Why I Will Never Be Able to Own an iPod Nano

So I was going to write one huge blog about my dementia when it comes to music, and I spent about three hours writing it before I just decided to give up and write the whole story in smaller chunks (sorry Danny...) that are less boring to read . So here's the first part:

I think I listen to music differently than other people. A lot of my friends seem to believe that each song holds a story in its own, and after listening to a song you should be able to draw out a message. I believe this too, but I like to take it a step further. I believe that the entire album is one big epic, and each song is just one part of it. Now this is not always true, but I don't care. I'm still going to try to find an overarching theme. I'm not talking about concept albums; they are made with the direct purpose of telling a story over a multitude of songs. I'm talking about the reason an artist made a song, and why he put it before one song and after another. There has to be a reason why the order is in the arrangement that it is. Maybe the producer put it there because that's the order that would best sell cd's? But that still doesn't make sense to me, because you don't know how the songs sound until after you buy the album. And yet even with this, a lot of albums end up having the same type of song order. You usually start out with an intro song (this is not entirely true, and this is what the second "music post" is on), then two or three songs that seem to fit the mold that the first song set (again, second post), and then the "breakout single" from the album comes a little before the middle. Then a few songs after that that are usually more experimental (as in it doesn't seem to fit the mold that the first few songs fit), and then it starts winding down with either a last shout of excitement or a continuous slowdown, depending on the genre of music.

Now, I know that outline is completely generic and is probably wrong at least half the time, but that's ok with me. As my brother's senior quote states, "Never let a few facts stand in the way of a good story". I take that to heart with many of the things I say. Anyways, I believe that each song has a connotation to it, and probably all of you agree with me. At the end of each song, you are feeling a different emotion, whether it's excitement, heartbreak, or just relaxation. A good album to me will transition each emotion to the next, which is why I think the order of a cd matters a lot. I can't understand how people are able to have only about 50 songs, all of which are singles, on their mp3 players and just listen to them over and over again. I don't see how that can be fun. Maybe that is the point of music, to just relax and listen to the music and to not think so much about it. But I can't do that. Actually, that's a lie. I can do that, and I have done that, but not for very long. I don't want to just sit there and mindlessly listen, I want to figure out what is going on in the head of the artist when they wrote this. Why do The Shins have a tambourine come in at 0:55 of "Sleeping Lessons" and then never bring it back in? Why is the last minute of "Hold Me Down" by Motion City Soundtrack a synth piano melody when the instrument had not been played the entire album? Am I the only one who cares about this stuff?! Music is a medium for artists to express themselves, and so if they put something on a song, there must be something they are trying to convey. In concert band. there is always a legitimate reason as to why a part is in the piece. I think there is too for songs. Am I just crazy? Maybe artists do just add things because they sound cool. But I refuse to believe that, because I have to think that artists are people just like you and me, only they are more apt at putting their emotions and expressions into words and sounds. I wouldn't throw in a tamborine at the intro to a song (and an album) and then never put it back in for no reason, and I refuse to believe that an artist would too.

After dissecting a song, you have to put it back into the whole cd to really get a feel for what the artist is trying to say. This is perhaps the hardest thing to do, because you are essentially getting into the artist's head for his deepest, perhaps even subconscious, thoughts. Maybe he did just play a bunch of random songs and put them onto an album. But they have to be all connected, because he wrote all the songs at around the same time period, so they are all coming from the same viewpoint. If the lead singer goes through a tough breakup, even the happiest songs will have a taint of sadness, even if he doesn't realize it. I won't go into too much detail about that, and I'm sure a lot of you don't feel that way, but again, I'm ok with that. Anyways, song order matters a lot to me, because it provides an insight into that larger message that the artist is trying to convey. I think this is why I spend so much time on cd's that I give people.

It is well-documented (mostly by myself) that the cd I gave Ray-Young Tsao took me over 20 hours to make. Now I know that sounds ridiculous, but trust me, it isn't. It only took about 45 minutes to pick all the songs, but I then had to determine the connotation of each song and then decide what order they should go in so that the cd would flow. On the surface, my cd's are only about songs; below that is a journey that takes you through a spectrum of emotions (somewhat like Aladdin's magic carpet). I tried to stay relatively light with Ray's cd, because he is a jovial chap (ala Tejas). Anyways, I still decided to take him down one short path of seriousness, which I like to do with cd's. The song needs to be powerful, and it helps if it talks about something intense. You know, I just came to a realization. I think I don't care that much about lyrics because the tone of the music is much more important to me than what the singer says, at least on an album or my cd's. A song's connotation isn't usually brought about by what the singer says (although it often is indirectly, because the sound of the song usually revolves around the message of the lyrics). In my cd's, good lyrics are excellent, but how a song sounds is more important. I grew up on classical music, so that might be why I feel this way. And by the way, when I say "my cd's", I mean "the cd's that I make for other people", not "cd's that are in my possession". Just thought I'd clear that up. Anyways, back to Ray's cd. I brought in the sober moment by stringing together "Last Night" by Motion City Soundtrack to "Lions Roar" by The Hush Sound. This set the mood perfectly for "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap, as the apex of intensity on the cd. After that, I brought the mood back up rather abruptly with "The Electric Version" by The New Pornographers. The connotation of "Hide and Seek" is really an ending note, and I think it's better to pick the album up with a quick jerk rather than gradually bringing it back to speed. Ok, I can go over Ray's cd all night, but I'm just using it as an example. My point is, it can take so long to figure out exactly how one song should transition into another song. Even if Ray never figures out consciously that each song flows from one to another, hopefully he will like the album more because it just seems listen-able. There is a certain pride to be had in picking a random group of songs and arranging them into an order that is aesthetically pleasing. I guess it's just a gift. (oh modesty...)

Ok, so this post is a lot longer than I expected. But this is important stuff that needs to be said. I think it would be so much more pleasing to make my own music and put it into an order that conveys a message rather than take other people's songs and arrange them. Although doing the latter is like crack, so I don't know. But back to my original point, and the title of the post. I can't just sit there and listen to the same songs over and over again. I want the artist's entire album and figure out how each song relates to the others. There is also the reason of me being unable to have a favorite song for more than a few weeks, but that is for another day. I need to be able to get inside an artist's head and figure them out. More about music in the coming weeks.

Notes: After rereading this post, I need to amend a few things:

1) I do care about lyrics, but not when I am making a cd for someone. Lyrics are really important when I'm analyzing a song by itself, which I do before I piece the whole cd together, but when I'm making a cd for someone else, I don't really take them into account. Although at the same time, perhaps they are indirectly important because I like a song more because it has good lyrics and therefore am more inclined to put it in a cd. But I digress.

2) The way I talked about Ray's cd sounded like I spent 19 hours moving songs around on a playlist. I am taking into account time that I put the playlist on my iPod and then listened to it to figure out if something is missing. And I made a lot of changes to the playlist, at least 25, so I don't know if saying that it took 45 minutes to pick the songs is really true (see: my brother's senior quote).

3) To all the people i've made cd's for in the past (most notably: erica chan, aaron garg, vera lee), i know those cd's weren't all that good (with exception to some of aaron's classical cd's... those were incredible). I didn't really have a large collection of music when I was making you those, and none of the songs were really that good. But, I thought they were good when I made them, but my musical tastes are constantly changing (more on that on another post). So I'll probably think the cd I made Ray and the one I just made Austin about three days ago (note: writing this way after I posted the original) weren't very good either in about 3 months. But seriously guys, sorry for the bad cd's.