Classic Rock Radio
I can hear it coming in my window. It's that reggae-ish LZ song, you know the one. I used to like it, but classic rock radio has beaten the goodness out of that song, and now it just sucks.
I listen to old music (like, pre-2000) all the time - it's probably well over half of what I listen to. But it's ever-changing. I'm always digging up old music I've never heard before, listening to it to death, then moving on to something else. Old favorites will always get a spin, but they are subject to the law of diminishing returns, to one degree or another.
I feel the same about music I play. It's got to be constantly moving for me, filtering the old through the new in gradually decreasing amounts (though never zero). This is what makes me happiest.
Eb and I have been talking about our old bands and I explained to him that in the "old days" I'd typically form a band dedicated to one style of music and one only. I'd crank out as many songs as I could in that formula, then get bored of it and throw the band away.
I don't want to operate that way anymore because I think you can wring a lot more out of a band if you let it do many different things and evolve over time. Old Band was like this, on a less ambitious scale than what I'd prefer today. I like a band that's reliable, but reliable doesn't mean "able to reproduce their first album exactly again and again". It just means the band needs to consistently be able to impress me with whatever new tricks they're coming up with.
When people like bands/musical styles that never change at all over time, I find that depressing. Take the blues; to a purist, it never changes. But I'm not interested in hearing someone trying to ape Robert Johnson in 2006. Certainly, I'll always give full props to RJ but in this day and age, the skills he pioneered need to be applied in different ways in order to hold my attention.
I think some people see music the way they see a cup of coffee. They need it to get through each day. The ritual and routine of it. Same time of day, same contents. Maybe they drink it in the same place. Submarine sandwiches can also be like this. I have good friends who've worked in that industry, and it's clear that many people are focused on total regularity of their bread and ingredients, to the point that any deviation leads to disappointment. And hey, I'm no different with sandwiches. If a cucumber ever found its way on there, it has the potential to throw my whole day off, seriously.
I don't view music in those terms. I get bored too easily now, not like when I was younger. When I see people demanding the same "product" time and again, I just want to give them something different that they'll hate, just to insult their need for sameness. Punk rock comes to mind here. Punk to me is supposed to be about youth, excitement and irreverence. Playing the exact same music for years, or trying to a copy an old style while adding nothing new at all is the exact opposite of what punk is all about to me. I feel like that sort of band/scene is living in a dream world. Punk is just a cup of coffee to them, a little shot of caffeine and sugar to get through the day. It's absolute and unchanging, so don't fuck with it.
My idea of a punk band does everything it can to mock, belittle and destroy this way of thinking. Punk was a fad, just like every kind of music is a fad. Some fads leave lasting impressions that turn up in future fads. That's good! I agree! But believing your own-personal-favorite fad is somehow supposed to stay the same forever is just stupid. Ultimately, fads-in-stasis will cease to affect fads of the future, thereby becoming culturally useless.
Actually, I take that back. The total lameness of the fad-in-stasis could well inspire others to not be that way. I guess it is good for something.
I listen to old music (like, pre-2000) all the time - it's probably well over half of what I listen to. But it's ever-changing. I'm always digging up old music I've never heard before, listening to it to death, then moving on to something else. Old favorites will always get a spin, but they are subject to the law of diminishing returns, to one degree or another.
I feel the same about music I play. It's got to be constantly moving for me, filtering the old through the new in gradually decreasing amounts (though never zero). This is what makes me happiest.
Eb and I have been talking about our old bands and I explained to him that in the "old days" I'd typically form a band dedicated to one style of music and one only. I'd crank out as many songs as I could in that formula, then get bored of it and throw the band away.
I don't want to operate that way anymore because I think you can wring a lot more out of a band if you let it do many different things and evolve over time. Old Band was like this, on a less ambitious scale than what I'd prefer today. I like a band that's reliable, but reliable doesn't mean "able to reproduce their first album exactly again and again". It just means the band needs to consistently be able to impress me with whatever new tricks they're coming up with.
When people like bands/musical styles that never change at all over time, I find that depressing. Take the blues; to a purist, it never changes. But I'm not interested in hearing someone trying to ape Robert Johnson in 2006. Certainly, I'll always give full props to RJ but in this day and age, the skills he pioneered need to be applied in different ways in order to hold my attention.
I think some people see music the way they see a cup of coffee. They need it to get through each day. The ritual and routine of it. Same time of day, same contents. Maybe they drink it in the same place. Submarine sandwiches can also be like this. I have good friends who've worked in that industry, and it's clear that many people are focused on total regularity of their bread and ingredients, to the point that any deviation leads to disappointment. And hey, I'm no different with sandwiches. If a cucumber ever found its way on there, it has the potential to throw my whole day off, seriously.
I don't view music in those terms. I get bored too easily now, not like when I was younger. When I see people demanding the same "product" time and again, I just want to give them something different that they'll hate, just to insult their need for sameness. Punk rock comes to mind here. Punk to me is supposed to be about youth, excitement and irreverence. Playing the exact same music for years, or trying to a copy an old style while adding nothing new at all is the exact opposite of what punk is all about to me. I feel like that sort of band/scene is living in a dream world. Punk is just a cup of coffee to them, a little shot of caffeine and sugar to get through the day. It's absolute and unchanging, so don't fuck with it.
My idea of a punk band does everything it can to mock, belittle and destroy this way of thinking. Punk was a fad, just like every kind of music is a fad. Some fads leave lasting impressions that turn up in future fads. That's good! I agree! But believing your own-personal-favorite fad is somehow supposed to stay the same forever is just stupid. Ultimately, fads-in-stasis will cease to affect fads of the future, thereby becoming culturally useless.
Actually, I take that back. The total lameness of the fad-in-stasis could well inspire others to not be that way. I guess it is good for something.
posted by the baron ash von foolishness at 2:56 PM
2 Comments:
I really like the new Comets on Fire album.
I like your way of thinking.
Post a Comment
<< Home