Today (or when I started writing this... good chance this won't go up the same day), we had this big interview-fest in my class where everyone interviews everyone else. It's a class about blogging (which is why I originally started this blog), so that's why that happened. And I asked the above question! "Above" meaning the title of this post.
Quick btdubs: Everyone here has a blog, and they're all awesome and you should read them and I'll post links to them!
Kim:
I pretty much always tie emotions and memories to music, it'll define any given moment more. It's just... everywhere. Like watching a movie without music would suck, it adds so much even when you don't really think about it. Music helps me write, helps me be a more creative person. Without it, I'd... I'd probably be pretty boring, almost unemotional. I don't think I'd be a writer... Probably something boring. Like a lawyer. Music helps me write, but it also helps me clear my head. Like at the end of a really shitty day, you just wanna listen to music, you know?
Also, YouTube probably wouldn't exist.
Kim runs a romantic advice blog called Ruff Romance. You know all those dating blogs out there that give scary-terrible advice about playing the opposite sex and encourage really unhealthy outlets for any problems you might have with your partners? Hers is the complete opposite of that. It's actually pretty awesome, like legit "couples should take note of this" kinda stuff. Or forever-alones like me. Boo hoo.
http://www.ruffromance.blogspot.com/
James Ragen:
...Well, I'd probably be a lot less poor and tattooed. More successful. I would have studied a lot more.
You know, I played music for a long time, grew up listening to punk rock, stuff that was anti-authoritative, pro-drinking, pro-"being cool" [
proceeds to nearly fall off chair]. I feel like that really informed my attitude in the coming years... independent, anarchistic. I use music to describe things in my writing a lot. I'm working on a collection of short stories now, called "Love Songs for Anarchists", with this punk rock backdrop to all these different moments.
My other big thing is hip-hop, the stuff I listen to to get me through work. Punk rock and hip hop. Those are my jams. It's weird you know? One's really super-nihilistic and the other's super-materialistic.
I dreamt of being a rock star in high school, did that whole thing for years. You know, playing in bands, drinking too much, smoking too much weed, trying to drop out of college. In fact, I dropped out of UIC to move to Minnesota to join a band that broke up the day I got there.
I'm a hopeless romantic. Any lady I'm with, we have "our song".
I tie music to any moment of great change.
James here runs a booze blog that I contributed a post to! Which is like half the reason I'm advertising it here. Just kidding! Mostly. If you think anecdotes and articles about booze that aren't just "lol beer's great bro!" is something you'd like, check it out! Even if it's not, check it out anyway. Don't be a dick.
http://www.kissthebottle.net/
And right hurr's the post I contributed!
http://www.kissthebottle.net/2013/04/the-twenty-first-birthday-growing-up.html
As of recent, James also writes for Sorry for Partying! Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. A whole website about partying. I... I'll admit I kinda love it. Un-ironically. Check out his shit!
http://www.thes4p.com/
Taylor:
The earliest cognitive memory I have is of my dad singing these folks songs, whenever he was doing work around the house or even just walking around. Now, whenever I do physical labor or chores, I still find myself subconsciously singing those same songs. To me, music is what occupies that otherwise negative space in our brains. This may come as a surprise to you, but I'm actually a very quiet person. I read a lot, write a lot. All very solitary pursuits. I'm not really into punk or anything quite like that.
I grew up in working-class North England, a primarily Celtic area. Dad was going from job to job, not much money to go around. I was born in '89. Most of the stereo equipment we had was very old, had all these brands that aren't even around anymore. In fact, we didn't have a CD player. We had a turntable. We'd play Beatles, early Stones, Wings. I didn't even get into any 90s music until the 90s were over. I think that's why I'm good at history, because so much of me came before I existed, if that makes any sense.
I fracking love history. I just wish it weren't taught so goddamned boring...ly. Boringly? Oh, guess that's a word. Why wouldn't it be? Whatever, it's late. Well thankfully, Taylor here knows how to teach history and make it awesome. So culture yourself up, slacker, and peruse his blog!
http://taylorrockhill.wordpress.com/category/history/hashtag-history/
Beth:
I... can't really imagine that. Like, any sound can theoretically turn into music. That just... doesn't seem natural.
It would probably be quiet. And I feel like I wouldn't remember things. So I feel like I'd be dumber. In fact, we'd probably all be dumber. Like you know how some people play Mozart for infants? There wouldn't be any of that. Oh, and no one would dance. Actually... would anyone have patterns in their heads? Because auditory patterns are really dependent on how we order things in our own brains and vice versa. So without music... no patterns. No mating songs either. So basically, what I'm saying is, no music, no carbon-based life.
