― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 27 November 2003 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)
― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 27 November 2003 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 November 2003 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)
Why did I do it? To feel less lonely; because capturing that kind of emotion can make for great songs; to 'drain' the low feelings and bring myself out of it quicker; sheer bloody self-indulgence. These days my hunch is that a little of that stuff goes a very long way.
― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 27 November 2003 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)
― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 27 November 2003 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)
― Gear! (Gear!), Thursday, 27 November 2003 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)
― paulhw (paulhw), Thursday, 27 November 2003 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)
― Tobias H (akausal), Thursday, 27 November 2003 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)
― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 27 November 2003 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)
― Tobias H (akausal), Thursday, 27 November 2003 21:30 (twenty-one years ago)
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Thursday, 27 November 2003 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)
― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 27 November 2003 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)
― Cacaman Flores, Thursday, 27 November 2003 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)
I'm told that I listen to depressing music, or at least people I work with, and strangers, have told me that. I once traumatized someone in my printmaking class by playing shannon wright. (she didn't mind Neko Case, though.) She started flailing about and mocking it and acting absolutely horrified, like I was playing a live tape of a suicide or something. It would just never have occurred to me that it would be depressing or scary to anyone because I never found her music depressing in itself.
I have a low tolerance for 'cheerful' music for some reason. It makes me more depressed than 'sad' music and just has less depth to me personally. I can take it in small doses but don't listen to it constantly... my brain would melt. It just gets tiring.
If I had to listen to happy joyful peppy music when I'm upset, I'd probably kill myself... it reminds me of how everyone else is happy but I'm not, and then I feel worse. A good record can feel like having a friend, or a warm blanket, if there isn't anyone you feel like unloading your problems onto. Then you don't have to make a fool of yourself cos records won't make fun of you or get annoyed by your bad moods.
― Blood and sparkles (bloodandsparkles), Thursday, 27 November 2003 22:31 (twenty-one years ago)
― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Thursday, 27 November 2003 22:48 (twenty-one years ago)
― Sean M (Sean M), Thursday, 27 November 2003 22:56 (twenty-one years ago)
― bahtology, Thursday, 27 November 2003 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)
(I think I once shouted at the telly when the video for radiohead's 'no surprises' was shown on some news discussion programme and the lady anchor said that. me, throwing book at screen: SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP! It's not depressing, it's beautiful, you just aren't listening! ...not that 'no surprises' is in any way shape or form particularly sanguine, but it was I suppose the culmination of a lot of people JUST NOT UNDERSTANDING and whatnot.)
Music that's got a sense of gentle melancholy - even defeat - to it can be stunningly beautiful in a very specific way. In fact, 'beautiful' isn't really a term I'd apply to any other types of music: cute, pretty, charming, yeah, but they lack whatever it is I think of as beauty. There's often some sort of shining quality, something special to the way that a fairly ugly emotion can be translated into sound. I think I find it soothing as much as anything else: like watching the rain or curling up under a blanket.
I'm a lot less depressed than I used to be, and listen to a lot more bouncy bubblegum, but I couldn't say whether it's coincidence or cause and effect going on there - there've been so many other factors to contend with.
The 'music to slit your wrists to' line can suck my metaphorical cock, tho.
― cis (cis), Thursday, 27 November 2003 23:20 (twenty-one years ago)
Good point. The overall aesthetic package has appeal beyond simply being cathartic or connecting with life experience. The basic elements, like the slower tempos and sparse arrangements, make it more listenable if you're into that whole approach. It's the whole package.
― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Thursday, 27 November 2003 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)
some people just have no fucking clue, do they? these fuckers are the very same people who give you shit about being "miserable" if you opt to stay home on a saturday night.
― bad jode (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 27 November 2003 23:28 (twenty-one years ago)
― cis (cis), Thursday, 27 November 2003 23:37 (twenty-one years ago)
― B*R*A*D (Brad), Friday, 28 November 2003 00:27 (twenty-one years ago)
― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 November 2003 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)
Why? Because they are great albums!
