I Actually Wrote A Whole Post Yesterday / Music

But it was done at two in the morning, so you can imagine the shitty quality. I should start a second blog for that kind of shit. Anyone agree/disagree/wanttoblowme?

Grossly inappropriate requests aside, I haven't done a legit post since all of Saturday. Being three whole days ago, it's time for another. besides, I'm sure all of you want me to stop being so damn mopey (apologies for that, but I do thank those few of you who still read for commenting).

As you might be able to tell from the ridiculously long title, this post is about music. Three paragraphs in, I'd like to get on with that.

Noise is hard to describe. Technically, all sound is compressed air, but the literal, clinical descriptions of things are often incapable of describing their true nature. Noise is... not quite music. It's close, but not quite, which is why I'm starting with it. Noise is sound that is meant for the background, and never more. It /is/ a background, something to simply be and fill up the room so it doesn't feel lonely (which, of course, my room never is, if you catch my drift. ;) ). Noise lacks the capacity to be focused on for more than the briefest periods of time, but is by no means insignificant. Music arose from noise, when people improved upon their hollowed-stick-whacking until it could be focused on and enjoyed for its beauty, its passion, its soul, even. From this difference, this line of eloquent complements that could go on forever, arose Music.

Music is noise the same way a square is a rectangle. That is to say, music can be used as noise as a square can be treated as a rectangle, but never vice versa. Well, not quite. What some consider noise others consider music (see, for example, dubstep), and that is crucial in understanding music. Music is a very individual thing. I do not share an exact taste in music with anyone else because I am not the same person as anyone else. Music speaks directly to one's inner self, even, with the most passionate music taken (like a drug, almost, I'll elaborate on that later) at the right time, to one's soul. For those of you with souls, at least (I only have a soul when I listen to soft jazz).

I'm listening to soft jazz right now, actually. I've mentioned it before, but I'll say it again: this jazz track, [protip: link, mofo] from some video game, I think, is one of the greatest pieces of soft jazz (blues?) I've ever heard in my life. EVER. This is because it relaxes me. It calms me and puts me in a fantastic mood, where I can forget being such a sadistic bastard and enjoy having a soul once more. (Orange soda has a similar effect on me, if anyone's wondering, that's part of why I drink it so much). Music can, even in those fancy Harvard (or some fancy college, I forget which) labs, have a profound effect on the human body. Seriously, some dudes in lab coats did some stuff and found out it speaks to you. Or something. I read the article waaaay back, so I don't remember (if I read it at all! Ha!) The point of this odd, rambling paragraph is that music speaks to you in ways even yours-silver-tongued-truly can't. And that's impressive.

I know you can't tell, but I just took a minute to re-read the status where you lot requested this. I do care. (Also, one day I'd LOVE to live-blog, where you people can watch me post. It'd be really fuckin' neat. Anyone agree? COMMENT.)

Music has, as my beloved big bro AJ (who may or may not read this anymore. Confuzzlement goes *here* ), two sides: Soul and Theoretical Complexity. Both are expressed incredibly well in the many forms of Jazz, in my opinion, moreso than anywhere else. I'll get to that in a bit.

Journal moment, bear with me: I was talking to Annette (who I think is still angry at me right now. Whatever.) on Friday. She was writing out some music in... music form. That kind with all the funny scribbles that represent half-notes and those circles that are really long and all those dashes /everywhere/. I can't read music, in case you hadn't picked up on that. Thing is, there's that, the numbers, and how each and every individual instrument is implemented (for example, in Dubstep, the bass (as in the electronic kind, not the four-stringed guitar) is used to keep the beat, and the drums aren't. This is very, very different than almost any style of music that involves the drums) are all there, fucking shit up. Music is complicated.

But as I said, music speaks to you. I mean, I've listened to music that perfectly fit my mood at the time (for example, thinking about girlfriend while 'Alive With the Glory of Love' played) and it was fucking euphoric. Not good, not great, EUPHORIC. Music does things to you you can't even imagine.

While I'm sometimes a fairly logical guy (see: why I became an agnostic atheist, winning at math/chem/life, knowing exactly how to do your mother), I'd have to concede that soul is more important than theoretical complexity when listening to music. There's no law, of course, that the two can't be intertwined, of course. Some incredibly powerful songs are very, very complex. And that just adds to the number of ways they can be enjoyed.

I wish you could tell, I just took a half hour break. Fun.

Remember earlier, I said music is a drug? Again, fairly journalistic bit to explain (yay! Empiricism!) I went, last summer, to a summer camp called Cherry Valley. Good times, then, what with Scuba Diving, candy, swimming, kayaking, shooting, et cetera, but I missed two things over the course of my weeklong stay: My then-girlfriend Devon, and music. See, I'd left my iPod at home. Which meant my only source of music was my buddy Francis's iPod, and I didn't find out about that until three days in.

Three days without music. All it took. I was messed up. I /needed/ a music fix, and I needed it right that moment. When Francis let me borrow his iPod, I took it, went straight to my tent, got on my cot, closed my eyes and spent half an hour with Led Zepplin.

It was one of the greatest half hours of my life.

Afterwards, I was happier, more energetic... fuck, I'd been in withdrawl from a good, electric six string and the wonders it can work in the hands of a master. Music is the ultimate drug. Once you've started listening... /try/ to go a week without it. It's awful. Trust me. You may think I'm being overdramatic. I'm not. I /NEED/ music in the same way Nikki Sixx /needed/ heroin.

Drug references aside (I bought the Heroin Diaries today. Leave it alone.), music can be a very simple, day-to-day thing. Admittedly, so can heroin (oh, shit, I said I was done with the drug references...), so maybe it's more like a drug we all take, every day, and no one says anything. Still, it's a comforting method of self-medication, without all that nasty cancer and prison time. (And it's really, REALLY hard to OD on music.) So don't worry that you're addicted to Hendrix. We all love us some purple haze, man.

I love music. All music. Except for the kinds I don't like. Look! Generalizations time!

First, let's start with crap. I mean rap. Can't spell crap without rap, yaknowwhatImean? It can be a very expressive, powerful thing (Linkin Park, for example, or the Flobots) or it can be utter bullshit (like, well, most rap.) Rap, in general, lacks most instruments and is about the vocalist "banging" that "ho" who he's objectifying, let's be honest. I hate most rap.

Then there's rock, which is huge. Almost anything you listen to on a /ton/ of stations can be called rock, and probably has been a dozen times. A TON of good bands are rock, and there's also a fuckton of shittacular bands ruining my music the way, say, kagel ruins the English language. Mixed bag, but often a rock band will have at least one good song.

Electronica/Techno: I don't listen to much, though it can be pretty good. Interesting style, can be noise or music, but for the most part it's enjoyable. I especially like the stuff that's very fast. It gets the blood pumping, and is good for dancing (in a certain way). I'd listen happily, but I just enjoy Rise Against and Motley Crue more than I do Daft Punk.

Yes, there's many, many, MANY more styles of music to cover. That's what the comment box is for. Respond, talk about your favorite kinds of music, pretend you care what I think, the usual.