Real Music

A certain..."individual" asked me recently if I miss listening to "real" music. In a word, no. I love the music I listen to, obviously, otherwise I would listen to something that isn't it. 

The issue that brought up his question was me listening to Warp Riders, an album by The Sword. My understanding of the album is that it is about a character called the Archer that discovers an artifact or seeks an artifact known as the Orb, and he is tasked by the Orb to find and defeat a being known as the Chronomancer. To do so, he must journey through time and space and a city called the Nightside. I don't know about you, but that sounds like the best 80s sci-fi film ever. It also inspired a post from a while ago about a city in space that is inhabited by The Darkest Night Detective Agency, and the final scenario of the Rebellion Arc campaign. 

Fine, the music isn't "real." I get that it isn't about love or loss and the band isn't turning a genre on its head or whatever, I get that it is about space pirates and being sold as a slave in a interstellar city on the edge of the universe. However, it does rock and it does have a good sound though. I think of it as a DnD campaign set to music, and that makes me love it. I like the imagery and the adventure that the lyrics paint a picture of, I can see Nightside in my mind's eye, and the song makes me want to go there. 

Music speaks to you, to some part of you, that is why you like it. I like stories, and especially stories about space and adventure, so of course concept albums like Blood Mountain by Mastodon, 2112 by Rush, and Warp Riders by The Sword are beloved by me. Of course I like songs about vikings and sowing the hydra's teeth in soil to make skeletal warriors. I also like Led Zeppelin, because they are awesome and have songs like Kashmir and Houses of the Holy and Heartbreaker, and also because they wrote songs about The Lord of the Rings and vikings.

I listen to the music I like, the music that speaks to me on one level of another, I don't listen to stuff that doesn't. I listen to MC Frontalot because he writes nerdy ass shit about computers and grues and whatnot, and I can relate to most of it. I listen to Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew because I dream of wearing a tricorn hat and brandishing my pistol and cutlass. I listen to Witchcraft because their dark imagery and guitar work appeal to my tastes. I don't listen to rap because I  am not a thug with a platinum grill and my wife is not a gold digger.

Listen to what you like. It is cool to you and that is all that matters. Unless of course it says stuff like beating your wife and raping strangers is cool and you should do more of it, then you should probably find some real music to listen to that does not advocate sociopathic behavior. 

Whatever, I'm going to go listen to a song about vikings. 

Music: Forget You - Glee & Gwyneth Paltrow

Music: Bed Intruder - The Internet(s)

Music: Bowie's In Space - Flight of the Conchords