Your musical opinion (no spam)

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:03 pm

What music does to your personal tastes try to think out of the box compared to most other music you like? And just to give this picture a little contrast, also tell me which music you'd normally listen to when at work or.. well, wherever else you find yourself near a radio a lot.

I said before I'm a musician. I write a lot of music and I consider myself a student of it in the loosest possible sense. What I'd like is 100% creative control behind my band in a year or so, and for the past four months I've been trying to get a heading. I've been listening and trying out a lot of new and not so new ideas. I often have lengthy discussions with my friends about various musical styles and.. well, I'd like to see if I can get a similar response on a well read forum. It is my opinion that it is the discussion about musical arts that gets the most interesting because it is so damn hard to define. Laa-dee dadoo dee daah! Yes, *I know*, that tune!

It doesn't matter to me what music you listen to. Laibach or Coltrane, anything goes. I want to know why you think a certain type of music stands out so much to you, even if other people 'can't hear it'.

Xkcd - The Perfect Sound

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:52 am

This is coming from an old ex-music major(my exposure to Classical), raised by a Big Band listening mother and a musician father. In the late 70's, as a teenager I listened to Rock of course:laugh: and worked as a disc jockey for a top forty station that changed their format to all country, I quit soon after...

followed the Grateful Dead around the country for a few years, have over 50 ticket stubs. Listen to lots of jazz, prefer Coltrane over Bird. Have lots of Louis Armstrong but tend to use my jazz as background music around the house. My younger friends cannot "hear" the free form style of jazz as being basically the same style as the Dead jams. If stuck with radio at work or in the car, tend to gravitate to oldies stations 60's, 70's stuff. Have over 1000 discs of various styles of music cataloged in the house, not to mention the gigs I have archived on 3 computers and the portable hard drive.

But my all time love is the Blues.....Elmore James, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker...etc.

This music just speaks to me in my soul, cannot describe why...it just makes me smile and feel good all over.

Chili pepper · Post by **Chili pepper** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:01 pm

I am a musician too. Slightly younger than most. But i write ALOT of songs. Music means everything to me

I listen to everything except techno or rap. I like bands like blind melon and the new york dolls. REAL MUSIC

Chili pepper,
I have just merged your last two posts. Please don't double post, and where applicable, please use the Edit function. Also, please note the "No Spam" designation of this thread.
Thanks

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:40 am

And in addition to Dragon Wench I would like to point out that this thread is meant to talk about musical tastes; your motives, feelings, etc. Don't just list a few bands or categories and be done with it. I will post my own views on it in time, if this topic receives enough replies.

Gilliatt · Post by **Gilliatt** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:37 pm

I wanted to answer sooner, but it was hard to accurately formulate my thoughts in another language because I lack the vocabulary and the idioms needed to qualify my opinions.

Personally, I look for 3 criteria (and this goes not only for music, but for arts in general): passion, talent, and originality. (It's not surprising that I don't like the pop culture since it generally lacks the three elements.) The elements do not have to be all there, but I cannot enjoy something that does not have any of them.

I'll describe a little bit what I mean with those words:

Passion: I think passion is the most important factor for me. It cannot be a coincidence that my favorite period is the same in literature, painting and classical music: the romantic period. I loved Victor Hugo, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky before I even knew they were romantics, because those artists are driven by passion and emotions. I think passion is the only word that can explain how I can enjoy things as different as Mahler, AC/DC and Styx, because these people do what they do with passion.

Talent: With talent, I don't mean that I appreciate only geniuses and virtuosos. It is just that I cannot tolerate impostors. I have no respect whatsoever in so called musicians that cannot keep a beat because they never used a metronome in their life or that have no clue what a triplet is. One thing I really enjoy is looking at the night sky. But don't ask me to identify any of the stars because I can't. There is no way, and I mean absolutely no way, I can (or want to) pretend I am an astronomer. So why can some impostors pretend they are musicians just because they own an instrument and can make noise with it? I find it very sad that people can cheer for unskilled musicians or cinematographers while they would never cheer for a 300 pounds figure skater that can barely skate. If the latter is not considered normal, can somebody tell me why the first one is?

