La Musica

Let's talk about my now and former favorite artists: U2, Ben Harper, Radiohead, DMB, Live, Coldplay, Crowder, Fiona Apple, Jars o' Clay, RATM, and Audioslave. I define a "favorite artist" as someone whose album I'll buy not on its merits, but on my affinity for the band based on past experiences. I pre-ordered Ben Harper's new album Both sides of the Gun as a special edition 3-disc set that cost me $28 with shipping. Not a bargain. Why'd I do it? I like his past albums and bet that his new one would be consistently as good. Still, as much as I like it, I'm let down. I, for some reason, feel bad for not liking the album, because I want to like it because I want to like everything Ben Harper does. I like a few of the songs off the album, and for the first time, I skip the ones I don't like to get to the ones I do.

Herein lies my dilemma. Why am I suddenly perplexed by my newfound unwillingness to listen to an album of one of my favorite musical artists in its entirety and be mostly content? I will present a series of hypotheses in an attempt to answer this most crucial of dilemmas.

Could my newfound musical pickiness be due to the far-reaching effects of the iTunes monster and the a la carte digital media revolution it represents? Perhaps, but I don't think that covers it completely, because I still buy all my music on CDs. There are several reasons for this. First, I like to have the highest quality available and the ability to compress it to my, not iTunes', preferred bit-rate. I also enjoy listening to music in my car, and as it doesn't play mp3s, I'm stuck with CDs that are written in WAV (Redbook, CDA, whatever) format. If I chose to spend the same (or more since I buy from www.yourmusic.com) amount of money to download an album from iTunes, I'd have to burn that lower quality format to WAV, and, well, that just doesn't appeal to me. This is somewhat of a contradictory position, though, because I listen to music at 192kb/s in AAC format on my iPod and am generally pleased. I don't know, I guess I'm just quirky and high maintenance. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I'm not yet so tainted by iTunes' far reaching influences as I will be in the future.

On to my next hypothesis. Maybe I'm growing tired of the same styles of music I've been listening to for the last umpteen (literally) years and want something new and fresh. My current favorites are MuteMath, Bloc Party, Counting Crows, Death Cab, and Copeland. Yes, I'm aware that these bands are not all "new," but simply represent new musical styles to me. I'm generally wanting to listen to these artists more than my usual favorites and look forward to their next (and previously unheard by me) albums. Conversely, there are a few of my favorite artists whose albums I'm more, or equally, excited to hear than my new kicks - Fiona Apple, Radiohead, and perhaps Audioslave - which leads me to my next hypothesis.

Maybe Ben's losing the inspiration he once had and, hence, his appeal to me. I mean, I'm all for his new politically charged album, but there's only so much one can take of emotionally charged words that are coupled with a two note vocal melody line that can only carry so much energy. Musically, Juan Nelson's bass lines are still tight and groovin', but Ben's melodies are lacking. I suppose this makes me appreciate his former work more, but I'd love to hear more of the songs that I can't stop singing a capella. I think that's my subjective criteria for a good vocal line - is it singable and emotive even when stripped of instruments? Some songs aren't, but the music is so good that it makes up for it. I just don't see Both Sides of the Gun as one of those albums...

My last hypothesis, alluded to in my third hypothesis, is that my tastes are simply changing. I do tend to listen to more 94.9 The River (101.9 KINKFM in Portland, OR) when I must use the radio, and am beginning to appreciate some more relaxed musicians - Beth Orton, Over the Rhine, Tori Amos, and Van Morrison to name a few - while still enjoying my preferred genre of "anything with a tight groove." I suppose, as we get older and we wish for more peace and stability (both elusive thus far to me), those desires manifest in our musical tastes as well. In light of my take on Ben's new album, BSotG consists of two discs with two distinctive moods, both of which should be directly appealing to my different musical affinities. So, I'm left with the question, "Why aren't either particularly appealing?"

Satisfaction of my musical tastes are as elusive to me as a catchy figure of speech.
Will I continue to purchase albums from my "favorite" artists? Yes. Most likely. To quote a line from "the best movie you should never see," "I thought I made myself perfectly clear; if everything else falls through, maybe." Translated: who knows? Moreover, who cares?

I have plenty of other things to do right now.