Blanketing opinions that I'll probably regret soon.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Music is No Longer a Central Part of My Life

I get more fulfillment from reading a book or watching television than listening to some trite song.

Although there's about one band I still truly like. I now divide Indie Rock -- by that, I mean everything after September 1991, when Nirvana's Nevermind was released -- into two categories: 1) Every Modest Mouse album; and 2) all those other bands' albums.

Unless you're destined to be an "adultescent" forever, you will hit a point in your life when music is about the least important thing. Those adultescents who don't are the same 30-somethings who care whether one ZIP code is cooler than another (gawker.com, I'm looking at you).

Last night some friends came over and tried to find something from iTunes to play. The only music in the whole gazillion gigabytes that seemed half decent to me was the aforementioned Modest Mouse, and I could half care even then.

Remember indie music magazines? How about feeling passionately that band X sucked whereas band Y was great? Or even worse, changing loyalties when a band you liked got successful.

Music isn't absent from my life, but now it doesn't have the same pretentious status as it once did. Plus, less than 1% of people who play in a band have any real talent. Yes, I've been in a band before [sheepish grin].
Comments:
For a while I liked this one band called the Erstwhile Douchebags, but they sold out to the pop-rap-metal Mafia (for not even much money -- lol) so I started listening to a ska-emo Icelandic duo called Empty Saturday. They broke up so I got a Modest Mouse CD and later used it to scrape cotton candy off the floor of Yankee Stadium for homeless people.

Homeless people like you, Damon. Nomad. Wandering the Earth homelessly. Must be hard -- no connections -- no real place to call your own. But fear not, Frog Prince, for salvation is just around the corner. I speak, of course, about clams casino and lemongrass pie, all served by a smiling brigade of Austro-Belgian hand puppets who have nothing but your best intentions at heart.

You know I'm right!
 
Every once in a while my cousin tries to coerce me into going to a concert (Death Cab for Cutie? What?). I point out to him that he's on the bad side of 40 and I'm rapidly approaching it, what the hell do we do at a concert? hit on chicks? bop up and down in our dockers? I'm embarassed even thinking about being there.

And, no, I don't really wear dockers but it's a funny visual.
 
I love music still, but I no longer have much of a stake in arguing over who's best, who's a sell-out, and all that. In short, my identity is no longer wrapped up in what I listen to.
 
I have never been hugely into music, and one of my pet peeves is people who think less of you if you should happen to admit to listening to the radio on your way to work, rather than super-obscure indie bands playing from your iPod.
 
I have to somewhat agree. I've been getting all the new Morrissey albums, trying to keep up, but I never have time to actually listen to them! I'd rather listen to NPR when I'm driving. I have gotten into 2 bands in the past five years, Clap Your Hands, and Arcade Fire. Same with my husband who used to be the biggest music snob ever! We're growing up (sniff sniff). And my baby's favorite CD is acoustic versions of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!! AND I LOVE IT!
 
Hi Damon, I'm a new reader. You seem like a smart guy, so I'll share a secret with you: there's more to music than indie rock. Blown away? Thousands of years of musical traditions in thousands of cultures around the world... it even makes you want to drop the word "indie".
 
Modest Mouse = Music for rapists.
 
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