Why do you like music?

Apparently none of you like music. As I thought...

Andrew

there are 10 types of people in this world... those who can read binary, and those who can't...

Shame that

Stuart

Hmmm - have been thinking about this but have absolutely no idea why!

Mike

My dad had a mistakenly bought (as far as he was concerned) copy of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" Lp. I loved it. He didn't. I don't consider it as one of the things that got me into music because when you're so young you can be indoctrinated to liking stuff purely by it's relative obscurity. Black Sabbath were "long gone" at the time. I'm quite happy to listen to Connie Francis even though I'd never buy a CD of said.

So... yes... far beyond driven has a cover of Planet Caravan. And as much as I can hate covers (take Atomic Kittens rapage of Eternal Flame!) they did do a very cover of it!

The first CD I ever bought was Abba Gold. I don't regret it either! I still listened to it in the car. I have all the LPs now though so I don't listen to it in the flat!

Needless to say my parents disowned me at 12!

Sadly starting off as heavy as Pantera, I find most of the modern stuff a bit lightweight!

Strange - no one else in my family likes music. A handful of tapes and lps and a midi system sporting some of my speaker castoffs has gotten them by for some time now.

As soon as GnR have finished, I think I'll stick pantera in. My neighbours have been making a lot of noise lately!

Thanks for the reply! And thanks for the thought to the others!

Andrew

there are 10 types of people in this world... those who can read binary, and those who can't...

Milestones:

1952: Born to 30-Players-Plain-a-day Canasta & Sinatra obsessed mother & Louis Armstrong besotted father. Once sprung from womb cultivate studious distaste for both musical influences until in 50's, when realise parents had quite good taste [no hint of our Gracie there, thank God].

1958: Thrill to playing with portable wind up gramophone, quaint needle boxes [full colour HMV dog & trumpet piccy] and strange [9"?] record of 'Wedding Of The Painted Doll' on Broadway Records ['electrically recorded']. Develop possible future fetish by stroking blue velvet on turntable with pleasurable results. Buy further discs from jumble sales, learn the meaning of 'with vocal refrain', and during summer, inspired by bizarre potter's wheel interludes between programmes on the BBC [it was a different world - when there was nothing to show, they just stopped broadcasting - just imagine that!], attempt to create tableware on turntable using mud from garden. Am told off, and retreat to bedroom crying copiously, thinking of blue velvet and creating future David Lynch obsession as well as fetish.

1959: Buy sister birthday present of 'Red Sails In The Sunset' by Pat Boone on 78, to coincide with Dansette gift by generous parents, thus realising that contemporary recorded music a possibility.

1959: Enjoy sister's purchase of All Shook Up - am transfixed by turquoise HMV label, and in later years haunted by possible value of same.

1960: On parents' acquisition of walnut mono 'radiogram' [lovely tone, ivory knobs, mystic inscriptions of Hilversum, Belgrade etc. on dial. Early lesson regards limitations of technology re: radio broadcasts ] request copy of Anthony Newley's 'Strawberry Fair' b/w original cast recording of 'Fings Ain't What They Used To Be', thus demonstrating fundamental misunderstanding of the way records are released. Recieve former, am satisfied.

1960: Buy first single with own money - 'Nut Rocker' by Bee Bumble & The Stingers on Top Rank Records - showing prescient knowledge of future cult status of Kim Fowley and all things kitsch. Develop unhealthy fascination with faceless and unfeasibly proportioned man on Top Rank Logo. Thrilled to encounter cinematic version when watching 'Genevieve' at local Odeon.

1961: Continue to buy follow-ups to succesful comedy records which lack je ne sais quoi of original, and thus own 'Bangers & Mash' by Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren, 'Grandpa's Grave' by Bernard Cribbins, and the follow-up to 'Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini' which was something to do with a car which you had to 'get out and get under' with. Manage to hit the money though with 'Keep Your Eyes On The Road' by The Avons, which was at least an original.

1964: Parents buy ... a 'Stereogram'! that comes with ten free LP's [which are chooseable]. Has vaguely Festival of Britain legs and acres of teak. Love of Beethoven, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and respect [tempered with lingering suspicion] of Broadway showtunes ensues. Discover cheapskate tendencies with Pye 'Golden Guinea' and Decca 'Ace Of Clubs' releases which offer crap at reasonable prices. [ooh! 21/11 !!!!]

1966: Join Sutton Coldfield Record Library [first in the world, such is the radical hotbed that is Birmingham's premier suburb] and realise that you can get more music per week if you hit the box sets, thus giving first Mahler hit. Simultaneously discover their 78 albums [sort of very heavy box sets] and hear The Planets, conducted by Holst himself, going rather fast to modern tastes, in case the side ends before he does. Yearn for something at 16rpm, just to get some use out of the setting on the autochanger. Am thwarted in this respect.

1967: Get Velvet Underground & Nico from B'ham Co-op [without realising it should have a gatefold sleeve, let alone peelable banana], buy We're Only In It For The Money, and encourage Nick Lees [grubby yet strangely endearing friend made at school due to mutual love of boardgames and music] to get its companion Lumpy Gravy, teaching us both to appreciate that you sometimes have to put in some work for good stuff.

1968: Mother working at Boots gives access to staff discount card, and gradual realisation that city store was happy to return things one didn't like, or at least had received as an unwanted birthday present. Result: a playground to explore anything and everything, usually based on cover designs, [which in the 60's & 70's was often a very good indicator]. Collection of early Elektra ensues.

1969: Different schoolfriend becomes Saturday Boy at B'ham record store, thus opening large avenue of disreputable access to every release for next five years. Bizarre and in hindsight astonishingly collectible record collection gradually accumulates.

