Sound
Pink Floyd released most of their music before I was thought of, even before my parents met. I suppose, however, that the best musicians are the ones who’s music can appeal to their children’s generation, perhaps even their children’s children. What I mean is: you know you’re a successful recording artist when you collect residuals for music you wrote thirty to forty years ago.
This thought first crossed my mind while I was lying on the dirty couch in the office of the Prep News, my high school newspaper. The title track of Atom Heart Mother whispered through my headphones at a low volume, provoking my half-conscious self to form the opening of a dream. An electronic orchestra soared through the universe on a green ribbon of star dust and hydrogen gas.
I was dreaming about the music because the music itself sounds like a dream; such a mash of different instruments, tempos, thoughts, melodies, moods, stories. They were bound together by apparently nothing, just as dreams seem to form randomly at the whim of the dreamer’s subconscious. In the next moment, I was fully asleep. But unlike the song, which I can listen to whenever, the rest of my dream from that day is gone forever from my memory.
I like the concept of dreaming about the music because the music sounded like a dream. This is backed up by the line "An electronic orchestra soared through the universe on a green ribbon of star dust and hydrogen gas." I wish there had been more lines like this, because I feel this is where the story about Pink Floyd is for you, not about successful recording artists or dirty couches.
ReplyDeletePink Floyd is an excellent example of a band that can take the listener's mind to other places. I fully agree with your claim that a successful artist is one that "collects residuals for music you wrote thirty to forty years ago." Hell, Roger Waters has still been performing the music from The Wall and it's 2011.
ReplyDeletei like how you begin by pointing out how much longer this music has been around compared to a fair portion of their listeners. i think it may be possible to go more in depth in either comparing or describing the interaction between the music and your semi-conscious/sleeping state. also, more lines like remi pointed out could help emphasize the dreaminess of the tracks.
ReplyDeleteThis begins as a meditation on music and memory, the appeal of some music across generations. A specific scene and recording. But this feels incomplete. Even if the other details of that day are gone, for some reason these remain. Explore them, speculate on why they remain, find some connection yourself today, your thesis, something that takes this further. Do you still listen to this album? How did you happen to discover it? A few details: Why not "before I was born" rather than "before I was thought of" which sounds awkward, ending with a preposition, and is more vague? Proofread: "whose music."
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't fully read correctly. It feels like a rant at times. I certainly feel the personal tone. However, it is not organized enough.
ReplyDelete