Last edited Wed Jan 25, 2023, 05:39 PM - Edit history (2)
And whenever somebody asks me what genre or performer I like they assume that everybody is *immersed* in the whole catalog of the genre or artist. I don't analyze influences - intellectualize - am a generalist, on the surface, superficial as some will say. I don't seek out, I let the various levels of filters and happenstance block things out and when (in the case of music) something seeps through all the layers and filters and finds its way to my level - and I *like* it - all good.
So I like one song (in this case) by TayTay, but know nothing about her other stuff, and am not boxed into whatever her genre is (she dips into Country, too, no?). Probably I like 3 or 4 Willie NELSON songs, but am not "Country." Etc. Although I'm stronger in what I *don't* like - detest Jazz and most Alternative stuff.
I don't expect anybody to know, but I repeatedly say that *MELODY* is absolutely PRIMARY, that lyrics are way next to nothing for me. Music is IT. After a piece has grabbed me with the melody and have heard it hundreds of times I might make the effort to see what the lyrics say, but for many of the songs I like I have ZERO idea what the lyrics are or are about.
As Lenny BERSTEIN demonstrated in one of the Young People's Concerts, you can take any lyrics off a song and substitute lyrics saying the opposite or just plain nonsense words or grunts. The Ave Maria can be divested of its religious lyrics and be inserted with obscenities and the MUSIC/MELODY is what counts. One time here I admired "Chandelier" by Sia, which had pierced through my filters via a (Dior?) commercial, and I was told here that what made the song fantastic was that it was about drugs and suicide. Nope, not for me. I had ZERO idea what the lyrics said and ZERO idea about Sia beyond that she inexplicably draped her face with hair (wig?). It was the MELODY/MUSIC that grabbed me. Same said about "Imagine". While I appreciate the sentiments of the lyrics, THOSE (like the Ave Maria) can be ditched and have whatever substituted.
That said, after a song has gotten past my jumping-through-hoops and I've allowed the lyrics to be checked out, I'm willing to play along and let the piece be mine in its totality. Obviously, whenever there's a great melody, the makers of it would usually want lyrics that would do it justice.
This is one of the few times I quote a Republican, when EISENHOWER was asked what music he liked, he said TCHAIKOVSKY, "because it's *TUNEFUL." And Lenny said that (in Lenny's vast expertise), Pyotr is unmatched in his melodic genius.
What I like has to be "tuneful" of the showstopper stripe. I can appreciate a soulful, stripped down performance like TayTay at this piano, would not seek out a whole big production in a video. I'm bracing for the Oscars because, in this vein, I've looked at brief descriptions of the nominees and all I see are explosions and extraterrestrials and "superheroes." Nope, nup, nada. Would way prefer a couple of characters interacting, like TayTay at the piano.
*** ON EDIT: A *perfect* example of my primacy of melody/music over lyrics, the glorious Queen of the Night aria, besides that it's in a language I am ignorant of making the meaning of the words that much more incomprehensible:: When I looked up the lyrics, I was floored at the BIZARRE NUTCASE content. Yet, it's a glorious piece, both in composition and in performance, and perhaps the incomprehensible (to me) words make it that much more so.
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