So how am I going to relate music to my psyche? That's easy. Music relates to people in a whole manner of different ways. It instills emotion, describes our tastes, and in many cases, inspires us. I think I'm going to go through the evolution of my musical tastes. I seem to remember different periods in which I found different types of music more appealing than others.
So let's start at the beginning, shall we?
When I was still in elementary/middle school, I wasn't into music all that much. I had never come across anything that particularly took me. All I could remember was that a lot of music actually bored or annoyed me as a child. When you think about it, music isn't made to be appealing to us at early ages. Really, think about it - we're subjected to a slew of nursery rhymes and sing-a-longs. Sure they offer brief giggles and are somewhat soothing, but can you remember a Barney song that had profound meaning to you? My guess is no. These forms of music never really did anything for me. Music class in elementary school was mostly boring as well. I was just never amused with it at that point in my life.
Now you might be thinking, "well maybe you just weren't a musically inclined person." I'd have to say that you do make a good point - I definitely might not be a musically inclined person, but then why were so many people around me obsessed with music at such early ages? They couldn't have all had musical personas, right?
So what made me different? Was there any type of music that I did enjoy? Actually, I really enjoyed music that was found in video games. Why? I'm not exactly sure, but I have two guesses:
1) The music was very melodic. I can remember humming the tunes to many different songs as a child. The only problem is that all the rhythmic songs that I was exposed to as a child bored me. I don't think melody is the reason why I found this form of music appealing.
2) I associated the songs with an experience.
I think the second choice makes a lot more sense. Playing games was a huge part of my childhood. I derived so much enjoyment from playing games that I often wish that I could go back to my younger years to re-experience how much my imagination was enthralled. The melodies from these games were what I preferred when compared to other forms of music. Why? This was most likely the first time that particular music actually held any kind of meaning to me. When I herd these songs, I associated them with something that made me happy, as opposed to mainstream music at the time, which I associated with nothing at all.
So then why didn't mainstream music have any effect on me?
I went into some of my own personal files, and I found this segment from one of my essays:
People in our modern world have it engraved in their minds that they have to fit in with those who are socially accepted. One of the most common ways they do this is by changing the way they dress. Whenever a celebrity dons a new attire or creates a new “look”, people flock to the development. I don’t look down upon the idea behind this, but the way people act once a new “look” comes out upsets me. Instead of taking a new fad and adjusting it to fit your own style, people instead copy the new style down to the button. With so many people imitating a new look in exactly the same way, it loses its originality and it makes me feel as if we really are just a bunch of mindless drones. To me, creativity seems almost nonexistent as I see outlines of people who form the same shape. It is as if the only things I am looking at are silhouettes, devoid of any kind of expression or meaning. I see people wearing the same shoes, the same pants, the same shirts, and the same hats all the time. Spotting originality has become like looking for a four leaf clover.
While the passage isn't talking about music directly, I think what I was trying to say can be generalized. The passage was from an essay that I wrote about my pet peeves. As you can probably tell, I don't like sheep (or shepherds for that matter). I don't like it when people don't think for themselves. When you take that pet peeve and associate it with how everyone in my childhood all swooned over mainstream music, you can probably see why I didn't like it. To me it felt like everyone was trying to fit in by allying themselves with popular culture. Even at an early age I didn't agree with this. They weren't unique. This music didn't mean anything to them (or at least to most of them).
So that was elementary and middle school. let's move on to high school.
In high school, I adopted another taste for music: heavy metal. Yup, AC/DC, Metallica, you name it. I was a metal head in the making. Why did I adopt this taste in music? Did it also have some kind of meaning to me? I think it has more to do with that I thought it sounded really cool. I think part of me was associating it with video games again. Lots of heavy metal has that "epic" feel to it, a feeling that I associated with many a game. There is a certain exhilaration that guitar riffs can give you in the midst of an apocalyptic battle. I think this form of music was just an extension of my previous tastes rather than the music having its own meaning to me. When I try to think of a heavy metal song that had its own specific meaning to me, I come up short.
So then what happened next? Well, let me tell you.
After high school, I started to explore music a little more. I still stayed away from most mainstream stuff, as it never failed to annoy the hell out of me. I moved on to music without lyrics. Why? I think I adopted this taste due to the fact that when a song has no words, I can attribute my own meaning to it. At this point, the music becomes more about emotion than anything else - nobody is telling you what the song is about, it's all up to interpretation. I think this was the first kind of music that I really started to identify with myself. When you think about it, it is really difficult to identify a genre of music with your personality. What genre of music resonates with you?
Once again, there isn't much to say about that. I will note that my interest in music still wasn't the strongest at this point. I still didn't see why so many people defined music as their lives. Sure, music was enjoyable... but your life? What these people are saying is that without music, they would die. Well, I guess music IS pretty dramatic...
Anyways, there is one more stage to my music development that I need to talk about. I am currently in this "phase" of my musical tastes, and I have to say that of all my phases, this is my favorite.
I think it should be noted that at a young age, my brother had the same tastes in music that I did when we were in elementary and middle school. However, we came to a point where we just veered off in different directions in terms of our tastes. It's because of this that when he recommends music for me, I listen. I trust his judgment because who is to say that he found the right path of preference before I did? Well, to say that he found a few types of music that appealed to my tastes would be an understatement. The truth is that the majority of my favorite bands/songs/genres are the result of his recommendations. Brand New, As Tall As Lions, Envy on the Coast, and The Receiving End of Sirens are just to name a few. The songs from these bands just mean so much to me. They aren't just a culmination of sounds strung into songs; they are stories. They are stories that I can relate to, and they are stories that align with my values. They play at my emotions, which is usually very difficult to do to me. I like that, and I'll tell you why. When something is able to pretty much sit me down and say "yea, I know how to push your buttons" and then proceeds to press every one of them, including buttons I didn't even know I had, then it shows that they know me on a personal level. Some of my friends don't even know me that well. Don't you think that's interesting?
So I also wanted to talk about one of these bands: Brand New. Apparently, after listening to them, many people come to resent the world. I will admit that a lot of their songs have depressing lyrics, but does that make me resent the world? Actually, Brand New makes me happy.
Wait, what?
How can songs with depressing undertones make you happy? Well, I couldn't tell you. When I listen to Brand New's music, I just tend to admire it. It's clever and metaphoric. So what if it's symbolic of dreary scenes? The emotions that it evicts from me are positive ones. I can't give a concrete answer to this, but I think it has to do with the fact that I enjoy it when something knows how to pull at my intricately woven strings. People are difficult instruments to play, ya know? I have a certain admiration for anything that can understand someone as complex or confused as me.
So now a question,
How do you know that the emotions a song evicts in you are the ones that the artist intended to evict?
Not as tricky as some of my other questions, but nonetheless still requires some thought.
Until next time, stay frosty.
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