What does music mean to you?
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 11895 Registered: Feb-05 | In an effort to stem the tide relative to turning Jan's "Advice" thread into a miasma, I decided to open this one. Many of us listen to music in our own way and for our own reasons. For me, to break music down into technical jargon is take the soul out of it. I'm interested in the human aspect of music and of listening. Not any kind of research, but what in your conscious mind, compels you to listen. What is involved when you enjoy an artist as opposed to being annoyed or simply complacent about an artist. What are you listening for, in human terms, that brings you closer to the music you love. What is it about your system that either brings you closer or stands in the way of a greater emotional experience when you listen. If you respond, please don't be afraid to let it all hang out. I'm interested in the people that I ineract with here. I want to know more about you. I think that the more we know about each other, the more likely we will treat each other like human beings on a consistent basis. All opinions are valued. |
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Gold Member Username: My_rantzGold CoastAustralia Post Number: 2848 Registered: Nov-05 | I'll give this some thought Art and get back - with something more than, "it either does it for me or it doesn't." If I can. Articulating this is not so easy - at least for me. |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 11902 Registered: Feb-05 | Looking forward to your response, MR. |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 14437 Registered: May-04 | . "In an effort to stem the tide relative to turning Jan's "Advice" thread into a miasma, I decided to open this one." F**k you, Art. I can't believe you went to all this work. You are a child.  . |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 11907 Registered: Feb-05 | Very nice, Jan. Thank you. |
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Gold Member Username: My_rantzGold CoastAustralia Post Number: 2854 Registered: Nov-05 | Expect nothing less from such a lovely girl, Art. |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 11908 Registered: Feb-05 | Please...lets not go there, MR. Let's move this thread forward with integrity and without the need to respond to negativity. I really do want to hear from folks, if they feel inclined. If not, I will understand. Many of us have been doing this audio thing together forever. Most of us get along very well and it would be nice to know what drives each of you and what music actually means to you. My Father was a dancer who knew Earl Hines and Count Basie. Though he was a younger man than either they shared drinks on many occasions. My Mother was a burlesque dancer and traveled from honky tonk to honky tonk throughout the South for many years. Music was in the heart and soul of both of my parents...music comes natural to me. I can turn a damn MRI into a backbeat and rhythm...it's in the blood. |
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Silver Member Username: JrbayLivonia [Detroit area], Michigan USA Post Number: 991 Registered: Feb-08 | While certainly not nearly as colorful Art, my folks were also very musical. The problem was that I was a rotten kid and found that they were not very flexible in their musical tastes. At one point, long ago, my sole reason for living was to use every piece of audio equipment in the house to make as much noise as possible. It seems so awful now but at one (low) point at age 14 or so I had a powered 8 track playing the right channel into a heath-kit receiver into a 12" speaker and the left side into some other amp, that didn't last as long as the heath-kit into a 6x9 speaker. I cringe to think of it now but on the other hand the audio experiments are continuing on a daily basis with the outcomes being a bit more refined. I have had a bit of an ah-ha moment here while writing this in defining why I am not amongst the tube amp/analog crowd. BTW - I have since apologized repeatedly to both of my parents and once or twice to my sisters! |
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Gold Member Username: My_rantzGold CoastAustralia Post Number: 2856 Registered: Nov-05 | I grew up in a musicless house. We had an old Astor bakerlite radio I recall, but my parents never had a record player nor any sort of music collection. My parents went to see the odd musical like South Pacific and Oklahoma, but that was pretty much it. Living up the hill behind us were my grandparents. My grandfather had a small record collection and a decent radiogram. He was a Mario Lanza fan and of other tenors which now evade me and he had the requisite Rogers & Hammerstein musical lp's. He was a decent tenor himself but singing was for his own pleasure, though he did win a contest on a cruise ship once. I guess it was he who introduced me to music. Whenever we visited friends or relatives I would seek out their music collection and ask to play some of it. Closing in on adolesence I became an Elvis fan and tried not to miss any of his movies. I recall taking my grandfather (well he took me) to see Blue Hawaii and he too became an Elvis fan. But the fab four came on the scene when I was about twelve and school became a conduit to them and many other stars of the early sixties. I soon acquired a little portable record player - looked like a vanity case - and sent away for some albums. The first two I bought were Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf. Because I never got permission from my father to do so, he made me send them back. I don't think I ever forgave him for that and many other things. A year or two on I talked my parents into letting me buy a guitar and amp, but lessons were