The Music or the Misery?
Nick Hornby posed this eternal question in his book High Fidelity.
"What came first -- the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?
"People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands -- literally thousands -- of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss. The unhappiest people I know, romantically speaking, are the ones who like pop music the most; and I don't know whether pop music has caused this unhappiness, but I do know that they've been listening to sad songs longer than they've been living unhappy lives."
I was reminded of this quote today while listening to Otis Redding. It's well known by some of my friends that "These Arms of Mine" will almost instantly put me into a rather mellow, if not melancholy, mood.
Note, I chose to listen to Otis today. I physically set my iPod to play his music. I knew full well what it would do to me. What I can't figure out is whether the mood triggered the song or the song triggered the mood. What made me choose Otis?
The funny thing is, I'm generally not an unhappy person, but when a funk comes around, you can bet I'm listening to sad songs. It's entirely possible that I just notice the sad songs when I'm already sad, and am oblivious to their message when I'm feeling chipper.
It's also entirely possible that I just like being a sad sap from time to time. Like the number of licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.
Posted by Mr. Eff on 06/09/2004 || link
