Question to the critics, pro and amateur

put away the dictionary and take a walk. if you can't think of something to say about a song put another one on.

Pretty good advice, that.

The Macallan 18 Year says: put away the dictionary and take a walk. if you can't think of something to say about a song put another one on.

The problem isn't that I can't think of a single thing to say about a song. I can talk about how the song makes me feel. But the other thing I want to do is to identify why the song made me feel a certain way, without getting too detailed and technical.

put away the dictionary and take a walk. if you can't think of something to say about a song put another one on.

I'm not sure if this is true for everyone, but my best pieces tend to be written in less than fifteen minutes...If you work on a piece for more than, say, forty minutes, you've probably either: a) not thought enough about the music or b) overthought it

But I'm weird.

without getting too detailed and technical.

no, these are good things.

('you' should probably be replaced with 'i' in my post)

Maybe you should be thinking more in terms of metaphor and less in terms of vocabulary. Some introductory poetry books might help your thinking in that way. I really like The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser.

I mean, if you want to do more than talk about how you feel and you don't want to be technical, metaphor seems to be the only way to talk about music.

Jordan Sargent says: no, these are good things.

Here's why I said that: two days ago I finished reading Mike McGonigal's 33 1/3 book on Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. While reading what Kevin Shields did to produce certain sounds, I realized that his motivation for creating certain sounds was far more interesting to me than what he actually did to produce the sounds. And I guess I feel this way because I'm not a musician. Besides, what critic in 1991 was able to write a detailed review of the record that identified the source of the sounds?

well unless you plan on interviewing every musician ever, you're going to have trouble identifying why musicians do things. that would obviously lead to speculation, and i find that to be pretty treacherous, especially if you're dealing with "sounds."

Jordan Sargent says: well unless you plan on interviewing every musician ever, you're going to have trouble identifying why musicians do things. that would obviously lead to speculation, and i find that to be pretty treacherous, especially if you're dealing with "sounds."

I don't plan on speculating or interviewing every musician. Instead I want to describe how the organization of certain sounds inspired me to feel a certain way.

Onomatopoeia, no?

"Pony" is so GUH----GUH-GUH-GUUH.

^
exactly.

no onomatopoeia's plz.

Not a lot of critics do this, but I'd love to be able to dedicate a paragraph to each song. All Music Guide does this with some songs.

The fact of the matter is I need to learn more words.

St3ve Go1db3rg says: Maybe you should be thinking more in terms of metaphor and less in terms of vocabulary. Some introductory poetry books might help your thinking in that way. I really like The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser.

I thought poetry might help. Thanks for the recommendation.

if you can't write compelling things about a song, write about how you _can't_ compellingly write about the song.

Fraew says: if you can't write compelling things about a song, write about how you _can't_ compellingly write about the song.

I smiled when I read this.

I'm gonna be an idiot and say openly that I don't know if you're being sarcastic or sincere.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/adaptation.jpg

O okay, I get it now. I'm slow.

Hmmm, I don't know if I'd be allowed to be so indulgent.