Friends. You’ve had all kinds: ones that like country music, others that like classic rock, dance and club music fans, hip-hop, rap, heavy metal, alternative, grunge, punk, oldies, even disco. Maybe you’ve had those artsy friends who went with jazz or blues and took you to the most far-out clubs, where you got lost in the smoky, earthy atmosphere that seemed an anachronism of today’s music scene or even today’s reality.
If I asked you, right now, to name a Door’s fan you’ve met, you could. If I asked you who of your friends liked club music, you could. Who’s the Police fan? Who’s the Matthew Good fan? Who likes Kenney Chesney, Billy Joel, Madonna, Pearl Jam?
You could also say who is never current and has never heard of what you’re listening to… and you could probably name someone who is listening to the most obscure stuff and have never once recommended anything you’ve even heard of…
There are ideologies that surround what music speaks to us. First, is the visceral response to it. Often, however, environmental conditioning shapes the visceral response into a calculated response of expression: the expression of our identity.
Pretend for a moment, you’re twelve years old. Let’s say your grandparents listened to oldies, your parents listened to country music.Your middle school friends listened to emo music. But, your older brother in high school hung with a group that listened to the Door’s, the Replacements, old Kiss, and Tesla. Would your visceral, instinctive response be changed? What would you rebel against? With what would you identify? And what would give you a feeling of being more cool, deeper, etc?
You can say you’ve never been influenced in either direction to what seniors, parents, peers or siblings exposed you. Whether you were a toddler, twelve, or even now. But remember the expression “he doth protest too much” before you say a word.
Back in time, I gave this guy a ride home from college. He was the drummer for a hip college band that sound like classic rock meets grunge before Kurt Cobain credited Cheap Trick for influence. Very garage band sound with the unusual ability to play well and write stellar lyrics. I asked the guy what music he listened to and I remember very well what happened next.
He cautioned me. Cautioned me. “You probably haven’t heard of the stuff I like. It’s not mainstream.” (I guess I look mainstream.) I asked for examples. He named The Damned and then added he *used* to like the Psychedelic Furs… before they went mainstream.”
Over the years, I cannot tell you how many times, in how many conversations over music, I have heard phrases that resound the same idea. It’s been said many ways, sometimes more obscurely, sometimes flat out. But, the substance of it is this: “I came across that band when they were unknown. I liked that band, sang their lyrics, listened to their sound over and over… before they ever became popular. I was ahead of my time. Now, that they are popular and played on Top 40 stations, they’ve obviously sold out and become mainstream. Obviously, I no longer like them, because they’ve lost my respect for earning popularity.”
This is called a Newton’s cradle:
If you consider the far left to be the unknown, avant garde, popular only to the musically discriminate… and if you consider the far right to be the mainstream, top 40, bubble gum popularity of the indiscriminate masses, would not that leave only one position from the two extremes. Most would argue that the two extremes are opposing types of music, like country versus rock or classical versus heavy metal. I propose something different. The two extremes are the culture versus the counter culture, and they bombard the majority to the point of resentment.
In the middle lies the majority. Some claim to like all types and to be in the middle because it is the “mean” of their tastes. Others might claim to be turned off by obscure music and also by top 40, and therefore are in the middle because it is the “median” of their tastes. Still others might say they have no specifics musical tastes and just like what they like, when they like it, based on that musician and that individual song.
If you parallel all this into a different arena, you perhaps could put people into these categories: those who follow traditional norms, those who follow the counter-culture of traditional norms they find limiting, those who like some of the traditional norms but not all and remain independent of either label, and even perhaps those who resent the debate of which norms are right and which are wrong. Perhaps it is just as frustrating as listening to two friends, on a road trip with you, argue in a car about which radio station to choose.
The question is, what influences us to lean toward the obscure, to lean toward the safe, to embrace a bit of the exotic with our routine, or to sit deadfast in the middle and drown everyone out with our headphones? And, if the last is the choice, the chances that whatever is on those headphones came from anyone around you diminishes. The one chance song that didn’t get radio play, that your grandparents, parents, siblings and peers haven’t choked you with. Perhaps, that is your sanctuary.
In the grand scheme of things, are we all looking to belong, to stand out, to blend in, to make a difference, to be popular, to be right, to be really alive, to be really respected… What drives us?
I know the answer. And, the answer is, it’s different for everybody, with overlap here and there. Welcome to humanity, where we all are individuals.
Now, unrelated non sequitur.
