Thursday, May 19, 2005

More on Music

This is sort of a follow-up post to my previous post about renting music.

After posting, listening to my music, and speaking with some other audiophiles, I realized that some music with unintelligible moaning is good and I may have been too harsh in my first post (case in point: Pearl Jam's Yellow Ledbetter and the large majority of R.E.M.'s music.)

So... I guardedly take back some of my statements. On a similar topic, it has also come to my attention in the last several days that James Taylor (a.k.a "Sweet Baby James") is a genius songwriter and performer. Now, clearly I'm no James Taylor expert, and I'm probably preaching to the choir for most of you, but I've been familiar with some of his work for years (Fire and Rain among others). However, after borrowing his greatest hits album, I've discovered the true scope of his genius. He is one of the few white artists who can actually choose the perfect words and sing with such emotion and soul that you can feel his pain--especially if you understand the pain that was his life.

In the modern day, there are few songwriters like him, however I also have recently been listening to Jack Johnson and, while he reveals nowhere near the emotion of Taylor's music and lyrics, his didactic, conversational music also invites you into his world.

So, for those of you who are interested and not familiar with one or both of these artists, you should check them out. It will be money and time well spent, I assure you.

Jorin

P.S. Check back soon for a GENIUS idea I have for some aggressive (read: "well-funded") entrepreneur to use the iTunes Music Store to make more money...

3 Comments:

At 5/23/2005 08:57:00 PM, Blogger Colby said...

Didactic is a cool word... i've forgotten about it after finishing school... ironic, eh?

 
At 5/24/2005 10:22:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amen on James Taylor. It's fun to hear a song and know that the singer feels his music. Now then, not the sappy peurile mawkishness of (fill in teenybopper idol's name here) because he's lost his flavor of the month. I would name a specific example, but I've thankfully lost touch. Actually, Tiffany comes to mind, but that artist would probably draw the same blank stares these days as the mention of a "cassingle." (She had one that started out, "The flowers you gave me/Are just about to die." Classic rot, fraught with wailing emotion.) Anyway...Yeah, James Taylor is great and there are also a select few good murmuring artists out there.

[I should have caused a riot by citing Coldplay as the melodramatic ones, with associated denigration.]

 
At 5/24/2005 01:25:00 PM, Blogger Baskinoid #3 said...

Well said, Rick-DAWG. New music is more politics about image and what will sell rather than whats actually on the artists mind--although I guess that is probably what is on the artist's mind nowadays.

Hey, I think I remember seeing Tiffany on the list of one-hit wonders that are supposed to try to make a comeback on that new NBC reality TV show (along with the likes of Vanilla Ice and Boyz II Men).

*SIGH*

Anyway, thanks for the comments!!!

 

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