Discovering New Music

With the end of the year approaching, music websites and click-spam Buzzfeed articles have started listing their musical finds of this year.
Discovering new music has got to be one of the most enjoyable things of life. Good Music often gives a sense of ASMR. A physical sensation characterized by a pleasurable tingling that begins in the head, and often moves down the spine. It is not just mentally rewarding either. New music is known to release endorphin in the body.

Once music leaves the labels and the artists, it changes its ownership to the hands of listeners. Well, I am no lawyer and I am pretty sure that defense won't hold up when you're charged with piracy. But in a more deep and philosophical sense once a new song is out, its covers, remixes and crappy lipsyncs to the tune of blown out speakers pop up pretty quickly. Sometimes change is all the ears need.

Music is abstract, no two tracks are the same(Yes, even Nickleback's). With each new track comes the possibility of an auditory masterpiece. Music is getting better. The more it is produced, the more refined it becomes, sort of like the musical evolution. Music has not been withering, rock did not peak in 1971, disco may or may not suck and punk is not dead and now is a better time to discover songs than it was five years ago.

Those moments when you sit at the front of a screen, clicking at random titles and artists hoping to come to that music which will redefine your taste. Maybe even expand them. Eclectic tastes are complimented almost everywhere. Hipsters and top 40 listeners can simultaneously survive in the current music scene. And while I refuse to ever recognize 'indie' as a valid genre, there are now more branches of music than a 'Diary of a Wimpy kid' rehash novella.

Everyone has a process, some people use Youtube. No matter how buggy and messed up the place is, it is still the hub of choice for people hoping to expand their tastes. Each song comes up with ~10 recommendations. Another way is listening to random songs on the radio, whether online or the good old fashioned heavy sets. Random mixes are bouncing back from obscurity on sites like Soundcloud and 8tracks. Recommendations from friends is another hit-or-miss way.

Music is still one of those topics new friendships are forged over and old ones are renewed. I have some friends whom I talk to few and far between. But when we do, it's always the prospect of a new

album that gets us going. With that in mind, here's a good way to discover new artists that might end up staying with you till you're old and cranky and believe all the new age music is shit that kids with authority issues listen to:
http://www.last.fm/discover/

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Sharing the same taste

When was the last time you recommended an awesome series to a friend only to get the reply - "I didn't like it at all"? Accepting that other people don't share the same tastes as you is one of the hardest things imaginable. Why doesn't the person like what you love, why do they hate something you so firmly believe in? While you go on explaining to them how the good the thing is, how intense it is, the simple fact is, they just don't like it. You cannot do anything to change their preferences. And it feels that they have been denied something which is very harmonious and perfect. All the while they're oblivious to the fact that they're missing something so great and powerful.

Finding people who share almost the same tastes as you is very difficult and rare. It is so rare in fact, that many mistake it for love. Liking the same things is an icebreaker in conversations, it can make or break your case. But some tastes are just not meant to be forced. You cannot force that AMAZING band on your friend, they have to like it on their own. It's sort of like naming a pet. No matter how interesting the names you suggest, the person is going to choose his own favorite name, even if it sounds dull to you.

When you have someone that shares the same tastes, you have someone to talk to. Liking the same unique thing together is even more special. But what happens when anything you can talk about has to be something mutually liked? You're building up someone a lot mentally by projecting so many things onto this one person. 

There's a difference between liking the same things, and liking the person. So when someone doesn't like the same thing as you, it's their preference, and the point of preferences is that you don't have to explain them. 

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Frisson: Trapped in the amber of the moment

Listen to this post using the Soundcloud widget on the side-bar.
Sometimes, while listening to music, something weird and beautiful happens. Time stops. It stops being of any significance, it stops having instinctual power over you. But mostly, it just stops.  Like most feelings, there is in fact a word for this sudden thrill and excitement. Frisson. Frisson is a shudder of emotion, a fleeting sensation of excitement from an epic moment of a song, or the climax of a movie. 

 During these instances, reality becomes surreal. Almost a mirage. Your body's autopilot takes over. You  make decisions, you do things that you don't remember 10 seconds after you've done them. Your body is doped on life, literally. Moments of frisson release dopamine in your body, which is intoxicating.

