On subjectivity

I often wonder why people express dislike of a band. Then I catch myself doing it.

The idea that a band may be "good" or "bad" is somehow inherent in how our musical tastes grow and I am as guilty of the next man (or woman) of eloquantly destroying the efforts of some poor person in the advancement of my own image.

Yet what is "bad" music?

I am often reminded of this question of subjectivity when talking to friends who "can't stand" this or "absolutley hate" that.

I have a friend who "hates" Micvhel Stipe's voice. My partner simply detests the sound of a breakbeat rhythm. Other people I know cannot abide unaccompanied folk songs.

But what does it mean, to "not like" a sound?

In the same way that understanding of the brain has been furthered by examining dysfunctional or damaged brains, I would like to examine this question by looking at those moments when you begin to like music you formerly disliked. Has that happened to you?

Well it does to me. Regularly.

Examples? Take Queen. I liked Queen's first couple of singles and gradually went off them. Not hate exactly but I found Freddy's antics too much for my dainty sensibilities.

Oh, and I get a little browned off when an artist's death suddenly aggrandises their work in a fit of guilt from the public at their posthumous disrespect.

Roll forward the movie 25 years and I am sitting in a theatre with my wife and children watching "We will rock you". I realise five things during the performance -
1) Many of the songs were great
2) The guitar playing was fantastic
3) Freddy could REALLY sing
4) Most importantly there was humour, irony even, in the songs. So no, I don't have to take "We will rock you" literally as a lyric.
5) They are born of a love of "old" rock and roll.

So what did I dislike all along? Not that Freddy was gay, I hope. Homophobic? Not me. So what then? The sheer popularity, I suspect. That would explain why I loved "seven seas of Rye" and liked "Killer Queen" but hated "Bohemian Rhapsody". I just couldn't bear to be one of the crowd!

And what was it like to suddenly like them again? Well, I started listening in the right way.

Same thing for Abba. I broke up with a girl, lapsed into a state of self-pity and looked for pop songs that adequately captured THAT feeling. As of that moment (Summer 1980) it was Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart and Abba's The WInner Takes It All.

Suddenly I started listening.

What else? Lots. Take Bach. For years I thought Bach dry, even dull.

Suddenly, after my friend died, I needed solace in something profound, philosophical. Something deep and serene yet with dignity. Dignity but understanding.

Suddenly, I heard the violin partitas differently, there was all of life, expressed in a solo violin.

Suddenly I heard the Art of The Fugue and several of the pieces captured perfectly the complex feelings I was experiencing.

I listened the way the music was singing.

So, what does it tell me? It reminds me of something I believe St Augustine said "Everything understood is good".

Recently I heard the first couple of tracks from the new White Stripes album. I had no idea who it was playing but I KNEW whoever it was was
a) a master of the idiom
b) just playing with that idiom, for fun!!
c) so capable of doing just whatever he wished that he was making music for pleasure....
And how many bands could you accuse of that? Not Interpol or The Editors, for a start.

So, when I think something is "rubbish", I am just not listening the way that music is "meant" to be heard. And by that I don't mean how the artist intended. Just, the way one has to listen IN ORDER TO enjoy it!

After all, who loses out when a person doesn't enjoy a song? Not the singer, that's for sure.