"Top Five"

One of my favorite books is Nick Hornby's High Fidelity (it's also a mighty fine John Cusack movie and a great soundtrack featuring Bob Dylan). I saw the movie three or four years ago for the first time and absolutely loved it, and I finally tracked down the novel this past year. I think I've read it four or five times in less than a year.

The main character, Rob, poses an interesting question--am I messed up because I listen to pop music, or do I listen to pop music because I'm messed up? Think of all the pop songs out there. Literally thousands of them are about heartache, lost love, and emotional pain. Why is that? Part of it, I think, is that musicians and artistic types are usually more attuned to emotions than the rest of society in general. They turn themselves into receivers for the whole gamut of human experience, from great joy to great sorrow to everything in between. Artists (of whatever sort) are supposed to express those feelings and ideas the rest of society harbors but cannot figure out how to express.

But so many artists seem to be focused on, obsessed with the darker side of human emotion. With the pain, the heartache, the end of love and life. Why is that? Is it because they're so hyper-sensitive to emotions, that they have to swing to an extreme themselves? Or are too many musicians just cynics and pessimists? Look at the lyrics of, say, Nirvana. Kurt Cobain tapped into a deep primal well of emotion, angst, and pain, and channeled it through very energized music (whatever else you may think of Nirvana, you have to admit that Cobain and Co. were very ernest about their music and tackled it with energy, power, and a healthy dose of emotion). But was he simply expressing himself, and thousands of kids suddenly went, "wow, that's exactly how I feel," or did he notice that the majority of teens and post-teens were very angsty, unhappy individuals? It's back to Hornby's question--do we listen to pop music because we're depressed, or are we depressed because we listen to pop music? Did folks listen to Nirvana because they were angsty, or were they angsty because they listened to Nirvana?

It's really hard to tell, and something of a "chicken or the egg" sort of dilemma. Besides, it's impossible to make some sort of blanket statement about everyone--no two people listen to the same song in the same way or for the same reason. For example: when I listen to a song, I mostly listen to lyrics. I'm a lyrics fiend, and that's why I can't stand most contemporary music (the lyrics are so blah and trite that it makes you ill). The actual music is secondary; don't get me wrong, I need a good tune to go along with the lyrics, but I can forgive a subpar tune if the lyrics are exceptional.

Clif, on the other hand, listens to the guitar. That's pretty much it, though I've convinced him to give lyrics a listen on occasion. One of his favorite musicians is Van Morrison. Van was actually Clif's motivation for learning the guitar (one too many listens to "Brown Eyed Girl" got him going, really). Summer of 2002, when Clif and I were in Yellowstone, he got me hooked on Van. I loved Morrison's work for the lyrics; they were deep, insightful, and poignant, and delivered with a sincerity not often encountered nowadays. As I became a fan, I started discussing Van's music with Clif. He knew of my obsession with lyrics, and asked me, "is Van a good lyricist? I've never really listened to the words." He owned more than a half dozen Van Morrison CDs at the time. The words just weren't important to him.

So we all listen to music in different ways. I think the way I listen to songs, with my focus on lyrics, probably colors the way I relate to the music. It makes me more susceptable to the emotional heights. There are tunes and songs that can move me regardless of the lyrics (a couple of the Cowboy Bebop tunes are like that, and some songs are just played so poignantly that it's hard not to be moved, regardless of what the words are or even if there are any), but I usually have to go for the words. And if the words are right, and delivered in the proper way, I'm lost in them. Completely. So I'm a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to Hornby's question--sometimes, I'm miserable because I listened to a particularly misery-inducing song, and sometimes I listen to sad songs because I'm already sad. All I know is that I love music, and I have no intentions of not listening anytime soon.

Now, if only a couple of bands (Moxy Fruvous, Glen Phillips, Wallflowers, Bob Dylan) would put out new albums, I'd be happy as the proverbial pig in mud, even if some of the songs induce emotional misery in me.

~chaos cricket

Song of the Moment: Bob Dylan, "Most of the Time"