Music

[brigdh]

'Cause b_hallward said to.

01) Total volume of music files on my computer? 4.03 gigs. But that's deceptive, because I don't keep most of my music on my computer (I used to, but I have so much of it that I'd run out of space, and then my computer would start working slowly and shut down at random times) My ipod has an additional 8.26 gigs, which again, is not all my music, because I've been procrastinating terribly about uploading my CDs to it.

To give an example of the actual size of my music collection, I have 137 CDs sitting on my desk right now, in two carrying cases (really, I counted). And then there's the CDs that I left back at my house, the ones stacked on my dresser, the ones under the bed, the MP3 ones that I know are around here someone, the ones I've lent out to people, and others that I can't remember where I put them, but that I definitely remember buying, so they must be here somewhere.

I give way too much of my money to the music industry. Which is why I don't have moral reservations about downloading music; it's not like they're not getting all my cash anyway.

02) The last CD I bought was... It was my birthday last week, so I've bought three in the last few days: Eminem's Encore, 50 Cent's The Massacre and Garbage's Bleed Like Me. Before that I hadn't bought any in a while, since before Spring Break at least (because "almost a month" is *such* a long time), but I think that the last one was The Killers' Hot Fuss.

03a) Song you were listening to when you started this meme? Counting Crow's Miller's Angels. I haven't listened to that song in years, but I was making a new playlist this morning and decided to put it on, since I'd nearly forgotten what it sounded like.

03b) Song you're listening to now? Joseph Arthur's Toxic Angel. I only have two Joseph Arthur songs: this one and All of Our Hands, which I got when it was one of Entertainment Weekly's Downloads of the Week. They're both lovely, folk-type songs, and I really should find more of his stuff. Plus, for some reason I have the feeling that he's a local artist, and it's always nice to support those.

04) Five albums that mean a lot to you?
Dizzy Up the Girl, Goo Goo Dolls. This is one of the first CDs I ever bought- or maybe it was bought for me, I don't remember- and I'm still rather fond of it. When I was very little, in grade school, I had this weird relationship with music: I didn't listen to it. I couldn't find anything that appealed to me, and I didn't have enough of an attention span to listen through a single song without starting to think about something else. I thought that there was something deficient in me, that I couldn't listen to music the way everyone else could. Buying this CD, even though it's just typical top 40s, was a big step for me, because it was saying that no, I do have an opinion, there is music I like, I can make choices.

Also, Iris is totally about Clubsoka. Shut up, it is.

Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos. My favorite Tori album is actually Under the Pink, but this is the first one of hers that I bought, and Precious Things is my absolutely favorite song of hers. I love to scream "the heart of every nice giiiiiiiirl" along with her; I have really vivid memories of being 15 or 16 and dancing to it on headphones, in socks on the slippery yellow linoleum of our kitchen floor.

This CD is also important to me because it's one of the first CDs where I didn't know the artist because they got played on the radio all the time, but where I actually had to get advice from people and start thinking about what I liked outside of the mainstream.

The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, Dashboard Confessionals. I listened to this again recently, and wow, are they whiny and emo and over-the-top. But for years and years, this was what I listened to whenever I was depressed. I still can't hear the lines "A walking open wound / A trophy display of bruises / And I don't believe that I'm getting any better" without remembering all sorts of people and places and events that I'd almost forgotten: the old giant half-broken boombox in the corner of my bedroom, the beige and dull grey of my high school hallways, the navy blue and white uniforms, getting a hug from a friend and the crack of her shoulderbone under my chin when it seemed like I hadn't had human contact in years.

Also the line: "And I'm thinking awful things / Pretty sure that few will notice". Tell me that doesn't say angsty teenager to you.

Mezzanine, Massive Attack. I had to put this on here because it's the first CD I bought in my ongoing overwhelming love for the trip-hop/electronica/dance genre, which I think is quite possibly the best music ever invented by mankind. Ever. This is still one of my favorite CDs, and I could listen to it endlessly, though lately Sneaker Pimps are starting to overtake Massive Attack as my favorite group.

Pretty Hate Machine, Nine Inch Nails. And this is the happy side of high school. I don't even know how much times I've listened to this CD, but every single song on it I have memorized forwards and back. And though Closer isn't on this CD, it's the epitome NIN song for me; my best friend and I used to sing it at the top of our lungs walking down our Catholic high school's hallways, and cracking up whenever we got to the parts where we didn't know the words.

