Rock? You can keep it

I recently visited the house of a friend and I could not help but look at her CD collection. I was amazed that there seemed to be only about 20 CD’s. I find it very difficult to understand how someone of similar age to me could have only accumulated 20 albums they feel are worth purchasing. You see to me, music is important, very important. That is not to say I like all music, in the words of Chris Lowe, “I don’t like much, but what I do like, I love passionately.”

I have never related to the conventional rock band set up. The notion of music created entirely with drums, guitar and bass seems something of an anathema to me. If you use the same instruments, you end up sounding the same as everyone else. I have absolutely no love for bland conventional ‘rock’ music. It is the world of electronic music where I find the only music I have truly loved.

I have no idea why this is. Maybe it is because I reached my teenage years during the 1980’s when electronic music was the new fashion. Maybe it was a reaction to the world of opera and classical music my father worked in. I am sure that a large part of my musical taste was formed by a hatred of musical and artistic convention and trends. I took great pride recently when a friend sent me a message via my Facebook page to say she had only heard of one artist on my list of most played songs gleaned from my mp3 player. I enjoy the fact that hardly anyone knows groups I like such as VNV Nation, Front 242, Front line Assembly, Apoptygma Berzerk, And One or No-Man. The less people know about these groups, the richer those of us who uncover them feel.

The only draw back to enjoying music by less famous artists is actually finding it. Try walking into HMV and asking for a Wolfsheim album. “We can order it, but it’ll take a month to arrive”. At the end of the month, they tell you they cannot get it after all. Happily, this also adds to the experience for me. Finally acquiring an obscure and rare CD is fulfilling in both the music it provides but also knowing you are amongst a select few who own it.

Therefore, you can say music taste is ‘sad’ until you are blue in the face, but I could not care less. You see I believe the music we like is the soundtrack to our lives. The music we like is determined by what happens in our lives. I have a friend who quite likes Elvis. It is not because he appreciates his voice particularly but because his Dad always played Elvis in the car when he was a child. This music became part of his life and thus he shares an affinity with it. Certain songs can not only remind us of a time in our lives but also bring back the feelings and emotions we felt at the time. Therefore, when you insult my music taste, you insult the life I have experienced and not necessarily me as a person. I thus find it had to fathom how someone in their 30’s has only 20 or so CD’s, but then not all of us want to be reminded of what has happened during our lives.

I have since discovered this research into the link between musical taste and personality. Interesting stuff.