Subject:
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Re: What kind of music do you listen to?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.people
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Date:
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Mon, 12 Feb 2001 19:37:35 GMT
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Viewed:
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567 times
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I read somewhere that the earliest AFOL to declare their passion for The Brick
on the Net noted a correlation between an interest in Lego and progressive rock
music... and I am guilty as charged. I'm not that narrow, as I'll elaborate
below.
Still, the answer to this question has to depend on the age of the AFOL (I'm
33), and also whether the AFOL considers music to be one of his/her hobbies.
(I took a minor in Music.)
Here's what gets my juices flowing:
* Classical: I like harmonically-rich, chromatic early music, such as Purcell
and Bach. I have trouble enjoying Mozart or Haydn very much. This may be
because I have studied classical harmony to the point where I find their music
to be very predictable, almost like paint-by-numbers. Beethoven, somehow,
escapes this fate. Things get interesting for me again with the Russian
nationalist composers, such as Borodin and Mussorgsky. My all-time favorites
are the "death of tonality" French composers from 1900-1930: Debussy, Ravel,
Satie, and Stravinsky (O.K., he was Russian, but spent decades in France).
* Jazz: mostly post-bop. Throw out the "I Got Rhythm" changes and twelve-bar
blues, and give me something that wows me. I do like some of Duke Ellington's
tunes, like "Polka Dots and Moonbeams." But I really click with later artists,
starting with Stan Getz and continuing with the likes of Thelonious Monk, Miles
Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, and Billy
Childs. Take Six is a fantastic vocal jazz group, even if they are gospel.
* Rock music: as I said above, mostly progressive. Yes, Genesis, Rush, King
Crimson, Marillion, to take several well-known examples. I've found a cool
Internet radio station, progradio.com, which has exposed me to some
lesser-known prog artists. Outside of the prog sub-genre, I've enjoyed the
Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, and a
little Oingo Boingo and Nirvana. What do all of these artists have in common?
Two things, in my view. First, they *can play their instruments*, a talent
which has been in decline for decades. Second, they've actually taken some
time to *think about the music* that they've written -- many rock/pop artists,
it seems to me, are just using well-worn melodic turns, or cliched harmonic
progressions. The music seems to be more of a vehicle to carry their lyrics
rather than something that, in itself, is interesting to them. I am probably
not interested in rap music for the same reasons that I don't take to much pop
-- the music doesn't matter as much as the words.
* Grab bag: Mystere des voix Bulgares, Steve Roach, Vangelis, John Zorn.
What does this all have to do with Lego? Who knows? But it was fun!
--
John J. Ladasky Jr., Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD 21218
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: What kind of music do you listen to?
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| (...) Hmm, given that you like progressive rock (hey, have you heard Ad Infinitum? I tripped over one of their CDs a while ago, and bought it on the strength of the Roger Dean cover), I'm thinking the above may be the best description of the type of (...) (23 years ago, 13-Feb-01, to lugnet.people)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | What kind of music do you listen to?
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| Hi, this is not the music you listen while you build, but music you listen to everyday, such as on your way to work. I love listening to the Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, Green Day, Fuel and other miscellaneous alt-rock groups. How 'bout you? (...) (23 years ago, 8-Feb-01, to lugnet.people)
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