Why You Need Music.
When I was in college, I spent a week with a girlfriend of mine who was a nanny. The family she was staying with was only 7 or so years older than we were and had a beautiful daughter that they doted on. One day, while the family was at work, my friend asked me to put some music on the stereo and directed me to where the CDs were all neatly stacked and alphabetized. To my horror, they clearly had not purchased a new CD since they left college, some 6 or 7 years prior. Their taste was locked in time and enjoying new music had become a thing that only young folks do.
To illustrate how shocking this was to me, imagine that you only ate the food that you liked when you were 5. There you would be with all white foods, maybe an occasional hot dog or some mac n’ cheese. The idea of new food would scare you and you would only be able to push it around your plate and maybe pick at the edges until you eventually throw a tantrum and melt under the table in tears. Or, you know those ladies who were stone cold foxes in, say, 1974 and have not changed their hair or make up one bit since then? To me, that is what you look like when you don’t listen to new music. You are locked in time.
Please don’t think that I have thrown away all the music I listened to in high school. Recently, I read a blog post by Amanda Palmer where she discussed her love of Robert Smith of the Cure and apologized to him for abandoning him and not listening to his newer albums. What I think she meant was that it sneaks up on the best of us: sometimes you just fall in love with an artist and they encapsulate a certain period of time. It’s hard to accept new music from them because when you hear that voice or that guitar tone, you are immediately brought back to your bedroom in your parents’ house. You are suddenly nostalgic for what you had thought at the time was the worst period in your life and it’s hard (and sometimes maybe impossible) to layer new memories on top of that. As Robert Smith was to Amanda Palmer, Morrissey was to me. The point is distilled in these lyrics from one of my favorite songs, Rubber Ring (written by my secret high school husband, Morrissey):
The passing of time
And all of its crimes
Is making me sad again
The passing of time
And all of its sickening crimes
Is making me sad again
But don’t forget the songs
That made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you’re older now
And you’re a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you
To summarize my rambling; You owe it to that artist for standing by you all those years to now stand by them and give their new music a chance. A sweet thought.
So, I am not saying that you stop listening to your old music. Hell, I ate macaroni and cheese while listening to This Mortal Coil just last night. What I am saying is that you need to also listen to new music. I know I have a conflict of interest here, (being an “undiscovered musician” and all) but I feel that discovering new music is of the utmost importance to your human-ness. I know this in the same way I know that burning books is wrong. I know this in the same way that I know that you don’t talk during a play. I know this like I know that you have to floss. Listening to new music is good mental hygiene and is of fundamental importance to your mental and emotional health and well-being. It makes you feel, it makes you think, it can help stroke victims recover language abilities, it reaches people suffering from depression when friends and family can’t , it even helps kids’ brains develop. There is an entire internet full of anecdotal evidence that music will get you laid. What more do you need?
When I talk to my friends about this, they often tell me “It’s too much work to find new music! Who has the time?” To this I say three things:
1) Bullshit
2) Bullshit
3) Bullshit
Here are some easy ways to find new things you like:
a) That super cool friend of yours who likes music? Ask her/him for recommendations. Make them write you a list and get whatever they tell you to. Download it illegally first to try it on. If you like it and want to keep it, buy it.
b) Once a month or so, go to a music blog for a genre you are fond of and download to the albums they recommend. Buy those you like.
c) Listen to college radio
d) Listen to Pandora
e) What else? You tell me…
If I am “preaching to the choir” here and you are a musical Lewis and Clark, I call upon you to help those among us who are uninitiated. Remember mix tapes? Make one of those for your friends. Start a music blog. Dear GODS, take people to shows! I’d love to hear from you… how has music changed your life? How do you find new artists? How do you share music with your friends?
xo Rebecca
Rebecca,
You are right. Every new day open us to new experiences. Music really does attach itself to life events, so why not keep buiding the soundtrack? Indeed if it was so darned important to be in line at the record store the day Scary Monsters (Bowie)was released, why give up such love of the “new to my ears”.
Great new music is happening in the clubs weekly. It is also blossoming on the internet. I THRIVE on it. Give kudos to Rhapsody for turning me on to Halou a few years back. Looking forward to the new release from your band and seeing you next time in the fair city of Portland.
Cheers,
Jeffery
(EDIT)
Rebecca,
You are right. Every new day opens us to new experiences. Music really does attach itself to life events, so why not keep building the soundtrack? Indeed if it was so darned important to be in line at the record store the day Scary Monsters (Bowie) was released, why give up such love of the “new to my ears”.
Great new music is happening in the clubs weekly. It is also blossoming on the internet. I THRIVE on it. Give kudos to Rhapsody for turning me on to Halou a few years back. Looking forward to the new release from your band and seeing you next time you play the fair city of Portland.
Cheers,
Jeffery
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