Topic: Music - Is it overrated?

[Dench57]

It's......really fucking powerful isn't it?

I'm slightly prompted by the Atheist thread. What "meaning" is. I've felt for a long time that meaning is an individual construct; something you make for yourself,  outside of either a humanistic, existential or religious understanding of that term.

But that's boring.  I remember my Geography teacher in Year 10 (16yrs old). Very intelligent bloke. But he did not like music ,at all. Didn't understand why peopleliked it. I couldn't wrap my head around that. Music for me can be transcendental - it can evoke a feeling that seems more powerful than my understanding of existence (ooh, wanker). My favourite tunes, I enjoy at a level I can't rationalise. Can't define. It's such a primal feeling - it can evoke a feeling in me that is me, in the purest sense.  I consider myself an intelligent person but music speaks to some part of me that I cannot define. Cannot put into words. I honestly think music is arguably the greatest creation of humankind.

Do you think music, specifically, has the power to be that transformative? That poweful? I feel strongly that it does. It's a powerful enough feeling that I can't adequately put it into words.

[Dench57]

Fair warning that this thread was made after several bevvies and listening to my favourite music. But fucking christ. How empty would human existence be without your favourite tunes? It's a cherished part of my experience that is mine - you can share things and enjoy/experience then with other people. But that feeling is something deeper than I describe via written language.

[AndyMuller]

I agree mate, I think music is overall better than anything else such as sports etc which is pretty mad.

[So… Howard Philips]

Fair warning that this thread was made after several bevvies and listening to my favourite music. But fucking christ. How empty would human existence be without your favourite tunes? It's a cherished part of my experience that is mine - you can share things and enjoy/experience then with other people. But that feeling is something deeper than I describe via written language.

There’s some types of music I don’t like but I can understand that there are others who do - I’m looking at the heavy metal looking Rob1966 - but that’s their choice.

However I cannot understand anyone who doesn’t like any type of music.

Music, like certain smells and aromas, can take you back to a place, remind you of a person or event.

Every time I hear ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ I’m a 14 year old hearing it for the first time in W H Smith in Allerton Road.

[Son of Spion]

Music is incredibly powerful for me. I'd go as far as saying that it's not only helped keep me relatively sane, it's actually helped to save my life.

I'd say that punk helped me pop the boil of anger and resentment I had festering in me at that time. Then Replicas by Tubeway Army in 1979 helped me greatly with my deep sense of alienation. I found a place where I could more effectively get my head around living in what I felt was a nightmarish dystopia I neither belonged in or wanted to be in.

By 1981 Faith, by The Cure arrived. I was barely surviving at this point in my life. Crippled by extreme anxiety that virtually paralyzed me. This was a dense, claustrophobic album with soundscapes that perfectly matched my mood. Deeply depressing for most casual listeners, but I found it comforting.

1982 brought Pornography by The Cure. A relentless, unforgiving trawl through the endless depths of psychological breakdown. A migraine on vinyl with a horror movie cover. Angry, dark yet utterly beautiful and cathartic to me as I slid further into the black hole that was my mental state.

Amazingly, I'm still alive in 1989 when Disintegration by The Cure arrived. An absolute masterpiece of an album. This one has some lighter moments though, but not too many. The opening chimes of Plainsong still give me goosebumps today.

I've got hundreds of albums and so many have played a real part in helping me to get through. But Replicas, Faith, Pornography and Disintegration have been soundtracks to my life. More than just music. Therapy, companions, comforts and deeply cathartic. If not for them, I doubt I'd be alive today.

For me, that highlights the power of music.

[Red Ol]

There’s some types of music I don’t like but I can understand that there are others who do - I’m looking at the heavy metal looking Rob1966 - but that’s their choice.

However I cannot understand anyone who doesn’t like any type of music.

Music, like certain smells and aromas, can take you back to a place, remind you of a person or event.

Every time I hear ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ I’m a 14 year old hearing it for the first time in W H Smith in Allerton Road.

Me neither.  I know a few people who say they don’t like read, and although that’s strange to me I understand it a bit as reading sometimes takes an effort. But music? How can anyone not like any music?
Music, I believe, is able to compliment any situation at any time in any place. Even for a die hard atheist like me it can be a spiritual experience

[Crosby Nick]

If you could only live with music or only watch TV and film it would be music every time.

[AndyMuller]

If you could only live with music or only watch TV and film it would be music every time.

If you could only live with going to the match or going to gigs it would also be going to gigs every time.

[Crosby Nick]

If you could only live with going to the match or going to gigs it would also be going to gigs every time.

Steady.

[AndyMuller]

Steady.

I mean come on, Liverpool vs Southampton at home or Super Furry Animals at Wembley?

[Crosby Nick]

I mean come on, Liverpool vs Southampton at home or Super Furry Animals at Wembley?

Liverpool v United in a Champions League final or Taylor Swift in an intimate setting?

[AndyMuller]

Liverpool v United in a Champions League final or Taylor Swift in an intimate setting?

