I’m totally geeking out on music right now. I don’t know if it’s because the weather’s been so bad around here recently, or because the first few months of the school year were so intense for me, but I’m finally getting around to deep music immersion now, in the waning days of 2008. I say “finally” because I feel like I’m back in what was for me, until a few years ago, a near-constant state. And now that I have less time to devote to reading about, listening to, and creating music, I find that those times when I actually can do all of those things are a little more special.
I’ve been reading Daniel J. Levitin’s excellent This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession for a few weeks now and am about to finish it. The book, which reads like a very good episode of Radiolab, seeks to explain what music does to the brain and how and why certain people are more musically skilled than others. I am a bit of a science geek with absolutely no training, and I’ve been completely entranced by this one.
The other thing I’ve been doing a lot of recently is finding out about all the good music I’ve missed for the past year. Starting with the end-of-the-year lists on All Songs Considered and three discs of awesomeness from Erik, I’ve started catching up. Quick notes on some of the year’s more-hyped/lauded releases, as they come to my head:
Portishead Third I so wanted to love this, but I just don’t. Their sound has changed in the eleven years since their last proper release, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but since Dummy and Portishead were such favorites in my immediate post-college years, I don’t think I can ever fully give this one the love it deserves. I feel like it’s going to be dated really soon, as opposed to their older albums.
Vampire Weekend s/t I heard the hype, fought the hype, and succumbed to the hype. I think I’d like them live but want to give most of their fans wedgies. Also, I still prefer Graceland.
Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes Made of awesome. I’m glad I got into this one (as well as Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago) when it was cold out.
The Very Best Mixtape Probably my album of the year, unless I decide that The Roots’ Rising Down is actually better. They’re both worth checking out over and over and over again.
John Legend Evolver Wait, this might be my favorite.
It’s probably because I’ve bought less new music this year than before, but the new ones from Bloc Party and Lyrics Born, both of whose earlier albums are car-stereo mainstays for me, struck me as pretty bad. Jury’s still out on TV on the Radio and Li’l Wayne.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how I don’t follow music as much as I used to–I was, a few years ago, the guy who read Pitchfork every day (and even wrote a review for them before deciding that I really had better things to do). Levitin writes that
[i]n contemporary society, interest in music peaks during adolescence, further bolstering the sexual-selection aspects of music. Far more nineteen-year-olds are starting bands and trying to get their hands on new music than are forty-year-olds, even though the forty-year-olds have had more time to develop their musicianship and preferences. “Music evolved and continues to function as a courtship display, mostly broadcast by young males to attract females,” [cognitive psychologist Geoffrey] Miller argues.
Leaving speculation into my happily-settled-down life aside, this totally makes sense given the conversation I had last night with my friend Brian, who plays with Talking to Walls. They’ve been playing a lot of shows for high school and college-aged audiences with a good deal of success. Meanwhile, the two bands I play with, Kovax and the Terryl Lee Band, play for audiences in their mid-20s to mid-30s. I’m not saying that talent, showmanship, and drive don’t factor into it, but is it possible that we really should be reaching out to younger crowds in order to achieve some sort of artistic/financial success?
There’s a lot more on my mind right now, but this post is getting long. I’d definitely welcome comments on this one…
Filed under: Matters Musical & Artistic, Matters Scientific