never included and I soon tired of 'mucking around' with it and got interested in surfing and other things and headed into the haze of the psychodelic sixties with Hendrix, The Stones, Beatles, Bowie and just about everyone else who was making music those days. I guess I really got deep into music like many others back then as we headed into the seventies with a little help from Mary Jane and booze and I recall buying our first stereo after marriage to my beautiful ballet dancer. It was some plastic Sanyo record/radio thing with seperate plastic speakers and soon after that we progressed to the big quadrophonic Sanyo that sent everyone spinning with records like Edgar Winter's "They Only Come Out At Night". That thing had these huge speaker boxes for the mains and I recall opening the masonite backs to find a single tiny 5 or six inch speaker in there and being being thoroughly cheesed. However, we thought we had it made with that thing back then. It wasn't until a few years later when we bought Kenwood separates (amp, tuner, turntable) and a pair of Coral speakers that set us on the heading to where we are now. With Mary Jane a distant memory of youth, and both of us now having the odd medical hiccup, substance has been moderated to a few cab savs or such and the occassional beer or G&T on a hot day, but it's a red wine or two with music we get to enjoy for our quality time. That's a background, the rest will follow when I can put it into words. |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 11910 Registered: Feb-05 | Very cool guys, thanks. I will have more as well later...now I'm waiting on the appliance repair folks. |
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Silver Member Username: BoulderdashcciCanton, Massachusetts USA Post Number: 137 Registered: Apr-07 | For me, it's about finding storylines, dynamics, and progression in things where they aren't always clear cut like in movies, books, or even lyrical music. A large portion of what I listen to is highly dynamic and atmospheric instrumental rock, or when using vocals, they are implemented as another instrument in the mix rather than a centerpiece (My B.loody Valentine is a good example). I like long songs that use the entire length as a buildup or climax, and then in context of the album are just a piece in the overall buildup of that. I especially like when things flow naturally, as if something is happening that wasn't entirely intended, but fits perfectly into the context of the music. I'm not really sure where I developed my likes for music. I have always been more interested in music than my parents as far as I know, and pretty outside the realm of what my friends listened to when I was growing up. I kind of always had the sound I wanted to hear in the back of my head but didn't really know it existed until a few years ago when I really started exploring what the music world had to offer and found that it was indeed out there. Having a decent audio system probably comes from my somewhat unhealthy obsession with detail in pretty much everything....I've never really been satisfied with any type of project I've ever done just because I always feel like I could have squeezed more detail out of it. With the audio system for me it's the cliche of hearing musical details as if they were live (not so much pulling every little thing out of the recording, but I like having instruments sound like actual instruments). My other hobby besides listening to music is roller coasters, but largely for the same reasons that I like the kind of music I like. I think most people think that is about thrill seeking and adrenaline, but I like to think I'm a bit less shallow than that. I personally enjoy finding progression and dynamics in layouts that most people would probably overlook. In fact I don't really take much from them thrill-wise anymore as I'm usually preoccupied trying to understand the layout and what the designer's intentions (and again, un-intentions) were beyond making people scared or excited. I've never been one for fiction books or movies, not sure why (I think it has something to do with having a predefined storyline already laid out rather than being able to pick up on that myself as I said in the first paragraph), but music has always been a huge interest of mine. |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 11921 Registered: Feb-05 | Thank you for sharing that...rollercoasters...I haven't gotten past the fear. But I love the rush! I remember picking out the music from commercials and hearing music where most just heard the words going back as far as I can. I started buying my own music when I was 6 and will never forget when my Father brought home a huge box of 45 rpm singles from a local radio station. He had a friend who was a DJ there. KSEI in Pocatello. We lived in a tiny home, but it had a basement with a big open room which my brother and I used as a bedroom. We had a record player and radio in there from the start. We always had something to spin records on. Each school morning we were awakened by the sound of the intercom system my Father rigged up, playing KSEI...music and the Southeast Idaho farm report. I sure knew a lot about winter wheat and hogs...and I was hearing a whole lot of music. My Father liked swing, big band blues and some classical music and my Mother was country and western all the way. More later. |