Fucking hell I don't think I'd like to be in attendance of either to be honest 

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Yeah it's overrated.

I like listening to it when I'm in the mood. I have a crack on drums, guitar and keyboard when I can be arsed playing it.

I actually like singing it (Karaoke and gigs) more than listening to it at the moment I'd say. I enjoy that people enjoy my performances, but I'm always a bit bemused that they don't think I'm as shite as I do myself

I think watching a pretentious c*nt being a twat is a massive turn-off for me. They just annoy me - all the posing and posturing.

Love seeing a band or performer that clearly loves what they are doing and put that energy into the crowd. Going to see Ian Prowse and Amsterdam on the 10th in Liverpool - first gig for probably 3 years with all the covid shit and that should be really special.

[liverbloke]

someone once said to me - if you had to lose the sense of sight or the sense of hearing what would you choose

i answered - sight

they thought i was mad never seeing the beauty of life in all it's glory ever again

never seeing the one you love most in the world

never seeing another glorious sunset or breath-taking landscape

i said - yeh but come on never hearing 'never mind the bollocks' ever again that'd be murder!

[Fortneef]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/lYm8HotzmSw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/lYm8HotzmSw</a>

"
Silence - Music's original alternative"

[Ray K]

Liverpool v United in a Champions League final or Taylor Swift in an intimate setting?

For one I'd be really nervous, breaking out in a cold sweat, having huge performance anxiety etc.


I'd be fine for the footy if Jurgen was in charge though.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

someone once said to me - if you had to lose the sense of sight or the sense of hearing what would you choose

i answered - sight

they thought i was mad never seeing the beauty of life in all it's glory ever again

never seeing the one you love most in the world

never seeing another glorious sunset or breath-taking landscape

i said - yeh but come on never hearing 'never mind the bollocks' ever again that'd be murder!

You can have a relatively normal life if you lose your hearing, but losing your sight would change your life completely.

[stewil007]

Music, like most things, is a personal choice.

Most modern music i cant get on board with, i've listened to Rap albums suggested from the Rap thread that people tell me are seminal, they are game changers etc etc, yet it still doesn't close to the first time i listened to Ice Cube's Amerikkkas Most Wanted.

I do enjoy a lot of genres and i'm a sucker for a catchy tune, but music for me, takes me back to different times ie my wedding day, when i was 14 starting to appreciate the opposite sex, parties in the 6th form, going out on the bevvies when i was 18.

I get the feeling that in 20 years time, i'll wont look back and think of #whichever 2022 artist# and say thats reminds of being 48.

[telekon]

Then Replicas by Tubeway Army in 1979 helped me greatly with my deep sense of alienation.

Reading this gave me goosebumps.

In my early 20's I got so much from early Numan. For a few years I built my world around Replicas, Pleasure Principle, and Telekon (hence my name). This was the early 00's and Sweden, so no one knew who it was apart from me and a mate. 

[Son of Spion]

Reading this gave me goosebumps.

In my early 20's I got so much from early Numan. For a few years I built my world around Replicas, Pleasure Principle, and Telekon (hence my name). This was the early 00's and Sweden, so no one knew who it was apart from me and a mate. 

I always meant to ask you if you took your name from the album.

The first time I saw him in 1979  he was in all black, wearing the Royal Artillery mess jacket with the red lapels singing Are 'Friends' Electric? It blew me away and my life changed there and then.

The Blue Album, Replicas, The Pleasure Principle and Telekon are brilliant. I still have all my vinyl from back then, including Down in the Park on 12 inch single which Numan signed for me in Speke Airport in the early 80s.

He had a massive following in Liverpool. I remember the Royal Court took three coach loads of us to Manchester to see one of his shows there.

Anyway, those four albums in particular really spoke to me. They, and LFC, were my life back then.

[LovelyCushionedHeader]

Music, like most things, is a personal choice.

Most modern music i cant get on board with, i've listened to Rap albums suggested from the Rap thread that people tell me are seminal, they are game changers etc etc, yet it still doesn't close to the first time i listened to Ice Cube's Amerikkkas Most Wanted.

I do enjoy a lot of genres and i'm a sucker for a catchy tune, but music for me, takes me back to different times ie my wedding day, when i was 14 starting to appreciate the opposite sex, parties in the 6th form, going out on the bevvies when i was 18.

I get the feeling that in 20 years time, i'll wont look back and think of #whichever 2022 artist# and say thats reminds of being 48.

I think most people have an era of music that will feature most of their favourite songs/albums and song/albums that they always revert back to. I imagine for most people this will reflect a similar period of their life too, most likely starting from when someone first began to appreciate and understand what they were listening too, so from early teens onwards.

So I was born in 1990 and rap has always been my favourite genre of music, but if you were to go through my main Spotify playlist I'd say a good 90% of the rap songs on there are from 2000 to say 2012. Sure there's the odd artist and song since then that I've enjoyed and added, just like there are some from before that period, but it's just not "me" as much as the 2000-2012 songs are.

Most of the newer songs I've added aren't rap either as the older I've got, the more I've diversified.

