I enjoy many different types of music. But of particular concern to me at this moment is a genre Adrianna refers to as "Happy Sad".
You see, I enjoy quite a bit of mellow music. Whether it be folk, jazz, etc. Many different amalgamations. As of late I have been listening to Fleet Foxes. I had heard of them, but had not really listened much. Brian introduced me to them with White Winter Hymnal. This song is really good, but hadn't connected to me quite yet. While watching SNL this last Sunday afternoon I forwarded through their first performance, but stopped and thoroughly enjoyed their rendition of Blue Ridge Mountains.
Since then, I have listened obsessively. My comment to Adri was that certain songs make me feel like crying...I think. You see, I haven't cried in years, not a good cry. A few tears have eeked out here and there, but no real crying. I describe my tears as something akin to juicing a lime. You know the kind...where you bury your fingers into it with all that you've got, but stupid dry thing gives you only a few drops. That is what crying is to my brain. It squeezes and squeezes and finally a drop comes out. On a related note, I connect crying to headaches...anyone else on that? Feel me.
Anyways, back to my point. Listening to Fleet Foxes...feel like crying. What is that? Adri then coined the phrase 'Happy Sad' music. That is what I like. I love and enjoy (and thus become Happy) by listening to Sad music. Sometimes the lyrics are depressing (see Second Best by Pedro the Lion) or maybe it just sounds mournful in tone. Perhaps it is a single riff that does it. Loro by Pinback makes me feel like falling in love and crying. June makes me feel sad and like crying. But again, I don't cry.
Adri believes that my inability to feel or cry is what makes me enjoy this music so much. I must agree. I think that this music brings on 'emotion' which I don't have therefore I don't understand...so I decide in my head that the proper response is to cry...but I don't know how, so I just enjoy feeling anything at all. Like those kids who can't feel pain, but wish they could because it helps them know that they are alive.
Questions to the few readers out there:
1) Do you experience this same sensation?
2) Is this a proper title for it? (For the stupid title Emo is totally over/misused...and has now come to encompass a style that I would rather not be associated with...I am all corporate here)
3) What is that all about? What the hell is wrong with me/us?
4) What other songs in particular connect to this point?
5 comments:
I know I have seen people cry because they are happy, but this really makes no sense to me.
I do feel the same way: I don't feel emotions distinctly (or at all sometimes) so to hear music in which someone is expressing some emotion becomes an excitingly new experience. It sounds odd to say that we borrow the emotions of the artists we listen to but I think the whole point of the music they create is to impart the emotion they are feeling. I think this is why we tend to like the music we do. We like music that is genuine and not just a production. Pop music that is just churned out by producers with the latest face has no real emotion or genuineness to it. Pedro the Lion will make you feel something. He will take you on a dark adventure through his sad life. It's disturbing at times but it's absolutely engaging.
My favorite sad artist to listen to is Bright Eyes. I think he's an amazing poet that writes his songs to keep his sadness from devouring himself.
I would contend that while your comment captures the majority of the sounds I am speaking about there are exceptions to your rule.
Authenticity by itself doesn't create emotion, and conversely not all emotive music is authentic...or at least as genuine as I would like it to be.
The first time I really spent time enjoying Coldplay was when I heard the song Clocks. It had not become a major hit and had never been played on the radio, yet the piano riff really resonated with me. Now of course it is about as cliche as any riff in music history. And Coldplay doesn't strike me as overly genuine...but who am I to judge intent.
As for other examples:
Sunny Day Real Estate - In Circles
Pedro the Lion - Second Best; The last minute of Magazine; Criticism as Inspiration; The Riff from Of Up and Coming Monarchs is exactly what I am talking about; June 18, 1976 (saddest song ever written)
Radiohead - lots of songs (but Pyramid Song is a great example)
Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
Headphones - Major Cities; I Never Wanted You
Grandaddy - He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot; Underneath the Weeping Willow; plenty of others
You get the point. I could also list a few Hardcore songs...but as they would not be recognized, I opted not to.
Whether it's something as simple as pianos and minor keys I don't know...but there is something different and more emotive
I hear what you're saying. My first comment narrowed what you're talking about to just the emotive intent found in the artist's voice and lyrics. For me--while they are rarely sad--Explosions in the Sky fits the bill as to what you're talking about.
The Birth and Death of the Day is currently my favorite song of theirs.
Can't forget tone in all this. I think a perfect example is pretty much anything from Dashboard Confessionals.
Some songs are upbeat, some songs are slow. But the tone always seems to remain the same. That of pain and heartache. Listening to his music always makes me wonder if there is something inherently missing in my DNA. maybe I just don't value love as much as I should or clearly as much as he does.
Another tone artist is Iron and Wine. Half the time I don't know what he is talking about but it seems sad and that makes me happy....
Mmmm Chris Carraba, YOUR ANGUISH SUSTAINS ME!
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