Originality: Every artist has its own influences. While it is perfectly correct for an artist to pay homage to a mentor or to share what he/she likes, I think every artist also needs to find his/her own voice. That is why I don't like all the disposable wannabes who just follow the taste of the day.

I love music so much that I only listen to it when I am able to concentrate on it, otherwise, I get frustrated because I feel deprived of something I enjoy. That means I don't listen to music at work, when there is someone else in my car, etc. So I don't listen to the radio very much, and when I do, I choose a channel with news and debates over a channel with music. Depending on my mood, I listen to heavy metal or to classical music. That does not mean I don't respect other genres like jazz, blues, etc.– I can enjoy them at times when people make me listen to them – it is just that I stick to my favorite styles when I am on my own. I don't consider heavy metal better than jazz, I just prefer the first one to the latter, and, in all honesty, it is probably just because I know heavy metal better than jazz and because I have been introduced to it when I was five years old. I can watch Tony Royster Jr. and Dennis Chambers play for hours even though they are jazzmen.

I guess it is enough for now.

Mr_Snow · Post by **Mr_Snow** » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:44 pm

Well I usually listen to modern indie-rock/alternative types.

But for things I like out of the ordinary, well for me there's a few styles that stand out.

not in order of preference
1. Fela Kuti
I first heard him on a special to mark his death on a local radio station and on an Ad selling one of his collections, that was my first recollection of hearing afro-beat and I suprised myself by really getting in to it. I've since started buying his older albums and I even like his "politic" period of music. But with the amount of albums he's released I've still got a lot more to get.
I think it's soothing in it's own way to me, it also makes me twich like I want to get up and dance.

2. Big-band 30's-40's music
I first got into this era of music playing a WW2 game which had a gramophone option and I collected era music & news radio broadcast to add to the immersion.
Some of it's relaxing, some of it's jivey.
Notables for me a Ella Fitzgerald, the Andrews Sisters, Marlene Dietrich & Glenn Miller.

3. My Mum's music
Basically I add this because my mum's taste in music has been imprinted into my head, from when her & dad used to listen to records at midnight and my sister & I were kept awake by the volume

.
Obvious bands are the Beatles/Rolling Stones Barry white etc but also others like Harry Nielsson, Boz Scaggs, Gordan Lightfoot, Carol Bayer Sayer, Chess (the musical by the Abba men), Richard Harris, Niel young etc.

So from daily listening to bands on the radio like The Hives, Hilltop Hoods & The White Stripes etc to being at home and feeling like putting on the bands I enjoyed in my late teens: The Pixies, Soundgarden, Faith No More & You Am I etc. I like to break it up when I get the feeling like listening to something totally different, be it Fela Kuti or Carol Bayer Sayer.
Sometimes just listening to some of the odd music puts be in another time/place, like Ella Fitzgerald & Lious Armstong's: Dream a little dream of me. That song always puts be on the deck of a boat out to sea at night.

So I consider my tastes in music far ranging and diverse.

Chili pepper · Post by **Chili pepper** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:17 pm

All teenagers these days listen to rap!!! Which is totally fine, but what gets at me is they are so close minded and refuse to listen to anything BUT rap. And then because they listen to rap they reckon theyre all "gangsta" and will bag on anyone who differs in musical and social opinion!!.

All bands are good in their own ways otherwise you wouldnt have heard of them.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:23 pm

Chili Pepper,
please respect the original question posed in this thread, thanks

It doesn't matter to me what music you listen to. Laibach or Coltrane, anything goes. I want to know why you think a certain type of music stands out so much to you, even if other people 'can't hear it'.

Warggoath · Post by **Warggoath** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 2:15 am

Well, my highest passion was, is and will always be black metal. There is nothing compared to it. But then again, I listen also to The Prodigy, Venetian Snares, Aphex Twin...Actually, those are actually only bands I listen to outside black metal and dark ambient, industrial and ritual music. I also listen to mah parents old vinyl collection with 'em. For that said, I can surely say that I would die without music. It is hard to cope through school day without music....

