(07-20-2009, 11:21 PM)pluralone Wrote: I'd love to see this discussion started in a new thread....
Done.
http://www.bring4th.org/forums/showthrea...69#pid4269
(07-20-2009, 11:21 PM)pluralone Wrote: I think it depends on individual perceptions/receptors. My own receptors pick of different aspects of the music is all I'm saying.
Agreed! I love to rock, but many find rock to be abrasive/unpleasant.
(07-20-2009, 11:21 PM)pluralone Wrote: The thread has been more about heavy metal, but it seems much of the discussion has focused on lyrics, and I just wanted to toss out an observation: Jim Croce's "Tomorow's Gonna Be a Brighter Day", while beautiful, has always sounded to me like an after-the-beating remorse rant of an abusive spouse. Similarly, Alan Parsons Project's "Eye in the Sky" is one I think of as "The Stalker Song". Perhaps this speaks more to my own life experience - I was a domestic violence victim's advocate for nearly ten years - but who's to say what motivated the creation of these songs? Still, I enjoy both. To me, the lyrics describe and explore states of human experience - and do so in a thoroughly pleasant way.
Oh I definitely love a lot of music that deal with dark human emotions. I don't think that is a bad thing in itself. Many of those songs were the artist's way of dealing with that trauma, and the listener benefits by the expression of that which perhaps they can't express themselves. I consider the very best music to be that which explores our emotions in such a way as to bring them to the surface where they can be reviewed, expressed harmlessly, and, hopefully, transmuted.
My absolute fav artist of all time, Peter Gabriel, is a master at that. (We fans call him 'The Master.') He has a song for nearly every human condition! Feeling depressed? He has a song for it. Hopeless? Suicidal? Grieving the death of a loved one? He has a catalog of songs to choose from. What makes his music so special is that there is always an upliftment somewhere in the song...he has this way of reaching deep within our psyche, uncovering the pain, and then bringing it to the surface where it can be healed.
An excellent example is Digging in the Dirt, which starts out very angry, and focuses on the victim digging up his pain, but by the end of the song, he is wishing healing for the victimizer also. Powerful stuff!
Whenver I've felt down, it has often helped to play music that expressed my feelings. Rather than reinforcing the negative feelings, I find that such music helps me to heal them.
But that's not the sort of 'negative' I meant in my opening post. My confusion has to do with otherwise upbeat music that I enjoy while in a good mood, but, unbeknownst to me, the lyrics are much darker (maybe even violent) than the music sounds. A good example is Children of Bodom, whose music is very energizing to me, yet I'd rather not know what they're really singing about! Or, the black & death metal genre, whose music may be very lush and beautiful, but with occasional discordant, harsh vocals.
(07-20-2009, 11:21 PM)pluralone Wrote: Oh - and for the record, I love loud, head-bangin' music. Absolutely the best music to listen to while I'm driving, singing at the tops of my lungs when I know the words.
plur
Me too! It's very energizing, even exhilarating, to me.
Alex: Thanks for sharing. I truly do understand! Led Zep, Hawkwind & Black Sabbath were to me what Metallica & GNR were to you (though I am now a huge Metallica fan also!).
I can also understand why the heavy music has been appealing to you, as you broke free of the bonds of a religious path that no longer served you. I think rock music in general is all about breaking free of restrictions and dogmas.
There seems to be some bond between many of us and rock music, with some of us resonating with the heavier stuff as well. For me, it all started in the late 60s, when I yearned to be a part of the hippie movement, but alas, I was too young! The music had such a pull...it seemed so familiar...like we were all from the same planet or something, ha! That sense of familiarity is quite apparent at rock concerts.
The heavier stuff, as I said, i have mixed feelings about. I am familiar with all the bands you mentioned, and those I find too harsh vocally. However, there are some you are undoubtedly familiar with (CoB, DT, CoF) that are, er, rather borderline. So, even though I might draw the line just short of the stuff you're into, we're really splitting hairs here. The point is that I really do understand what you mean by its appeal.
At the same time, some of those bands sound too abrasive and, well, just negative to me. The best way I can describe it is that they are trying to sound 'demonic' and that just doesn't feel right to me. So I can't enjoy it.
My problem is that I can't quite put my finger on why some of it sounds 'demonic' and others sound absolutely wonderful. Strange, huh?
My son has asked me repeatedly to explain why some bands I like and others not. He then analyzes them and tells me they are of the same genre, and the voices similar. For example, Dark Tranquillity has harsh vocals, but for some reason they are acceptable to me. In fact, I find the music very melodic and emotionally evocative! I even went to see them live and the singer has a lot of light! He even smiled alot onstage! (Very strange for that genre!) But others whom my son says are similar in genre (sorry, can't think of an example right off) totally grate on me. This is what I'm trying to figure out.
Another example is Cradle, as compared to DB. The former sounds lovely to me while the latter sounds like heaven in some places and hell in others. ??
I thought maybe it was bias - as in, I couldn't handle DB because of what I knew about the self-professed STS leanings of its singer, but then, CoB has some lyrics that are quite violent. But when I met Alexi, he seemed like such a nice chap, that I just don't take his lyrics too seriously. And Mikail of Opeth seems like a really nice guy as well as a highly accomplished musician/songwriter - quite genius actually! - and yet I can tolerate his music only when he sings, not when he growls. I can't explain why his growling is intolerable to me, while the harsh voice of Mikail of DT is tolerable. I don't think it's just a taste thing - it seems to be a vibration thing.
To make matters worse, I fret about my son being influenced by this music (even though he has a huge, wide range of taste, ranging from The Cure to obscure Celtic folk metal, with an emphasis on black & death metal), but I actually like much of what he listens to. I kept him sheltered from heavy music when he was little (that was when I went thru my New Age music phase, so he grew up listening to Kitaro, with prog rock bands being introduced later) and allowed him to discover it on his own (which he surely did).
I can really get myself going round in circles if I think about it too much. Maybe I should just not worry about it and just enjoy it if I like it, ya know? Maybe I'm over analyzing.
Still, I am concerned about how it might be affecting me on a vibrational level, so I think there is much we can gain by discussing it.