It's been a year and a half since I started this blog and I just realized that I haven't really mentioned anything about my personal musical tastes. Through my Musical Discovery and Top Tracks posts I hope that it strikes you that I have at least somewhat eclectic tastes when it comes to music. From electronic like Alstroemeria Records to rock like 9mm Parabellum Bullet to pop like Sara Bareilles and St. Vincent I end up listening to almost everything.
Since my first post of Musical Discovery when I had around 17000 tracks I've added another 5000 taking the total to over 22000 tracks. So I think that it's good to know what I look for in music and what I enjoy. In doing so I hope that you take some time to look at what determines the music that you enjoy. For me, I look for two things and two things only. The first is whether I find the music interesting and the second is whether the music fits my aesthetic for music.
So what defines interesting to me? As a kid growing up with classical music along with regular pop music, defining interesting is a somewhat odd thing for me. I heavily favor music that is complex in structure. However, I also realize that there is a cutoff where complexity does not equate to better and simplicity wins out. What that means in more digestible terms is that I tend to enjoy music that keeps me thinking. A lot of pop music I find to be repetitive in a bland way. The general texture of most pop music is consists purely of a vocal (singular) track, some sort of 4 beat percussion track, and a nondescript instrumental track. By nondescript I mean that there is no memorable part to almost any instrumental track I hear on the radio. This doesn't mean that I don't like repetitive music. I can very much enjoy music like Robot Rock by Daft Punk which is a pretty repetitive track. I can also admire the works of Steven Reich, in particular Piano Phase and Come Out. While not super impressive nowadays, the ideas are really interesting and the use of panning in Come Out is just plain awesome to listen to. I guess what really defines interesting to me is how much I can pick apart and understand a piece which is perhaps a bit outside of what others might think about music.
The other half of my musical taste is my aesthetic for music. This is more in line with what most people would say musical taste is. My aesthetic brings me closer to electronic music at the moment while still enjoying rock and pop. I love the sound of string instruments and orchestral works in general. Brass in particular is so fun for me to listen to, I'm a huge fan of the big band sound even though I don't have much in my library. While ambient and rap or hip hop generally don't veer into my aesthetic, I can appreciate them if they provide a substantively interesting musical part. As an example, Nujabes was a hip hop artist first and foremost even with the jazzy elements. The jazzy elements helped a lot for me to embrace his music. Alternatively, Eminem is just straight up rap music. However, he or whoever produces his music has a very clear and good sense for how to treat his lyrical rhythm in a musical setting even if that setting isn't the most complex. I find myself impressed with Eminem more than most other rappers or hip hop artists. The other thing to realize is that musical aesthetic changes as you get older. I implore you to listen to things that you don't like initially as your aesthetic changes. Just 4 or 5 years ago, there is no way I would have seen myself liking Eminem or Daft Punk or Alstroemeria Records but in time I've gotten to the point of embracing good music regardless of genre. Sometimes interesting music overrides what your usual aesthetic is. After all the two are wholly separate things while simultaneously being heavily interrelated. I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope it makes you think about what your musical tastes are, what you find interesting and what you're currently drawn towards. With that, until next time.
*Audio will be up later*
--CsMiREK
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