A Recent Epiphany

People are so quick to categorize things. It doesn't even matter if what they are categorizing is remotely understood, they just want to put a label on it, even if that label is incorrect. This is especially true in music.

I go to so-called indie/underground/alternative artists to escape from the much-too-often mundane & insipid singles that dominate the radio waves. I'll admit it; I hold esoteric music & bands that qualify with more esteem. The albums released by such artists tend to be more emotionally relevant. Consequently, they are also more guarded by me. This is because I don't just go to these records & listen passively; it's highly interactive & often cathartic. I'm engulfed & consumed in it; music is more rewarding when experienced that way.

The general consensus of pop or mainstream music fans is that this kind of music is beyond them: i.e. several friends vomit the proverbial "I don't get it" then "it's droning" followed by "too weird" along with a strew of other adjectives after listening to OK Computer. I can tolerate 2/3rds of the responses: maybe the fact that I'm a musician has allowed for a stronger palette than the novice listener. But seriously, is Radiohead really that "weird"?

Much like all western music, it's based on triadic chord structure & played on instruments with tempered tuning, so it's fundamentally not foreign at all. However, I will say that the ethereal quality of the production makes it hard to gauge exactly what it is that makes the music tuneful, but that's also what makes it so appealing:

I was packing for LA to attend a show at the Hollywood Bowl last summer when I found myself bouncing back & forth between Subterranean Homesick Alien & Let Down. I just kept thinking, "God, these songs are so fucking good", and never really stopped to figure out why I loved them so much, until now. This supposedly "foreign" music, with its "weird" array of ethereal sounds, is filled to the brim with quite possibly the most basic & universally key component that transcends any language; melody. These songs are melodic masterpieces. And I'm not just talking about the vocal melody lines, I’m talking in totality, melody is coming from every instrument. It's contrapuntal; the arrangement of the "strange" sounds, come shooting out of nowhere, then hover & float in stereo, then they all dance in tandem with the soaring lyrics & "otherworldly" instruments...all these sounds combined & intertwined harmoniously to make up one giant melody; simple & genius at the same time.

Melody is built in to each instrument & section of these songs, filling the sonic space to its capacity with a spectrum of sounds that command me to sing along & never ceases to lift my spirit ever more. The only "category" I can file these songs under is beautiful.