The Musical Paradox

I was asked about my musical preferences today and the answer which flashed in my mind was a bit weird one. The answer was ‘It depends’. Personally speaking it’s a quest for selecting one genre and that one kind of music which I can stand for. Metal is the closest but that’s not the whole story. Right from Iron Maiden to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, From Dark Tranquillity to Mukesh and From Mozart to Hans Zimmer my playlist include them all. Being honest it even has Johnny Cash, Himesh Reshammiya and a big chunk of Bollywood chart busters  So it boils down to one question is my musical choice really that diverse? No, not really.

My taste for Music changed as I grew old, there was a time when I listened to ‘Linkin Park’ and it tops my list of ‘WTF was I Thinking back then’ list. The kind of music a person listens to boils down to the phase of his life, the situation he is in and comes down to individual preference to finding the kind of music that he finds the most comfort in. As an angry raged teenager I wanted to find something loud, really loud – Metal was the answer. Death, Black, Trash you name it; I was listening to stuff which branded me as the ‘Weird Kid’. Nobody likes being the weird kid but Metal definitely makes you look like one but it was shockingly peaceful for me. And Metal community was like the hangout place for all the weird kids. I’d be lying if I say that my inclination to Metal has melted down, Hallowed Be Thy Name still is the most played track on my player. Being an atheist it’s strange that I follow Sufi Music, it being devotional ideally I shouldn’t find any relevance to such music but that wasn’t the case. When I heard Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for the first time back in 2005 I knew this was something divine and I couldn’t let this pass. To this day I haven’t heard any singer as powerful as Ustad Nusrat, he might have sang for his God but since I don’t have any I put him in that position while listening to Sufi Music.

It is out of natural instinct that my music changes considering the situation. Be it listening to Mukesh during the down times or be it listening to Immediate Music before playing Battlefield or FM; these are the choices my sub conscious mind makes and are for the occasion. Similarly I would prefer ‘The Lonely Shepherd’ by Gheorghe Zamfir to be played on my funeral rather than ‘Rain over Me’ by Pitbull even though the former has far less hits on YouTube than the later. However I still believe that metal is a closest I have of being the ultimate genre to follow for life since it covers almost every emotion a human being possibly can experience.

Right now, we are in a strange musical world. The new music kinda fades away too soon and we hardly find relevance to the songs which forces us to go back always. The YouTube generation is kinda hooked with boy chic stuff and PSY shit which is just a sad sight. But Music is very personal and I don’t think anybody has a right to question others musical preferences. Having said that I am glad and privileged that music was recorded and stored in archives thanks to the technology and someone’s brilliant mind having the foresight that things are gonna get worse in the future, because had it not been there I would never be in a position to tolerate today’s music for long and would have hated to call myself a music enthusiast.

My weird taste in music in a way reflects that my range of emotions and thoughts need more than just one genre and I am lucky to have such diverse music at my fingertips.

PS: I kinda was forced into adding this postscript to say something which I don’t mean. Well, I have a big heart so here it is – Bryan Adams is a good singer too. Can’t believe I just did that 🙂

– R