I don't know. This prompt is uninspiring for me. I don't think I have the kind of relationship with music that other people do. I have a friend who has obsessively followed U2's career for decades, and he's very knowledgeable about music, and he probably has what most people would call "good" taste in music and blah blah blah. I just like what I like, and mostly that boils down to being able to sing along in the car or at karaoke or laughing in pure joy at the lyrics.
LB introduced me to Lady Gaga's new CD over Memorial Day weekend, and I'm so glad she did. Several of the songs feel like the summer anthems of my teens, and that makes me love them. Some of the lyrics are fun, some are silly (free as my... hair?), but the joy in them calls back a carefree time in my life -- I wish I'd known how easy it was instead of manufacturing melodrama.
If you look at my iPod, I'd say that my favorite bands/musicians by quantity are George Strait, Trisha Yearwood, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. I love George because he represents the best of Texas men to me: strong, honorable, and courtly. I don't know that men like George really exist anymore, and it seems like there's a fair amount of ignorance you have to fight through when you come across it, but I love the alternate reality of his songs. I love Trisha because almost everything she sings is within belting range for me, and it's easy to connect emotionally with her catalog. I think that might make me simple or shallow, but I'm ok with that. I'm happy to express what depth I have in other ways. I love Mary Chapin because she's such a talented writer -- her lyrics are pure poetry, which is a weird thing to say about music, because it's all sort of poetry. Her lyrics are so evocative, and she tells such amazing stories in roughly 4 minutes. A lot of her stuff makes me cry.
Mostly, I think of music in terms of events. There's music for cooking, there's music for singing along with on road trips, there's music for karaoke, there's music for when you're feeling blue and want to wallow, there's music for when you're feeling blue and want to feel better, there's music for when you're joyful and you can't keep it in. I don't know enough to be into the theory of music and be able to deconstruct it and analyzie. All I know is how it makes me feel and whether I can sing along and scare the other drivers on the road. I'm cool with that.
LB introduced me to Lady Gaga's new CD over Memorial Day weekend, and I'm so glad she did. Several of the songs feel like the summer anthems of my teens, and that makes me love them. Some of the lyrics are fun, some are silly (free as my... hair?), but the joy in them calls back a carefree time in my life -- I wish I'd known how easy it was instead of manufacturing melodrama.
If you look at my iPod, I'd say that my favorite bands/musicians by quantity are George Strait, Trisha Yearwood, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. I love George because he represents the best of Texas men to me: strong, honorable, and courtly. I don't know that men like George really exist anymore, and it seems like there's a fair amount of ignorance you have to fight through when you come across it, but I love the alternate reality of his songs. I love Trisha because almost everything she sings is within belting range for me, and it's easy to connect emotionally with her catalog. I think that might make me simple or shallow, but I'm ok with that. I'm happy to express what depth I have in other ways. I love Mary Chapin because she's such a talented writer -- her lyrics are pure poetry, which is a weird thing to say about music, because it's all sort of poetry. Her lyrics are so evocative, and she tells such amazing stories in roughly 4 minutes. A lot of her stuff makes me cry.
Mostly, I think of music in terms of events. There's music for cooking, there's music for singing along with on road trips, there's music for karaoke, there's music for when you're feeling blue and want to wallow, there's music for when you're feeling blue and want to feel better, there's music for when you're joyful and you can't keep it in. I don't know enough to be into the theory of music and be able to deconstruct it and analyzie. All I know is how it makes me feel and whether I can sing along and scare the other drivers on the road. I'm cool with that.
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