Cynically Observe: Music People | Teen Ink

Cynically Observe: Music People

May 16, 2016
By DomChacon BRONZE, Lafayette, Colorado
DomChacon BRONZE, Lafayette, Colorado
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

I start the day off normally -  I woke up, grabbed a book and went to my favorite coffee shop; I ordered a medium black coffee, happy that they kept the name of sizes of cups as they are and not try and build a whole new language for just  size of coffee. As I sit down at my favorite table at the shop, I look out the window see all the people walking by on the street and I hear all jumbled noise around me and see all the people that come along with it. Looking out at all the different types of people, you got to really think is it the music that make the person or the person that makes the music. It could be a bit of both I guess, I don’t really know and frankly I don’t really care. But to pass the time while I drink my coffee I’m going to observe all these people and their music.

A perfect first contender for our starting line up “Joe” or “Nick”, I don't really know his name, but he’s a pretty generic character in the modern world. He’s the kind of self entitled guy who wears all neon Muscle clothes and sunglasses inside. He mostly listens to whatever call to the crowd he’s around, which just so happens to be what the most popular song  or “rap” artist of the month is. They’re songs that take little to no effort to make and only talk about drugs or getting with a girls. My real question is to these song is how to they really get popular, is it the simple beat the non- meaningful lyrics that appeal to people like Nick or is it people like Nick that is the epicenter of it by finding something on the internet and reposting it as joke on whatever social network he happens to be on at that time and it turns out people kinda like it. Maybe the artist of the song as formed such a cult like following around his name that almost anything he makes sells. I would bet on all the above but I wouldn't really know because I general avoid that type people and music. I guess it's the simple lyric that don’t really appeal to me, but other people find so easy to connect to or want to connect to.

Alright round two and this is one of my favorites to criticize, The Hipsters. Now we have all seen hipsters and know how they think they are. They think they're not conforming to society or a groups by finding activities and music that it suppose to be “artistic” and “meaningful” ( it's quite ironic that they didn't to be apart of a group but ended up making one). There music is consists of songs a couple year to a decade old and it's something that's abstractly recorded like its suppose to make a difference in the overall song but in reality it make no difference to the overall product. There songs start off with some ramblings about life, then into a chorus of heys and ho’s, this repeats for about five to ten lines of lyrics and then they have an explosion of musical instruments, this is what the song ultimately becomes famous for. Now at first hipsters listen to this because it's so abstract and unheard off that it just for them, but over time it spreads and it becomes a regular song that’s for everyone, including our friend Nick from earlier. It is no longer a hipster song, but no worries hipster are like a wild anteater. They search for the smallest thing to devour and then move on to the next completely forgetting the previous ant they ate. It's a vicious cycle that I don't think that any hipster/musician (if that's what you would like to call it) will really get out of.

Alright what's next, “oh god” these people actually make me irritated with a passion, the Emo/Goth. Now personally I can’t really tell the difference between Emo and Goth, the minute I see a goth person they say there actually emo and then when I see an emo person they say there goth, there is no real difference and the only one who see’s the difference are the  emo/goth community themselves. But I diverge from the original topic of what type of music they listen to. Now these Emo/Goth bands have been going down in popularity in recent years and that's why I put them somewhere in between guys like Nick and The Hipster. They listen to whatever band or song that there group of emo/goth friends happen to be into at the time, but at the same time it’s so abstract and different to them that it's good. The difference between them and the others is that their music retains in their group and doesn't spread like the others. But the thing that make them really different from the other is the winningest and cult like following of it. There whole world revolves around this type of music even more so than people like Nick, they make their fashion out if it, they decorate their rooms like shrines for it and they even make there own even more so than The Hipsters. The part that makes it worse is that a majority of the lyrics are thing that can connect to the average teenager; my parent don’t get me, the world sucks, and I'm feeling depressed today, but they think it's exclusive to them, when in reality it's not. They are feeling the same things that everyone in the world feels from time to time and it perfectly normal. But the cycle continues when people don’t grow out of it and make an Emo/Goth band himself and then a new generation comes along to listen and repeat the process.

Now I can keep going all day about this topic, Old rock music is to meaningful and the people are just holding onto the past, the white boy with sagging pant who think he’s a gangster just cause he listen to a little old fashion rap (not the new stuff that’s all booty and drugs, the old stuff that actually talked about political issues), and the guy who listens to dubstep thinking it’s the greatest when it take little to no effort to make. But my cup of coffee is almost empty and my butt  is starting to hurt in this hardwood chair. But I have to ask the most important question, what type of music am I into. Well I don’t listen to a lot of American music for starters and by that I mean I listen to music from completely different countries. Now why do I do this, well in reality there's no difference from music here in America than there is music from other countries. There's all different types of styles and genres that I listen to to accommodate to what I want to feel. If I'm working out, I listen to something fast a upbeat to get me in the mood, If I wanna relax I listen to something soothing and slow, as long as it fits what I’m in the mood for I'll listen to it. But then why not listen to american music then it has the same things; well there's one key difference “I can’t understand it”. The main problem with the song today is the lyrics that try to connect to the masses by simple meaning or sometime the the people change themselves in order to connect and fit in with the music. But when you don't understand it there only one thing left to enjoy, the actually musical part of it.

Well I'm all done with my coffee now and I think I'm gonna walk home now But I would like to say one last thought that everyone should take to heart, music is opinionated. In all reality I'm not trying to convert anybody to my cynical way of thinking and you should think however you want to and the same goes with music. You can listen to whatever you want to listen to and like it and you can also dislike what I listen to, it all doesn't really matter. There is no real good music nor is there really bad music (well there are some exception to that rule but that a whole other story), it all based around you person preferences and if you like it then keep on listening to it, just dont based your whole life and personality around it, experiment with everything and find what make you happy and go with it.


The author's comments:

Its an opinion piece about people and there music and  to balance it out I metion my own taste in music. It is very cynical but there purely my opinion, I am not trying to change your views, but help you look at music and people just a little differently.


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