14 DAY TRIAL // All of you have at least one friend who is crazy about music. They are not one of those people caught up in a single band, or music style, but rather the persons you and your friends go to when you need to know the name of a certain song or band you can't remember. You know that, even if you sing a few notes from that song, even if completely out-of-tune, they will recognize it, and give you the answers you seek. This kind of people, the music fanatics, simply live their lives through music, and know precisely which type or genre of song they should listen if they want to go into or exit a certain mental state. And they are close to you because of it.
Music is most definitely one of the universal traits humankind has. It can be found across all cultures, and all civilizations, with no exception, have produced and played specific kinds of music since the earliest days of mankind. Ever since we, as a species, developed a sufficiently large brain, we started producing musical instruments to satisfy our thirst for culture, and for sounds that were literally out of this world. The sound of a flute may resemble that of a bird's song, but it does not appear naturally. Additionally, it can be controlled, and therefore makes its user and listeners feel special.
Even after tens of millennia of playing music, it's still unclear what drives our passion for it. Some biologists will argue that predispositions for engaging in musical activities exist since birth, while music teachers will say that everyone can sing or play an instrument with the proper amount of training. A number of scientists believes that this universal trait is a direct by-product of humans developing culture, and that the two are tightly linked. I believe that a bit of truth resides in all of these explanations. Otherwise, one could not account for all of the world's musical diversity.
What's extremely interesting to me is the fact that many groups of people, living in isolation from each other and the rest of the world, have developed different methods and patterns of expressing the same emotions. Early on, they were praising the Sun and the gods, then Mother Earth and the mountains, and eventually they moved on to describing their own emotions and other hypothetical situations. But the Brazilian bossa nova is, for example, different from the Portuguese fado, although the two countries have had a lot to do with each other since the New World was discovered.
Recorded
Nowadays, music is everywhere. It is played on the streets, in people's homes, in concert halls, theaters, opera houses, official dinner parties and international political conventions. It is oftentimes used to bridge gaps between different cultures, or as a common ground of discussion between people who never met before. Each of you has been to a party in which you have started talking with another person by saying something about the song that was playing. Music can help you build connections to people fairly easily, and all you have to do to benefit from this is to listen to things you like.
I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but, say that you listen to a band that is not that widely known and that plays a sub-genre of music that is not very popular in mainstream culture. You tell people about these awesome bands you listen to, and they just nod politely and go about their business without any clue as to what you're talking about. If, after a year of promoting these bands onto deaf ears, you meet someone who says that they listen to these bands as well, you feel like you've just met an old friend, even if you don't know that person.
This is not very scientific to say, but I believe that this comes from the emotions you experience when you listen to some of your favorite songs. For instance, as a big trip-hop fan, I am fairly convinced that no one dances happily to this music, because of the emotional and deep messages it conveys. Therefore, my reasoning goes, people who listen to it must feel the same way, which means that I have a fairly good chance of getting along with them. If we can interpret music alike, that is usually enough to start a friendship with someone. Naturally, things can degrade when the topic shifts from music to other topics, but you can't spend years discussing only music with another person.
Being a music fan is a bit more than simply listening to your favorite band's new record as soon as it comes out. You have to experience new genres and bands on a daily basis. Naturally, about 90 percent of the new music you'll hear won't be to your liking, but that's OK – the other five or ten percent will be. If I find a new band that I like over the course of a month, I consider myself lucky. But, before buying its albums, I go through at least another 40 or 50 bands that either play incredibly bad, or play good, but have nothing to distinguish themselves from dozens of similar artists.
A quick look on dedicated music sites, such as last.fm, will give you an idea of just how much people care about the music they hear. This is especially true for those below the age of 30 or so. They have dozens and dozens of favorite bands or songs listed on their profiles, but, if they receive musical suggestions, and they don't like them, they are not afraid to say it. They also can't stand listening to songs that they don't like, such as is the case, for example, during an official situation.
These are the boys and girls that, when at a party, step in the balcony or outside if a bad song is playing. They cannot ignore the music in the background, and focus on the conversation at hand. I received, over the years, numerous observations that I should be more tolerant about what other people like, and be polite when in such a setting. I beg to disagree, and millions of other people share my viewpoint. We, as a group, are not intolerant to other people's musical tastes, we're just saying, “Don't show them into our faces.”
