Leaving Your Comfort Zone

Since I was last posting, I have done quite a bit of thinking about why I like the things I like, and how I am exposed to new things. Generally, I use a small group of websites for pop culture, especially movies and music. My first and foremost source is The AV Club (http://www.avclub.com) which is a fantastic site with all kinds of goodies. It has definitely introduced me to a lot of great music that I was either too young or too clueless to discover on my own. If you share some of my proclivities, you can definitely lose yourself in it for hours. Pitchfork, of course, because I am obsessed with what other people think of me, and its the number one site for people who like music for that very reason (I kid, mostly).

But what I got thinking about was how these sites reflect music that skews towards my established tastes anyway. I don't listen to music radio much (I'm more of a CBC guy), so I don't get whats new and popular from there, so I really rely on the web and friends to find new things. And as I said, these sources tend to skew to my current tastes. There's been a lot of talk about how the Internet will create tribalism and epistemic closure, that people with access to infinite information will only seek out that which confirms their existent biases, beliefs etc.. There may or may not be some truth to this, I'm not really sure, but I do know that pop culture in general and music more specifically definitely trend towards tribal closure. Genre addiction is definitely the number one illness that afflicts music fans. Look no further than metal, punk and rap. I would argue that 90% of people who identify themselves as fans of any of the above genres, or even belonging to their sub-cultures, will only listen to music that belongs to that category. I always think of myself as someone with an expansive taste in music, because I listen to 1930's blues, or 60's garage rock, experimental noise rock, and any other number of styles, but at the end of the day, I'm sure that if I took enough time, I could draw a fairly straight line connecting all of them, and not in abstract, or stretching ways. People tend to like sounds that are similar, which makes Woody Guthrie and the White Stripes easier for me to digest than, say, Michael Jackson and R. Kelly (bad examples?).

In politics, I consider myself "left-of-center" but I try and read predominantly conservative writers and commentators. I could sit around agreeing with 80% of what Paul Krugman has to say, but I find it more enriching to see what someone like Mark Steyn or Kathleen Parker has to say, and seeing how that affects my world view. Thinking about that, I have been trying to apply this to my pop culture intake, and especially music.

In a book store a few weeks ago, a volume caught my eye. "The Rest is Noise" by Alex Ross (http://www.therestisnoise.com), which is a great book about classical music in the 20th Century. This is a subject I knew next to nothing about, aside from the "Rite of Spring" riot legend, and some stuff I picked up at University about Aaron Copland and New Deal music. Having gotten about halfway through the book, I can definitely say it is an engrossing subject, and I recommend everyone who hasn't already pick up this book and read. But the best thing I am taking from it is the music itself. This is a perfect example of a subject outside my comfort zone, that I knew nothing about, and that I am now slowly enveloping myself in. Its a bit of a slow grind to pick up all the music, a lot if it is hard to find (although the Toronto Public Library is a great resource), but it's definitely helped me expand my musical horizons. Right now, Stravinsky and Shostakovich are what I have, but I am looking forward to getting some Strauss and Mahler, some Gershwin, Copland and Messiaen, and countless more.

Listening to 20th Century classical music will be an obvious gateway to classical in general, which will give me a further understanding of where music has come from. I think this is the best part about discovering new things, new ideas, new genres. Understanding (or at least appreciating) 20th Century Classical music has definitely given me an understanding of a lot of trends in 20th Century music in general. Listening to Strauss or Stravinsky not only gives me an appreciation of their work, and of classical music in the last century, but I think it gives me a better appreciation of music in general. Listening to Shostakovich can make make Animal Collective that much more interesting. Or that much less. And that's the best thing about leaving your comfort zone.

............and we're back

After over a year of silence, I have returned. Due to unintentional, but much appreciated influence of an honest to goodness writer, I have decided to resurrect good old Possible Side-Effects. There is going to be a fairly major stylistic change, however. I am not going to be reviewing the record collection in total, per se. I will still write about the albums I love, but I am also going to start focusing on many of my other obsessions, such as books, films, the odd current events story, you name it. Hopefully I can be a little more focused (by expanding my focus) and maybe even attract some actual readers. Keep on checking the blog, I'm going to try and post a couple of times a week.

Until Next Time,