Avane · Post by **Avane** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:04 am

Well, I think I got a hit of vamprisim in Morrowind...I feel that some of the music that I love has existed as long as I have: hundreds of years.
One of biggest pleasures is sitting on the leather armchair (I consider it to be 'my' chair), in what is supposed to be the dining room but has become the music room. This would be in winter, so the fire is on and I am eating cherries, drinking red wine and listening to La Traviata or Madame Butterfly. The great thing is, they [the operas] are in Italian, so I don't know what they are saying, it is just great sound, so I can read as well. All the senses included, yum!

Avane · Post by **Avane** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:29 am

In the car my current loaded cd's are

Gorillaz - to keep cool by
White Stripes - to crank up on the motorway
Chili's - as above
Captain Beefheart - to take me away [great for almost everything, especially traffic jams...]
Clash - "Shareen don't like it, rock the casbah, rock the casbah" - makes me happy
Velvet Underground - "White Light" - great for a bit of sheer exhiliration as you press the pedal to the metal

kagemusha · Post by **kagemusha** » Thu May 03, 2007 10:13 am

Completely hooked up and trying to produce Detroit Techno Bass, Electro Funk, whatever that's called!

As a kid I loved those robotic dances and voices with reverbs and flanger, chorus, whatever goes...

Now coming in touch with bunches of stuff generated from that time!

Aux88, The Advent, Arpanet, Dopplereffekt, Kraftwerk...Some Gigolo records stuff!

Best stuff electronic/computer music can provide you (IMHO of course), and we do live in computer age, and we are yet to enter the real age of Robotics!

My input! I don't have a strictly defined musical taste, I'll listen whatever suits my mood!

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu May 03, 2007 10:42 am

A Reminder

I would just like to remind everyone of the core topic in this thread. This is not about listing the music you listen to, it is asking why a certain music resonates for you personally, even if others do not respond to that music at all. Please stay on topic, there are various music threads in here that have a more general focus, please post in them instead if you just want to state the music you like.

[QUOTE=Tricky]It doesn't matter to me what music you listen to. Laibach or Coltrane, anything goes. I want to know why you think a certain type of music stands out so much to you, even if other people 'can't hear it'.[/QUOTE]

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Thu May 03, 2007 12:31 pm

Haven't answered sooner, so going to correct that mistake now

As most of you probably know, I listen mostly metal. There are various reason why.

One big reason to me is because most metal bands I tend to listen are very loyal to the style they have chosen. Mostly it doesn't matter if they are well like or not, they still stick on that style. And in many cases one can hear that from the athmosphere of their music. They like it, and that makes it sound so good.

Also, there are bands which has certain songs which mean very much to me personally. One of such song is "Dead Boy's Poem" from Nightwish. The reason for this is that I got the word of my grandmothers death during the poem section of that song. Imagine it coming in the voice of young boy:

"If you read this line, remember not the hand that wrote it
Remember only the verse, songmaker`s cry, the one without tears
For I`ve given this its strength and it has become my only strength.
Comforting home, mother`s lap, chance for immortality
Where being wanted became a thrill I never knew
The sweet piano writing down my life"

"Teach me passion for I fear it`s gone
Show me love, hold the lorn
So much more I wanted to give to the ones who love me
I`m sorry
Time will tell (this bitter farewell)
I live no more to shame nor me nor you"

Basically, what I've gathered, my grandmother died exactly during this song, and my dad got the call during that poem...

I listen metal on many other situations as well. For example, when I'm preparing to the basketball game (I'm referee), and it's known beforehand that the game will be difficult one, I listen fast and pwoerfull metal to get my self build up. After the game I usually listen some slower metal to ease myself down.

Also, metal means something else to me. I danced my first slow when dj played "Tallulah" from Sonata Arctica.

