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monday morning all week long isn't healthy

but being happy is only for the wealthy

The Hoosiers, "Worst Case Scenario"

have some composure, where is your posture

you're pulling the trigger all wrong

Panic! At the Disco, "Time to Dance"

and she'd throw her feather boa in the road

because she thought that it would set the scene

The Last Shadow Puppets, "The Age of the Understatement"

you tried to be a good boy

but you couldn't stand the taste

The Hoosiers, "Cops and Robbers"

Please click on one of the links above to have a snoop around my blog.
(that has to be the understatement of the century.)

popularity or preference? /2:49 PM

After spending the past three days listening to over five new albums by several different artists, I started to wonder what exactly happens in both the music industry and in the minds of listeners or "fans" when it comes to choosing music? Do the labels or scouts approach bands or artists that they would actually listen to and be a "fan" of, or do they listen for what they think would sell?

My black 160GB iPod Classic has 722 songs on it, all of which are from albums that I have in-hand and imported into my library (apart from a few that I haven't been able to get my hands on), and all of those 722 songs -- when separated in album and artist -- are quite different to one another. There are styles ranging from thirties jazz, a pinch of R&B (which is soley comprised of Amy Winehouse's two albums), heavy metal, indie rock, british punk, rock, screamo, and a little electronica (which surprised even me, I really don't like most electronica music).

A few of the bands that I love at the moment I have a "history" with. Before my second move, my English teacer used to play selections from her favorite artists, which were Coldplay, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, REM, Nirvana, and Fiona Apple and then have us write about our feelings and thoughts about the songs as a "warm up" for our lessons. All but the latter artists have become a few of my favorite bands, and I think that it was these little exercises that led for me to almost require music when I'm writing now, and that my main source of inspiration is music.

The first time that I remember really having a "favorite band" was on the way back from one of my favorite fish restaurants, Denis (too bad it changed it's name...) and I just decided that Green Day was the best thing ever on the pretense of the only song that I had heard by them at the time, Boulevard of Broken Dreams. This is when I think that I was just choosing what to like through the "popular" identity (even if GD weren't popular in general circumstances at that point, they were at my school), even though I did like the music. After "converting" my friends to fans as well, and after around two years of just listening to one or two bands, I slowly branched out and started listening to different things like Evanescence and Snow Patrol. Both were popular at the time, and Chasing Cars still makes me sad. Maybe that's why I still like them today, when the interest in them has waned in the rest of the world.

Then came the second move, and although a couple of my friends had already uprooted and moved it was still different without them. I kept getting reccomendations for music and I kept on listening to them, such as the Dutch band KANE and Within Temptation, the latter of which was a huge influence on my writing, making me lean to darker and more sullen way of writing what has an option to be dark and sullen. At this point, this is when I start to love music and actively seek it out: I'd tune into BBC Radio One and just write down the names of songs and artists that I liked the sound of: The Hoosiers and Scouting for Girls were solidified as amazing bands in this way. When I was actually in the UK, I'd tune in and I found a diamond amongst the rough in an hour, and that was the band The Fratellis (and, in extention, via Winston's Zen, The Pigeon Detectives).

One time, I went on an "emo lyrics community" and I found a few lines from The Spill Canvas's "Lullaby" (sorry for the crappy video -- and the lines were If you need anything, just say the word/I mean anything/Rest assured, if you start to doze/I'll tuck you in/Plant my lips where your necklace is close) and, even though it took me three months to run the lyrics through Google to get the song and the artist, but I'm glad I did: The Spill Canvas is one of my favorite bands *ever* (but The Raconteurs are catching up with them LOL) .

