Now, I must admit that I'm hardly well versed in music, and I'm very much outdone by a great number of people who care much more about it than I do. Nonetheless, I find it an interesting topic because it is the most popular contemporary form of artistic expression, perhaps with film excepted. When done well, it can have the same effect as the most brilliant of poetry.
I did think it interesting as well that there are ways in which people are used to listening to popular music - what is perceived as good, what as bad. For me, the matter is quite simple: I eliminate anything whose lyrics are terribly predictable or crude. Poet that I think myself to be, to listen to words that seem to make no attempt to live up to the standards of everyday speech (not even poetry, since any song that were truly poetry would be truly remarkable; there are but few).
Secondly, however, there is a certain expectation of what music is supposed to sound like, lyrics excluded. I still recall the first time I heard the songs "Cast No Shadow" by Oasis, "When the Sun Hits" by Slowdive, and "Idea Track" by Idlewild. Even long before that, the song "1969" by The Stooges made me feel physically ill upon first hearing it, which I believe was probably the intent. These songs were just so completely outside the realm of anything I'd heard that it was really quite impressive the effect they had on me. Of course, in those days I was hardly familiar with anything not found on Top 40 Radio or classic hits stations.
Since then, however, I think I've heard a pretty diverse range of music. I try not to be surprised by everything, and when I am, it's really a very good thing. I've accepted the high pitch and kineticism of Superchunk, the imagery and honesty of Slint, and the density and loneliness (lost amongst wave upon wave of sound) of My Bloody Valentine.
I think it noteworthy, then, that two bands (and there may be more to come in the future: that I do not know, of course, at this point) should have seemed so absolutely strange to me even after having familiarized myself with their peers, so that it took me some time to get used to it, and that I did indeed end up really liking that aesthetic after all. Sometimes I wonder if I could go back to having never heard such music, because the effect would be that much more strange.
Chronologically, Guided by Voices was first. The first GBV album I got was Alien Lanes, and that mostly based on reviews rather than songs, although I really liked "Motor Away" at the time. When I tried to play through it all at once, every song just seemed so different. "A Salty Salute" was so simple, almost cavemanlike in its establishment of a motif just to end it immediately. "Watch Me Jumpstart" was both energetic and lethargic. I still don't know what to do with "Hit". At the same time, "Game of Pricks" was some stroke of genius unlike anything else. It's almost just a wall of noise, the melody barely escaping, yet the words are everything. Nothing sets the stage: it just begins. And "My Valuable Hunting Knife" sounds like it could be played by a middle school band, yet has some strange sophistication to it. It was all so primitive and strange. Just as certain modernist paintings - perhaps Beckmann or Gauguin - first strike the viewer as too crude to be expressive, but soon gain a huge significance, Guided by Voices came to encompass an almost effortless grandeur and depth, like Stonehenge built with all the technology of the modern world.
Suede is almost the opposite, yet I encountered a similar learning curve. As a Verve and Oasis fan, I fancied myself a Britpop aficionado, and as someone who also listened to David Bowie, Suede would seem to be right up my alley, yet there was something unapproachable about it. It was so theatrical, so over the top, yet at the same time seemed to sterile, which I suppose is the Bowie aesthetic to some extent, at least as I perceive his Berlin albums, actually owning none of them. The lyrics are overwhelmed by a sense of performance, and almost disappear, and the music becomes secondary. Other than c. 1994 Oasis which is all about Liam being amazing enough to make up for his cockiness, and also balls to the walls 1998 Idlewild, I think Suede may be the most incredible live act I've seen on youtube (if I thought any shoegaze would have the same grandeur live, Slowdive would also be up there, but in my opinion the medium needs to be flawless for music like that). Eventually, I came to find the meaning to the music. It's not just a glassy sheen, there's something inside. Once that purity becomes a medium to expression rather than a deterrent, Suede is amazing. The opposite of GBV really.
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