September 17, 2020 in Dag

My taste in music is totally uncool. What chance do my books have?

Every week, I’m faced with the same question. What do I post in my blog. What can I add to the massive amounts of information already churning through the world. So the wheel in my mind spins around again, and comes to land on one of my regular topics. Today, we’re back to the subject of music.

Ah yes, music is always a reliable subject to get me waxing lyrical. And also providing a conduit for grumpiness as I consider the current state of what passes for popular music.

Now I’m the last person who could ever be accused of having any desire to be cool. But every so often, it does come as a bit of a shock to realise how out of the loop I actually am. I feel like I had one of those moments just the other day when I was thinking about the type of music that I like. And it kind of hit me just how uncool my taste in music really is.

Nothing I like could possibly be considered hip or now. Nothing I like could be considered modern or edgy. It might have been once (most likely before I was actually born). But now it’s hopelessly safe and comfortable and positively uncool in every way.

I’m not even going to name the artists responsible – that would be a giveaway. Then again, I’ve named quite a few of them before on this very website. Needless to say, they are generally classified by the fact that their music involves actual played instruments, reasonably (by the standards of pop music at least) sophisticated melodies and song structures, and often quite literate lyrics. It features little in the way of electronic augmentation (at least to my ears) and none of the dreaded autotune.

And I suppose the other feature of these artists is that few of them have come close to any kind of chart position in at least 20 years.

This revelation was coupled with another realisation (yeah, my mind tends to work like that) which was possibly more shocking. Here I am, purporting to be a writer. Trying to create stories that will resonate with the great readership out there. And yet, my taste when it comes to one major art form (music) is clearly badly out of step with the general public. What chance do I have of writing stories with any prospect of commercial success if my finger is such a long, long way from the proverbial pulse?

So what are my choices? Do I change my modus operandi, try to learn to like what is popular and current, and adjust what I write accordingly? Or do I keep doing what I’m doing, hoping at some point the public will realise the error of their ways?

I think you probably have a good idea what the answer will be.

 

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