I Love Music

Music isn't as important to life as breathing or blood... but it's pretty damned important.  You see... I love music.  All kinds of music.  A great concerto holds equal space in my heart as does a down a dirty rock blitz or a twangy country poem about a truck a girl and a dog (not necessarily in that order).

Music has always been a big part of my life.  I remember taking long family vacations where we would drive all over the country.  And while those vacations were more about seeing both oceans, Mexico, the gulf, Canada, 47 of the 50 states, most major highways, many major amusement parks, the redwoods, the palms, the scrub brush and the desert... I have incredibly strong memories of listening to 'oldies' on the radio.  Neither of my parents have the same passion as I do about music, but they did believe in listening to the songs of their youth while driving over listening to news or talk radio.

Something I'm going to do in this post is show you what I'm listening to while writing this.  I almost always listen to music while I'm at the computer.  It's mostly in the background, but sometimes it does well up and direct my emotions or inspire a new feeling.  Just understand that I'm writing this post AND chatting with people, so sometimes it will seem that I don't write all that much while listening to a lot of different songs.



So what's playing right now?

Ho Hey by The Lumineers

Most of the 'oldies' I listened to in the backseat of the family station wagon(s) was just what you'd think of.  Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Elvis, The Platters, Jerry Lee Lewis (Inches Feet Miles by Heywood Banks) songs from the 50s, 60s, and the rare tunes from the early 70s.  (Dignity by New Politics)  That's the music that they grew up with and listened to while courting each other.  I find it a little sad that they never grew past that music, but then again they aren't as into music as I am.

Thanks to those memories I often look at oldies as 'Americana'.  Yes, even the Beatles and the Stones ring out as American.

My next foray into music was from my older brother.  This was when we were (Smooth Criminal by Alien Ant Farm) young enough that everything my older brother liked was locked in as cool.  so Michael Jackson's Thriller, J Geils Band's Centerfold, and Metallica's Master of Puppets all were cool. I followed his tastes in music through the late 80s, most of which were hair bands.  Poison, Cinderella, RATT, and Motley Crue.  In the 90s our tastes changed... he went more into the Rap scene while I stayed with what was hot in Rock... Alternative and/or Grunge.

God... the days of Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Hole and Bush.  This was also about the time that I started making my own Mix Tapes.  It helped that I had a car with a tape player along with a boom box that I could mix and match songs with (Finale, Allegro III: Conceto For Trumpet And Orchestra by Wynton Marsalis).  I didn't have all the tapes or even CDs to get songs from so I started borrowing from friends.

Now, up until this point I got my musical tastes from family (Mom and Dad's oldies and my brother's hair bands), or from the radio playing whatever was popular.  But as I hit up my friend to borrow his Alice in Chains CD (I just had to have 'Heaven Beside You' on a tape) I saw several artists that I wasn't aware of.  Garbage comes immediately to mind.  I hadn't heard of them, but I figured if my friend liked them then I probably would too... so I borrowed it and fell in love with another band.

All of that is my 'informal' introduction to music.  In Junior High School I took up playing the Trombone.  I did it mainly so that I could be in the Marching Band, but it opened me up to a more formal musical education (About A Girl - Unplugged by Nirvana).  Band songs by John Philip Sousa entered my life but I was also in the Concert band and was introduced to classical music and show tunes.  So Phantom of the Opera (by Andrew Lloyd Webber) along with Bach, Beethoven and Hayden came to be main stays of my listening ear.  My last family vacation was accompanied by playing the two tape set of Phantom of the Opera over and over and over again.

When I got into College (Amy by Green Day) I dropped the Trombone but kept up my love for classical music.  The music scene changed as grunge slipped into alternative and rock slipped into the background.  Where I found my music also changed... gone were the days of the Radio introducing me to music and I got more and more of my music from other media.  Television shows, commercials, and movies became the places where i heard 'new' music.

To this day I get most of my music from these sources.  Most of my radio listening has changed to NPR instead of music.  It's not because I don't like listening to new music on the radio... it's because I don't like much of the 'new' music that's getting radio play and most of the other music on the radio isn't as good as what I have on my trusty iPod ((If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To by Weezer).  I do listen to the local 'alternative/rock' station while I clean up after dinner and do occasionaly get new music there (Mumford and Sons, Of Monsters and Men, and Imagine Dragons comes to mind) but that's about it.

That brings me to another thought... of how I like to have music accompany me everywhere I am.  I used to be limited to where there was a radio or my computer.  In 2003 though I stepped up and bout my first iPod. I believe they had just come out with it for the PC and the iTunes store had a windows version, but my main reason for jumping in was photography.  This was when I was working at sporting events and had long drives to kill as well as waking up at the hotel (Angel by Aerosmith), and killing time between events.  Later I'd add my phone that could play music, but it was always limited to the amount of music I could add to it.

