MY column for this week is about music. My love for music is something I have rediscovered, thanks to the lockdown. Usually, my free time is spent on going out, sometimes eating and many times drinking, reading books, or binging and binging on Netflix. But now, with more hours of nothing to do, I willed myself to discover new music.
I don’t claim to be a musicologist, I am just a music lover with eclectic taste leaning toward modern rock, electronica and the “old-school” pop diva music of Madonna, Beyoncé and Kylie Minogue.
So, how do I listen to music? I just have three easy steps. I am not saying this is the way to listen to music but this is how I listen to music. However you listen is totally fine. We may hear things differently. You may have your own system, but this is my method. Anyway, I usually listen to a whole album while reading liner notes. For you millennials out there, liner notes are the credits and information in the hard copy of the album you’re listening to. In the age of the Internet, however, there is Google. Anyway, liner notes are just bare facts that can give you an overall structure and some stories of the songs in album. Objective information about the song, like when, where and how it was written, maybe the key or speed and genre of the song. Information much needed when coming up with an opinion about the song.
After listening the first time with the liner notes by my side, I then listen to it again. Over and over again and try to experience it at different levels. This is so you can listen in many ways—it can be objectively then emotionally, then analytically. Tip: by the third listen, try to drop all preconceptions of the song, the artist, the genre.
This segues to my third step. Try to discover something in the song that stands out. It can be the lyrics, or the bass line, the switching of the notes, the vocals, and other techniques used by the artist and his/her producer. After listening again, try to get the standout things and see how they are used in the song. Imagine like you’re eating something for the first time—once you know the ingredients or recipe, you will try to identify each flavor and how it all comes together. Try also listening to the song again with only that standout thing you discovered about the song in your mind. You will know by then what makes that aspect of the song stand out. Why it beguiles you, why it captivates you.
To continue the third step—after learning about the song, then listening to it over and over again, and then listening to that standout element about the song and trying to understand it, the most fun would be getting the intention of the song. This may be hard too, as sometimes a song may sound fun but actually has a heartbreaking message. Or vice-versa. Is the song about love or something deeper? You’d be surprised to see that a song can be used in a lot of ways. Remember Sister Act? Obviously the film scorer did an interpretive listening of Motown songs and interpreted them so that they would be about God. You’d be really surprised how some shallow songs can be interpreted into something more profound.
Anyway, with the lockdown, I was able to “discover” a number of new music artists (some have already been around, with me finding out about them only recently) in the genre I love, such as Twenty One Pilots, lovelytheband and Hozier. But what surprised me was discovering the artists I may have dismissed. I used to shun bubblegum pop, especially the most recent ones. But I gave some of them a listen since I already had the time, and I conclude that some of these pop music artists are actually good and deserve my respect. There’s Taylor Swift, who has actually matured into a very decent songwriter (you would see how she honed her songwriting craft from the catchy and super-perfect pop song “You Belong With Me” to her more recent works).
Dua Lipa with her mixture of various genres (my favorite is the disco-sounding “Don’t Start Now.” Justin Bieber who I can now comfortably place alongside the other Justin—as in Timberlake. And now, I am actually now more open to hip-hop—the most undeniable musical force these days.
On the local front, I have discovered the wonderful world of Tarsier Records. While it has been in existence for some time, it’s only now that I gave a listen to the different releases of this indie music label. Standing out for me from their roster is Moophs.
Check the artist out on Spotify or via his YouTube page. Moophs has a couple of songs available there and I really like “Catching Feelings,” a cool collaboration with Iñigo Pascual, and “Loved You Better,” a Sam Concepcion-sung ditty that actually surprised me as I still see Sam as that lanky tweener who I think won a singing competition on TV (I may be wrong here). There’s also a song he did with Xela, a female singer in the mold of an Ariana Grande. Their song “Space Travel” can be played alongside songs very popular with the kids nowadays and you would actually think it’s an international production.
While many people are saying music is dying, I beg to disagree. There is still a lot to discover. Go use this lockdown time wisely and productively, and listen to more music. n