A coworker asked me what kind of music I like, and I didn’t have an answer for her. I said “I don’t really like any kind of music. Most of it is garbage.”
I surprised myself, and probably her too, with that response. It caused me to spend the rest of my day thinking “WHY do I like the music I like? Why do I dislike everything else?” The result of this pondering is the following criteria for Music Mosier Likes.
I like deliberate, complex instrumentals. Eddie Van Halen is famous for complex and outrageously complicated guitar solos, but I can’t think of worse torture than having to sit through an entire performance of “Eruption”. Sure, all of that noise might be deliberate, but even seasoned guitar players can’t figure out just what the fuck is going on there. It’s chaos, and music is supposed to be order. Every now and then the blaring noise is pierced by a few seconds of something that actually sounds pleasant, but then its back to the whooshy whammy “look how fast i can move my fingers” style that engulfs the entire solo.
For an example of the opposite of that, check out Tommy Emmanuel. Every second of that performance is deliberate, every note is crisp, and the overall structure of the song is technically perfect. An example of a band displaying this quality is Tool. The instrumentals aren’t particularly complicated taken singularly, but as the song progresses the way the instruments weave together becomes more and more complex and intriguing, especially the drums. Especially at the end of the song, even professional musicians would (and do) have serious difficulty matching this timing and rhythm. I challenge you to even tap your foot along with the song. It’s hard to keep up with, but not even at one point in the song is Eruption-esque noise.
Another way a song can get a positive response from me is to touch on powerful emotions. Eminem did this pretty well a few times. Whether you think he’s any good or not, nobody can deny that his rage shows through every once in awhile. A good example of the opposite of this is Souljaboy. Another good example of the opposite of this is the whole genre of what I like to call “Vomit Rock”. Whatever drops of emotion screamo rockers are trying to convey is lost in an ocean of ridiculousness.
Also, I like songs that are not necessarily instrumentally complicated or lyrically deep, but touch something fundamentally human about us. Songs like Time After Time (I prefer Rob Thomas’ cover) artfully state what we’re already feeling but just haven’t found the words to say. Elvis did this pretty well a few times too (modernized for your convenience).
The final criteria for a song I’ll probably enjoy can completely ignore all of the above, as long as it’s a new and fresh style that is still pleasant to hear. The version of Man of Constant Sorrow they used for the movie O Brother Where Art Thou is outstanding. It differs enough from its bluegrass roots to pull it out of the genre and leave it pretty much undefined. Another song like this is Puscifer’s Rev 22:20. It’s not quite jazz. It’s not quite rock. It’s not quite goth. It’s not quite metal. It’s not quite blues. It’s something like all of those, but something different too.
What I’m listening to now is straight hard rock, simple and powerful and honest. The latest Disturbed album was released a few months ago, called Indestructible. It’s extremely popular, and I’m glad to see it so successful. My favorite song on the album is called The Night. I’ve watched a barely-even-amateur, adolescent pile of crap band that released nonsense like “Down With the Sickness” become a group of guys who can release what is in my opinion the greatest album of the year. I saw a lot of promise in the previous album, 10,000 fists, but I was too cynical to believe they’d continue the trend of improvement in their style. Too many artists have made albums long after they burned out. It’s rare to see the opposite, where a band or artist starts out weak and lousy, and only becomes better with time.
