What Music Do You ****?
A re-framed discussion of a common question I struggle with.
Among the finite list of topics that seems to be used for opening conversations with new people, getting to know mutual friends of friends, or attempting to break the utter monotony of coworker-chatter, is a topic I find near and dear to my heart but one that often stumps me. Music taste, music preference, favorite music, and the slew of other iterations that is often at the heart of the questions: "What music do you like?", or its slightly less binary form, "What music do you listen to?" After being asked this question recently, I realized how profoundly displeased I am with what has come to be my typical response: "I really listen to everything except mainstream pop and country" or some more rambling shpeel that attempts to boil down my musical interests, history, and experience, to a digestible description of the music I find myself consuming. The time has come for me to address this question, with the depth and breadth this seemingly simple question necessitates.
The Nature of the Question
As with most other topics from The Finite List for Conversation Opening & Getting to Know that many people subscribe to, I think it is a pity to try and reduce the vast, diverse, complex, component of essential human experience that is music to a mere like or dislike. I recognize that as primates with handheld computers, we are incredibly basic social creatures that, in many ways, still seek the instinctual acceptance in the pack around us; in the context of the music preference question, the simplification that results from this social dynamic undermines any strong opinions, off-putting emotions, or causes of offense that might come from a deeper analysis. More plainly, it is boring! Without straying too far, I also wonder the extent to which our scrolling addiction and the binary inputs of our digital world leak into our conversation-building skills and general ability to examine with depth.
With that being said, in a hope to think a little harder and come up with a meaningful answer to this question, I choose to re-frame the question: "What do you look to feel in music?" I think for many people the first correlation with the word music is hearing or listening. How can it not be? Our auditory systems are incredible; they transfer physical air pressure waves into electrical impulses via microscopic hairs, a fluid-filled snail structure, and a tympani-like drum, converting minute changes in the atmosphere around us into intelligible information for our brains to interpret. While it is awesome in the truest sense of the word, there is a smaller subset of people who might first associate music with something else, a feeling. As a musician, we are exposed to music's feelings from the earliest introductions: tapping of the foot to stay in time, the blissful blanket of goosebumps when a complex chord is played in-tune, the slightly uncomfortable chest vibrations of a bass drum or bass trombone at its lowest register — to name just a few. As we progress we branch out into more obscure feeling too: the feeling of being in-time with your band, the meaning of a rounded sound, playing a melancholic minor ballad with evocative emotion. The feeling that goes into and flows from music, and the varying degrees to which it impacts the listener, is what differentiates the music that I find myself going back to time and time again.
My Criteria
After spending some time thinking and referring back to music that I love, I have established the four categories that I use to judge a given song. When I listen to new music, I do not hold this rubric and rate each category, this set of categories has been created retrospectively, thinking, hearing, and feeling what made a given song "good" to me in the first place. While some songs check all of these categories, others only check half but are equally as compelling.
Rhythm & Beat Compels Movement
A song, whether slow, or fast, has the ability to evoke mechanical reactions in us. Whether it is nodding, foot tapping, a lazy sway, or the ultimate, dance! Songs that accomplish this move us to some interluding space between the folds of reality around us. Many times these movements are subconscious, uncontrolled, physical reactions to what enters our ears and brains.
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices
While this category clearly leans towards vocal songs, I encourage you to view the sounds from instruments in the same way; think of instrumental sounds as transfigured voice. At its core, music is writing, and the power of many songs comes from the words used. A poetic verse, a provocative lyric, or a simple word can paint a situation, place, or experience in vivid detail. If what word or note is the lyricism, how is the phrasing. Whenever I think of phrasing my mind falls on Bob Dylan, he has a way of weaving through the tempo and rhythm, starting, ending, and cutting words and sentences at points that seemingly don't make "sense" but ultimately create the unique sound and character of his music. Finally, a unique voice has a way of enrapturing me. Whether it is a low raspy bellow or a whining drone, certain voices have an uncanny ability to reach out and grab hold of you onto you — some times with a hug, other times with a violent shake.
Guitar & Saxophone Focus
Approximately 90% of the songs on my top 10 lifetime most-played list are songs that I have learned, jammed with, or accompanied with either my guitar or tenor saxophone. I tend to obsess with them for a period of time, on loop, honing a specific line, trying to gather the key or chord progression, and repeating until satisfied with my progress. For this reason, I latch on to songs that have technical guitar or saxophone components that will challenge me or inspire me to further hone my instruments. As a result, my most-played songs are definitely skewed to prominently feature guitar and saxophone. This makes me question whether most-played is the truly best analytic for my purposes…
Tight Goosebump Harmony
Whether vocal or instrumental, close harmonies that induce the blissful blanket of goosebumps that I described previously are in a league of their own. From the technical aptitude needed to achieve it to the subconscious physical response it draws, very few things come close to the emotional impact that carefully crafted harmonies produce. Some of my favorite types of harmonies include three-part female vocalists, or two females and one male, and the mid-tone timbre of a tenor saxophone paired with a trombone.
