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I love music, but every so often I get a bit overwhelmed. I can never figure out why these feelings wash over me. Perhaps it has been a hazard of my lifestyle. I interview musicians in genres ranging from the most obscure to the most mainstream and host a show at an independent radio station. I get ensnared by popular culture’s creeping tendrils and still listen to my same Radiohead albums in the dark for the umpteenth time.
What I can’t seem to pin down is what makes people like certain music. Why do I like what I like and why do I have such strong opinions on it? Why do certain people take refuge in the deepest fathoms of musical niches while some are comfortable being spoon fed top 40 singles week after week?
The obvious answer is to feel they are a part of something. The girls in the apartment next door are listening to Akon as they sip Parrot Bay rum and orange juice out of a Nalgene bottle because their friends in the next building are doing the same thing. So are the girls down at the University of Florida, California or any other school across the country.
This can be seen in extremes across genres and time periods. Punk music scenes are tight-knit groups who tear apart artists achieving any sort of success. Today’s stoners listen to Bob Marley, Pink Floyd and Rush because they know kids in each era were toking up to the same records. Even people who listen to Wagnerian opera often do so to feel they are connected to a higher form of art.
But what if everyone kept his or her music taste a secret, making social context irrelevant? Imagine if people liked certain music merely because of the sound they are taking in.
In this world it might be impossible to define taste. When I host my radio show, I am faced with shelves of CDs by artists I’ve never heard of. I am offered short descriptions of each artist, but often pick bands by things as arbitrary as a band name or album cover. When I play tracks from bands named Vagina Panther or Rainbow Arabia, the music is often easily forgotten. Is this because I have no connection to these bands? I would like to think I wouldn’t ever pass over a Radiohead album merely because I had never heard of them.
It seems a healthy balance is what’s best. Liking an artist because they fit your lifestyle is not a bad thing. Bros will keep listening to Jack Johnson because all their other bro friends do, but that’s not to say that they don’t actually enjoy his mellow, soulful murmurs.
I can think of a multitude of artists I could be accused of liking merely because they adhere to my way of life. Yet I can also think of some that no one told me to like. Some I “discovered” when no one else liked them; some are guilty pleasures too embarrassing to print.
So even when I get beleaguered by the sheer multitude of music out there, I like to take solace in thinking that I still question the quality of what I listen to; I can judge it in an unbiased manner and defend the artists I do love against any and all disparagement.
Bangor Daily News