Even more bands were just found by looking through Wikipedia's list of alternative rock bands (some things that turned up: Black Lab [the art on the homepage could be considered explicit, just thought I'd warn you], The Almost, The Calling, Bubbles & Cheesecake) and just clicking on "related videos" when testing out new artists that I was interested in on YouTube (The Kooks, The Decemberists, Modest Mouse, Interpol, Cake, and Editors were found this way). My mother comes up with some good artists as well, funnily enough: I found Amy Winehouse through her -- she woke me up one morning singing "Rehab", that was my first Amy song, sadly... Frank's just such a better album... -- and she reccomened Lily Allen, Oasis, T.Rex, Keane, and The Eagles to me.

Not only have people reccomened bands and other artists to me, but movies have as well: T.Rex and The Clash were used the the soundtrack for Billy Elliot (which is an ah-mah-zing movie) and Samuel Barnett's cover of "Bewitched, Beloved, and Bewildered", which was used in the movie The History Boys, led me to Ella Fitzgerald's cover, which made me love Ella's music.

Now my almost sheer obsession with music and finding new people and bands to listen to has led to a reawakening in me wanting to play the violin again, and to learn to play the guitar, piano, banjo (my air banjo is ah-mazing, fyi), and the drums. Somehow, the fact that the songs, lyrics, and the actual music is so close to my heart, I don't think that I could bear the fact if the music industry just started catering to the wants of fans who wanted dance/electronica all the time.

There are a few bands that are just *odd* but are still amazing, and win awards even though they aren't the most popular genrea: for example, Klaxons... they scare me a little, but they do have music that's fantastic. I used to have their CD on repeat in the car for months last year, and I've only just imported it onto my iPod and it's such a strange feeling listening to the songs that I still know all the words to. It's like seeing an old friend again after a long time apart...

Okay, now to stop with the sheer volume of links and back to things that are a little less random. I choose music because I like it, and if I don't, then I won't listen to it, even if it's popular. I don't see how people can base their musical taste only on what's popular -- I find it terribly hard to even get through one song that I don't like. If you like the popular music because you think it's good music, then fine, but just because it's popular? That's just really annoying.

And, since I'm linking to this post for the Intrepid Classroom Ning, here are some discussion questions (and please, leave me a comment here as well as on the Ning if you have the time):

I think that music doesn't actually have an effect on people's social standing, but people seem to have this preconcieved notion that it does. Sometimes -- most often when I'm talking to people who I don't know *that* well, but I know them -- I think that if I mention a band or an artist that I like, they seem to weigh whether or not to say that they like them too just to have something to talk about, even if they don't know them or hate them so much they could die.

Chart-toppers or numbering music by their popularity seems to have labelled music as something that is either popular or not, and that can really start to annoy me, especially when I consider the fact that maybe think that I like bands, such as Panic! At The Disco, just because their new album has just topped charts.

Are older bands classic or just "lame" (an opinion question, but do please back it up!)?

Do you feel that music is more powerful when used as a fundrasier, or as an alarm bell or anthem?

And, just for fun: what are your favorite bands/artists? What bands/artists are you investigating at the moment?

And, since I'm on a high from downloading the new Hoosiers album, here are the artists that I'm checking out at the moment: Manic Street Preachers, Bright Eyes (love their song "Four Winds"), Tilly and the Wall, more of Queens of the Stone Age since I love Era Vulgaris, The Artillery, The Kills, The Bank Holidays, Mindless Self Indulgence, Metro Station, Dashboard Confessional, Nine Inch Nails, Something Corporate, Weezer, Say Anything, Brand New, Cauterize, Escape the Fate, The Used, The Courteeners, The Charlatans, Jet, Arcade Fire, Stars, Reliant K, The Cardigans, Stone Sour, The Postal Service, Incubus, The Enemy, The Cure, Bullet For My Valentine, Funeral For a Friend, Finch, The Academy Is..., The Last Shadow Puppets, and All Time Low. Any feedback or suggestions?

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Intrepid Classroom, an online classroom founded by one of my former teachers.

Winston's Zen, one of my favorite music blogs.

Belle-Lolita, my graphics journal over at LJ. (It's rather neglected, fyi.)