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Gold Member Username: GavdawgAlbany, New York Post Number: 1473 Registered: Nov-06 | For me, the music is an adventure. I also grew up in a home that was always having some music spinning. My first major gift was a GE boombox at the age of 9 that had a CD player in it. I was usually allowed to touch our home stereo, which was a pioneer rack system. I don't remember the model, but I do remember that it was from the late 80's and was almost always on. My dad showed me how to work it and change the CDs and tapes provided someone was in the room with me. Most of the music that was played in the home at that time was country (with some steely day, carole king, and james taylor thrown in) The Judds "Rockin' With The Rhythm" was the first CD that I was given as a kid...and I still have it. I have long been a huge fan of them (now Wynonna as a solo artist). I can say with certainty that it has always been a part of my life. |
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Bronze Member Username: ByamPost Number: 65 Registered: May-06 | I just came across this thread. Art, Out of curiosity, is there something I am missing from your January 22nd post regarding "waiting on the appliance repair folks"? |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 12765 Registered: Feb-05 | No...I was waiting for the appliance repair folks, just like I said. |
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Bronze Member Username: ByamPost Number: 67 Registered: May-06 | Just wondering Art. I have been an appliance service technician for the past 32 years. Actually I'm a music enthusiast that works on appliances to support my habit. |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 12770 Registered: Feb-05 | I see the connection. I'm blessed in that I have a favorite good old fashioned appliance store with great owners and techs that I've done business with. So Bill, wanna share some of your experiences that helped foster your love of music? |
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Platinum Member Username: NuckPost Number: 15063 Registered: Dec-04 | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E&feature=player_embedded#! This dude might have won over some converts at this show... |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 12771 Registered: Feb-05 | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E&feature=player_embedded#! |
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Gold Member Username: DmitchellOttawa, Ontario Canada Post Number: 3966 Registered: Feb-07 | Anyone ever listen to an album or a song from a certain period of your life (either good or bad), and that song brings back all those emotions and mood from that time? For me, that's how powerful music is. Sometimes I use music as a tool, or a motivator. On my mp3 player I have nothing but loud aggressive stuff to keep me going while I'm working out or running. But at home, the music becomes a reflection of how I'm feeling at that certain point in time. |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 12783 Registered: Feb-05 | Definitely, David. Just hearing a song can bring back a flood of memories...sights, sounds, smells and feelings. Very powerful. |
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Gold Member Username: DmitchellOttawa, Ontario Canada Post Number: 3972 Registered: Feb-07 | There's actually some albums that I can't even listen to anymore since they take me back to a period to when things weren't going particularily well. I guess that's how effective music is at triggering memory. I grew up in a very musical house as well. My father was music fanatic (mostly Swing and Big Band - obviously that didn't rub off on me) and even owned McIntosh gear! But was brought up with the appreciation of the joy music can bring. I was also encouraged to learn as much about music as possible, learning how to play piano, read music and learn bass and guitar. |
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Bronze Member Username: DwpPost Number: 14 Registered: Apr-10 | For me Art music is about passion, emotion, and excitement. It has a unique capability in this respect. It can evoke passion in a way that nothing else can. You can't possible evaluate this response, just respect it for what it is. I agree that there is often too much emphasis on technical jargon, but it does come in useful to sort the wheat from the chaff. [url=http://www.thehifisite.com]The HIFI site[/url] |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 12891 Registered: Feb-05 | Thank you for that response, David. |
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Gold Member Username: MagfanUSA Post Number: 1284 Registered: Oct-07 | My house always had some kind of music playing. My dad, who grew up in Depression Era Chicago in a REAL rough neighborhood loved Luis Prima / Keely Smith music. I have a CD of them which is terrific stuff. Sam Butera, who died about a month ago was a great jazz / swing sax player. My dad must have had almost every record Prima ever made. I remember 'The Call of the Wildest' and others. My dad also loved classical music. I'll never forget in about '82 or '83 when he was building his last house, the shower room was the outside shed. You'd grab your bucket of hot water, towel and stuff, head out to the shed and 'shower'. You got your choice of music, played on some awful ghetto blaster sitting in the upstairs window. The house at that time had no inside finish and a single outlet in what would become the kitchen. Talk about a 'work in progress'. My dad's choice? Beethoven. Go 'figger. My mother was an expert whistler, of all things. She had been a trumpet player in her HS band and loved all kinds of music. She could do something while whistling that sounded almost like a Harmonium. I wish I had taped it before she lost the knack. Good times. |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 12895 Registered: Feb-05 | Good stuff, Leo, thanks. |
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Gold Member Username: ExerciseguyFort Hamilton, NY United States Post Number: 3249 Registered: Oct-04 | 42. |
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