Avane · Post by **Avane** » Thu May 03, 2007 12:38 pm

I want to know why you think a certain type of music stands out so much to you

Thank you for the reminder DW, Tricky laid out a very specific question, and I for one failed to respond, and will now amend.
Okay, I want to claim Lou Reed's Velvet Underground as the music that stands out for me, and I know that a lot of people would absolutely not 'get it'. It's jangly, discordant and frankly disturbing. [Any confusion here this is way, way, before Transformer and the likeable ditties such as Andy's Chest [ok, yeah Warhol's chest], and Satellite of Love.
This early Underground music resonates with me in a particular way, because it evokes a time in a period that is revelant to me [even though it pre-dates some]; and in little ways, I believe it helped to make me the person that I am today. That may sound a little extreme (given that they were, no matter how gifted, a bunch of drug-crazed-addled-speed-freaks: and I love them for that), however, I think I am justified in making this statement, as I aspired to a little of something that they were doing with their music. I think that this music let all of us who either lived at the time or after, allowed us to be different. That is a gift, no matter how you slice it.
It was a time that the Warhol Factory was happening; Joe Dallesandro, Edie Sedgwick, the amazing Jean-Michel Basquiat; the whole 'Factory' ambience. [And just to be clear here, not in the purest sense of the word 'aspired': like dying young, talking Edie here don't know if Joe is still around], but I loved and wanted to be like them and emulate their creativity. They were different. [Don't start humming Venus in Furs and thinking "oh so, sado-masochism?"]. Wrong.
This was NY [70's]. It was CBGB. They were writing and performing music that was in its entirety a reflection of their lifestyles. I think about Billy Idol, and The Clash, The New York Dolls, Sex Pistols and who knows what...can't tell you how much I love The Ramones, Dee Dee and Joey ...and none of this would have happened if Lou, who used to hang around outside of jazz clubs listening to the likes of Thelonious Monk, hadn't got his music 'jones' from doing that.
So you see this music for me was and is a pivotal point in the world of music and of personal freedom. It was new and it created a new platform for this new type of jazz. I'm using the word jazz here, because jazz to me always means different and often like in the works of Miles Davis, slightly unnatural and often discordant. Resonance? Yes, it definately has.

Fiberfar · Post by **Fiberfar** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:08 pm

Kipi wrote: As most of you probably know, I listen mostly metal.

Nooo? And here I thought you were into country

As for me, it has always been metal. I remember my older sister bringing a boyfriend over when I was about 9-10, and he put on Manowar's Louder Than Hell CD. I didn't listen to it then, but when I found the song Brothers of Metal from said band on the computer, I was sold. From that day on I kept listening to metal, and I've never listened to anything else.

Metal music has so much power in it, and when people claim that it makes you agressive, they're wrong. The music helps you relax, even if the drum beat sounds like a machine gun.

So, I listen to metal because I grew up with it (and that I think todays pop/trance etc. suck

)

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:33 pm

Fiberfar wrote: Metal music has so much power in it, and when people claim that it makes you agressive, they're wrong. The music helps you relax, even if the drum beat sounds like a machine gun.

True, very true...

For example, my family still can't understand how I can concentrate while listen some very hard and powerfull metal while working...

Also, I have even noticed that some bands even tend to make my headache disappear...

So, I listen to metal because I grew up with it (and that I think todays pop/trance etc. suck )

Again, I agree...

About couple of years ago I was still able to listen other music styles, but not anymore. The contain of especially rap, hiphop any many pop songs are mcuh the same...
"Yeah, I'm the best, I get all the girls and you suck"...

Fiberfar · Post by **Fiberfar** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:55 pm

Kipi wrote: Also, I have even noticed that some bands even tend to make my headache disappear...

Indeed, I've noticed that as well.

I do enjoy the sound of guitars and furious fretwork, drums and amazing vocal talents.

Mandalorianx · Post by **Mandalorianx** » Fri May 04, 2007 9:39 am

mostly Metal, but not all kind of metal thou,not like dimmu borger,children bodum, and more(mostly the death and black metal). but like Iced Earth, Blind Guardian,(also Demons And Wizards),Dragonforce and all(more power, trash and melodic metal thing

) more something i could play on my own guitar(exept Dragonforce).

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri May 04, 2007 11:13 am

OK, I repeat, this is not a list of the music you like, please read the question asked by the poster. Also please respect that there is a "No Spam" heading" to this thread.

Again:

It doesn't matter to me what music you listen to. Laibach or Coltrane, anything goes. I want to know why you think a certain type of music stands out so much to you, even if other people 'can't hear it'.

It is the difference between asking somebody what kind of books they like and which books leave them with a profound emotional response.

This is the last time I am warning people. From here on in, off topic posts are going to start vanishing.