In my blog about the fact that I'm INCREDIBLY judgemental for no reason, I stated that I will judge you if you like country music.
I'd like to take that back. Kind of. What I really meant, was that I will judge you if you like that country-pop shit like Keith Urban or Sugarland or what the fuck ever. And, I mean, I will. But I don't have any beef with, like, old school country. And I ENJOY some alternative country/folk music. I like Blitzen Trapper, and they call themselves "country" musicians. The Avett Brothers could certainly be considered a subset of country music, and they're one of my favorite bands.
But guys, what I really want to say is that I don't really give a shit what kind of music you listen to. I really don't. I am a music lunatic, and am absolutely obsessed with it, and I spend more time than I really care to admit researching bands and genres of music and histories of songwriters and how this guitarist ended up with that band after parting ways with those other guys and about the medical conditions of musicians that I listen to and what they really meant when they said that one thing in that one song and it's just exhausting and it never ends. But all of that is kind of private to me. If I find out that you like the same bands as me, I'm probably going to be really pumped about it, and THEN I'll want to talk about it, maybe. But I'll still probably be embarrassed about how much weird and useless information I know, and the fact that it makes me look like a stalker/shut-in. I don't really like to have the "what kind of music do you listen to" talk, because I feel like I'll sound pretentious. But I really don't think my music habits are cool, I think they're really dorky. I DO think I have badass music taste, but I assume that most people do. And I don't really like to name the "genre" of music I like, because I don't just listen to one type of music. If you tell someone you like "indie" music, you sound like an arrogant fuck. If you tell people you listen to "electronic" music, most people are probably going to think you're a weirdo. If you say you listen to "dance" music, people will either think that you're a raver who spends your average Wednesday evening rolling face and waving around glow sticks, or that you listen to fucking Cascada or some shit. Most of my friends do not, in fact, listen to the music I do, and classify my music as "weird stuff". Which really, most of it is not. I wish that I had more friends that DID listen to the music I listen to, because...I don't know, because I fucking love it and would like to listen to it in other peoples' presence without them going "what the FUCK IS this?" I don't even know what the hell most of my friends listen to, to be honest.
My boyfriend once asked me what it is that I like about the music that I like, and I wasn't able to answer him articulately. He has a distinct subset of qualities that he looks for in music, and almost all of the music that he likes follows that specific formula. I don't have that. There are a couple of qualities that I do enjoy (good percussion/base lines, minor keys, haunting melodies), but mostly I just want the music that I listen to make me feel some kind of way. I want it to either pump me up, or make me fall in love, or make me want to die. I want it to give me chills or make me dance. I want the lyrics to either be mind-blowingly good or weird as shit. I don't want it to be dull or uninspired. I don't want it to cater to the general public. I want it to be written as a form of expression. A lot of people that listen to similar types of music to mine bitch about their favorite bands getting discovered and going mainsteam and "selling out". And it's not that we want to be different because of the music that we like, or that we don't want our favorite bands to be successful and/or famous...it's more that once bands start catering to the general public, their music legitimately changes. It loses the magic quality that it held when it was just being written because it was inside of somebody and needed to come out. Music that is generally played on the radio is written to be sold and make money, not to inspire people. And that's why people like me hate when bands "sell out".
Anyway, what I'm getting at is that, sure, I'm judgemental. And if I find out that your favorite "musical artist" is Nicki Minaj, yeah, I'm probably going to think you suck a little bit. But I'll probably give you another chance. And I probably didn't ask you what your favorite kind of music was, so I don't know why you offered that information to begin with. And you probably think I'm arrogant, or pretentious, or weird, or dorky anyway. So let's just agree to disagree, and listen to some OneRepublic. Because let's just be honest: who DOESN'T like that shit?
No comments:
Post a Comment