About musical taste
I went to a gig this week, first time in ages and thanks to a friend who gets a carer ticket for gigs. It was one of those things where you say "ooh, fancy going to that?" and he replied "oooh yeah, and I can get you a ticket for nothing, will you drive?"
I realised something. Not sure whether this was freshly or a new realisation.
I grew up in a home where music was incredibly important. My father is a composer and music teacher, he and my mum used to play music together. For a large chunk of my childhood my Dad was writing his doctoral thesis. I learned viola from age 9 to 14, I sang in school choirs and played in concerts. Music was everywhere, and so were opinions about it. There were some quite strong ones about what was "acceptable" and what was seen as "crap". Playing something you liked potentially risked a conversation probably meant to be teasing, but to my teenage sensibilities felt like criticism. So I never felt like my musical taste was "as good" as other peoples. And so I had not much confidence in my tastes.
While was in my last years at school I had a group of friends who shared some of my tastes in music and that was wonderful. They even went to a concert (Deacon Blue, Fellow Hoodlums Tour, Nottingham) which was something I had never even thought about asking to do at that time. But being around people who shared those things was a joy.
Then I had a sort of breakdown, and for a long time I didn't listen to much music at all. It felt too hard.
About a year after I left school (and therefore had left that group of friends) I sat down one day and played every album I owned that I associated with those tastes back to back, to make sure I liked them myself and not just because my friends did.
I didn't like them. I loved them.
Over the years I have learned that music is capable of many things. It can remind you of pain, meaning you turn off certain things or walk out of shops when it plays (Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars) - it can make you feel like dancing every time you hear it (Toploaders version of Dancing in the Moonlight), it can make you smile at happy memories every time it's on (Crowded House - 4 Seasons in 1 Day, Tori Amos - Leather) it can lift your spirits on a down day (Embrace - Ashes). It can remind you of an eternal truth and bring perspective (Phatfish - Heavenbound) And most of all it can call you out of the dark and restore your faith and sanity (Dar Williams - The Honesty Room) when nothing else can reach you. It has the power to heal and sing your life back to you in words and sounds that you haven't been able to find for yourself.
So on Tuesday night I went to a gig, only the 4th or 5th one in my life. And it was awesome. And I realised something. If my musical taste is "middle of the road", then there's a helluva lotta people in the road with me. If my musical taste is retro, *snaps fingers* so what? I looked at the stage lights swinging out over the audience and the 200 or so people on the flat floor below me (couldn't tell what the people in the balcony were doing!!) were singing and clapping and jumping and loving what we were hearing and I shared that with them. And it felt wonderful.
On Tuesday I heard Del Amitri on their "A-Z of Us" tour at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge. I have wanted to see these guys live for about 20 years and they did not disappoint me. They were clearly having a great time on stage, they have the ease of having played together for a long time. This tour is a kinda greatest hits tour I suppose, but was no worse for it in my opinion. They sound as good to me as the first time I heard them, and the live experience was incredibly special to me. If any of them ever read this: Guys, it was glorious. 24 years and it was everything I hoped it would be. Thankyou.
My musical tastes are my own, and I like them. I'm proud to be a Dels fan, to be a Deacon Blue fan, to love a whole rack full of bands and singers that touch my heart and fill up my soul and just generally make sounds I enjoy hearing. I might not be able to go to see them every time they tour, or buy loads of things with their name on. But they have my heart, and that's good enough for me.
"I don't have my finger on, the pulse of my generation
I just got my hand on my heart, I know no better location" (Not where it's at)