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KeithHandy · 12-16-2006, 01:26 AM

I don't have "the answer" to the questions posed at the beginning of this thread, but I do have a lot of thoughts on this that I've pretty much spent the past 20+ years pondering. I'll just spit a few of them out here.

As a teenager, my father criticized me for my record collection because it wasn't "up" enough. My position at the time was that I would be much happier listening to somewhat "down" music that I could identify with, than to force myself to listen to something I couldn't relate to. Keep in mind, in the 80s, if you looked for "happy" music you found extremely shallow, plastic-sounding dance music with obnoxious drum machines and vapid lyrics. So in a way, even if I was listening to something more downbeat, I was listening to something that I felt gave me a little more personal dignity ... so if I was manifesting any moodiness, I was at least manifesting some self-respect along with it.

But then again, at the time I didn't believe I was manifesting anything. I thought the feelings in music and art were only a reflection of how you felt, not something that would actually influence how you felt.

Being a rather detail-oriented person, when I write and record my own music, I spend hours and hours on any given song. I might spend a whole weekend just perfecting a harmony vocal or something. So I'm subjecting myself to a lot of repetition of whatever it is I'm working on! And I will say this, after that much exposure, the mood of the music will affect how I feel coming out of it. Maybe not in a long-term way, but in the same way that we get hung over when we drink too much. I have a high tolerance for dissonance and weirdness in music, and there are so many unusual things to try and explore that I don't want to rule out any ideas solely on the grounds that they "might affect my mood". But I am closer to agreeing with my father that I should have musical antidotes, something to snap me out of it and bring me back to a good-humored state after a long session.

I just happen to be really interested in doing some bizarre and sometimes dark musical ideas - different kinds of scales and chords, instrumentation, and so on - and if the music is powerful enough, then again I'm still manifesting something positive, a feeling of "power" - not power over people, but mastery of an art. It's like storytelling; a really powerful story is going to have conflict in it. It's not just going to be a series of mushy affirmations!

But this all comes down to my take and my perception. There are plenty of people who absolutely love horror films (not me personally, but some people I know and respect), who are extremely well-balanced, and who for their entire lives will never have a run-in with a chainsaw-wielding maniac ... because for them, the love of the medium overrides any fear or true negativity that would manifest anything like that.

Ooh, I like that! ... Lemme say it one more time because I liked it so much ... because for them, the love of the medium overrides any fear or true negativity that would manifest anything like that.

I guess that's what it boils down to, isn't it?

12-16-2006, 01:26 AM	#9 (permalink)
KeithHandy Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 144	I don't have "the answer" to the questions posed at the beginning of this thread, but I do have a lot of thoughts on this that I've pretty much spent the past 20+ years pondering. I'll just spit a few of them out here. As a teenager, my father criticized me for my record collection because it wasn't "up" enough. My position at the time was that I would be much happier listening to somewhat "down" music that I could identify with, than to force myself to listen to something I couldn't relate to. Keep in mind, in the 80s, if you looked for "happy" music you found extremely shallow, plastic-sounding dance music with obnoxious drum machines and vapid lyrics. So in a way, even if I was listening to something more downbeat, I was listening to something that I felt gave me a little more personal dignity ... so if I was manifesting any moodiness, I was at least manifesting some self-respect along with it. But then again, at the time I didn't believe I was manifesting anything. I thought the feelings in music and art were only a reflection of how you felt, not something that would actually influence how you felt. Being a rather detail-oriented person, when I write and record my own music, I spend hours and hours on any given song. I might spend a whole weekend just perfecting a harmony vocal or something. So I'm subjecting myself to a lot of repetition of whatever it is I'm working on! And I will say this, after that much exposure, the mood of the music will affect how I feel coming out of it. Maybe not in a long-term way, but in the same way that we get hung over when we drink too much. I have a high tolerance for dissonance and weirdness in music, and there are so many unusual things to try and explore that I don't want to rule out any ideas solely on the grounds that they "might affect my mood". But I am closer to agreeing with my father that I should have musical antidotes, something to snap me out of it and bring me back to a good-humored state after a long session. I just happen to be really interested in doing some bizarre and sometimes dark musical ideas - different kinds of scales and chords, instrumentation, and so on - and if the music is powerful enough, then again I'm still manifesting something positive, a feeling of "power" - not power over people, but mastery of an art. It's like storytelling; a really powerful story is going to have conflict in it. It's not just going to be a series of mushy affirmations! But this all comes down to my take and my perception. There are plenty of people who absolutely love horror films (not me personally, but some people I know and respect), who are extremely well-balanced, and who for their entire lives will never have a run-in with a chainsaw-wielding maniac ... because for them, the love of the medium overrides any fear or true negativity that would manifest anything like that. Ooh, I like that! ... Lemme say it one more time because I liked it so much ... because for them, the love of the medium overrides any fear or true negativity that would manifest anything like that. I guess that's what it boils down to, isn't it?