Something Beautiful

It's really strange to me that people close themselves off to new music. This is towards no one in particular.

But I really spend a lot of time looking for new music, in every genre. Today I've been listening to Sarah Chang and solo violin music. I really like metal, and all it's sub-genres. Same for rock, classic rock, blues, country, jazz, etc.

I just really love music, and am a massive fan of the electric guitar. I'll listen to Buddy Holly, then Johnny Cash, Then Necrophagist, then Sarah Chang, and it doesn't seem odd to me, it's all just music.

Humans live a complicated and complex range of emotions, and there's plenty of music that reflects those emotions, from full throated raging "Just wanna break sh*t!" types of music, to somber music that's so powerful and full of angst you almost want to cry listening to it (like some really good violin music can do.)

I just don't understand expressions like, "that's 'your' music, and this is 'my' music." I'm not saying anyone is wrong to say such things, just that I don't understand it.

When I was a kid and Metallica was still underground, I loved them and still do. I also liked Lnyrd Skynrd and Creedence Clearwater Revival and Zeppelin and Sabbath.
As a teen I got into early Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, TooL, etc. "grunge/alternative" music.
In my late 20's early 30's I got more into death metal and sci-fi metal, as well as some country and some jazz.

I just can't understand not wanting to grow and expand as a musician or even as a music listener. I don't understand not constantly seeking out new music to listen to.

I guess "grunge" would be considered 'my' music, since I was a teenager when it came out. But I can't imagine spending the rest of my life listening to just that when there's so much other good music that needs listening to. Pretty much all music through the entire course of human history has had some incredible musicians worth listening to from Bach and Mozart up to and including Tosin Abasi or that kid down the street playing a cool melody I hear drifting through my window.

It's all just music, you either love music or you don't right? As soon as you start labeling and boxing it in, you're really just hurting yourself.

You're not hurting the music, it doesn't care what you think. But you might be depriving yourself of some really cool music.

Or at the very, very least. Depriving yourself of hearing something that inspires you to do something new and different with the music that you write.

You never know where inspiration will come from. As an artist you've got to constantly feed yourself new things to digest and dissect.

The first time I heard Animals as Leaders, I thought it was pretty crazy, out of time stuff. And I didn't care for the guitar tone.
The second time I listened to it, I noticed he was using some really unusual chords and note choices for his melodies.
The third time I listened to it I realized the guy is a virtuoso.
The fourth time I listened to it I noticed I tended to think of outer space and sci-fi movies while it played.
The fifth time I just realized it's all pretty awesome and stopped paying attention and just enjoyed listening to it.
By the sixth time, I realized it's just some really cool music and I was glad I gave it the opportunity to grow on me.

Now I think he's one of the few current new guys out there really doing something new and interesting. Almost groundbreaking really. He's underrated because he's so far ahead of the curve people don't even get what he's doing.

I never would've discovered him if I'd closed my mind to new music, or only gave a song one chance to impress me.

Sometimes you have to listen to things a few times to really let it settle into your brain.

Same thing happened with Alice in Chains and Soundgarden the first times I heard them. I didn't like their voices. After I'd heard them a few times though, my ears adjusted to what I was hearing and enjoyed and appreciated it.

Sometimes we put these expectations on music, "if it doesn't sound like I think it should sound, then I don't like it." When really that's a rather silly way to think.

Give the artist a few chances to present their ideas to you, and see if it grows on you. See if there's something there that you could learn or take away from the experience.

I write lots of songs and I know quite a few people that write lots of songs. None of us ever say, "I'm writing for this crowd in particular."

We write for everyone and hope that everyone will enjoy it. While still understanding that not everyone will.

It's just music.

On one hand it's the most important thing in the world, on the other hand,......it's just music.

Rants about how a certain style of music, or a band or single musician 'sucks' just never makes sense to me. Not only is it a bit of a waste, it's just more negativity thrown into an already negative world.

Why not use that opportunity to present to me something that you think is awesome and amazing (like I did with the Animals as Leaders video) and perhaps you can share with me something awesome that I would not have discovered on my own?

I could tell you many things about the world that suck and make me sick to my stomach, but as long as I have your attention for this short moment as our lives intersect, I'd rather show you something beautiful.

Cheers.

-M-