Exposure

As I explained yesterday, I always want to know more about music, and sometimes I realize that there is a lot I am missing. Without going into the why and how of that, I am currently working on three things to broaden my knowledge of music.

The first one is that while I am scornful of music popular with tweens, coming from people with Disney shows or from American Idol, or where you might use the terms “pop princess” or “boy band”, it is not really an informed scorn. At times I have thought that I should force myself to listen to some of these things, so I could earn my disdain. Still, the thought of doing so was kind of horrible, and Maria was worried that it might leave me suicidal (whether from aggravation or from discovering I liked it; either way).

In addition, recently Greg Glover (94.7 Alternative Portland) pulled his 8 at 8 from Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of all time. (It was when Jim Marshall, creator of the Marshall Stack amplifiers, died). I had not previously known of the existence of such a list, but that seemed like something worth checking out, especially since I have been remembering how much I love guitar lately. If I balanced listening to the dreck with classic guitar, maybe it would be okay.

Well, there are downsides and upsides. The downside is that I hate a lot of these guitar songs. I suspect the list is questionable, based on the comments if nothing else, so I will listen to the songs mentioned in the comments too. Still, it’s disappointing when you think you are going to rock out, and then you are just gritting your teeth. And some of these songs are so long! If you’re going to suck, at least get it over with.

On the plus side, when music does not really work for me, I tend not to retain it. I just have this vague sense of generic noise, and I can remember thoughts I had during it, so I know I was taking it in, but it did not stay. This is helpful for both the guitar side and the auto-tuned side (and seriously, do they all do that now?).

Also, remember I am getting really into My Chemical Romance now, and since our incentives came through (it’s like a bonus, but they don’t want to call it that), I bought their last three CDs and Pencey Prep’s CD (that’s Frank Iero’s previous band). I did not get their debut CD yet, because it was kind of expensive, but I will either buy it electronically or find it somewhere else. Without the Watchmen CD, I don’t have “Desolation Row” either, but one of the CDs got me a credit for one electronic download, so that will work out perfectly.

Now, bad music leaves me quickly, but music that I respond to haunts me, so my tendency is to listen to it over and over again until I have it memorized, looking up the lyrics if I can’t make them out, and just totally having them become a part of me so I can hear it any time I want to. (Yes, an MP3 player would probably be easier, and I will open up mine at some point, but I think I will still do this, more proof that I lean more towards OCD than ADD.)

Anyway, getting four CDs at once gives me a lot to listen to that I am responding to well, so I do have some balance there, and I don’t think that I will need to hurt myself. Also, I don’t think that I will abandon either of the annoying projects, because I am pretty stubborn. I’ll write more about all of those as I get closer to completion. I have to pace myself.

I should be fine, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye on me. If I seem like I might be a danger to myself or others, pump in some Ramones. That usually fixes things.