This is one of those times your own reality starts looking terribly unimportant. Everything both makes sense and doesn't. Music seeps into you.This is, in my opinion, an altered state of consciousness. Some of the most complex and creative thoughts are birthed while listening to music. They cannot be defined, but you can understand their potent essence. They have a reality of their own, separate from themselves. It is the outburst of soul.


Many take these moments of introspection and gain unquantifiable insight. But mostly, during these short times of frisson, time feels like an instant. It is both over very quickly and lingers for a long time. Like cocaine and Morphine, the ecstasy from the frisson of an event decimates after the first time. Replaying that song will churn up the same feeling, yes. But with a reduced presence. Watching that movie will never be the same, again. But this has no effect on the moment you just experienced.

"Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything?"
 "Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."

Time is not the boss of you.

 You sprout a global consciousness, a compulsion to do something about the current state of affairs, but it all feels so insubstantial. A negligible period after the end of a novel. You gain the brevity of human existence and a new perspective for that short while. The meaningless life forces us to find our own meaning, even if it lasts for not more than an instant.

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5 More Irresponsibly Badass Live Rock Shows(that didn't make the cut)

If you came here from my recent Cracked Quick fix on Cracked, here are some entries that didn't make the cut. Be sure to like, share, tweet(and whatever else you people are doing now) this post.

1) PUSSY RIOT PERFORMS IN A GUERRILLA WARFARE FASHION 

This Russian band's performance is a kind of music flash mobs, only much, much more badass. Closely resembling Step Up4 movie plot, these Feminist singers are a very secret band/group and most of the identities of the members are not known. 

They appear out of nowhere, with no heavy drum sets or expensive metal guitars, usually in religious places and sing songs asking Putin to acknowledge women's rights. They entered in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and sang a song with lyrics 'Shit, shit, the Lord is shit'.

 In a country where religious blasphemy is punishable by law(It's Russia. Your argument is invalid), three members of the politically charged band were sentenced to two years after the performance. 

One of the arrested members taunted both Putin and the Church- “I thought the Church loved all its children,” she said in her written statement. “But it turns out it only loves those children who love Putin.”

The Cathedral was chosen because it had, in Pussy Riot’s view, become a commercial center and because the patriarch had just told believers to vote for Putin in the upcoming presidential election.

Source

2) MAYHEM REGULARLY THROWS ANIMALS' HEADS ON ITS AUDIENCE 

Norwegian band, Mayhem is the soul of the shock factor. They are a black metal band and the performances are often weird to say the least, Badass to say at best. But you have to draw a line somewhere when they actually use sheep/pigs' heads during live performances, licking, and sliding fingers on it like one of the chick fans. They end these usual performances with the head thrown out towards the audience to you know, 'play with it'. The band also once hit a guy  who was hospitalized when they used sheep's head instead of a pig's which is apparently more dangerous in projectile form. We all learned something new today.

Quote

. 'We usually use pigs' heads but we couldn't get one that night. We like to throw them to the audience at the end of the show so they can, y'know, play around with them.'

Source

Video: http://youtu.be/jqK_0BbZGJY?t=59s

3) GWAR SPRAYS FAKE BLOOD ON AUDIENCE IN CLOSED HALL CONCERTS

GWAR is a satirical heavy metal band known for its Sci-Fi/horror based costumes. The 'satire' in its genre is not just a play of words. 

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The Sound Of Music

                                                             Requim for a dream
                                                     
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Music is said to be just a vibration in the air, a resonance of notes. But it is much more than that. It is an omnipresent voice, an adamantine chain that binds us together. It has the power of healing scarred mental wounds, dispersing a riot of thoughts and merging the potential of hope.
Music has the calming and soothing effect nothing like the ordinary.
It is the sound of breathing, a way of facile thinking and the obvious tone of speaking.
Music has the capability of binding a prejudiced nation, helping find friends amidst the strangest of crowds and a foundation of familiarity. It may be in any genre, language and yet convey a thousand words accompanied by a simple tune. Music is how our emotions sound and our thoughts speak up.
Music provides us with hope in the darkest of moments, strength in the bleakest of scenarios and an inner power in the worst of circumstances.

 As long as music is my companion, I won't ever be alone.

A simple song can resemble our lives, it can coincident our thoughts, as the song reaches its chaotic orgasm.
The climax is personified to our actions, an uncensored epitome of freedom that cannot be obstructed by the petty factors of the 'reality' of the society and the world.

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