Context:
My name is Melanie and I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian home, where I was not allowed to listen to "mainstream" music and had very little access to pop culture more widely. I was allowed to listen to classical music and some contemporary Christian music, but even that was highly controlled. As a result, I have little-to-know understanding of or familiarity with mainstream music and music culture. I thought Beatles were insects, that Michael Jackson had always been 'white', and that ZZ Top was a type of hairstyle. This is true of all pop culture, and I have done a LOT of catching up on movies and tv, but music has seemed too overwhelming to me...maybe because there are so many genres, artists, cultural contexts and eras to think about. But I want to understand why my dear friend L couldn't get out of bed for days after Prince died. I want to get the music-related jokes and references. I want to learn about how different cultures and their joys and struggles gave birth to forms and genres of music.
Most of all, I want to understand the human connection to music.
It is something that - sadly - I don't really have. I'm the one person on the bus, plane, walking down the sidewalk who does not have earbuds in. There are bands and artists that in my post-1998 world I have come to love feel deeply connected to, but the music that formed the generations before me is a mystery to me. As musicians who have formed my generation have begun to retire or die, and I watch my friends reminisce and grieve, I feel I have missed a lot. There is a LOT of catching up to do. But where would I even begin??
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| Me and Ryan at our first 'gig' together! |
This year for Christmas he gave me a book. Well, a tome really. It is called "1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die", edited by Robert Dimery (Universe Publishing, 2010). This book is nothing to sneeze at, folks. It is a 960 page glossy, fully colour music extravaganza!! Each page lists 1 or 2 songs, with a photo of the artist, the album or single cover, the artist name, album name, info on who wrote the song, who produced it, what album it came from, what label it is from, and has a write up of the song's history, significance and any other quirky details about it - written by one of the book's 49 contributors. The songs are listed chronologically by release year starting in 1916 and each decade also has a write-up of the representative characteristics of the era for context.
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| Gonna be spending a lot of time with this beast! |
SO...here's the deal. I am going to listen to every single one, starting on page 1, and blog my journey of musical discovery. I commit to writing about every single song. Some posts may be a line, some may be essays....I really have no idea. But my hopes in this are:
- to learn about music history, generally
- to get exposure to songs and artists that I might not otherwise come to hear on my own
- to begin to understand musical culture and its impact on society and vice-versa
- to begin to develop my own sense of musical taste - I am always rendered mute when someone asks me the dreaded question "what kind of music do you like?" - because I simply have no idea.
So welcome to this journey of discovery! I am also hoping that in blogging it, you might learn something you might not know, or be led to a piece of music you didn't know you needed to hear! Are you ready?? Cue the music....!!!
~ M
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