1970's - Nick Lees [yes, him again] forms acquaintance with North London independant record store which is prepared to supply at cost + VAT. Discounts and Extravagance Fuelled By Student Grants ensue. For him, every record released on a weekday and those at weekends as well [talk about old habits dying hard ....], for some a more tentative buying regime. Result: between us absolutely everything of merit is covered, except for Jade Warrior - an omission now thankfully rectified.

1980's: see above.

1985: Purchase Classics For Pleasure 'Duets From Famous Operas' 15 of the purplest patches of 19thc opera imaginable. Am transfixed, and the world of opera finally opens up. An addict ever since, to dismay of both Visa and Mastercard.

1990's - present day: Curtailed only slightly by partner who is only too happy to ask the perennial question 'What's This Old Toss?' when confronted by past glories, continues to expand collection on all fronts when budget permits, and in spite of various moments consumed by doubt that things aren't as good as they used to be [with, it has to be said, some justification ... White Stripes are okay, but really - they're not THAT good.]

If I ever get to feel that there's no longer any music worth investigating, then the vet is only a phone call away.

throb

I want to answer the question in a literal sense: why do I like (love) music?

I love it because it enriches the human experience, mine and that of others.

I feel more alive with music, feel emotions, from the entire spectrum, more intensely.

I love music because it makes me cry; paintings, for instance, although beautiful and/or interesting, do not.

I feel grateful to be able to hear music, and to comprehend what I'm hearing.

I love music because it fully engages my total being: physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual.

I love music because it has the potential to represent what is best about human endeavor.

I think that Mr Simon's post thoroughly killed what was going to be an interesting thread. I certainly read the earlier posts with a smile. They inspired me.

Whilst I'd hate to get personal, the post is a string of rhetorical cliches. It's even written as a poem. It's just too generic. I was at a friends birthday party yesterday. I was thoroughly drunk by the end. We ended up in the Ritz! And the same applied to that evening. I'm still on a high now. I just feel that post was too impersonal. The first thing I thought when I read it was - "Where did he cut and paste that from?"

Yes, sitting before the bbc philharmonic up at the bridgewater has made my spine tingle and given me goosebumps but so have many films - even rubbish ones. That's just life experience. The same as meeting a gorgeous woman.

The best description of any experience uses no adjectives - just verbs! Dancing, leaping, crying. Though I grant I don't listen to stuff that would make me cry. I tend to prefer the dancing and leaping!

I'm sure this post is full of cliches itself. Hell I've read enough bad literature to cliche for the rest of my life. But I'm afraid that post just really worried me.

Andrew

there are 10 types of people in this world... those who can read binary, and those who can't...

Andrew,

I enjoyed fred's post, and you can too. Just read anything like this as irony, sarcasm, or satire; it doesn't matter if it's intentionally so or not. With practice this becomes autonomic -- you don't even have to try! Mahler, Joan Baez, and other composers prone to gushing become thoroughly enjoyable too.*

(P.S. fred, if you did mean what you said, that just fine with me, btw, and if not, that's fine too. Seriously.)

Cheers,
Eric

* Some have claimed that this practice can lead to some sort of bizzare, late-in-life existential crisis. But that's years from now.

quote:

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Originally posted by Twelveeyedfish:
I got into jazz by spending too much time in the pub after college and ending up being rather drunk dancing to the band ... Even my neighbour notices how much I play and dance to happy hour ... I was at a friends birthday party yesterday. I was thoroughly drunk by the end. We ended up in the Ritz!

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Mmmm ... alcohol can be a beautiful thing.

Andrew, double-spacing does not a poem make. And it was no cut and paste job; I wrote it all by myself!

I know dispassionate cynicism is all the rage these days, so I apologize if my heartfelt sentiments made you squirm.

And I'd invite you to answer the question I was answering: why do you like music?

On re reading my follow up I feel kinda bad for what I said. Probably scars from school english classes when over analysing shakespeare and a badly written novel took the interest out of a sentence written with a degree of talent.

Since then I found great authors and am thoroughly into literature now.

I admit I'm not willing to enter into any conjecture and am happy to admit that it's purely biological - something in certain types of music creates or stimulates some neural pathways formed when I was 6 months old or forms new ones - releases chemicals and I start skipping about the room like a skippy thing. Like I said, I don't listen to music that makes me hunch in the corner and start rocking violently. As I sais before, I don't use adjectives in this kind of thing.

Another thing, aside from the dancing and prancing is memories. I remember I was listening to Abba - Honey Honey when I met my first girlfriend. That provokes some kind of emotive response in me. Not a particularly happy one but it's a little special!

It's kinda like asking why I like walking. Mostly it's because it gets me out of this god awful city centre. The views are just incidental! I was on a shop refit last week in Ambleside - Black's had bought the old YHA shop. If anyone here's ever done a shop refit - 38hrs in 3 days. Bloody hard work. But so refreshing to be away from Manchester! The meals and accommodation being on the company tab being again incidental.

As for double line spacing - this suggests bad use of a html editor. Though clearly this was not your downfall!

Also - I do play the guitar. A reason I like music is because it gives me something to play!

Andrew

there are 10 types of people in this world... those who can read binary, and those who can't...

Mr Toon! Please leave this forum - most people on here aren't used so much humour! They all left university and got graduate jobs! I left and got a job avoiding all the graduates! :P

I retain my sense of humour! And taste in literature!

Andrew

there are 10 types of people in this world... those who can read binary, and those who can't...

quote:

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Originally posted by Twelveeyedfish:
As for double line spacing - this suggests bad use of a html editor. Though clearly this was not your downfall!

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No, they're just very short paragraphs.