I have just been thinking about music. For a long time now, years, in fact, maybe all my life, I have not been able to define what kind of music I like. I listened to a lot of "classical" (romantic, actually) music as a child. My parents didn't make me, I just wanted to. I remember listening to
The Moldau for the first time, with Kristin. That piece has ever since seemed like a discovery between us. I still think that it is one of the most impact-ful pieces I have ever heard. Then of course, Beethoven symphonies, Tchiakovsky ballet suites, Chopin, and even Strauss Waltzes, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit, were an obsession when I was about 14. And of course, because of my dad's influence, Handel's Messiah.
My childhood was almost completely devoid of any pop music whatsoever, except the occasional dose of classic country when we visited our cousins, and I developed my own style of improv on the piano pretty early. Unfortunately, that "style" has now become a bit of a rut, instead of a starting point, but that thought is for another day. I never purposely avoided other music, but by high school age, I just ended up never listening to much else but the things I wanted to play. "Classical" (still romantic, but I
did finally warm up to Bach), some worship music, soundtracks, and random celtic things....
The effect is that now, I feel like someone who has dropped into society from another planet, and have no idea where to begin with modern pop music and culture. I actually learned a lot about understanding, listening to and interpreting jazz and alternative music from a friend when I first got to college, but that was a long time ago, and I still did not develop my taste much. Later, another friend introduced me to a band (which I think is just one guy actually) called The Magnetic Fields which I liked very much because it had interesting poetry, chord progressions and instrumentation. I don't think it is very mainstream. I suppose I like Queen, because they are very creative.
But they are so different. One can like lots of very different sounds, but, I don't know why it has taken me so long to realize this, but I have decided what kind of music I like: interesting music. I hate boring music. And honestly, the vast majority of all music I hear on the radio, including, and even
especially the classical station, at any given moment totally bores me to tears. The problem must be with the people choosing the music, because, well, I don't know so much about other styles, but I
know the classical station has
so many options besides that baroque horn concerto they keep playing over and over and over. And over. And then the announcer always gushes over it, and it's conductor and it's soloist, and when they do that I'm always thinking,
What do you know about it?
Not that all radio announcers are non-musicians, and not that non-musicians (I always want to say "non-music folk" like on Harry Potter when Hagrid explains muggles as "non-magic folk") cannot have opinions on music. On the contrary, many non-music folk I've talked to have super interesting observations. They somehow notice or express things that I've never even thought of! But I dislike it very much when someone takes an entire genre (like the so-called "classical") and pronounces it "relaxing" or "educational" or what have you. There is so much more to music than that, even the boring stuff! (Well, some of it, but I think most boring things can't be also educational. At least not very.) I cannot imagine how people generalize like that. They confuse boring and relaxing, I think. In our fast-paced world, that probably isn't hard to do. And those public radio announcers don't mean any harm. But not one of them would ever dream of generalizing paintings that way, or some other art. Oh, granted, of course they call the fast things "exciting" and all that, but still. In general, it's like it's supposed to be all the same or something. I could never stand just to have one radio station playing in the background all the time, and I have heard so many times lately on adds for the classical station: "I wake up to WRR, I go to sleep to WRR. I could not imagine life without WRR!" and I'm sorry but that just sort of disgusts me.
Of course, I think I am not-so-subconsciously taking this opportunity to complain about the Dallas radio stations, and I am probably generalizing way too much about them, just like I accuse them of generalizing about music, etc. But it has to be said. However snobbish, critical, or overly picky this may sound, I had to say it. For my sanity because I've been thinking it so long, and for me. To see what comes out when I try to answer the trite question "What kind of music do you like?" Not to bash that question either. Some people apparently
do only listen to one kind. (given the lovely testimonials on the "classical" station website.)
Anyhow, I don't know why it's a relief to me to know what kind of music I like. It just is. Maybe I feel obligated to know all about it because I'm a musician. But my answer is not very helpful to anyone but me. I like interesting music. And, I hate to be negative, but actually it's more to the point to say that I really hate boring music. I would rather hear nothing at all. Which I guess is how I am different from the people who invented Muzak. For example, I can never, never understand the music in the grocery store. Who is enjoying it? If it is boring "elevator" ugly jazz music, who wants to hear that? And if it's regular pop music, who wants or needs to hear the ins and outs of some stranger's relationships as they decide whether or not to buy generic bread, or search and search and
search for iron cleaner? Or of course there's always the option of the baroque trumpet concerto again... (no offense to horn-players, trumpet players, or lovers of baroque chamber music.) But that is one aspect of our culture that I have tried and tried, and failed to understand.
I told you this might sound snobbish.
