What are you ultimately looking for in music?

[casecandy]

You're conflating: I don't hate Sufjan Stevens -- I don't listen to Sufjan Stevens. It's not worth listening to. Hence "unessential."

Fair enough, but did you ever listen to him/it, or just arbitrarily decide not to listen to...? How did you arrive at this conclusion?

I don't typically make melodicism a central point of the music I listen to, and the more singer-songerwiter-y stuff just makes me wonder why I'm not listening to Elliot Smith. also this sort of "twee" music makes me gag.

That snippet of conversation is from the infamous Refused thread where I started arguing with everybody. It was interesting because I was thinking about how different people hear different things in music. For example, to D.o.S., Sufjan Stevens is "twee," whereas I had literally never thought of Sufjan as being "twee." Perspective is everything. And that got me thinking about how people are looking for fundamentally different things in music.

For example, my wife will remember all the lyrics to songs, but not necessarily the melody; for me, melody is the most engaging aspect of music. For example, once she walked in one me singing along to "27" by Biffy Clyro, "I still feel the pain in my heart." And she asked me, "Do you even relate to most of the music you listen to?", making reference to the fact that I'm a pretty happy person who listens to sadsack emo music. And I said, "Well, the lyrics don't really matter, it's the melody and the way he's delivering the line that really drive it home." Which explains the popularity of Sigur Ros (and why she's not a fan), or why I can rock out to Boris without knowing a word of Japanese.

So... having established that people are really looking for different things from music... what are YOU listening for? What kind of music hooks you? What does music have to do successfully to hook you? I wanna see. Choose up to three things from the list above... and then let's talk about it

[foomanfat]

If I could have put all my votes on "Some ineffable combination of some or all of the above... I just like what I like!" I would have.

[Chankgeez]

TL; DR

I want it to hit me in the fucking chest.
















Really fucking hard.

[casecandy]

I want it to hit me in the fucking chest.

Noice

[lordgalvar]

Some people I would suspect would choose "other"*:

"To big league people in conversation with obscure tastes"
"My friends like it"
"Because it is good background sounds because I get lonely at work/driving/etc"
"Something to talk about in my fairly normal boring life"


*granted they gotta be honest
---

For me though...I actually like the weird expression of history, culture, and perspective weaved through a fairly limited set of the physical spectrum....like how many different ways, songs, etc can be made out of fairly normal and easily understood forms of communication (and sometimes art) across countless different people in different evirnoments and time. I guess this feeds my need to be constantly learning and exploring...it is like getting single serve packets of persective without actually having to go anywhere or actually talk to people haha (which I enjoy too...but I always have to learning).

I also listen to a ton of my music because it makes me laugh on some level (From Crass to GISM to Hyper Crush, they all make me laugh).

I guess I always like the populist aspect of it too...like (as said in the poll) "I can do that" but with the added complexity of making something simple varied enough to become complex (I guess my intellectual side)...but I tend to also really enjoy the technical side and making complex waves out of simple ones (like the infinite variables interest me).

Bordem plays into it too (and the ability to listen or not listen depending on what I am doing).

So I guess...to boil it all down...the pursuit of information.....ahhhhaha! I'm boring...haha...guess it is like literature, painting, etc but I don't have to think as much

It's got to be fun and/or interesting while listening and then it leads me down this whole path of study haha. Just neat to me how just a vibrating wave can create some much neat stuff and only exists during "playing"...its just weird, cool, and fun! But I guess it's gotta be fun/interesting/weird first for me to really keep listening.

The sounds of music have taken the place of traditional poetry in modern times (meaning recited orally)...so that is probably part of it.

[Muff_Diver]

When the music hits me, I feel no pain.

[Eivind August]

Music is the organization of sound and silence. I enjoy it. It can seemingly contain feelings that are shared by various listeners, which is neat. These feelings can be abstract yet still shared, which is cool. Music is also intellectual, and can be understood through rationality as well as immediate sentiment. In short, I'm not sure I'm looking for anything spesific in music, though I tend to prefer certain styles over others.

Lyrics are fun, but maybe a different subject? Lyrics are litterature, whereas the melody and rhythm in the vocals is music.

[Ugly Nora]

About 20 years ago, I realized most people can't write good lyrics, and another big group of folks write lyrics that I don't agree with politically or philosophically or whatever. In an effort to not ruin a song in which I like the music and the overall sound/tone/timbre of what is going on, I pretty much don't pay attention to lyrics any longer unless something really grabs me. This is why I like listening to a lot of instrumental stuff or songs sung in a language I don't understand.

Here is an example of one of my favorite songs and lyrics. The lyrics are great not because of what they mean (if they in fact mean anything at all) but because of they way words sound and rhyme and how they flow together. Best if you listen to how he sings it. He actually sings it in a way that kind sounds like a slow tremolo effect where his voice kind of fades in and out to the rhythm because of the way he accents certain words. This is why he is a genius.


Syd Barret - It Is Obvious

It is obvious
may I say, oh baby, that it is found on another plane?
Yes I can creep into cupboards, sleep in the hall
your stars - my stars, a simple cock bar
only an impulse - pie in the sky
mumble listen dolly
drift over your mind - holly
creep into bed when your head's on the ground
she held the torch on the porch,
she winked an eye

Reason it is written on the brambles
stranded on the spikes - my blood red, oh listen:
remember those times I could call
through the clear day
time - be there...
braver and braver, a handkerchief waver
the louder you lips to a loud hailer
growing together, they ('re) growing each either
no wondering, stumbling, fumbling
rumbling minds shot together,
our minds shot together...

So equally over a valley, a hill
wood on quarry stood, each of us crying
a velvet curtain of gray
mark the blanket where the sparrows play
and the trees by the waving corn stranded
my legs move the last empty inches to you
the softness, the warmth from the weather in suspense
mote to a grog - the star a white chalk
minds shot together, our minds shot together...


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpr_Dcr6q_4[/youtube]

[Eivind August]

Love that song.

[darthbatman]

I appreciate music if it's real and makes you think and sounds original. A good groove is nearly a must

[Blackened Soul]

[kbit]

Tension & release.
Polyrhythms & groove.
Rad textures.
Exploration.
Escapism.

I choose three of the categories above: textures, emotionality, and experimentation.

[jrmy]

My lucky sock.

[UglyCasanova]

subliminal messages.

[futuresailors]

Blondie