Why Bowie?
I know I've not been posting much lately. Well, at all. School (which was finally over the end of June), work, personal stuff I'm sorting through which has been drawing my attention away from things like Livejournal and fandom and so on. I'm processing some things which are really big to me, and it seems I haven't had much mental energy left over to spare for weeks. No, it's probably months now.
No serious crisis; but a LOT of reflection, and I may continue to be quiet-ish for a little while.
Anyway. Something of a confession here:
Like the rest of the world, I like music a lot. And I do mean a lot. I have yet to discover a genre of music that I can't like anything from - I like yodeling, and I like trip-hop. For the most part, all it takes to make a piece of music grow on me like moss is to play it a few times. I can nearly always find a way in.
But I don't like David Bowie.
Actually, thus far, I can't stand David Bowie's music. I'll admit I haven't listened to much of it, mainly because I think it's so awful. The only thing he's done that I've liked thus far has been his version of "Nature Boy." But that's not actually his, really, and it still took a lot of work to like that one - I had to look past the fact that his voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me. (I've just listened to a few other versions on iTunes. They're all instantly recognizable to me as good music. Bowie's version I skipped over on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack for ages.)
I have one song of his on my Zen MP3 player. ("Rebel Rebel," if you're curious.) And it's actually on my most-played list; I think this is because I'm likely to change songs before anything I'm listening to is actually over (thus their not being counted as "plays"), but I automatically tune out that awful song of Bowie's because I can't stand it (so, ironically, it plays all the way through). I'm pretty sure my only thought when I first heard it (downloaded as a package with some other songs) was something along the lines of, "This is Bowie?! I thought he was supposed to be great...? Because this is...bad.")
I understand his lyrics are supposed to be quite clever, but I've yet to manage to focus on the lyrics in one of his songs. I can't get past the fact that I find his stuff almost physically painful to listen to. Some of it seems to actually baffle my musical instincts - going up in pitch just as I think it should go down, sharp when I think it should go flat, and so on. (Yeah, good music often depends on tricking those instincts just enough.)
I have no reason to think my musical instincts are that different from anyone else's: I do not seem to have this problem with anyone other than Bowie. I mean, yes, I have found other musicians terribly...unmusical. But then generally, so do other people. Not so Bowie; apparently, he's some sort of musical genius.
Huh? What? I mean, either I have a particular blind spot when it comes to his music...or the entire rest of the world does. The latter is admittedly unlikely.
So what gives?! Can anyone explain what is so great about Bowie?
No serious crisis; but a LOT of reflection, and I may continue to be quiet-ish for a little while.
Anyway. Something of a confession here:
Like the rest of the world, I like music a lot. And I do mean a lot. I have yet to discover a genre of music that I can't like anything from - I like yodeling, and I like trip-hop. For the most part, all it takes to make a piece of music grow on me like moss is to play it a few times. I can nearly always find a way in.
But I don't like David Bowie.
Actually, thus far, I can't stand David Bowie's music. I'll admit I haven't listened to much of it, mainly because I think it's so awful. The only thing he's done that I've liked thus far has been his version of "Nature Boy." But that's not actually his, really, and it still took a lot of work to like that one - I had to look past the fact that his voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me. (I've just listened to a few other versions on iTunes. They're all instantly recognizable to me as good music. Bowie's version I skipped over on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack for ages.)
I have one song of his on my Zen MP3 player. ("Rebel Rebel," if you're curious.) And it's actually on my most-played list; I think this is because I'm likely to change songs before anything I'm listening to is actually over (thus their not being counted as "plays"), but I automatically tune out that awful song of Bowie's because I can't stand it (so, ironically, it plays all the way through). I'm pretty sure my only thought when I first heard it (downloaded as a package with some other songs) was something along the lines of, "This is Bowie?! I thought he was supposed to be great...? Because this is...bad.")
I understand his lyrics are supposed to be quite clever, but I've yet to manage to focus on the lyrics in one of his songs. I can't get past the fact that I find his stuff almost physically painful to listen to. Some of it seems to actually baffle my musical instincts - going up in pitch just as I think it should go down, sharp when I think it should go flat, and so on. (Yeah, good music often depends on tricking those instincts just enough.)
I have no reason to think my musical instincts are that different from anyone else's: I do not seem to have this problem with anyone other than Bowie. I mean, yes, I have found other musicians terribly...unmusical. But then generally, so do other people. Not so Bowie; apparently, he's some sort of musical genius.
Huh? What? I mean, either I have a particular blind spot when it comes to his music...or the entire rest of the world does. The latter is admittedly unlikely.
So what gives?! Can anyone explain what is so great about Bowie?