[Chakan]

Music is emotion. It's memory, it's wrapped in the very fabric of oneself. It's a moment in time to be savored.

[rob1966]

Music is emotion. It's memory, it's wrapped in the very fabric of oneself. It's a moment in time to be savored.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/XTb9GNIxpMk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/XTb9GNIxpMk</a>

[Black Bull Nova]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/XTb9GNIxpMk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/XTb9GNIxpMk</a>

Yup, you got me there, I was diagnosed with Cancer the day I saw Pearl Jam perform that one, who says music is not relevant, brought proper tears to my eyes (fully free now in case you wish to know)

[rob1966]

Yup, you got me there, I was diagnosed with Cancer the day I saw Pearl Jam perform that one, who says music is not relevant, brought proper tears to my eyes (fully free now in case you wish to know)

Good to hear you are clear mate

I defy anyone to properly listen to that song and not be moved.

[Johnny Aldridge]

Music saved my life. No lie and no embellishment.
I grew up in a tough home and music and playing music became an escape really young. It’s how I knew there was good in the world. Music for me is of God and from God, from Motörhead to Mozart, I see god I it all. Live music venues are my Church.

[Johnny Aldridge]

Yup, you got me there, I was diagnosed with Cancer the day I saw Pearl Jam perform that one, who says music is not relevant, brought proper tears to my eyes (fully free now in case you wish to know)

Glad your all clear mate

[Chakan]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/XTb9GNIxpMk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/XTb9GNIxpMk</a>

Not available in my country

[SvenJohansen]

Music is emotion. It's memory, it's wrapped in the very fabric of oneself. It's a moment in time to be savored.

That pretty much nails it. Music made me who I am today. It's influenced me all through my life. I'm still listening to the same types of music as I was when I was 14. I just don't have any interest in anything after 2010.

[Filler.]

Music c*nts Golf Am

[Black Bull Nova]

Good to hear you are clear mate

I defy anyone to properly listen to that song and not be moved.

Oh, and yes, Alive was played as well ('Oh, I'm still alive'), at a time when you cannot describe your emotions properly, music can take you to where you are feeling. It certainly did that evening.


I think music hits hardest when you feel things but cannot express them properly then a particular piece of music grabs you just at that moment and opens up that emotion somehow. I remember reading how Andre Previn was READING the sheet music to Vaughan Williams 5th Symphony (3rd movement, Romanza, it's beautiful) and started crying, it got me once as well but then I'd been on the pop the night before and that does not help.


That's the emotional side but then music can uplift, reassure, motivate, depress and many others things as well. I know I cannot listen to 'Things Behind The Sun' (Nick Drake) at all because that triggers too much negativity. If I want uplifting I will play the whole of Twisted Tenderness by Electronic, loud, that always does the trick. I did it once and I was so uplifted I failed to notice the car had run out of oil, cost me dear, £1000's

[Son of Spion]

Yup, you got me there, I was diagnosed with Cancer the day I saw Pearl Jam perform that one, who says music is not relevant, brought proper tears to my eyes (fully free now in case you wish to know)

I'm really glad to hear you're ok. 😊

[Black Bull Nova]

I'm really glad to hear you're ok. 😊

yeah, thanks, I've been fine for years, it's only when I saw that it reminded me, it just struck a chord with the theme of this thread.

[liverbloke]

Yup, you got me there, I was diagnosed with Cancer the day I saw Pearl Jam perform that one, who says music is not relevant, brought proper tears to my eyes (fully free now in case you wish to know)

oh man what a thing to be told and not knowing what the future may hold for you at that time - glad you're clear as i'm glad so many many people do come through it and come out the other side

i've got a friend who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and her world was one world before she knew she had it and is another world now she knows she has it

people's lives change so quickly and those too of the people around them let us not forget

i don't tend to post within the cancer thread because i don't feel i can offer anything but now and again a thread like this can throw something like this at you out of the blue so to speak - a person's own experience - when you're least expecting it

[Andy @ Allerton!]

It's interesting what people are saying about music being an escape.

For me it was books. I was reading novels at five and being able to escape into a different world from the unfortunatley shite one I was in at the time was great

[Crosby Nick]

It's interesting what people are saying about music being an escape.

For me it was books. I was reading novels at five and being able to escape into a different world from the unfortunatley shite one I was in at the time was great

Matilda@Allerton

[Chakan]

It's interesting what people are saying about music being an escape.

For me it was books. I was reading novels at five and being able to escape into a different world from the unfortunatley shite one I was in at the time was great

It can be both of them, I was a voracious reader when I was young as well, but also got lost in music.

[didi shamone]

It can be both of them, I was a voracious reader when I was young as well, but also got lost in music.

We're you caught in a trap? 

[Chakan]

We're you caught in a trap? 

Suspicious much?

[Qston]

Completely agree with the premise of the OP. Music affects you at a level that's hard to understand - in an almost primeval hardwired DNA kind of way.

I have very wide musical tastes, but when I listen to something like Beethoven's Emperor Concerto it affects me deeply and the whole world gets shut out.