[NeonAges]

    You might as well consider me legally blind as tonight I've been on a binge of aural pleasure. It all started with a bit of exploration of YouTube and various guitar videos. Well, eventually, I stumbled upon a few videos which poke fun at the fact that most all pop music are manufactured shit. In fact, most music played over the radio today consist of a handful of chord progression composed of a few over-used chords.  This video, in particular, tickles my fancy. It pretty much shows how many different songs use the same chord progression as one of my favorite songs, Pachelbel's Canon in D. It's a comedic video, sure, but it definitely brings up a very valid point that I think the populous needs to hear. Most of today's songs are soulless copies manufactured according to a developed formula to rake in the greatest amount of cash. Sure, there are huge exceptions, but no one can deny the fact that the “average” song on the radio today isn't exactly intellectually complex or stimulating.

    We can take anything from Alternative to Rap to Country; if we take an average of 50 songs from each genre and dissect them and analyze them according to music theory and general “Feel” of the song, they're all pretty much the same damn things. I will now attempt to point an accusing finger at what I believe to be the culprit--
    Background Music. That's right, good ol' void fillin' BGM. As a society we're much to used to letting our eyes take hold of the wheel and guide our entertainment endeavors. We're too used to relegating our ears to “Background atmospheric extras” duty. We want to “See” the explosion in our movies and completely ignore the fact that it's the dramatically composed soundtrack that's building us up so that we're actually pumped up enough to accept an explosion. Since we were little we've been told that music is to be listened to while the movie is being watched, while you're driving, while you're hanging out with friends. It's been there behind us, backing us up the whole way and what do we do to it? We as consumers buy into the monotonous crap that they pump out of the radios, thus encouraging them to produce more of that shit. Yes, we're perpetuating this release of audiohazard. So there I sat, pondering this predicament.

    The pondering went away for a little bit as I decided that I was going to participate in an activity that I've not been able to participate in for a few weeks; listening to music. So I dynamically made a playlist wherein the main criteria was emotional exploration. I created an epic song-list that spans four CDs of Nightwish. It's been a while since I've fully given Tuomas, Tarja, Jukka, Emppu, and Marco their deserved rockout/worship. Then after about two hours of rocking out, it hit me. The people of today rely too much on their other senses. Just as a good painting should be admired in its entirety in a gallery without any distractions, just as good food is enjoyed with a clean palate, so should music be enjoyed. I urge people to take at least an hour out of their week and put on some of their favorite tunes or just whatever they feel like listening to at the time and get rid of everything that would distract you and just enjoy the music as it is. Usually I put aside an hour or so before I want to sleep and prepare a playlist of artists/songs I want to listen to, strap on my best headphones, and close my eyes as I lay there with music filling my ears and thoughts filling my mind. I don't mean just random meandering thoughts as music plays in the background, I mean -really- LISTEN to the song and appreciate it in all its worth. You may not have to agree with my taste or opinions of various types of music but I think you'd agree at least that music deserves some time devoted to it. Trust me, it'll make your week better.

    It's not a good song unless it makes you want to listen to it without any distractions and forces you to revel in all its glory.



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