Whilst growing up through the mid 1960s and onward, I was surrounded by the music of the time and started buying my own albums from around 1975. If you type "what makes this song great" into Google, you will find the YouTube channel of a chap by the name of Rick Beato. Rick has an extensive background in music, having taught music at university, played as a session musician around the world and having been in several bands. He will take a song and dissect it, isolating what a vocalist, guitarist or drummer was doing and revealing the complexity and layering that went into the creation of a song. One develops a new-found respect for particularly the vocalists of bands from the 1960s to 1980s, who were amazingly accurate and pitch perfect without any gimmicks like auto-tune. You come to understand and appreciate why the music from that era stays fresh and appealing. Not only is it the artistry of the musicians but, also the layering of harmonies and audio tracks that lends a complexity and depth to the music which titillates the ear and perhaps subconsciously the brain into coming back again and again because there is so much to hear and focus on at each listening.
Something somewhat strange that I have experienced in recent years is that I will hear a song on the radio, for example "Yellow by Coldplay". Whilst I enjoy the song on the radio and am drawn to it every time it is aired, I am not sufficiently impressed to feel the need to acquire the album. Then I watch a show like X-Factor or The Voice and a contestant delivers a good rendition the same song. Suddenly I think I may have missed something before and I am now motivated to get the song or album. When I then listen to the original again, there may be an increased enjoyment of the song but, not as much as the cover I saw on TV. Is our perception and appreciation of the music heightened by the added visual impact and possibly the reaction of the audience and judges to some extent and if so, why do I not get the same thrill and impact from watching the original band in concert with their audience going nuts?
At any rate, it all makes for an interesting journey in music appreciation. From needing different systems for different genres of music, to preferring some albums via headphones and sometimes just being pleasantly surprised by a contestant on a TV show.
Something somewhat strange that I have experienced in recent years is that I will hear a song on the radio, for example "Yellow by Coldplay". Whilst I enjoy the song on the radio and am drawn to it every time it is aired, I am not sufficiently impressed to feel the need to acquire the album. Then I watch a show like X-Factor or The Voice and a contestant delivers a good rendition the same song. Suddenly I think I may have missed something before and I am now motivated to get the song or album. When I then listen to the original again, there may be an increased enjoyment of the song but, not as much as the cover I saw on TV. Is our perception and appreciation of the music heightened by the added visual impact and possibly the reaction of the audience and judges to some extent and if so, why do I not get the same thrill and impact from watching the original band in concert with their audience going nuts?
At any rate, it all makes for an interesting journey in music appreciation. From needing different systems for different genres of music, to preferring some albums via headphones and sometimes just being pleasantly surprised by a contestant on a TV show.
