hands up who doesn't really like music without vocals

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

just wondered

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

or, if all of your top 10 faves have vcls : why?

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 11:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to hate instrumentals because they meant too much space in the music and too much time to think.

I am older now, and Brian Eno is my hero.

― Schwingung (Damian), Saturday, 20 December 2003 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

when I started buying and listening to music withou vocals I didn't think of them as 'instrumentals'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 20 December 2003 11:56 (twenty-one years ago)

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

used to find instrumentals dull. the last few years i've gradually become accustomed to them, to the point that i wouldn't really make a distinction anymore.

it was a period where i felt lazy and sluggish all the time that changed my attitude - for a few months i only bought music to "chill out"/go to sleep to - and i found that music with vocals was a distraction.

Also, buying a disc-man helped a lot. instrumentals are particularly effective when you're walking around with headphones on, and imagining the music you listen to is "soundtracking your life's film etc"

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

thats a me neither julio

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

My life is the music video for whatever I'm listening to, I fear.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

i vaguely remember richard cook writing a column (maybe a singles column???) for nme in the 80's that castigated listeners for not being able to "hear" non-vcl music???

also he compared husker du to cecil taylor.

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

good for him.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

second "ha!" of night to southall

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

o, and yeah julio, cook made this nme reader think a wee bit...

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:09 (twenty-one years ago)

or feel guilty maybe?

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't really like music without vocals. I mean, it's fine if you're doing something else at the same time. It's fine with a walkman. But I'd find it difficult to sit at home and put on an instrumental record and do nothing but listen.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

the lyrics are an integral part of the experience then eyeball?

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Do people feel the same way about films without dialogue, I wonder?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

ha! nick, ha!

or soccer without the commentary?

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i tend to like dub w vocal snatches, jazz w/out vcls (er...mainly...tend), pop songs w vcls, etc

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Serious point - how do people get along with Koyaanisqatsi or the long passages without dialogue of 2001? I love both buy must admit they make me fall asleep as often as not (probably cos I only ever decide to watch them at fucking 3am, mind you).

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:35 (twenty-one years ago)

try the 9pm sessions: stoned...i guess

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I never used to be able to, uh, 'connect' to music without vocals, unless it had a very obvious hook I could hang on to.
...and then I got into GYBE! Or something to that effect. My top ten artists (if I have them: I don't really do top tens) aren't all vocals-based, but they probably would have been six years ago.

Vocals, I think, make it easier to find something human and recogniseable in a piece of music - lyrics make the intended effect of the song/piece pretty plain. Which means I'm as likely to hate something due to trite lyrics as I am to love something due to perfect phrasing. Bad singing, though, irritates me in the same way as does cackhanded instrumentalism: if I can't think up an aesthetic reason for it, it's complete anathema.

I still can't listen to long instrumental classical pieces without feeling a bit "eh, what's the point?" But, then, I get that with opera and oratorio, too.

― cis (cis), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:41 (twenty-one years ago)

the lyrics are an integral part of the experience then eyeball?

Not necessarily. I like good lyricists, but I can enjoy music that has bad lyrics, or is in a language I don't understand, or that has no lyrics even, only a wordless voice.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Saturday, 20 December 2003 15:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a pretty strong bias against instrumentals. I have a fair share of vocal-less music in my collection, but with a few exceptions, I don't listen to those records very often. I think I'm just more interested in hearing something with a human voice in there, kind of talking to me, and I respect people who actually try and come up with good words to match the sounds they make. I mean, unless you have some kind of lead instrument or soloist as the focal point, a lack of vocals sometimes leaves a big hole in the music where it feels like something should be.

― Al (sitcom), Saturday, 20 December 2003 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

can't tell the difference

― dave q, Saturday, 20 December 2003 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

if i can't sing along to a song i'm unlikely to bother listening to it more than once

― the surface noise (electricsound), Sunday, 21 December 2003 01:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't understand how 'it makes me fall asleep' is necessarily negative criticism.
Until recently I didn't really like music WITH vocals (hip hop excepted, though even with that I kind of tuned out the vocals and concentrated on the beat). Now I appreciate a good voice/delivery, but it's far from being requisite.

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 21 December 2003 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I wonder if this is partially a question about whether the listener has a taste for NON-pop/rock forms. Instrumental rock, for instance, is pretty damn ordinary innit (although I'd love to be proven wrong here).

Whereas if you dig some jazz or chamber music or experimental electronics or dub or something... well, vocals are largely beside the point before you start. As Julio said, such stuff needn't even perceived as 'instrumentals'.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 21 December 2003 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

The difference between film and music here is pretty vast.

A silent film is still communicating in a visual language that most people understand - if nothing else they can verbalize what's going on. It's telling you a story (rare for instrumental music) and demands your attention.

Many of us have been raised with vocals as the dominant force in music, and instruments as background music for movies/TV/etc., and it's more difficult to listen to it as a sole activity.

The only music I prefer w/o vocals is jazz, which is a highly visual form to me. Try as I might, I cannot get into dub or most electronic music.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Sunday, 21 December 2003 03:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I find I like instrumental music if there's a particular part of the music that seems to be humanoid or sentient.

Oh dear, I've explained myself quite badly. What I mean to say is that if there is a part (rhythm, melody, whatever) that seems to be quite organic, infused with life and spirit, then that satisfies the same part of me that likes the human voice.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Sunday, 21 December 2003 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"instrumental rock, for instance, is pretty damn ordinary"

You've obviously never heard the Ventures In Space by a surf rock group from the '60s called the Ventures.

― William R Henderson (Cabin Essence), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 05:29 (twenty-one years ago)

what q

― joday (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 05:32 (twenty-one years ago)

said

― joday (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 05:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Can I get a what q

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 23 December 2003 05:38 (twenty-one years ago)

depends.

― you will be shot, Tuesday, 23 December 2003 05:44 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.