Music question
I am a kind of sociologist in a way. I like to study people. And I observe things. I know what I like in music and I have noticed that many poeple like many different kinds of music. So I just wondered why? I know a lot of it is culture. But also another thing I noticed is that poeple like different things about the music itself. And something happened the other day. My mom found a song on the internet and she played it for me saying it is the "most beautiful song she ever heard". I listened to it, and I was thinking, this isn't that great, why does she like it so much? Then she made the comment "these lyrics are so beautiful, don't you think?". It was something about two people in love. Yeah, it was nice lyrics, but the tune was, in my opinion, bland. So it occured to me, that her and I listen to music for two completely different reasons. She likes the lyrics, I like the tune. My favorite song has almost no lyrics, but a very beautiful tune. Pretty much most of my favorite music is this way. So I listen to the tune, don't really care about the lyrics.
So I was wondering, how many people are like my mom, and how many are like me? Do you listen to music for the lyrics, or for the tune?
A way to test this is to think, if a song has no lyrics but a beautiful tune, would you love it as much as a song with beautiful lyrics but a so so tune?
Yes! One of my favourite songs has no lyrics. Classical Gas is a classical guitar piece that I begged Jesse to learn. In fact, all classical (not opera) has no lyrics & it is what I listen to every evening...even got DH hooked ;)
I think I am like you snowqueen, in that it is the tune that catches me first. If the lyrics are nice, then that's a bonus.
I would have to say that I look for both. This is probably why I don't like much of anything anymore. :-\
However, I can sometimes go with just the tune or the words. It just depends on who it is and what they are saying or playing. Does that make sense?
I go for both.
I go for lyrics, all the way. A nice tune is just a bonus, but with beautiful lyrics it's more like poetry :)
I have synasthesia so for me it's all about the "shapes and colours" music creates in my body/mind.
I have synasthesia so for me it's all about the "shapes and colours" music creates in my body/mind.
Reminds me of when I used to acid in high school ;D
Both, but music trumps lyrics for me. This is probably because I play classical music in my spare time.
Now, if the lyrics are absolutely disgusting, I don't care how much i like the music--I won't like the song. (Didn't Chris Rock have a standup bit that talked about this?) But on the other hand, the words have to be completely compelling to get past a lack of music. (The music/poetry of Bob Dylan comes to mind--even then the melodies are nice, just bare and sung in a raspy voice).
I have synasthesia so for me it's all about the "shapes and colours" music creates in my body/mind.
Reminds me of when I used to acid in high school ;D
But synathesia is free, and you're born with it. My cousins have it too--fraternal twins.
I'm just cool like that. 8-)
I've thought about this quite a lot. I'm torn because I know there are physical properties to music that allow it to work and function the way it does. Western music is tuned to a 12 tone tempered scale, there are "rules", so to speak, about executing notes within that scale that allow allow it to sound a certain way. Though these "rules" are so often broken, are more desireable at some times and not others, etc. A lot of music that has been written since Bach would be considered disonant and even wrong at the time.
What I'm getting at is that there are cultural influences on music, as well as the perceptions of the individual. It's obvious that people have different tastes, but is there such a thing as good music?
I see lyrics as having a very "individual specific" quality to them. That is, people will certainly interperet them different and find value in them in any number of ways. Lyrics, like music, do have rules that bind them, and are actually very similiar in some respects to musical rules. I suppose I see them as being much like music in that respect, but they seem to require more focus and concentration in order to take everything out of them. I most certainly appreciate lyrics much more when I'm able to access the music and take time to read, understand, and think about the lyrics. Music can certainly be taken differently, and that's one thing I love about it. I love when it speaks. There are some songs that I feel just empty my soul out when I listen to them.
I aspire to write songs like that, and I deal with these issues of how people will perceive music, how to view my own music as an outsider so as to critique it from a third persons perspective. Inevitably, I revert back to finding the music that speaks for me, and write the lyrics that complement that.
Sorry, long rant :)
BH, my DH's nephew studies at the conservatory here. You might be interested to know that the European musical system wasn't really set in "stone" until about the 18th century. Up until then each composer, choir director etc. could set their own rules--and did. Many of them published their own scales, musical notation method, and "how to" books. There have been a lot of changes over just the last 250 years.
Particularly in Spain, where things moved a bit more slowly than on the rest of the continent.
That'd make sense. It is, afterall, music theory. And I think what you've pointed out illustrates that it does in fact change. I just wanted to make the point that while someone like Bach would consider something like a 5th between the bass and tenor to be a disonant interval, that is something that is often not considered today, and would often be desired depending on what the composer was going for.
I'm certainly not an expert on the subject, I just find it interesting how much it has changed and how much our personal perspectives do influence how we perceive music.
it's usually the tune that attracts me to a certain song/artist. Then I will listen to other songs by a band that i like, and will listen to their lyrics. I never go on purely lyrics, though...
i definitely listen to the music part more. often times, if someone quotes a song using the lyrics, i have no idea what song they are talking about, but if they quote a melody, then i've got it. for some reason, i just have no idea what they are saying. often times michael will want to have a discussion about a song or whatever, i wont know what its about, so we'll listen to it and i still cant distinguish the lyrics. i have no idea what they are sometimes, no matter how much i focus. my ears aren't very good anymore. too many basement punk shows. and my vocabulary isnt very big. sometimes he'll say "they said blah blah blah" and ill say "oh. well i dont know what that word is."
music is my favorite language.
I have synasthesia so for me it's all about the "shapes and colours" music creates in my body/mind.
music's a lot like that for me too. curious about what synasthesia, i googled it and after reading http://www.brighton-breezy.co.uk/whatis.html
it's funny how much that describes me...the number 1 has always just been white for me, 2 red or orange, 3 yellow, 4 purple, 5 red or orange, 6 green, 7 blue, 8 green, 9 brown.... my alphabet has colors too. what a trip!
I have synasthesia so for me it's all about the "shapes and colours" music creates in my body/mind.
music's a lot like that for me too. curious about what synasthesia, i googled it and after reading http://www.brighton-breezy.co.uk/whatis.html
it's funny how much that describes me...the number 1 has always just been white for me, 2 red or orange, 3 yellow, 4 purple, 5 red or orange, 6 green, 7 blue, 8 green, 9 brown.... my alphabet has colors too. what a trip!
My visual memory doesn't work. I can't visualise people or places or ways to get to places in my head. But I recognise people by their voices. (Let the record show, I can actually see. Nearsighted, but I can see.) I will watch a movie and say, "I know that person..." and close my eyes and then place their voice!
Favourite voices with me are associated with golden browns. James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson...and who ever the amazing baritone was who sang on HeeHaw in the 70's. Oh, and that guy who sang "He'll Have to Go". (Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone....) I know...I'm sad.
haha! awesomeness. i'm always super visual.