kayla last night, how i felt like there were two categories that people fell into, one where they feel the need to rock out to the lyrics and sing at the top of their lungs (insert whatever song that may be) in order to express their emotions - where they are more drawn into the words (and there are songwriters that i can definitely appreciate their writing skill) and the other 'type' is drawn to the soul of the song, or what i like to think is the soul of the song, ya know. the drums. the bass. the groove. the way the music wraps around your waist and makes you move and you become one with it. i could talk about this forever. but my friend just wasn't getting it.
but, i am so drawn to the music - the sounds the instruments make. and the beat. and the way my body responds. i guess i just like soul.
here is a band to check out if you want - grimy styles - i am not sure if they have a myspace or something but i would love to trade music with you. they are just soul. no lyrics, kind of like a reggae feel that makes you move.
sorry for going on and on. this is just a interesting concept to me.
anyway, you look great.
meg
I looove ponchos! Great colors. This outfit is fabulous in every way.
Somebody once said that writing about music is liking dancing about architecture. And i think what they meant was that it's hard to express the feelings of one art form in another. Music especially is like mercury. Every time you try to put your finger on it...it scoots away. Whenever anyone asks me what kind of music i like, i always say, "...the good kind."
but i like that you're thinking about it. And making all of us think about it, too.
The music I listen to...all wants me to be beautiful, standing in the breeze in a flowing white dress. Arms out stretched.
Weird eh?
I just love songs that make me feel beautiful.
The music I listen to...all wants me to be beautiful, standing in the breeze in a flowing white dress. Arms out stretched.
Weird eh?
I just love songs that make me feel beautiful.
I totally agree with your theory and would def put myself at a 1 or 2. I love the BEAT. Even on slow songs, ambient, house, country, love, etc. There is a certain rhythym and sensation that needs to be evoked in me for me to enjoy the song. And for the songs i like I tend to fall in love with the lyrics as a secondary affect of the emotive spirit of the rhythym. Contrary, no matter how good the lyrics are if it doesn't speak to my body that song will never speak to my heart.
I am a PASSIONATE and FANATICAL dancer (not trained) but it is almost embarrassing how my body will go completely limp on the dance floor from one song to the next if i am not feeling it, it's like a split personality thing-my body becomes the most awkward, robotic thing when i try to force myself to dance to a song I don't like. But when it something that HITS me, I transform into a GODDESS.
I never even realized how powerfully involved my body is to music until writing this-like it's NOT just something to LISTEN to or even FEEL for me, it is something to MOVE me. Like a tuning fork!Hahaha, I'm a tuning fork.
Oh and those boots are Gorge, and so is many pieces in the Lady West collection. I'm lovin the dresses mostly. <3
omgggg I can't get over how gorgeous and fabulous you are!
couple things [disclaimer: this will be long. shocker right?]
1. I'm getting those feather extensions. even if I have to put them in myself.
2. I'll be emailing you shortly for some recipe recommendations.. I'm not giving my body what it needs now that I'm a veggie head and I'm having memory problems, lack of motivation and anxiety. I have an appt next week to see the acupuncturist so hopefully that will help too.
3. you might possibly be the most insightful person I've ever known. Your thought process is so organic and... earthy? If I could give you another profession, it would definitely be earth mother goddess.
4. now that i've gone all over the place topic wise and got a little weird, it's time to discuss music. I could sing along to every word of a song, and not be able to recite the lyrics without the music afterwards. I'm practically a 0 on your list, that's how much the music means to me rather than the lyrics. Sure there are some great lines out there, but to me, a singing voice in a song just adds another note to hear, another melody to taste. I also gravitate towards songs with a heavy bass beat to them.. or clapping, clapping gets me EVERY.TIME. If I had to picka genre that I most identified with, feeling wise, it would be bluesy rock. Like the Black Keys, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Joe Cocker.. I actually came across a new artist that I think you'll love named Sean Hayes through my Black Keys pandora station. I could listen to 'one day, the river' all damn day. Bah I wish we lived closer so we could jam out to our favorite music while we sip wine.. be careful, come feb I may not leave!
I'm off to go groove. love you to bits and freaking pieces. and then I'd scotch tape you back together to love you some more.
I love that poncho!
making a mix tape helped me to discover that for me it was the blues, but more specifically white women's blues--Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, Shelby Lynne, Lucinda Williams, Amy Winehouse...
I am also a #2 when it comes to music. While I appreciate good lyrics and know that pop music is pure crap - I can't help it. When Enrique Igalsias "I Like It" comes on the radio I find myself cranking it up and rocking out embarrassingly!
Perhaps it is like junk food; because I (you, we) try to live healthy lives, avoid processed foods and trashy tv, we have to give into our nasty cravings through other sences!
"I-I-I Like It!"
I love that poncho on you!!
Hey Christina,
How interesting ...your post really "spoke" to me as an ocasional dj, a great music lover and mixtapes creator.
I can spend a week putting up compilations for friends, every one of them unique and of course, personalised with a subtle blend of what they will like & what i go for...and very weary of how harmonious it all comes out,like the order of the tracks and so on.
Once I even had this as the only possible link with a man in a very complicated romance.This was our only way to speak to each other and believe me, it was so intense...I'd pass him the tapes with shaky hands, exchanging no words( a little like in Sofia Coppola's "Virgin Suicides")because it was forbidden.
Hahaha:"I want you " from the Beatles or "Caramel" by Suzanne Vega never sounded so true!!
I'm definitely type 2 but what I like best is when the atmosphere of a song matches the emotions it conveys.
And, as always, being close to the child within me, I just love to be told stories.
Here are my two conditions for music to pass the doorstep of my inner world.
Otherwise I'm pretty happy with a song that makes me wanna dance or songs in languages I don't understand or just instrumental music but besides piano alone, none of this reaches straight to my soul.
How very personal..!
Thank you for bringing this up, now I'm going to read your readers comments about this post..
xxxem
your contry coat + boots + bags ! OH DEAR! stop dressing well, youre killing me :(
Love the poncho!!!
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