These days, I've been listening to a lot of music. Most of it is completely new to me, or feels new even when it's stuff I'm rediscovering. I referred to this before, the fact that I went two years or so without really listening to any music.
That's not strictly true, as it's not strictly true when I say I'm anorexic. I was listening to music this time last year. For the most part, I listened to audiobooks, but Nelly Furtado was my companion walking to work for awhile (and riding the bus home). Some of you remember The Pet Shop Boys and Alan Parsons Project "best of" collections from the autumn previous.
I even listened to some music this fall. I started out with whatever was on the basic all-the-rage-with-teens radio stations (so "Low" by Flo-rida and T-pain, occasionally interrupted by One Republic's "Apologize"). I graduated, eventually, to the station I felt had betrayed me -- 104.1 FM, which had once played alternative rock but now seemed to play a mishmash of songs I wasn't familiar with -- and learned what the leading commercial edge of indie/alt rock was like these days.
I got tapes and listened to some of them in the car.
I started bringing my little Walkman CD player to the paper when I went, and slowly -- uncertainly -- I started buying new CDs.
I had joined BMG twice during my time in D.C., so it's not like I hadn't bought new music in my life. I based my choices on the theory that if one song is good, the others have at least a fifty-fifty shot. But none of them made me feel like a smarter or substantially happier person.
I listened to The White Stripes (Icky Thump); I listened to Peter Gabriel (So, then Car, then Melt); I listened to Radiohead (OK Computer) and Interpol (Our Love To Admire, then Antics, then Turn On The Bright Lights) and I listened to The National (Boxer, then Alligator).
I felt smarter. I felt substantially happier.
The music is only one thing, one aspect of my ever-evolving life that's changed significantly, but it's changed, significantly. I feel like I'm learning music. I don't know which CD it was that broke through to this cavernous space in my music-loving-capacity, but there it is. Waiting to be filled.
I'm wading through what I've put in there so far, but if you've got any other recommendations, I'll happily add them to the playlist.
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4 comments:
Much of the credit for my music education goes to the maker of mix CDs, etc. for which I exchange food. Since I didn't ask his permission to put his name on my blog, here's an anonymous shout out.
HEY! Thanks.
I can tell you exactly what album it was that woke me up: "Turn on the Bright Lights," early in the second year of grad school at Penn State. I downloaded "NYC" for free from Amazon, listened to it a hundred times on repeat, then bought the cd. I owe Rebekah's brother entirely for the recommendation.
Here is another way to waken to music, Understanding Modern Music by Robert Greenberg. It's like going to a very good restaurant. But don't pay the big bucks, go to your local library to pick up the mix.
Sure, but have you been listening to music for more than 40 hours every week? for more than a month?
because i have. when my cd drive at work finally dies out, i'll probably have some recommendations for you.
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