Beth runs a reviewing blog. Excuse me. A blog of
fake reviews. It's... I...
Just, here. Look at it. You'll thank me later.
http://www.opinionsfordummies1.blogspot.com/
Amy:
It would be really sad. It's in pretty much every aspect of our lives. In the shower, or when I'm writing, or commuting... all listening to music. Like even when I'm not listening to it, I'm still listening
for it, you know? Like someone skates by you and you hear what's coming out of their headphones. It's a little street-song. In that way, I feel like I wouldn't be as observant. Honestly, I wouldn't want to exist without it.
Music's always been a huge inspiration on my writing, the lyrics in particular. There's this band I like - La Dispute. The singer... he's tone-deaf. There's no other way to put it. But he's a fucking
poet. His lyrics are what got me into spoken word. I still try to incorporate that style into my writing.
I feel like I wouldn't even be a writer without music. To me, a song is already a story. Some of the first writing I did was fanfiction about bands I liked. It was... it was pretty horrible, stupid. But fun, you know? From there, I started writing my own stories.
I first really got into music my freshman year. I was a little elitist about it. I started out getting into a lot of folk music - Bright Eyes, Defiance Ohio, Street Light Manifesto. Then I got into indie rock, and then I really found my own style of what I like. Stuff like La Dispute and Defeater.
Amy here shares my love for music. Okay, that sounded stupid. Most people love music. What I mean is, she loves music like I do, in a way that demands she write about it. Holy moley, I can't word tonight. Look, it's really good, lotta prose, lotta sweet jams, lotta great storytelling. Just go check it out so I can stop being beaten into the floor by my exhaustion and the English language.
http://pitypartyparade.tumblr.com/
Megan:
I want to say "it would suck", but I just had this whole conversation rallying against people who just say "It sucks".
So often with writing, it's our challenge to find the right words for each emotion. Over the years, I've realized that music
is the emotion. I can tell what I was feeling at any given moment by the music of that time. I can tell by what destroyed mixtapes are lying around, scratched CDs. They're like a documentation of my life, of how I became who I was. Because I can remember certain songs and what they meant to me, I remember when I became politically active, breakups, when I was sad, etc. You're blogging about 90s music, right? I'll bet you really get to see who you were. [
She was right.]
I think that's way more profound than "It would suck".
I'm 37 years old now. If I were to yell back in time at myself at 20, I'd tell myself to keep really good journals. To me, music's as good, if not better a way to do that.
There's a quote by Toni Morrison that I've always loved. "You'll never remember what someone did, you'll never remember what someone said. You'll always remember how they made you feel." Music is the key to that idea. Someone walks in the door, and you hear the soundtrack of them entering that space.
Megan... actually doesn't have a blog, that I know of. But her husband runs one, thisiscolossal.com, and it's fucking rad. It's about art, and science, and crazy wonderful shit that's bigger than us that reminds us why we're here on this planet in the goddamned first place and hnnnnnnggggghhh
here.
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/
Brian:
...I can't imagine. It's the reason I left Florida, why I moved here. I was doing both music and writing there, but I'd gotten to a point where I felt that I couldn't get to the next level without an external push from classes, so I signed up at Columbia. It's opened so many new realities, so many wonderful, or at least interesting adventures. And misadventures.
I'd have a more straightforward life path - birth, grow up, get a job, wife and kids, house, dog, death - and I might be okay, but I'll always have the lingering feeling that something's missing. Fairly recently, I realized music's been the big inspiration in my life. Writing's great too, but if I had to pin it down to one, it's been music. Even when I write, even when I try
not to involve music in it somehow, music finds it's way in. It's inescapable. It's everywhere, you know? Like you're walking around Walgreens and you hear music going. Why is there music in Walgreens?
The similarities between the two are striking, composing a song or writing a story. Like in a song - why are you making sound here rather than there? With music, it's just as much about where you
don't put sound as what sound you do put and where. Or with making a film - where do you put the camera and why? How do I entertain myself during this part, make it fun to play, and then rein it in, turn it into something good?
If you couldn't figure out from the above interview, Brian's a writer as well as a musician. He posts a lot of his writings on this here blog:
http://suededenimfiresale.wordpress.com/
and you should go read all of it. Like do it. Or I'll smack you. You won't bleed, you won't even bruise, but I'll smack you. Open-palm. It'll be loud and it'll sting and you'll feel like you've been smacked by a particularly reproachful woman.
Smacking aside, go read it.
