thinking music
some music makes me think. some turns off my brain. i wonder what it is that defines which will do what. like is it rhythmically repetitive stuff that makes me brain dead? I don't know. but sometimes i need that. other times i want to be stimulated.. So i was listening to music to avoid having to listen to the gurgling and sputtering that passes for singing on tv these days. i'm kind of tired of contests on tv where sub-par singers compete for ridiculous titles.. it seems like it should be a smack in the face to all the professional singers out there that these people get so much attention... and advertising money. anyway. i'm tired of thinking about that. so i'm going to bed. goodnight.
6 Comments:
I never thought about american idol like that. Good point. Now I'm mad too.
I've been trying to come up with the most apropos or appropriate relational analogy to describe music versus lyrics. For me, the lyrics important. But the music is too... And an ethereal connection between the two is ideal. Some songs seem like they just couldn't have been written any differently, the words and music fit together so well.
Of course, I come from a music-land where the music and lyrics are often written by two different people (and often by the same), so that relationship becomes more obvious when it's either perfect or exceedingly un-so. Think, for example of "Somewhere" in West Side Story -- the way the swells of the melody convey the underlying longing in the lyric; a lyric which would be moderately pedestrian on its own, but with the music steps up the plane of human expression.
I also realize that I am rarer of my generation as one for whom the words are important. It's not a sheerly physical tribal dance that attracts me to the music. (usually)
Does any of that blarrtherr make sense?
very interesting. for me, since i can rarely make out the words to anything and when i think i do, i've got it embarrassingly wrong, i'd just as soon listen to something where the language was unnecessary. the voice does not offend as an instrument... well.. frequently it does.. but not in and of itself. but yeah.. so i agree with your point about some songs being inseparable of words to music.. and that's nice for them to move each other like that.. i suppose as you go along adding forms of art to each other you're going to get wavelengths that amplify each other as well as wavelengths that interfere with one another.. i like that metaphor. this i think is why i don't much care for opera. i may like bits of it by itself, but in its performance i don't care for it at all.. to be fair, i've only seen one live, and it was by mozart. and i don't care for his work much. both that opera and his other music.. anyway. i've rambled enough that i hope i can now write some really concise talking points for tomorrow morning. goodnight.
I'm with Jon in liking words lots. You know how much a wordphile I am. Then again, I am secretly in love with American Idol as well, mostly for the snarking factor....
I think you should try opera again. Actually what we should do is just see a bunch of Gilbert and Sullivan making fun of opera. Weren't we going to write a G&S operetta one of these days?
When was I subjecting you to Crapmerican Crapdol? That show sucks balls (sorry Shannon, but it does), and I only recall watching part of one episode this year before (once again) declairing it worthless.
Oh wait...was it like, the last five minutes...while I was waiting for House to be on? That's probably what it was.
Anyhoo...I've seen a couple of operas, and I have to say - I like Jon's sort of musicals much better. I just don't care for that opera sort of singing.
Also, though I don't always understand all of the lyrics to all of the songs that I love (and sometimes when I look them up they disappoint me), I much prefer songs with lyrics to songs without. I think it's more about having a human voice involved than anything else.
Other instruments can convey TONS of emotion, but ya gotta love the raw, organic soul of sound produced by way of living tissue. Wait...I'm just BEGGING for a fart joke with that one I guess, but you get what I'm saying. I think. Right?
fart fart fart. farts can be musical .. or so the saying goes. perhaps it's just the beans that are musical. yep... well. voices aren't anything special to me expression-wise.. i dont' know why but i'd just as soon hear a brass, string, or woodwind instrument. not percussion though.. xylophones just don't do it for me.
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