Gosh, a new thread, music_4321 is back, and coq de combat is posting again. It's just like old times :3
I don't mind music_4321's post blanking. It actually adds an interesting flavour of transience to the thread, which is truly rare in online communication. (Even Twitter is trying to figure out a way for users to access their old posts.) Also, I'm glad to see him back - Music_4321 is unabashedly opinionated, but with those opinions come some insightful contributions.
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True to his namesake, music_4321 has always pushed us to talk more about music, and in that spirit I wanted to ask a random question:
Do any of you ever make any judgements about people based on their musical preferences? Not necessarily just simple positive or negative judgements - do you draw any broader inferences about their personalities or values from scrolling through someone's playlist?
It seems silly to me when I think about it, but often one of the first questions I will ask when I meet people is what music they listen to, and then I make inferences based on genres and artists. I feel like if they listen to similar music to me, they might be more likely to have had similar experiences and similar outlooks, or have similar friends or pursue similar kinds of media. They might come off as more or less adventurous, more or less sentimental, more or less troubled, etc.
This kind of thinking doesn't really seem to hold up when I think that different people have different reasons for liking the same thing, and also that I try to give every genre a chance and I believe that having a broad musical taste is a virtue. Even then I can't stop myself from using music as a litmus test.
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Mupps, I've been listening to Xiu Xiu's
Fabulous Muscles and it is quite gorgeous.
I've also been listening to David Byrne and St. Vincent's collab,
Love This Giant. I'm actually relieved and surprised that I'm enjoying it so much, because the pre-release sample tracks didn't quite grab me. I've been a huge fan of David Byrne ever since I quite literally started listening to music for enjoyment. (I have Windows XP to thank for that). "I Should Watch TV" is my favourite track, and tellingly its the most reminiscent of Byrne's Talking Heads work in theme.
If I had to share one track though, I thought I would share this Patrick Wolf one; as unapologetically saccherine as it is. It's the kind of music that makes me just want to jump around the room with someone. I'm not big on dancing, but this is one of the few tracks that inspires me to let loose.
I actually told Patrick when I saw him at the opera house that I was so glad that this album was so
positive, especially after his moody and histrionic previous album. (Which I enjoyed anyway.) It's obviously more obvious now that he has a new partner (there was an entire track in the last album about how he was going to die very much a confirmed and militant bachelor). If I can be self indulgent for a moment, this track gives me a little hope in that regard too.