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 28 November 2003 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)
At this stage, someone needs to make a rather insightful, poignant point.
― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Friday, 28 November 2003 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)
Well, I was thinking more about genres like doom metal, ethereal, "dark" folk, and country, but I see your point. There are plenty of depressing vocal pop, r&b, soul, blues, jazz, drag racining rockabilly, hip hop etc. etc. songs/pieces out there to choose from. Hell, anytime I hear the original version of "track of my tears", I want to down a beer and feel sorry for myself at the bar for at least three hours.
― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Friday, 28 November 2003 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)
i didn't say I didn't like it. I get immense pleasure out of music that moves me, regardless of how it moves me.
― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Friday, 28 November 2003 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)
― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Friday, 28 November 2003 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)
― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Friday, 28 November 2003 01:59 (twenty-one years ago)
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 02:01 (twenty-one years ago)
― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Friday, 28 November 2003 02:05 (twenty-one years ago)
I'll amend this rule: unless they're jazz fans or musicians. Anything that gets you laid is not something you're likely to give up.
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)
― brg30 (brg30), Friday, 28 November 2003 05:40 (twenty-one years ago)
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 05:43 (twenty-one years ago)
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)
― Aaron A., Friday, 28 November 2003 06:10 (twenty-one years ago)
Personally I think melancholy quiet people are really sexy, but considering how little action I've gotten in the past... uh, time period, I'd have to guess that most people don't feel the same way. I wish my musical taste would get me laid. But I'm the kind of person that strangers tend to walk up to and ask what's wrong, or if I'm having a bad day, when I'm just standing looking at the bagels or whatever, having a totally normal and bland time of it.
Wahh.
― Blood and sparkles (bloodandsparkles), Friday, 28 November 2003 07:33 (twenty-one years ago)
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 07:45 (twenty-one years ago)
― Christian Rawk (Christian Rawk), Friday, 28 November 2003 07:45 (twenty-one years ago)
I'm just not a bubbly jump up and down kind of person. Is that so wrong? You're making me cry now, you baddie. I should turn on some Nick Drake.
― Blood and sparkles (bloodandsparkles), Friday, 28 November 2003 08:06 (twenty-one years ago)
I am mean. I want you to dance around the room a lot. I'm a right bastard.
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 08:23 (twenty-one years ago)
― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 28 November 2003 11:10 (twenty-one years ago)
― stevem (blueski), Friday, 28 November 2003 11:12 (twenty-one years ago)
― Blood and sparkles (bloodandsparkles), Friday, 28 November 2003 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 28 November 2003 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)
The trouble is that most people of deep feeling, and thus most first-rate artists, are sad sacks - though this is less true in rock & roll than in most fields. So do you spend your time engaging with happy crappy art to re-enforce your happiness, or with mopey but meaningful art that makes you want to bleed? (Yes it's a false dichotomy; there is some deep, happy art, but you can only spend so much of your time listening to The Love Below.)
There's no right answer. My strategy is to listen to happy music and go to sad movies. Yours may vary.
― B*R*A*D (Brad), Friday, 28 November 2003 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)
― JuliaA (j_bdules), Friday, 28 November 2003 22:12 (twenty-one years ago)
"Hunter, you look like someone died. It's a party, man"! *makes fake shark fin on head*
― Hunter (Hunter), Friday, 28 November 2003 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)
WHen I am ACTUALLY depressed, I've usually preferred emotionally 'neutral' music that is neither happy nor sad, something like (in my personal estimation) Charalambides or Mum or Bulgarian village chanting, that I can just space out to.
I'm naturally sort of a melancholy person and always have been, but that's more of my basic default setting-- not depressed, just quiet and reflective. I have my jumpy boppy moods too where I want to listen to something really dumb and act goofy... But I can only take so much of that before I wind down.
I avoid really sad movies, because movies depress me more than music ever could.
― Blood and sparkles (bloodandsparkles), Saturday, 29 November 2003 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)