Pretensions

Today I had a horrifying thought. Am I pretentious when it comes to music?

Admittedly, when it comes to classical music I'm more a fan of the darker stuff - deaf or nearly so Beethoven, Mozart at the end of his life when he was all dark, Jenkins for reasons I can't really understand - and when it comes to popular music, I'm the same. Metallica, Apocalyptica, Rammstein, Within Temptation, Iron Maiden, Kamelot, even the odd bit of Murderdolls.

Recently however, I've found that I'm liking more and more non metal. I quite like three of Adele's latest songs, I can listen to Christina Perri's Jar of Hearts on an endless loop, and there's one Florence + The Machine song which I love, I just don't know what it's called. Either way, this made me wonder. Am I truly a metalhead, or am I just fooling myself?

Am I just pandering to my pretensions that I'm more hardcore than that? Ought I give up and stop visiting Utopia (which is probably my favourite store after Dymocks Stationery - the cheapest place to get Calligraphy supplies)?

To test this theory, I went into JBHifi and purchased a CD. Lungs by Florence was $10. If I didn't like it, I could always just give it to my sister.

I stuck it in my computer and listened with trepidation.

As it turns out, I didn't like it. Cosmic Love was alright, but not really to my taste. All of the tracks sounded the same, with the same airy voice and electronic instrumentation. I'm not a pretentious ass. I genuinely dislike the majority of popular music. I don't know whether I should be pleased or disappointed. Who cares?

Either way, I'm off to cleanse my mind of all that ranga music by listening to some music which never fails to perk me up: Amour by Rammstein, Parliament of Fools by Skyclad, Sacra by Apocalyptica and what is probably my favourite piece of classical music: The Allegretto (mvt. 2) of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

Because as it turns out, I really am hardcore like that.

A is for irritation.

Last night, my family were being irksome. By irksome, I mean my younger sisters were acting like five year olds while I was trying to get homework done, and I was yelled at for yelling at them.

And so after shutting the door to my room and switching on my trusty mp3, I went to one of the things that tends to put me in a happy mood: my Windows Media player.

As the HSC progresses, and my sisters (especially the one whom I have to share a room with) get on my nerves more and more, I’ll be blogging a hell of a lot about music. This is because most of the other stuff I do in order to calm down (like go over old music from when I was in SCC, having a good singalong and enjoying afresh my glory days) is rather boring.

So today I will be looking at the fruitier stuff on my Windows Media, and explaining why it’s there.

“I Believe In A Thing Called Love” which I think may be by The Darkness.

I’ve loved this song ever since I heard it on the soundtrack for Bridget Jones 2. I’ve always had a bit of a thing for acid trip rock. This is the result of it. Every time I hear it, I smile. And then sing along like a guy using the upper reaches of his falsetto.

Then there’s the stuff I ripped from the Forrest Gump soundtrack. I suppose the sixties and seventies were a good time for American music. It more or less went downhill from there.

There’s also the stuff I ripped from the soundtrack of The Full Monty:
Flashdance. Enough said.
You Sexy Thing. Ditto.
Make Me Smile by Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebel.
Any pop song with harmonies I actually like as a massive rarity. One that I can listen to for hours on end is even more rare. It’s a happy song.

I have the winners single from Eurovision 2009 – Fairytale from Alexander Rybak.

I have immense respect for a young man who can saw his way through a violin bow on Eurovision because he’s playing so hard.

Poison by Alice Cooper. I’ve gotten a perfect score on Singstar for this song. That was a wasted week spent in hospital. But moving on…

I have some Andrew Lloyd Weber stuff. Don’t ask me why. I much prefer Sondheim or Boublil and Schönberg.

I also have the complete discography of Apocalyptica.

I’m a bit of a classical music nerd, and so when a band comes along which makes heavy metal out of cellos, I’m going to be markedly impressed. At the moment, I’m listening to their cover of Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg. That’s some marvy cello.

Then onto the Avenue Q soundtrack.

Avenue Q. How can one describe it? I don’t know.

Suffice I list a few of the song titles:

Everyone’s a little bit racist
The internet is for porn
Of you were gay
Schadenfreude
It sucks to be me.

That having been said, it’s actually a markedly happy musical. Lots of black humour.

And I mean that in both senses of the word. It’s ironic, and there’s a character called Gary Coleman.


And that’s it for the A section. Next time I’m pissed off at my relations, I’ll move onto B. Perhaps C…