What Do You Get Out of This

Apologies to slashdot.

i mean you listen to music for a buzz or feeling of some kind, for inspiration etc. i like hearing 'crazy' sounds and rhythms partly because in sonic terms its often pleasurable hearing extreme frequencies/notes as it heightens the senses (maybe this makes you feel more alive and/or empowered hence the pleasure) but i like to hear them deployed within conventional 'restrictions' like rhythmic beats (however complicated) and a sense of what music and a song is - catchy hooks or quirks designed for remembrance, familiar patterns (the re-assurance again), the structure of the song - especially if its like an ascension or progression - rather than just as a sequence of chaotic noise - i love the 'design' aspect of it like i enjoy visual art

the other thing i get out of it is satisfaction for when i find i can identify what i like about the track and why, and also understand what messages the author of the track was trying to communicate

(esp. wrt the cd john was listening to)

Another recent example: listening to Joe Bataan's cha cha cha "Muchacho Ordinario." This seems to capture some childhood sense of "cool," no doubt partly due to the very 70's sounding production. It creates its own time atmosphere, but I guess that's what all music does. Here it's an all-the-time-in-the-world sort of feeling.

These are just some things I like.

reviving due to the discussions happening on the Savages and Shaking the Habitual threads

I need to hear Savages.

would i like them?

you tell me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neRGpHLj1EQ

It's really difficult for me to articulate what it is I really get out of music, or even what I'm looking for. The most common thread between most of the music I listen to is some ineffable balance between rhythmic intensity and a quality that, for lack of a better term, I will call "trance-inducing". There are certain timbres I've imprinted on, particularly in the realm of the post-punk, goth and industrial music I wallowed in throughout high school and college, mixed in with a strong desire to dance to the beat. I really like my drums to be hard-hitting and punishing, my bass lines to be frenzied, the musical arrangements to coil like a spring and then explode into an expansive cacophony of sound. I also like purity of sound; that note hit by someone who really knows how to use their voice, perfectly in tune and supported and rolling over me in a wave of beauty. I like it when those things are mashed together; I like it when people know when and where to use ugly sounds to amplify the musical ideas they are attempting to convey.

In many ways, I feel like music is my native language and it gives me indescribable joy when I hear someone whom I think is speaking it fluently.

I meant "who", didn't I

Music-as-emotional-companion, I think, is true much of the time. In this case, what I'm feeling (or want to feel) dictates what music I'll put on to either enhance or induce an emotional response.

Then again, lots of the time I just want to hear something new to me, so see if it triggers any sort of response.