Musical preferences

Tue Dec 21 00:49:39 CET 2021

I can't disagree at all with the ritual/Tony Bennett thing.  One of the 
things that happened in intervening years is that I picked up Theravadan 
Buddhism and there's a daily chanting component that I can recognize 
now, preps my mind in a certain way, even if I only understand a quarter 
of what I'm chanting.  And there's something eerie and cool about 
remembering what you need to say next "just in time."

Let me try one more time to explain my philosophical issue.  My musical 
journey really started with Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."  I was 
maybe six and I still remember chasing it around on the 8-track 
channels.  I couldn't tell you if it was that one or Eddy Money's "baby 
hold on" that I first glommed onto and learned all the words for.

I didn't have enough life experiences at six, nor any nostalgia to talk 
about as to why I would like that song so much.  Now sure, part of why I 
still love that song today is because of some reinforcement generated 
from those experiences.  But when I was six?  No way.  We're waaaaay too 
instinctual when we're that little.  My experiences then would have been 
watching Transformers and GI Joe on TV.  I wasn't even aware of Star 
Wars yet, that still had a couple years... which means that this memory 
I'm talking about is older than that;  I was between three and five.

What I'm getting at horribly is that there's something waaaaaaaay more 
primal at play.  And I think that whatever that primal thing IS-->Has 
more to do with that music preference thing.  I'm not trying to downplay 
the idea of "nurture," here, what you're talking about has merit once 
we're fully developed teens and have a much more extensive library of 
memories to interleave with our music to reflect on later.  The "sound 
track of life," as it were.

But "The sound track of life" doesn't apply when we hear something for 
the first time and it resonates in the soul.  That's the "magic" that 
I've always chased, and hope in some way to bring to my own music.

On 12/20/2021 12:29 PM, Matt Picone wrote:
> I’ll chalk that Dolly Parton story down to the same thing, combined 
> with the wisdom of age. When were younger, we have anti-preferences 
> which can be pretty strong.
>
> Let’s also not neglect that there is a purely primal component to all 
> of this. Watching Tony Bennett sing so well when he can’t even 
> remember his name speaks to the subconscious nature of music in much 
> the same way that ritual chanting does.
>
>> On Dec 20, 2021, at 12:52 PM, Matt Seil <xeno6696 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 
>>
>> I'd say that's overly reductionist.
>>
>> What's the time in my life that reinforces "I'm gonna hit random on 
>> Spotify/Pandora/Whatever" and then for example, figuring out "Whoa, i 
>> never heard this Dolly Parton song before, it's really good!"
>>
>> What's weird here is that /I don't even like country!/ Well, not 
>> normally.  That Dolly song (Jolene) is like nothing I'd normally 
>> listen to.  30 years by that point of *hating* country and never 
>> hearing that song and then like, "Whoa, that's really good..."
>>
>> That's also how I found out about several Jazz musicians... Jazz in 
>> general is something I didn't get into until I was like, "You know 
>> what, I never did listen to Miles Davis."
>>
>> I've heard  nothing at all like Bitches Brew before or since, and Sun 
>> Ra, well, good luck finding comparisons there.  John Zorn maybe?
>>
>>
>>
>> On 12/20/2021 10:29 AM, Tony Scharf wrote:
>>>
>>> >>
>>>
>>> Musical preferences are the result of emotional reinforcement attached
>>> to people, places, and times in our lives.
>>>
>>> <<
>>>
>>> Could not have said this better.
>>>
>>> Tony
>>>
>>> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for 
>>> Windows
>>>
>>> *From: *Matt Picone <mailto:matt at mysticworks.com>
>>> *Sent: *Monday, December 20, 2021 11:27 AM
>>> *To: *music-bar at lists.music-bar.org
>>> *Subject: *Re: Musical preferences
>>>
>>> Musical preferences are the result of emotional reinforcement attached
>>> to people, places, and times in our lives.
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Matt
>>>
>>> On 12/19/21 4:21 PM, Mikael Hansson wrote:
>>> > Something I’ve thought about for a while is what defines my 
>>> musical preferences.
>>> >
>>> > Even though my taste spans quite a few genres, one thing that is 
>>> common, is that it’s mostly in the alternative genre, i.e rarely 
>>> mainstream and if it is, most likely on the border between 
>>> mainstream and alternative.
>>> >
>>> > I’m not really sure why. What’s your thoughts about this, what 
>>> differs between mainstream and alternative. Is it the ethos, the not 
>>> so polished production, another “mould” to make music (or lack of 
>>> thereof) etc.
>>> >
>>> > /Micke
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