The EggLog

I recently had a conversation with a friend about music. This friend assumed that I would like a band because they were “screamy”. This pissed me off. I don’t like music because it has “screaming” in. On the contrary, I would prefer it if all the bands that I listen to that do “scream” sung their lyrics instead. But, this is sometimes unavoidable.

I listen to music primarily because of the emotion it brings. If you look to the roots of music, emotion was the major factor involved. People disagree with my music tastes. So what, these people like different things because different genres (a concept that I dislike in itself) because different things touch them. An adjacent example would be that some people get turned on by different things. Or like different foods. Opinions are not a hard concept to grasp. But for me, music is different to sex, or food. Music is what gets me through events. It stops me killing myself at work, it helps me revise, or do coursework. It gets me through hard times. When things don’t work out well. It also emphasises good times. But the common factor in all of the examples here is that it affects my emotions.

Screaming in music doesn’t affect my emotions much. Quite a lot of people who know me think that the main factor in my judgment of music is the actual musical talent. I used to believe this. But recently I have realised that it is purely the way music makes me behave that is the decision-maker. If it makes me want to cry, or gets me angry, or makes me mad, or makes me happy then it’s good music.

So don’t judge my music tastes, and I won’t judge yours.

Also, sorry if the text rambles a bit, I just want to convey the message properly.

I was in Dawson’s last week (a music shop for the stupid), when I asked to try a Jackson guitar that had caught my eye. I’d seen one of Trivium’s guys using it in a magazine and thought that I’d pop down to my local music shop and mess about with it. I wandered in through the door and approached an immaculately dressed salesman. I asked the said salesman if I could have the pleasure of trying the guitar, and rather politely, I thought, he obliged. He proceeded to wander aimlessly over to the guitar section of the shop, required guidance as to which one was the Jackson, and set off the alarms a couple of times before picking up the guitar.

He looked at me puzzledly before saying, “is this a guitar or a bass?” I was stunned! How can you not know the difference between a guitar and a bass? A guitar has six thin strings and a shorter neck than a bass, which also has four stupidly fat, finger-busting strings. What an elbow nose!

As a sort of conclusion, I would like to say that the only plus that the Jackson guitar I tried got from me was its metal looks. It sounded really toneless and cheap, was really expensive for what it was, and felt really bad. Then again, I’m used to a Stratocaster, so the standards for “feel” were pretty high.