How can people consistently listen to

I read a lot of 'Best of' lists for music, and some people fill their lists with slow, acoustic-y, dreamy, depressing, mopey, ruminative music to the exclusion of anything upbeat or light, whatsoever.

Now, I love that kind of music in moderation, but if that was the majority of what I listened to, I'd be so depressed! It would be like someone who only wants to watch Lars von Trier films -- I know that everyone is different and gets off on a different aspect of artworks, but I just can't put myself in the shoes of someone who wants to listen to Iron & Wine and Bon Iver and stuff like that without any peppiness or poppiness at all. I just can't relate, and can't understand how or why that would possibly please someone.

So if you like this kind of music mostly, explain to me what it is about it that draws you to that atmosphere?

Maybe it has to do with when I listen to music -- I want to hear music when I'm driving, when I'm cooking, running, partying. I don't ever sit down alone in my bed in my parents' basement to listen to Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and meditate on my ex-girlfriends, so I don't think to turn on music of that mood -- if I did, it would just bring my whole mood and day down.

I like to listen to Seven Forty Seven when I'm getting baked

there just has to be a mood and a time for it

I always put on a sleep playlist with dreamy music before I got to bed

I listen to what people call sad music because I don't think it's sad music but nice

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're hitting on, but i think it's similar - for the past several months I think I've been the most positive, the most socially active, the most outgoing I've ever been... but I've also found a massive new appreciation for extremely dark music, especially Sunn O))). I'm not sure why exactly, but my theory is that I'm searching for something to balance my mood - not to be too melodramatic, but I think being upbeat all the time sometimes leaves me feeling empty and nervous.

  On 1/8/2010 at 2:47 PM, Berk said:

I listen to what people call sad music because I don't think it's sad music but nice

'Nice' in that it makes you feel good? Do you not think about sad things when you hear it?

These lists reflect the fact that even though people like, and listen to, upbeat and more frivolous music as well as more contemplative and cerebral music, they would not include it in their lists for fear that they may lose precious cool points.

People like to show off with their lists which is why it's all "arrangement for 13th century guijong" by liu kang baking a pie and Charlemagne Palestine's 6 month pipe organ tone etc. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Although having said that, i can't actually think of many recent light and poppy albums that sustain my interest for an hour now that i come to think of it.

Lets face it, since the new milennium optimism has wilted everyone is just a bit bummed out. Thats why we have dubstep.

  On 1/8/2010 at 2:47 PM, Berk said:

I listen to what people call sad music because I don't think it's sad music but nice

I guess you call that melancholy music. I rarely listen to one of my favorite albums, R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People, because I have to be in a very specific mood.

This seems to be Radiohead's schtick.

  On 1/8/2010 at 2:49 PM, Al Hounos said:

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're hitting on, but i think it's similar - for the past several months I think I've been the most positive, the most socially active, the most outgoing I've ever been... but I've also found a massive new appreciation for extremely dark music, especially Sunn O))). I'm not sure why exactly, but my theory is that I'm searching for something to balance my mood - not to be too melodramatic, but I think being upbeat all the time sometimes leaves me feeling empty and nervous.

Sunn O))) and that kind of music, dark drone-y stuff or even dubstep is a nice balance to upbeat music. And it's a lot easier to listen to that then depressing singer-songwriter albums or moody rock because you can just sit and reflect without digesting a bunch of sad lyrics written by someone else.

i can scarcely enjoy drone... if i'm gonna get lugubrious i prefer something like the smiths that is still healthy musically

Maybe I'm just too spiritually lazy to handle the intense state such music would put me in (drone music, I mean) on a regular basis.

I wonder if I meditated more often if I'd be drawn more to that kind of music?

  On 1/8/2010 at 3:07 PM, LUDD said:

These lists reflect the fact that even though people like, and listen to, upbeat and more frivolous music as well as more contemplative and cerebral music, they would not include it in their lists for fear that they may lose precious cool points.

 

People like to show off with their lists which is why it's all "arrangement for 13th century guijong" by liu kang baking a pie and Charlemagne Palestine's 6 month pipe organ tone etc. I wouldn't read too much into it.

This.

However, I have had periods of months where I was pretty down on myself and liked to stew in it by moping around and listening to sad bastard music constantly. I think it stemmed from becoming comfortable in that paralyzed state and wanting to prolong it in order to avoid having to do something with myself.

  On 1/8/2010 at 2:33 PM, encey said:

I don't ever sit down alone in my bed in my parents' basement to listen to Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and meditate on my ex-girlfriends, so I don't think to turn on music of that mood -- if I did, it would just bring my whole mood and day down.

some people don't consider it sad maybe? and you seem to have some preconceptions about who is listening to this type of music and why. for instance i like bonnie prince billy but i've never listened to it and ruminated on ex girlfriends. i just like the mood and atmosphere and find it relaxing.