Now I have music available to me just about everywhere.  When I wake up in the morning to an alarm it's coming from my iHome alarm clock with an iPod touch connected to it.  I have a specific list of songs that will get me out of bed quickly but not piss me off like the blaring 'alarm clock' sound does.  I get my cup of coffee and sit down at the computer where I obviously have all my music.  When I get around to shower, I have my little shower radio playing the local alternative/rock station.  When I get to the car I have my iPod nano connected to the Sony stereo with all of my music on it (although I have a playlist of driving music that I mainly listen to).  When I get home and work in the kitchen (prepping a snack, prepping dinner, cleaning up after dinner) I have a radio there under the counter. It is either playing that same radio station or it's hooked up to my iPod Touch or phone.  In the living room I have my android tablet with most of my music on it if I'm not watching television (Black Gives Way to Blue by Alice in Chains).  When I'm grilling up some steaks or burgers I have the big old stereo in the Garage that I can listen to the radio on or hook up the iPod or phone to. That same stereo serves while I'm working outside (it's REALLY loud!) or in the garage itself.  Even when I'm on the move I generally have my tablet or phone with me and can just start playing from their own speakers.

This past weekend I was visiting some friends.  We generally grill up some food and have their iPad as a musical device (The Way We Touch by We Are Twin) but his children now fight over it's use.  Instead of just enjoying the briquets igniting and conversation I cued up the phone on my hip and had instant music.

Even at work in the prison, we have a radio.  It only gets a couple stations, and frankly both stations are terrible, but it's always on in the background.

I can't imagine an action I will do in life that isn't accompanied by music.  If silence is golden, then music is platinum.  I can't even really get upset at music that I don't like.  I don't enjoy much of today's "Pop" music.  I don't enjoy a lot of country.  I don't listen to much Jazz (but like it when I do).  But for every song that I don't like I think of a song on my playlist that will invariably make most people blanch (Honey Honey Bee by Robinella and the CCstringband).  Musical tastes are as unique as each person is.

One thing that gets me is everyone saying that they don't like "Today's Music".  As if the music that's popular today is all that different than what was popular years ago.  My brother pokes fun at his daughter for liking One Direction.  He jokes that they're a made up band with no real talent beyond the producer who brought them together and says they are the death knell for good music.  I wonder if he remembers N'Sync?  The Backstreet Boys?  Menudo?  The Monkeys?  A producing pulling semi talented good looking people together and forming a band out of them isn't anything new.  I bet it was even done back in the Big Band era and before (Boomdeyada by The Discovery Chanel... yes I listen to this song and even get chills when doing so!).   People hating on Miley Cyrus' escapades?  Did they forget about Madonna?

(Callin Baton Rouge by Garth Brooks)

I wish more people could just be open about music.  For the past decade or so my family has scoffed at my tastes in music constantly stating how weird it is.  Sadly I don't think they realize how much my musical tastes influence them.  Sure.. when I play a song for them, they initially don't like it but it's not rare for me to later hear that same song on their own (Some Postman by the Presidents of the United States) playlist.  They'll talk about how they heard it on the radio or some other most trusted musical friend introduced them to it, but I know that they heard it first from their weird music loving brother.  The one type of person that I really can't stand is the one that only loves music when it enters the top 40 charts.  They only like the song once it's been crowd sourced as popular.  They don't know why they like it... they only state that they do.

Well for me there is a whole wide variety of reasons to like music.  Sometimes it's a simple as a guitar riff.  Sometimes its the way the song moves from fast and energetic to slow and melodic.  Sometimes it's the complex coupling of a throbbing bass guitar beat, a driving drum beat, a wailing guitar and the screaming incomprehensible singer's voice (Strange Transmissions by Norah Jones and The Peter Malick Group).  Very rarely it's the lyrics... but more often than not I don't pay any attention to the poetry of a song.  I look at the singer (or singers) as just another instrument.  That's one of the reasons I don't get to much into the whole 'singer/songwriter' style of music.  I have a lot of respect for an artist that can write beautiful lyrics and accompany it to music, but more often than not those songs are ABOUT the lyrics and not the music.

As much as music colors every moment of my life, it doesn't dictate the emotions I feel.  Yes, they'll often encourage me to feel one way or another but it's rare (Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger) that a song will take me from feeling sad to feeling happy or vice versa.  By carrying around so much music that inspires so many different emotions (happy, sad, reflective, inspired, holy, angry, dangerous...) I can enhance how I feel.  For instance if I leave work in a foul mood I'll put on my playlist in the car and skip right by the happy go lucky songs and let the darker mooded songs play back to back to back.  Last night when I left work and was feeling really happy and proud of myself I skipped by the darker and sadder songs and played happy anthems for the hour's drive.

Anywho... I LOVE music (Hurt by Johnny Cash).  I doubt I've given you a really good selection of my musical tastes, but I hope that I've shown you some of the variety of tunes that I listen to day in and day out.  I also hope that you love music as much as I do.  If you don't... give it a try.  Try to define what YOU like about music (and liking something because it's popular is NOT a valid reason!).  If you find out what you like, then look for it in other genres of music... the world will open up in a while new way for you!