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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Another typical nonversation.

I watched "The Social Network" twice in the last week. Now, whenever I'm blogging, I feel like I should have curly hair, sandals, a bad attitude, and genius programming skills.

(Side note: I don't have a single one of those. Not even sandals. And definitely not skills.)

Speaking of skills, I just realized that "latent" is an anagram for "talent." So...perhaps...we all have a handful of latent talents that could make us rich and famous someday. Maybe I can tame lions or juggle toddlers or something.

(Side note: Why is my concept of cool talents limited to circus tricks? There is some hidden meaning here.)

Geek time.

Today in my ethnomusicology class—yeah, it's for real—one of the topics we discussed is music's role in identifying people in/and society. And…this stuff might sound obvious to some people, but when you really think about it…it’s kind of mind-blowing material. And, no, I am not talking about this to sound pretentious. It's just kind of fascinating.

Quick notes.

Music = You know. Just…yes. You know.

Self = Body +Total Set of Habits.

Identity = Partial selection of habits.

Now that we have that covered, we can move into

MUSIC

AND

IDENTITY.

.

..

….

Dramatic pause.
….

..

.

Anyway.

Music reflects who you are. You can look through someone’s music and make a few educated guesses as to who they are and how they operate. Music is something genuine that you can’t really fake. If you load up your iPod with your fave jams, you really are projecting your personality into a concrete representation.

Music is…flypaper. Or something. Music is not only meaningful because we like the lyrics, the beat, or the adorable guitar player. We attach memories and personal experiences to different songs/albums/artists. (Although adorable guitarists don’t hurt.) Seriously, though. I listen to stuff we played in concert band last year and can’t help but remember the experience of making music with my best friends. Which contributes to how much I still love it.

(Side note: Yup. That was really corny.)

Music links directly to emotion. Music is similar to language in many ways—one way being that we give meaning to language/music just as language/music gives meaning to us/what we do/say/feel.

(Side note: Lots/of/backslash/mark/things/get/annoying.)

When you exercise, you listen to pumpin’ club jams because you’re more likely to run faster/work harder. (Or Duke Ellington…but that could just be me.) When you’re walking home after a deep conversation with a buddy, you’re more likely to listen to something subdued/meaningful because it’ll fuel thought. On the other hand, if something subdued comes up on shuffle while you’re on the treadmill, your workout is going to take a hit. If you listen to previously mentioned “pumpin’ club jams” on your way back from your friend’s, you’ll probably get home in half the usual time.

Is this making any sense? I’ve been rambling for way too long. Quite honestly, I don’t know why you’d still be reading at this point.

I don’t understand those asthma commercials that ask us to get rid of the threats to asthmatics. What, am I supposed to throw out all my goose-down pillows and personally ban dust from the natural world? Not to be insensitive or anything.

I need more Sara Bareilles in my life. Maybe she's free for lunch tomorrow.

1 comment:

  1. i still have recordings of the 3 peices we played for my 7th grade band festival. it sounds like crap to me now but i still laugh at the inside jokes from certain measures!

    while hiking on vacation with my family, when i start to fall behind, i have always changed the song to a said "pumpin'club jam"!

    Neil Diamond. His "greatest hits" album is the sound of my childhood.

    im not quite sure what a mix Shania Twain, Aerosmith, and obscene amounts of pop/hip hop/rap say about a person...

    just felt the need to help justify what you were explaining. it is all SO true! definitly mind blowing. p.s. every post still makes me love you even more.

    ReplyDelete