On Listening (Part 1/3) - PlayFirst Grapevine
There's something important you should know about your favorite band: they suck. Their droning repetitive sound, whining cliche lyrics, and artificial stage presence really grate. They don't? Are you sure? Maybe I should ask you again in a few years when you have a new favorite band.
The sainted Oscar Wilde once said that, "the only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice will last a little longer". So it is with the things we all enjoy. Can you remember the first time you heard the first song by your favorite band? Can you remember the musician you considered your favorite before that? Maybe you still have a CD by them or a tape or, if you're hip, a vinyl platter of their songs.
If you want to call my bluff, go grab that music and give it a listen. Be honest. Doesn't it just pale in comparison to the music you really enjoy now? Aren't you so over that old crap?
So what happened?
Maybe the music sat there in your collection until the freshness date passed. Maybe it's gone sour, spoiled, grown a glossy coat of mold. More likely, the music's still the same. You've changed. No reason to be sad about it. We all change until we stop changing. Humans are pretty decent at a number of skills. One of them is learning.
Most people are capable of finding out something they didn't know before and recognizing it as such. I'm not talking about some new product in some new triumph of packaging or another form of the same old pablum. I'm talking about stuff which has always existed but you never noticed it before.
I've got some examples, coming up.
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posted May 2, 2007 11:25:50 AM