Most of my music is either alternative/indie or trip-hop/electronica, though there's also some rock and punk and metal thrown in there.

I was thinking about my music recently, because whenever someone asks me what type of music I listen to, rap is one of the first things I answer. But I don't, not really (the Eminem and 50 Cent CDs aside). I don't have more than 5 or 6 rap CDs, and I rarely, if ever, bother to download it. Is it fair to say I'm a fan of it if I might listen to a single song in a week, when I don't know any underground artists? I always mention it though, because I'm a fan of rap in the same way that you're a fan of sunshine, or breathing. It's not something you think about or consider or even have any actual affection for, because it permeates too much of your life for that. It doesn't matter if you're actually *listening* to it, because it's always there. Rap has been the default background music of my life; it's what's on the radio whenever you turn it on, it's what gets played at bars and clubs and parties and school dances, it's what the cars driving past my bedroom at night played so loud that the bass would shake my windows in their frames, it's what you sing during recess or when the teacher steps into the hallway, it's what people compose as they huddle into little groups on winter mornings before the first bell rings.

It always startles me slightly when people say that they just don't listen to rap; it's been such a soundtrack to my life that I can't imagine anything replacing it. I can't envision a life tied together by country or rock or classical instead of rap- that must be so different.

Three people who must do this meme (and why)? Man, who do I know who hasn't done this already? I think:
catiechu, because you have such good taste in music.
windschaser, because you're always talking about your ipod, and I'd like to see what you have on it.
yasminm, because I bet you have all sorts of interesting answers.

Comments

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

I just have to say, as a person who has just cross-posted this meme: I am so uncool.

I'm not whining, honest. I actually think it's funny. But also, true.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Aw, you're not uncool. I think it's neat that you listen to so much classical music, actually; it's an entirely different world from the sort of stuff I listen to. Every now and then I get a desire to become cultured and sophisticated and start listening to more things of that nature, but I don't actually like most of what I've heard, so it never goes anywhere. *laughs at self*

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

I feel that I should start off by saying, I'm not going to try to nag you into listening to stuff you aren't interested in, because I could so easily be misconstrued. I think the idea that classical music is more sophisticated and cultured than what you're listening to is silly and mythical (okay, since I don't recognize most of what you've listed, I shouldn't say that in quite such a sweeping fashion, but I'm confident of the general point); and a lot of the music I listen to is either hopelessly middlebrow or hopelessly out of intellectual fashion (I don't know enough to have any idea which).

But with the disclaimers out of the way, let me also say that I don't like a lot of classical music either. (Most of what I do like wouldn't be strictly considered 'classical,' either, but that's another issue.) If what you mostly hear when you try to listen to the stuff is, say, Schubert (or Schuman or one of those Schu-people -- there seem to be dozens of them, and I hate them all) you might well conclude that you can't stand any music written before the last quarter of the 20th century. I certainly would.

-- And now I am forcibly restraining myself from trying to get you to check out Tosca. Because, as I have just realized, the first act is all about a deep-voiced, polished villain hitting on our lead character. In a church. By the end of the act, he'll have put plans into motion for kidnapping and torturing the lead's sidekick, in part for purposes of sexual blackmail.

Really. I'm not making that up. Shall I go bang my head against a wall now?

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I keep meaning to check out Tosca, just because toscas_kiss has the reason her username is her username in her userinfo (whew!), and it sounds so intriguing.

Now it sounds even more so.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're nagging; one of the best things about knowing people who listen to different types of music is getting them to introduce you to the good stuff you might never have found.

*laughs* And that is stunningly relevant. Of all the various places I might have expected YnM to get its inspiration, Italian opera was not one of them. What a coincidence.

[katsue_fox]

I don't think it had actually dawned on me before that you liked rap. (It's not something I often listen to, but I like it when combined with a fast thumping heavy techno beat, which probably won't surprise you in the least!) I also know what you mean about hearing it everywhere. I feel old, though, when I remember a time when that *wasn't* the case. (Pre-1980s)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

^^ Well, like I said, I don't actually listen to it all that much. But I do adore it.

And heh, I suppose there was a time before rap music, but it must have been so boring. *jk* ;)

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I don't remember it well. But I do remember when "Walk this Way" was a surprising crossover hit with perfect clarity. XD

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

And know I shall make you feel tremendously old by saying, "Hey, I know that song!"

It's the one rap song my father admits to liking, and he's made me watch the video a hundred times.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

At least I'm not as old as your dad. Yet.