Lifetime Top 10 with Some Analysis
Using stats.fm (an app/website that uses Spotify's extensive API to pull detailed listening data and generate statistics), I created a list of my top 10 most-played songs of all time. Brief notes that describe the moments/themes that contributed to its place in my top 10 are below each song. Further below, I have included each criteria described above and used an X to indicate which criteria aligns with the song (in my humble opinion).
| 1 |
Waltzy opening guitar ebbing into the bright and lackadaisical vocals (0:00 - 0:25). Clean unison cut-offs (1:01, 1:15 - 1:20). Acoustic guitar strumming drives the tempo. Vocalist knows when to push the band further, artful strain, before falling back into the baseline feel (2:30 - 2:47).
“You think that I’m lost and once I was found. But your grace ain’t amazing”
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: X
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: N/A
| 2 |
Guitar is the rhythm section, no drums, no piano, no bass. Three-part female harmony with rotating singers. Minimalism to the max in this near-acapella cover. Slowly builds to beautiful moments (1:15 - 1:30). The lyrics alone (originally by Paul Simon, of course) are a masterclass in storytelling. You can identify each voice in its unique tonality, but together they dissolve into one another (1:55 - 2:02).
“ ‘Kathy, I am lost,’ I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I am empty and aching and I don’t know why”
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: N/A
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: X
| 3 |
Intertwining trumpet and tenor saxophone, counterpoint harmony (0:17 - 0:31). Upright bass played with a bow sets the foundation and peeks through occasionally (0:33 - 0:50). The trombone sings with touches of harmony accompaniment (1:40, 6:12).
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: N/A
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: X
| 4 |
Finger-picking guitar and subtle plucking banjo places you, a rural small town (0:00). Silence is one of the most powerful tools an artist can use, creating space, inviting the audience to yearn for what is next (0:14 - 0:16). Ending the first with a blooming dissident moment from the introduction of a organ-like synth, rolling right into the chorus (1:28 - 1:37).
“Once, I took your medication to know what it’s like
And now I have to act like I can’t read your mind.
I ask you how you’re doing and I let you lie.
But we don’t have to talk about it.”
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: N/A
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: X
| 5 |
Moody classical guitar setting the stage culminating in that beautifully dissident minor chord strum (0:00 - 0:18). Intimate Brazilian vocal; crisp, perfectly in-tune, kept in time with the gentlest plucking guitar (0:25 - 0:53). The lethargic opening resolves with an expanding samba beat, progressing until pinnacle (1:24). Clarinet dancing around the vocals like a bird in flight, seamlessly in and out of sight (4:17 - 4:43)
"Danço eu dança você Na dança da solidão”
“I dance, you dance, in the dance of loneliness"
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: N/A
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: X
| 6 |
Not much to add on this popular track. Mix of acoustic drums and synth hi hats with plucking brassy electric guitar feels like a train chugging along. If nothing else, The Strokes vocals are always instantly recognizable. Mirrored echoing guitar riffing sounds incredible when listening with stereo, caught in the middle of instrumental argument (1:45 - 2:08).
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: X
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: N/A
| 7 |
This song is magnificent, the mastery of guitar on display is not to be underestimated, even without words the introduction can make you emotional. Solo Brazilian boss nova guitar, the time is fluid and changes at whim (0:40 - 1:27). Finally, it settles into double-time with propelling drums and robust bass (1:33). Extremely catchy bass line takes us home (2:40).
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: X
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: N/A
| 8 |
Ethereal keyboard opening right into a structured boss nova guitar feel. This opening defines "in the pocket", just a few elements perfectly in-time ready to be built upon. Bill Withers’ sensual buttery vocals, this is the phrasing I was talking about earlier (0:50 - 1:10). If you didn't expect a synth in a song that starts with bossa nova guitar, you were wrong (2:35). Climax, wow (3:53). The listener is a fly on the wall in an intimate conversation; the lyric (and title) “Hello like before” perfectly encapsulates all of the awkwardness and pent-up feelings that make this song so beautiful.
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: N/A
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: N/A
| 9 |
Repetitive droning acoustic guitar riff holds down the groove of the entire song. Slightly strained vocals, this song embodies a road trip belt session (0:56). Key change throws the whole feeling on its head (1:26).
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: X
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: N/A
| 10 |
Repetitive strumming guitar sets the tempo, all aboard, another waltz. One of my favorite types of chords, suspended b6 (0:29 - 0:31). Upper register male vocals with lyrics that seem to fall easily from start to finish of each phrase. Crunchy distorted sliding steel guitar ushers us into an almost-psychedelic transitional feel (1:45 - 1:58). Nothing like a big hollow kick drum to emphasize the beat (2:13 - 2:25).
Rhythm & Beat That Compels Movement: X
Lyricism & Phrasing by Unique Voices: X
Guitar & Saxophone Focus: X
Tight Goosebump Harmony: N/A
It is my hope that the journey of this post brought to life the beauty of the music that I find so wonderful to enjoy and one of the greatest joys of music is sharing it with others too. This was a fun one to sit down and write, after much procrastination, I valued taking the time to put on my listening ears and focus on these songs that I have played innumerably. I certainly noticed things that never caught my attention before and bridged connections to help better understand my own music preferences. I could probably write at least five more of these, but in case that doesn’t happen, to get an even broader sense of my taste in music, here is a playlist of my all-time top 50, including the 10 above. I truly believe the same criteria can be used to explain almost every song on this list in one way or another. I encourage you to try and feel your way through if you choose to explore the playlist and see how my criteria fits in.
Nice. I can't wait to relisten midnight rider.
Thanks!