Sean is hopeless - well, maybe just different

I spent a wasted 1/2 hour yesterday trying to persuade Sean that his music sucked and mine was superior. I played a lot of old stuff for him, pointing out the actual melodies, people that sang different notes instead of moaning the same one over and over while singing about how sucky their lives are, real drums playing rather than drum machine crap. I pointed out the wealth of styles and differences that brought some excitement to the music when I was young.

He balked. End of story. Poor Sean, trapped in the present! Or, maybe I should be more open-minded. Nope!

Well, maybe. After continuing the discussion today, Sean and I realized that our points of view for music are much different. I view the lyrics as almost inconsequential, as a mere means of using a human voice as counterpoint to the instrumental music. I treasure the instrumental! Sean values the lyrics as a means of enabling transitions in mood, skillfully applied regardless of the underlying music. I do not think these points of view can be reconciled.

I really do not value the observations of others on their miseries, the attempt to share their emotional problems. My feeling is that everyone has misery in his/her life, and that the misery is (or should be) private. Perhaps this is because of the quiet, taciturn manner in which I was raised. I am not sure. At any rate, my belief is that music played skillfully has (all by itself) the ability to alter one's mood (in any direction). If you doubt it, just listen to the Cuban band Yerba Buena and tell me how you feel afterwards.

Sean appreciates the artistry that is displayed when someone can describe their problems in a way that touches another person. To my mind that is poetry, not really music. I am guessing that his point of view is that the music itself is very much secondary to the communication of mood and experience. Perhaps it is a vehicle to deliver the poetry.

I have a strong appreciation for well written prose - always have. I have read constantly since I learned how. Rudyard Kipling is one of my favorites. The man could tell a story! I never have had too much patience for poetry. Occasionally it catches me out, but only occasionally. Some of the music that captures both poetry and musical creativity for me are things like the Doors' People are Strange, Santana's Black Magic Woman, some of Paul Simon's songs in The Capeman, and parts of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. At any rate, for me, first rate music comes first.