cyberspace junkyard

Music lovers
I had an interesting conversation today that has prompted me to think about why I'd call myself a music appreciator and a music maker but not necessarily a music listener or collector. Music to me is not as much a hobby, an obsession or a lifestyle choice but more just a part of how I express myself. Ask me to name my favourite recording artist and I can't, because I like individual songs as opposed to a body of work. Ask me what genre of music is the best, and I can't answer that either, because you can't define music wholly by its genre. No doubt everyone is influenced by the music they grow up on and the music they listen to. They pick and choose their favourites and grow in critical appreciation of various artists and genres for various reasons. Music is the brainchild of both the talented and the marketable. For some reason though, I think the artist is separate from the music itself. Does Vanessa Mae playing Bach on an electric violin add to my enjoyment of that piece of music? No, but the music itself is inherently the same. It's just interpretated differently. So, we might have opinions about performances of various pieces. We might be turned off a song because we don't like the singer's personality or attitude. Is this a critique of the music itself or just of the tangible expression of it? Do you really dislike a song or just the way it has been categorised / performed / marketed / arranged / distributed. Or is it all one and the same?

There are endless arguments about what kind of modern day music is better / original and therefore more worthy. There are also many opinions about what part music plays in a person's life. Go watch High Fidelity. At the end of the day though, all I know is that I like certain songs. It might be one bar that catches me, it might be an interesting lyric, a throbbing accompaniment, a cheesy sentiment or an association in my head and heart. I always go with my gut - listening to a song in complete isolation without necessarily any knowledge of who is singing, who wrote it, who else likes it or how awful the video clip is. Can I pick what inspired the song? Can I understand at any level what it is communicating? Can I enjoy it without being influenced by my past experiences of music? It might be hampered by a bad interpretation but the potential will always shine through. Or not, in some cases.

I wrote this about an hour and a half ago and have since lost my train of thought. Oops. I have now regressed to the level of "awww... birdy... pwetty... awww.... kitty.... cute" after a visit to the pet store. A post-disclaimer stating that the above stream of consciousness does not fully represent my views.