Musik

Luke stopped by my classroom to tell me of his latest discovery on npr.org/music. It was called DeVotchKa. I listened to it for a while in between classes and decided almost instantly that I didn't like it. I talked to him about it later and we started building our own musical genome. Why do certain people like certain types of music. How can I listen to a band for five minutes and immediately dismiss it? Why does my brother love Pantera, Aimee Mann, Brian Wilson, Ben Gibbard and Soulfly? Why do people like Sigor Ros? I told him that the reason I think I like the music that I do is because of probably 90% nurture and 5% nature, 4% random chance with a 1% margin of error.

My mom used to listen to the oldies station whenever we went anywhere. The Doors, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Supremes, the Four Tops, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, the Platters, etc. By the time we were ten, we could sing the chorus to Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and the whistling part to "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay." I think the Beach Boys was my favorite band. And still is up there, in the top 20 or so.

My dad listened to the opposite end of the spectrum, not opposite but pretty far on the other side. Crosby Stills and Nash, Traffic, Grateful Dead, Little Feat...well, Grateful Dead and Little Feat, mostly. My favorite song was "Let it Roll" by Little Feat off the album of the same name. I must have worn a hole in the tape on that song. It was the first song for which I'd memorized all the words. There's still something about listening to that album and driving that brings back the greatest memories of driving up to the cabin with my dad and brother. Sitting in the back seat, eating skittles and drinking Mountain Dew while my dad drank coffee and smoked cigarettes with the window down and the cold air blowing in across my face. For me, the journey there, listening to music, feeling cool with my dad and brother, was better than actually getting to the cabin to go fishing.

So my music genome is nothing but straight-up pop and soul. Everything I've ever liked has been based on the early blues, soul, R&B, pop, and rock and roll. Rock & Roll. Nothing could possibly be better for me. Give me a guitar riff, chord progressions, verse, verse, bridge, chorus, guitar solo! chorus, elongated ending or repeated and faded guitar riff with repeating choruses! oh! What could be better? In short, Nothing. So when I hear something like DeVotchKa or Sigor Ros, I hear beauty, but it makes me uncomfortable, in a bad way. It just doesn't sit well with me. The rhythm is too erratic (if there is a beat), it's a symmetrical, and the chord progressions don't match my natural biorhythm. If all you listened to since birth was rock and roll, you may not turn out to be a genius, like if you listened to Mozart, but you may turn out to become an intellectual who must constantly search out new and challenging ideas or bands or authors.l The steady, sometimes unexpected changes of rock and roll and the thump of a bass drum in time with the thumping of a guitar layered with guitar riffs and leads will never get old. It will continue to change and evolve into newer, more extreme levels. It will inspire kids to question things, question their parents, religion, teachers, authority. It will make them feel cool, it will be there for them when they get dumped, when they get drunk for the first time, when they smoke cigarettes or watch a Rated R movie, it will always be there to pick up the pieces of whatever is broken in their life. The music will always change, and thank god for that! but what won't change is the effect it will always have on impressionable youth.

The greatest thrill for me is hearing a band that makes feel like I'm hearing Green Day for the first time. Crunchy distorted guitar and incoherent lyrics. I didn't really know what their songs were about when I was 11, but I loved it. I remember the Kurt Loder interview on MTV with Beavis and Butt-head, when asked what kind of music they liked and they replied, "stuff that's cool." "And what's cool?" "Stuff we like." And so on. There a lot of truth to that, although it came from two animated characters, one of whom was named Butt-head. I mean, "types" of music are only in place so record stores know where to put an album and we know where to look for it. When asked what type of music I listen to, I've learned simply to say "Rock and Roll." Because, honestly, what else is there? It is the all-encompassing term for everything that rocks and everything that soothes and comforts you and tells you that no matter how shitty your life is, the guy on this record has it so much worse...but gives you hope because you know that if he can find a way to express himself and ease his mind, you can too...right? Couldn't anyone pick up the guitar, string some chords together and make a pop song?

I heard the guys from the National all worked for DotCom companies in Silicon Valley, formed a band and went on tour. Dave Matthews worked at a bar and lived in a small town outside of Charlottesville, VA. Sufjan Stevens doesn't own a guitar. Jon Bonham's drum solo on Moby Dick was his second take. This is my mythology.

My Music Genome is straight-forward and I could draw a music tree, linking all of the bands I've gotten into and why and who. There would be four great technological revolutions for me. Starting with my parents' car radios, my first Walkman and Green Day's "Kerplunk!" Then there was the CD player and the 90's British invasion...Bush and Oasis. Then about 300 CDs later, music became synonymous with the Internet and nothing has been the same since.

But for now, my heart beats and my fingers unconsciously tap out the rhythm to "Gold Mine Gutted" by Bright Eyes, my eyes blink in unison to the beat of "No Cars Go" by Arcade Fire and my mind is constantly cycling through the sad and euphoric lyrics of thousands of rock and roll songs that regulate my metabolism.