Definitely just jokin a bit there. Does it relax you because you were in an agitated state and it calms you down, or it just reinforces the relaxed state you're already in?

well no, actually. it's just a mood, within itself. like with stars of the lid, i'm not consciously like "oh man, i'm so angry about a movie or something, lol" and then i have to listen to ballasted orchestra to calm down. i just throw it on mainly because i find it beautiful, and i like filling my life with beautiful things.

that^

i've been trying to explain to the people around me that the "sad" or "the bad things" music i've been more or less constantly listening to for the past few years is simply music to me. it feels much more engaging and seems to offer more in value. and i'm not talking about dubstep, i'm talking about the more dreamy stuff, natural snow buildings, nadja, ...

Then I guess I ought to turn the question around and wonder what it is about me that such music brings me down?

I think that more happy or upbeat music often leaves less of an impression. I like pop and dance music but I tend to tire of them quicker and move on to new stuff - you make less of a connection to it so one is as good as the next, where as a good melancholy album is for life. For example the Beach Boys have a tonne of happy tunes but the one everyone says is their best is God Only Knows.

Pain is eternal!

Happiness is fleeting!

  On 1/8/2010 at 3:03 PM, encey said:

  On 1/8/2010 at 2:47 PM, Berk said:

I listen to what people call sad music because I don't think it's sad music but nice

'Nice' in that it makes you feel good? Do you not think about sad things when you hear it?

I don't think of sad things or anything, just neutral things I guess. it doesn't affect my mood in such a way that I begin to feel differently I think. I like moody music because you can just play it and not think about anything, like time or whatever. hope this doesn't sound too vague heh.

yeah like some other people in here are saying, the dreamy stuff, getting images in your head about beautiful things, it's just nice imo

  On 1/8/2010 at 4:45 PM, Coalbucket PI said:

I think that more happy or upbeat music often leaves less of an impression. I like pop and dance music but I tend to tire of them quicker and move on to new stuff - you make less of a connection to it so one is as good as the next, where as a good melancholy album is for life. For example the Beach Boys have a tonne of happy tunes but the one everyone says is their best is God Only Knows.

 

Pain is eternal!

Happiness is fleeting!

Definitely -- that's true of how I have been listening to music the past couple of years, just looking for a nice catchy pop song that I'll love for a month and then forget when teh new Lady Gaga tune comes out, lol.

At the same time, I think a really really good upbeat pop song does have something to it that is lasting.

to me there's nothing that gets to me like a steady 4/4 beat with a wicked snare and a fatass bassline.

with that said though, i do listen to alot of "sad, mopey" music, im no expert on the subject, but sigur rós comes to mind, and stuff like ambient works/astrobotnia/boc or whatever i can listen to for hours on end, but it doesn't give me that instant gratification nor the same feeling, and i just don't seem to have the patience for it anymore, not like i used to anyway.

when i throw on something like midnight star - the midas touch for example, i can't stop noddin' my head and just feel the music, and to say it doesn't leave a lasting impression is just silly.

though when it comes down to it i guess it's all about the mood really. i couldn't stand listening to nothing but moody icelandic post rock 24/7, proper recipe for apathy innit, but every now and then it's like the best thing ever.

/rant

the real question is how can one seriously like dub techno

so im guessing youre not a leonard cohen fan

also i have a tendency towards depression and sometimes slow dark music (if done well) can make me less depressed.

  On 1/8/2010 at 4:40 PM, kokoon said:

i've been trying to explain to the people around me that the "sad" or "the bad things" music i've been more or less constantly listening to for the past few years is simply music to me. it feels much more engaging and seems to offer more in value. and i'm not talking about dubstep, i'm talking about the more dreamy stuff, natural snow buildings, nadja, ...

This.

I like music that takes me places, that fosters my imagination. Slow, drone, ambient, whatever has always been incredibly effective for that. For some reason the more dark stuff puts me in places I like, mostly because their states are difficult to explain or quantify.

Sad music has never felt sad to me, it just feels right. I am a big fan of unusuall and dissonant tones as well, they can communicate very complex emotions that go beyond the spectrum of happy or sad..

One thing that's tough for me in this respect is that I'm often more naturally drawn to music for what you might call 'cognitive' reasons, rather than emotional ones -- what I mean is, I get pleasure from music that I can't wrap my mind around at first in a musical sense (the way the beat works, how the sound are made, what exactly the key is and how the harmonies work together, the 'logic' of the chord progression), rather than being drawn in by an apt lyrical depiction of some experience, belief or feeling, or by the music's evoking particular emotions in me. It's why I like autechre so much! Although I am constantly trying to open my mind to hearing value in music along other dimensions than that, bc that seems like a rather one-sided approach to listening, and I know there's a lot I have yet to enjoy from not properly hearing it.