Friday 14 March 2014

The Music of People

A person's taste in music is quite a fascinating thing. A person's playlist is a small little link as to what goes on inside them. But another fascinating thing is the fact that I don't like showing just anyone my music.  I hate, detest, despise, showing people my playlists. I think it stems from the fact that I get very emotional about my songs and why I like them or why I don't like specific other songs. I have my own sort of utopian world stored up in gigs on my phone and on my computer. At times, it's difficult for me to come to terms with somebody entering it, seeing it, judging it and commenting on something that is very well my own. Well, I'm sure Alice didn't  want anyone discovering her own little Wonderland! Mary hardly wanted anyone to find her Secret Garden. I know its a bit petty of me but I just can't help it.

I know that we all have our own tastes in virtually everything. Pie, scarves, shoes, painting, photography, music. They are all things that can be categorised by taste into tiny subsets of a whole.  There are several reasons why we listen to a particular piece of music, why raspberry pie tastes better the blueberry pie, why Plimsolls are more comfortable than Doc Martens. Why we listen to a particular song is something that depends on a type of person. A whole variety of factors play into why a particular song stands out to me. I know of others who listen to the song because of the drums, or the guitars, or the synths or the particular producer of a song. Our taste in music is like the wide array of colours on an artist's pallet. And just the same, perhaps it's only a tiny difference in pigmentation that makes the colour stand out from the rest.

But because we listen to music for our emotional wellbeing, it's easy to see why we are all so emotional and so defensive about the songs we listen to. Well, actually maybe it's just me.  When someone asks me "what type of music do you listen to?" I have never, ever, at any stage of being asked that question, told them what specific genre I listen to. I merely say "Pffft, good songs!"  I also have a habit of never ever playing my music at parties, or showing them to anybody else unless they have shown me theirs first. I'll show you mine if you show me yours!


Music is a beautiful thing. A song is an artwork. We often overlook the "art" in it by calling it an "arrangement" or a piece of "work". Music of today is rarely expressed as an artwork. But it is. And I should be celebrating the artwork shouldn't I? I should be sharing my music, letting other people know that that the sounds that I listen to exist! I guess, instead of looking at it as ones own secret, I should look at it like an attribute to myself. From now on, I'm going to try and wear it like a badge, a proud identity.

No comments:

Post a Comment