Friday, December 2, 2016

What's in your earbuds? 12/2 Edition


Lately, I've been listening to a lot of new music. For a while I was really into black metal, particularly from Sweden. Sweden is one of my favorite countries because of their black metal scene in general but also because I really dig Abba. Bands like Opeth (not black metal but still great band), Tribulation, and Ghost were played nonstop for a long time while I played Heroes of the Storm.

But with the exception of one techno album I listened to yesterday (which was ultimately forgettable because I can't even remember the name of the album or band) I've been listening to classical music. Mostly baroque stuff. I've been turning on YouTube playlists of Vivaldi, Chopin, Mozart, Liszt, Bach, and Beethoven. It really calms me down after long tiring days and I love the harmonic complexity. Although I can't explain what the composers are doing I understand the sound, the intervals, the scales, the harmony, and rhythm. It comes with being a musician for a long time and listening to music a lot. You expect certain cadences and resolves within the harmonies and it happens. The music is beautiful too.

One thing to realize is that classical music can be really heavy and brutal like metal too. There's a lot of shredding in classical music. There's a lot to it other than just pretty violins, timpani, and horns. The more I listen to it the more I get drawn in to listen more and learn more about music theory in the future so I can understand how these brilliant composers came up with this stuff.

As Frank Zappa said,"All the good music has already been written by dudes with wigs and stuff." I couldn't agree more. Even John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy studied classical etudes and classical music and harmony. They studied all the old dudes with wigs and stuff and expanded upon the musical foundation. It's quite a tradition, this thing we call music.

My friends listen to a lot of metalcore, rap, and rave music but honestly I get tired of that stuff. I've heard it all before and the new stuff all sounds like the old. I wish jazz could develop and do more interesting things but you'll only find the innovative jazz musicians in the free jazz scene. Until then I'll be kickin' it old school in the Baroque era with my homies Beethoven and Vivaldi.

Ah, you kids today with your techno music. You should enjoy the classics like Hasselhoff. 

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