For those of you that follow my ramblings, you may have noticed that I post a lot of entries about music. You may find it odd that a travel blog does this on such a regular basis. The truth is, I find it hard to accumulate my thoughts and generate regular travel posts and I choose to fill these creative lapses with other people’s creativity.
I have had a life long obsession with music and have become slightly philosophical about it. For example, the following videos. What do they have in common. Figure that out, and I believe you will understand my tastes in music.
Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”
Clue 1 – I normally cannot even listen to country music, however, I do make the odd exception, and this is one of them.
John Mayer Trio – “Vultures”
Clue 2 – Supposed pop artists have other sides.
Hudson Ford – Crying Blues
Clue 3 – Just because you never heard of it, doesn’t mean the music is uninteresting or bad.
And finally
Frank Sinatra – Fly Me To The Moon
Now it is time to connect the dots. Lady Antebellum, John Mayer Trio, Hudson-Ford and Frank Sinatra. I do not like country, but I really like Lady Antebellum’s song, John Mayer, notorious pop artist, Hudson-Ford, obscure 70’s group, and Frank Sinatra, classic crooner, as far from rock as one can get these days. The common thread is simply that each and every one of these is GOOD. Good is, well, good. Nothing, even genre, can transcend great songs. All of these are, in my mind, well written and well performed. Great players make great music. Even if you don’t like the type of music, certain songs can pull you in, solely by just how well done they are. I have learned over the years not to dismiss or be prejudicial towards any form of music and to listen closely for what may be, or not be, something that could be the next big tune on my iPod. I would hate to miss that song.
In the end, no matter how strong a fan of a genre someone is, there are songs form another style that appeal. to them.
I think it’s important to realize that when arguing music, every genre has something (no matter how slim or obscure) to recommend it.
Well said!
Exactly. I can appreciate a great song played by great musicians. Talent rules all. Even the sappiest piece of pop music has excellent people doing the grunt work behind the voice of the week. And live music, I am blown away by some of the artists we have seen live.
I completely agree. It is interesting how people get caught up in genre specifications. I’ll be honest, I did go through a stage when I was about 16 where I only listened to “classic rock.” I scoffed at “modern” music. It was an obvious immature sentiment – especially because the genre “classic rock” encompasses so many genres. In the end, as you say perfectly, what matters is if the song is good. All genres aside.
I did classic rock when it was the current hits, but I hear you. I have no idea what classic rock really is. I do know what is classic, and I guess that could be taken as my point. Standing the test of time, great songs, great players, all cross the boundaries of genre.
Vultures is one of Mayer’s good ones. It’s nice how country music is evolving which makes it appeal to a broader otherwise reluctant audience, like me. It must have been hard to pick just one of Sinatra. If I had to, Moon River would win 🙂 and it has nothing to do with Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Well concluded post!
You are right on country, very few songs do anything for me. Sinatra, yep, a tough choice. I was thinking Fly Me To the Moon as it was on a car commercial recently Vulture is actually my second favourite Mayer tune, Home Life is my numero uno, but the Trio doesn’t do that one.