Beloved songs

There are some frustrating things going on currently, both in the outer world and in my personal life. I don't want to get into details on that right now, but I won't be home very much through Wednesday, probably, and I may be extra tired and stressed.

Anyway, today can be one shorter, easier post.

A couple of weeks ago, someone I know from Twitter lamented not having fallen in love with a song recently, and asked for recommendations. I wrote back three times.

If that were just three tweets with one song each, that would be one thing, but that was not the case. I gave her my top four from last year, plus two songs from this year, plus another that I just remembered.

I could have kept going, too, but I know inundation isn't really ideal, and then the last band was one she knew and that shifted the conversation.

The thing is, it was like I had just been waiting to be asked, and maybe asked in that way. Like, if you ask me to recommend a band, I will want to get an idea of whom you like, and what you like about them, and then I will try but at least in the past I have found that to be a lot of pressure. Falling in love with a song though, where it keeps coming back to you and you need to listen again and again, and there is this magic, yeah, apparently then I need to mention every song I've fallen in love with, or at least for the past three years.

I would not think that it's that I don't write about music enough, because I do two band reviews a week. I get it out.

However, it might be that I don't really share music with people. I only know if someone reads the reviews if I get feedback. Sometimes a band will be really happy, but a lot don't notice.

Also, sometimes reviewing the bands isn't that fun. I try to see every band's good points and respect their current fans and say the things that would be helpful to direct potential fans to them, but a lot of them I do not love. The one I am listening to now is kind of dreary, which is not the same as being bad. They have to be really bad for me to say that in the review, but sometimes if they are just okay and not my thing, the review is a little lackluster. Maybe I want to share enthusiasm and don't get to often enough. Though, when I do love them, no matter how much I say that, it doesn't feel like enough.

Perhaps there is some frustration there.

There are a couple of things that come to mind.

One is that most of the songs I love do not come from reviewing bands that followed me on Twitter.

For the record, here's what I recommended:

"Brandenburg Gate" by Anti-Flag, from my emo research
""From the Heart" by the Slants, from a newspaper article on their court case, but also from targeted listening to Asian/Asian-American artists
"Kiss Me" by Kyosuke Himuro, from a team-up with Gerard Way, but also from targeted listening
"Whenever You're On My Mind" by Marshall Crenshaw, recommended by Jesse Valenzuela
"Local Roses" by Dear Boy, recommended by AFI
"Fight Like A Girl" by Emilie Autumn, recommended on a Shakesville thread about feminist artists
"Broke Down" by Reggie and the Full Effect, found via My Chemical Romance (and I could have said more songs on that album, but I think that one hooked me the hardest)

It probably isn't too surprising if musicians you like recommend music that you will also like. It is not a guarantee, because they also will often have a broader appreciation than someone less musical, but it is one guide. However, even beyond those seven songs, there are a lot of good things that have come from trying to listen to more Black artists or Native American artists or trying to stretch further, even if that means spending over a year listening to bands mentioned in a book that set out to explain emo and didn't do a really good job.


I have fallen in love with songs from the Twitter follows, too, and I don't want to give that up, but I need to make sure that I am making room for musical joy. Depending on the branching out part, that can be a slog too. For the alternative book, it was. A lot of the Greatest Guitar songs listening was quite frustrating. I don't regret it, but I need to make sure not to get mired in it.

Also, I want to have a better view of the long process. Even if I get my lost files back, the Reviewed list never contained more than the name of the band and if I had seen them live. I always felt that it should be more. I want to rebuild it, and look over each year and remember what other songs I loved, and see how some bands are doing now. I'd like to have that done before I hit 600. I mean, I won't know when I hit 600 unless I do that, just that it would probably happen around December.

Related posts:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/10/six-months-of-emo-songs.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2015/07/musical-black-girls.html

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-trouble-with.html