hummingwolf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hummingwolf) wrote2004-06-20 03:47 pm
hummingwolf) wrote2004-06-20 03:47 pm
(no subject)
Do you ever start to feel like your tastes have been too influenced by other people's ideas, that you're not sure if the things you've been taking pleasure in are things that really please you after all? Do you ever feel the need to take a chunk of time to just enjoy something you know for sure you'd enjoy no matter what? It's not something you like because it's cool or something you like because it's uncool. It's not something that was recommended by your mother or your lover or your best friend from sixth grade. It's not something you like because you think it shows off your good taste or your bad taste. It's not something you like because nobody would ever expect you to like it. It's not something you like because it's like everything else you like. It doesn't remind you of a special time, special place, or special person from your past, present, or ideal future. It's something you're sure you like for the simple reason that you like it.
Suzanne Vega's music is in that category of things I'm sure I like because I like them. Before I'd bought any of her recordings, I'd heard most of her first album played on three different radio stations. One station was a kind that let the DJs play around with the playlist, playing mostly cool new New Wave or cool older punk while throwing in weird artists nobody ever heard of, famous singers most of us were sick of, and even bits of stand-up comedy albums (this station later became a standard corporate modern rock station); one station played lots of rock music from the sixties and seventies and newer music that fit right in (this station became all-classic rock); and one station on the AM dial played light rock that none of the other light rock stations played. None of the stations told me anything about what I should think of the music, and nothing made me associate listening to the songs with anything other than listening to the songs. All three of these stations helped me fall in love. I'd go around quoting from "Small Blue Thing," "Undertow," or "Marlene on the Wall," and my friends would nod indulgently or point out that I was, obviously, a weirdo.
Eventually I did find out that someone I knew had heard Suzanne Vega's album, but she would just tell me how much I needed to hear "The Queen and the Soldier," one of the few songs I hadn't already heard. When Suzanne Vega finally came out on CD (I'd been waiting for months!), I promptly paid more than 16 dollars for it, more than my allowance at the time.
After a while, other stations played some of the songs, even though none of them were popular here yet. One of those stations was a weak-signaled college station which mostly played punk, very early industrial, and music by college students who seemed to think that noise was a good substitute for melody (this later became a New Age station). The day that the afternoon student DJ got a copy of Suzanne's second album, Solitude Standing, they said they'd play one song from the album in each set until they'd played the whole record. I spent the day alone in the house, doing mindless things I don't remember, listening to mostly forgettable, noisy music which would suddenly be interrupted by the entirely different sound I was waiting for. The radio station received so many phone calls about the music that they decided to play the second side of the album straight through, no interruptions of any kind. I sat still on the floor in between the speakers and stared up at the ceiling, hanging on to every note.
Suzanne Vega's music is in that category of things I'm sure I like because I like them. Before I'd bought any of her recordings, I'd heard most of her first album played on three different radio stations. One station was a kind that let the DJs play around with the playlist, playing mostly cool new New Wave or cool older punk while throwing in weird artists nobody ever heard of, famous singers most of us were sick of, and even bits of stand-up comedy albums (this station later became a standard corporate modern rock station); one station played lots of rock music from the sixties and seventies and newer music that fit right in (this station became all-classic rock); and one station on the AM dial played light rock that none of the other light rock stations played. None of the stations told me anything about what I should think of the music, and nothing made me associate listening to the songs with anything other than listening to the songs. All three of these stations helped me fall in love. I'd go around quoting from "Small Blue Thing," "Undertow," or "Marlene on the Wall," and my friends would nod indulgently or point out that I was, obviously, a weirdo.
Eventually I did find out that someone I knew had heard Suzanne Vega's album, but she would just tell me how much I needed to hear "The Queen and the Soldier," one of the few songs I hadn't already heard. When Suzanne Vega finally came out on CD (I'd been waiting for months!), I promptly paid more than 16 dollars for it, more than my allowance at the time.
After a while, other stations played some of the songs, even though none of them were popular here yet. One of those stations was a weak-signaled college station which mostly played punk, very early industrial, and music by college students who seemed to think that noise was a good substitute for melody (this later became a New Age station). The day that the afternoon student DJ got a copy of Suzanne's second album, Solitude Standing, they said they'd play one song from the album in each set until they'd played the whole record. I spent the day alone in the house, doing mindless things I don't remember, listening to mostly forgettable, noisy music which would suddenly be interrupted by the entirely different sound I was waiting for. The radio station received so many phone calls about the music that they decided to play the second side of the album straight through, no interruptions of any kind. I sat still on the floor in between the speakers and stared up at the ceiling, hanging on to every note.
no subject
Nik Kershaw. :))
no subject
I don't think there's anything wrong in enjoying something because it reminds me of something else, but it is a different thing from enjoying something just for itself. Sometimes I have to remind myself of what I truly love--not because it was a song I listened to with a friend on a good day, but just because it's a good song.
no subject
Then her first album generated a fair bit of buzz, but people pilloried her a bit because her poetry tended, of all things, to be accessible and not nearly as "intense" as some of her interviews suggested.
Her second album committed the cardinal hipster sin of actually being popular. Then she committed a different cardinal sin of putting out a third album that was quiet and simple.
Her time with Mitchell Froom as producer jazzed up her repertoire with a few electronic flourishes, but ultimately, that did not alter her basic appeal.
It seemed to me that her first post Froom album showed that she's just been putting out the same good, straightforward songs. She's just a good egg, when it all shakes out. It doesn't matter if she's hip or not, she's fine.
no subject
Heh. I remember plenty of reviews of her albums where the reviewers had some strange interpretations of the lyrics all the same. I remember that there was one discussion which made me go "Huh?" And I read not long after that that SV herself had read the same or a review with similar ideas, and her response was essentially "Huh?" though expressed more eloquently.