letstalkbeatles.com

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome to Let's Talk Beatles

Author Topic: Your Music DNA  (Read 3091 times)

2 of 3

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1685
    • Email
Your Music DNA
« on: December 15, 2014, 04:13:34 pm »

I was thinking the other day about how we all have our musical influences. Merv has told me many times about music he remembers as a kid that his Mom or sisters listened to. That was the opposite to me since my parents NEVER listened to music. BUT...I'd go into the stereo cabinet and find all their music...so...they must have a one time right? Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Perry Como...not to mention Gershwin and Cole Porter musicals...Porgy and Bess was a fav of mine. South Pacific too..though I guess that's Rogers and Hammerstein..I think.  ANyway... There wasn't a scratch on them..so I have no idea if they ever were listened to. After my father passed away I found a huge selection of Opera 78's. My aunt told me that they both listened to Opera as kids. Funny how you have to learn things after the fact like that. I wonder now if that was my "ear training" for the music I liked after that.  Do you think we are all trained as children and that we like what we like because of those influences? It's been said that a child will rebel and not like what their parents like..but I'm not sure that is true when it comes to music.  My buddies thought I was goofy blasting Sinatra on the car stereo. I just liked what I liked. Sinatra....Zeppelin....it's all good...err....right?  ;)
Logged

Mervap

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1271
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2014, 03:57:57 am »

I think it's a combination of a lot of factors. I'll just bet that every one of us here took some grief from our friends as a teenager for the music we dug, right? I was in high school in the early 80's and my fave band was.....The Beatles. Most of my buds listened to top 40 or country, which barely appealed to me at all. Why is that? Musical DNA? Only one other person in my immediate family liked the Beatles at all. I must reflect further on this...
Logged
If love is blind, how will it ever find a way?

Greg

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1008
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2014, 08:06:22 pm »

Great posts.

The questions that arise are better than the answers.

Music strikes people differently and to different degrees.  Why? And then there are the words.

I guess music is all just energy waves through a medium of some sort.  (Most of the time it's our atmosphere of course.)
Then again I can sing a song in my head.  How is that possible?

Isn't music just what we interpret it as?
I interpret most of today's modern country music as something that is most unpleasant and often offensive.  That's through my own filter or prism.  I interpret The Beatles as pleasing, interesting, innovative, adventurous, etc.

Funny thing is music.

This is from a Nat'l Geo article.
“Music,” said Hoy, “is strictly an anthropological concept.” Humans find beauty in certain sounds and dub them music,” he said.

“A whole generation of ’60s hippies altered their minds listening to whale songs, ” said Hoy. “To human ears, they’re gorgeous.”

But do animals purposefully create these aesthetically pleasing sounds?



Logged

kylenz

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 611
    • Email
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2014, 11:56:50 pm »

I'm not sure it is a DNA thing. As a young child, I loved going through 45s and my older brother's record collection, but my parents themselves had very little effect. I think our minds begin to work quite independently from the outset.
Logged

2 of 3

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1685
    • Email
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #4 on: December 17, 2014, 03:29:58 pm »

I guess it's nice to believe we are all independent thinkers...about everything..not just music.  I saw a 20 something young woman on tv last night who didn't know who Jim Morrison was. The interviewer looked at her and said..you know...lead singer for The Doors. Still nothing. I laughed but..I didn't know who DWA was...and they were up for a RRHOF nomination. So I guess it works both ways. If you grow up listening to Polka music....do you have to consciously decide that you hate polka music? It's that whole rebellion thing again I think. Do I love the Beatles because of my upbringing? Cole Porter and Gershwin could have seeped into my baby brain and made me love melody? Was it just bird song?
Logged

Greg

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1008
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #5 on: December 17, 2014, 09:00:26 pm »

I'm kind of branching off a little bit. 

We have all noticed that everyone claims to like "all kinds of music."  You ever notice that?  You ask someone "What kind of music do you like?"  The answer is always "Everything.  Oh I listen to everything."

I never buy that.  When you talk to them you find out that they are really familiar with their 4 favorite groups.  They claim to like classical or metal yet have not purposely sought out either in the past year.  They also consider "all kinds of music" to include pop music from the last 40 years.  What Hungarian music or bands from Soweto have they purchased or sought out out?  Nope.

They like everything from Hendrix to the Eagles. 
Logged

2 of 3

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1685
    • Email
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2014, 12:35:09 am »

I don't think you're branching off at all. This is what I meant about music being in your DNA. Is it even possible to like EVERYTHING?

I know I sure don't.  You can put on a World Music station and I will last about an hour. Then right back to what feels right. :)
Logged

Greg

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1008
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2014, 06:21:59 am »

Thanks 2.  That was my 3rd beer at 9pm post.  I should probably delete it.
Logged

2 of 3

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1685
    • Email
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #8 on: December 18, 2014, 08:59:41 am »

You know, I do have a friend who listens to EVERYTHING. I picked up a lot of good stuff through him. Though...he was a HUGE Oingo Boingo fan...and I can take just so much of that stuff.  :)
Logged

Mervap

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1271
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #9 on: December 18, 2014, 05:31:09 pm »

I like both of them: Oingo & Boingo.
Logged
If love is blind, how will it ever find a way?

chris

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 67
    • Email
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2014, 07:33:44 pm »

I'm open to lots of different kinds of music. Some more than others. But... (he whispers) I can't make it through an entire album side of reggae without wanting to stick a sharpened pencil in my ear.
Logged
I want to tell her that I love her a lot, but I've got to get a belly full of wine...

Greg

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1008
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2014, 08:37:49 pm »

I am posting in The Thinking Peeps Section.  No wonder my posts seem to not fit.

(and good to see you Chris.)
Logged

2 of 3

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1685
    • Email
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #12 on: December 18, 2014, 10:17:49 pm »

Ok chris.... Western Union Moneygram ok with you? Sorry about that 88 cent Canadian Dollar by the way. But..you know...you should have turned up in the summer when the currencies were pretty much equal. You snooze you looze buddy!!!  ;D ;) :P
Logged

2 of 3

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1685
    • Email
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #13 on: April 27, 2015, 07:22:41 pm »

I was listening to Top 40 radio today and was dismayed at how much everything sounded the same...to ME. Maybe it doesn't. All the pop did sound similar..as did the hip hop stuff and the rap and the country and...and...and...

It got me thinking about how powerful the Beatles must have been to influence entire music industry. As it is now, once something catches on...everyone copies it. It must be why my brain hears everything sounding the same. But with the Beatles...they kept changing it up. Sure, they'd put out a bunch of tunes in one year...and then "everyone" would copy that sound. Luckily, the next thing the lads put out would be in a different direction. Which made others go in another direction. We ended up with a crazy diverse Rock and Roll heritage. So many sounds and ideas..it was awesome all around. We don't seem to have that today(or I'm too old to notice)
Obviously I'm just talking Radio....there is lots of diversity out there. But if there were no Beatles...I keep wondering if radio in the 60's would have just been song after song that sounded like a variation of Johnny B. Good. That's what it sounds like to me today.
Logged

Greg

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1008
Re: Your Music DNA
« Reply #14 on: April 28, 2015, 03:23:18 pm »

Yeah, if you read some of those original articles back then it is interesting.
They didn't know what to call The Beatles' music; it was that different.
Many of the articles didn't call it rock and roll.
Logged