I can understand that someone likes a different kind of music from that I like, but that doesn't mean that I can stand listening to it, even if it's the polite thing to do. There is no scientific explanation for when someone says, “I just can't listen to this song, I simply don't like it.” You basically feel like you can't stay in the room, hall or theater for much longer, and that you have to get out of there. The sooner all learn that each individual's music tastes are his or her own, the faster we'll start getting along.
Another category of music listeners that I appreciate is that of people who cannot be anywhere without their songs. They upload them on iPods and mp3 players, and have their headphones on at work, on the street, and just about everywhere else. At night, they leave their sound systems on and each of them listens to a special playlist, which contains only sleep-time songs. Of course, some may have extreme metal, and others symphonic music, but it's the idea that counts.
Some of the groups that these listeners like have very interesting names such as: “People who listen to music while they're sleeping, especially at times when they shouldn't be asleep, but are too tired to stay awake,” or “People with no social lives that listen to more music than is healthy, who are slightly scared of spiders and can never seem to find a pen,” or “ I'm not antisocial, I just enjoy my music.” Lately, experts in teen behavior have begun to voice concerns that headphone-wearing teens are everywhere, and that listening to too much music can harm their social skills. That's the same thing they said about the Internet when it first appeared, and teens seem to be managing just fine.
Live
There are very few people who do not like music at all. Most of us like at least some type, or a single genre, or even a single band. And there are also those of us who are engaged in making music ourselves, either in a band or on our own. As a bass player, this is the group of music listeners and players that I feel closer to than any other. In the case of experienced musicians, who have been playing for at least a decade or so, there is so much you can learn from them, in terms of looking at and understanding music. They have a very deep understanding of bars, beats, pitches and how to mingle all together, and can completely shift your perception of sounds, for either good or bad, of course.
As any band member can attest to, the instrument they play is the best ever. Be it a harp or mandolin, bass or keyboards, voice or turntables, each player has a special fondness of his or her instrument. I've had the opportunity to discuss with members from a lot of bands, and most of them told me that it wasn't them who selected their instruments, but the other way around. This was the case for me as well, when I had to choose between three very different types of instruments, and selected the bass.
There is an unexplainable satisfaction in playing live in front of people, regardless of the number. There are bands out there who only like to play in small venues, even if they are of international fame. They simply like it better, and enjoy being within an arm's reach of their fans. Others separate themselves from their “acolytes” with security guards and fences, and only play in large venues, such as a stadium and theater halls. But they all have one thing in common – the pleasure of watching their music permeate the audience.
When a band has its first show, the first signs of approval to its style is not the clapping session at the end of the song, but seeing someone in the public clapping their hands, or moving their feet to the rhythm of the song, just a few bars into it. Conversely, if this doesn't happen, a band is utterly disappointed and demoralized, as many people in the audience have, as stated above, zero tolerance for poor music. This is a two-bladed sword, the first concert. You either make it, or you don't.
“Most of us feel that music is much more than entertainment, that music can have a profound impact on listeners as well as on music-practitioners. Emotion is an integral part of the music experience. This emotional power is something of a mystery or paradox because of the abstract, nonrepresentational nature of music. Yet, music is a powerful tool for emotion and mood modulation,” University of Montreal International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) expert Isabelle Peretz said in a study.
“Apart from a great deal of background music, merely intended as a fairly bland 'uncommunicative' style meant as no more than a pleasant aural accompaniment to whatever other activity we are pursuing, the purpose of serious music is that it should be heard with attention; some 'meaning' heard in it. Music of this nature then, as with meeting people, can lead either to a positive dislike or to a pleasant, and maybe lasting acquaintance, or even love,” critic Arthur Butterworth said in review once.
He concluded, “With people it is more often than not a fairly easy matter to give reasons why we like or dislike another person: they possess some quality that we recognize positively or negatively. Perhaps music can suggest such qualities too: ultimately we can recognize, when we get to know a piece, that we do or do not like it. If with people it is fairly easy to say why we like or dislike them, with music it is often less so; perhaps no truly rational explanation is forthcoming that we can give to others, since, after all music is so abstract.”
