78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



must love reggae
2006-12-10   9:20 p.m.

Ben Gibbard is the devil. The deh-veel. I don't know how else you'd explain his freaky ability to write songs (with his band, Death Cab for Cutie) that get stuck in everyone's heads. And "stuck" doesn't really do it justice. So if you'll forgive the dramatics, I'll revise: I don't know how else you'd explain his freaky ability to drive everyone to compulsively listen to his songs ad nauseum. And who is this "everyone", you ask? My husband and I, our friends, my brother; whomever it might be that I've spoken to about the band, tentatively at first, as if I were revealing some addiction or shameful vice. But in mere mention of the band, and one song in particular ("Soul Meets Body"), I notice the same look cross over others' faces, when they say "I couldn't stop listening to that song when I first heard it." I wondered if, like me, they'd run an entire two mile stretch listening pretty much only to that song, or if, like Steve, they'd found themselves in the car at lunch time, listening to the song three times before heading back into work (unbeknownst to each other - we'd "confessed" weeks later!). It's the stuff of horror movies, I tells ya; Ben Gibbard could control the masses if he wanted to.

Taste - and particularly what captivates us and draws us so dramatically to something, be it a painting, a novel, or a song - is such a mystery to me. How much of it comes from influence and social conditioning? How much from our craving for familiarity and comfort affect what we like? How much from our desire to be challenged and shaken from our routines?

I have a few albums that differ vastly from my others, and stick out a lot; a few by Missy Elliot, for example, one by Aaliyah, one by Pharrell Williams. All talented in their own right, but their style isn't typically my thing. Yet something compelled me to buy all of them, and I never thought to look for a similar thread between them until the other day. I was contemplating downloading the new Justin Timberlake song, all on the sly-like, since that would ruin my street cred and all (SO uncool to like Justin Timberlake), and I read of hip hop/R&B producer Timbaland's involvement with the song (writing it, basically) and with Justin Timberlake in general. I am and have been well aware of the name and who Timbaland is, but guess I never realized the extent of his work until I looked him up online, and saw that he had written and produced nearly every other "stand out" CD that I had - the ones by Missy Elliot, Aaliyah, etc. So I guess it's Timbaland I really like, not necessarily all of these other artists - only I never knew that. What is it about the way he writes that, though represented in vastly different voices and through vastly different styles (I haven't noticed that he has a particular "signature" sound, outside of stuff that's just pretty common to hip hop/R&B), always strikes enough of a chord with me that I go out and buy the music? What's common about all of them is that they're catchy, maybe innovative, but one could say that about a lot of people.

So since I'm now a Timbaland fan, apparently, I'm trying to find out more about him. I do this when, every once in a while, I find a new person whose talent is bewildering. Sting, for example - how can one person write all those incredible, complex, haunting songs? How can one person write across genres, moving from things as different as punk to jazz, and still keep a large portion of his original fan base (whether we like to admit it or not)? How can someone be such an impressive and memorable lyricist AND musician? Is it normal for one brain to contain such skill? Tori Amos is another example - with album after album, even if I wind up not being thrilled with the odd song here or there - it's just not normal to be able to write song after captivating song. One, maybe. Two, exceptional. But Tori Amos has been doing this since the late 80s, Sting since the late 70s - and still both manage to pull out a real stunner at least one time on a new album.

Of course, there are those who disagree; I'm not out to prove otherwise, or argue with anyone. If you hate Tori Amos and find Sting boring, please don't bother leaving a note explaining such and challenging my assertion that she and he are frighteningly talented. I'm just being introspective: within myself, and perhaps my circles, I always wonder what it is that makes us gravitate toward something. Especially when, as in the case with Death Cab, we don't necessarily "influence" each other toward the music or songs - but only discover that what we thought was a personal secret obsession is a collective compulsion ("You too?"), once we admit or acknowledge how saturated we are with some song.

Something interesting to think about, along those lines: I get along so very, very well with my friend Nicole. Seeing her several times a week over the last couple of years, I realize how alike we are in ways too numerous to describe here. We have almost duplicate record collections, the bulk of which were compiled years before we even knew each other. Are we good friends because of our similar tastes? Does the fact that both of us like Roots reggae so much and troubled ourselves long ago to find the exact same obscure, only-released-in-Jamaica albums reveal a similar personality trait? It's not as if I like Nicole BECAUSE she likes reggae. That helps - I thought and still think her taste in music is super cool (because, ahem, it's like mine), and we have fun seeing bands together - but this feels like it runs deeper than that. Sure part of this is influence - we love what our loved ones love because we love them and want them to love us (whew) and we crave shared experiences to further the connection we foster with others. But do personality traits coincide with certain tastes? Nicole and I are both empathetic, sometimes to a fault - and both stubborn in similar ways. We also crave new experiences and yet need routines to feel secure and comfortable. Does that combination = rabid Roots reggae fan? If not, what does? Good music is just good music, but the fact that what is "good" can vary so much depending on perspective...there has to be more to it than that.

It is important to consider that with music, especially for those who are quite passionate about it, there comes an entire culture - which can include any aspect of life from food to politics - and a way for people to feel a sense of belonging. Lord knows this saved me from the perils of adolescence time and again; feeling like I fit in with a certain crowd because of similar music tastes helped make a life made hard by mean high school kids tolerable. There was nothing like exchanging my hometown suburbs of northern Jersey for the grimy, chaotic East Village to stand star-struck in CBGBs watching The Ramones play well past my curfew. But beyond a sort of superficial sense of friendship so familiar to teen life , born out of mutual music tastes (if not geographic convenience), I'm finding in adulthood an inexplicable pull toward new people in a crowd, or at work, or at the gym, music tastes unknown. Then, after some time passes, a pleasant discovery that our music tastes are similar, almost frighteningly so. Sure, there are the friendly and impassioned disagreements at times, and an exciting change of scenery at others (who'd have thunk I'd give Cheap Trick a try after all these years of not liking them?). But for the most part, and most of the time, we're all so simpatico.


I love it. But how to explain it?

Too tired to try tonight.

xoxo