Everyone comes across a band or artist that generates some kind of influence into one’s philosophical thought. This thread is about sharing your thoughts on the subject of philosophy in music and how it has affected you. How has a certain music artist, vocalist, or band opened your eyes and mind to a different aspect of life? Most importantly, who has made this influence on your life?
Personally, I have found the musings of Maynard James Keenan in recent years to be quite a mind-opener in my life. However, I shouldn’t just single him out…I have had my moments of reflections with a vast number of lyricists and songwriters.
Music, in my experience, doesn’t offer a “difference aspect of life”; it’s power resides more in perspective and expansion. There’s alot of stuff out there which actually provokes (in me) all the feelings of a premature burial. And then of course, there is the kind of music God Himself would have to compete against.
The songs of the Flaming Lips (primarily written by Wayne Coyne) are full of potent lines and philosophical ponderings, and went a long way to helping me understand how art and humour are the antidotes to nihilism
"There are those who think that life
Has nothing left to chance
With a host of holy horrors
To direct our aimless dance
A planet of playthings
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
The stars aren’t aligned —
Or the gods are malign
Blame is better to give than receive
You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that’s clear
I will choose free will" -Rush, Freewill.
“What does it matter to you?
When you got a job to do you gotta do it well.
You’ve got to give the other fella hell.” -Paul McCartney and Wings, Live and let die.
I did some reasearch and “Purple Parallelogram” never made it to album and it was 20 years after motorhead’s self titled song “motorhead” in which the lyric first appeared… but that’s cool, another band of parallelogram enthusiasts…
Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins deserve a mention - a songwriter/band that consistently dealt with the human condition.
From lines such as ‘Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage!’ to ‘Tomorrow’s just an excuse’, to ‘God is empty, just like me’ and many others I haven’t got time to mention.
Sagesound, as far as I understood, you mean music and not lyrics. Please correct me in case of misunderstanding your statement.
Here goes my statement. In my opinion music doesn’t stimulate the brain to think, it merely plays with emotions. I think everyone of us has made the experience of being tensed when listening to something heavy or being sentimental and emotional when listening to Mozart or Brahms. But I tend to believe that certain keys release memories and assosiations, which in my opnion could ‘open someone’s mind’.
As for me, I used to listen to ‘Conclusion’ by Apocalyptica and I assosiate the music to creation of the universe. It makes me think of the physical processes, of creation of new stars, of beauty of a supernova.
Good pick, Sagesound. I can also say that Tool has definately influenced me and has actually helped me through some painful times …
So familiar and overwhelmingly warm
This one, this form I hold now.
Embracing you, this reality here,
This one, this form I hold now, so
Wide eyed and hopeful.
Wide eyed and hopefully wild.
We barely remember what came before this precious moment,
Choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside…
This body holding me, reminding me that I am not alone in
This body makes me feel eternal. All this pain is an illusion.
Good stuff.
xplicit,
On whether music opens your mind or not, I think it depends on the person. For example, when I listen to something like Brittany Spears, neither my emotions or thought processes are interested at all. But, for someone else this might do wonders.
I do know for a fact that artists do wright their songs, strategically, in certain keys to put onto the listener a sense of open-mindedness. For example, “Scarborough Fair” by Simon and Garfunkel is in the key of E which can be associated with the infamous Olm of eastern cultures.
Although off topic, it is an interesting point you’ve made, and something worth thinking about. I’m not a big fan of Brahms, but Bach sure hits the spot when I’m craving fancy harpsicord or organ music.
Yeah? I used to listen to Apocalyptica’s tribute album to Metallica, and although some of the songs were not as moving as the real thing, they still meant something.
Indeed…more importantly, APC helps even more through those painful times (and moreso now than ever with James Iha - former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist!)
It is true, musical interlude serves as a just medium for getting a point across, be it about philosophy or anything for that matter… interestingly enough, even Mudvayne has something to say. “This is it, this is it, we got something to say…” -Silenced (Heh…)
Of course, I agree that depends on the person, since everyone has a different taste. besides I am not sure whether Spears’ music can be considered as real passionate music at all, but that’s the task of the critics to discuss it.
I haven’t written music myself, but I’ve been fortunate to observed how music is written. It’s a very long process to find the keys which open the feelings (I’m referring to the Godfather Theme by Nino Riota for examlpe).
It was worthy watching the creation of the soultouching soundtrack, which the repetitive element in every song, which made it sound similar to the others and at the same time so unique.
Please excuse me. It must have been my mistake.
I’m not his fan, either. Neither do I listen to classic music a lot, but I didn’t relate the statement about Mozart to myself, since there are a lot of people who praise this music.
There are two versions of the song ‘Conclusion’. You should certainly listen to it, if you like their style. Apocalyptica plays Metallica is a nice album, but some of the songs are better in their original way, like you’re said, especially Unforgiven and Sad But True.
I guess The Talking Heads are the obvious choice for the post-structuralist thinkers out there.
The Deleuzian interpretation of TTH’s ‘Cross-eyed and Painless’ in The Logic of Sensation is a good example. The schizo dynamics of the words and music illustrate his metaphysics of immanent difference pretty well.
I imagine I’m not alone in thinking there are several notable mirrors between the pseudo-viscerality of Deleuze’s “libidinal philosophy” and David Byrne’s music/lyrics.
Yeah, I agree The Flaming Lips’s Clouds Taste Metallic stuff is quite provocative both lyrically and musically. Every song on that album seems to come from its own independent mini-world. Nothing on that album - or Zaireeka for that matter - seems to cover their own charted territory.
Joy Division are great also. Ian Curtis’ lyrics definately have apparent Nietzsche/Kafka/Camus influences.
Well this is my first real post, after reading some of your views I would like to make a small contribution to this thread, so here goes.
From an early age I grew up listening to a lot of Queen I found their music fresh and good to listen to. I think Farooq Bulsara (Freddie Mercury) deserves a mentioning in this post because he is one of the most talented singer/song writer there will ever be. For instance take the piece Bohemian Rhapsody now if you remove the lyrics and just look at the notes, it looks a complete mess with all the different styles of music. But soon as he added the lyrics in the piece it turned out to be a fantastic collaboration.
Now obviously this record was released in 1975 in which I was not even born yet, but when this record was released, it was very advanced for its era. I still listen to this song 30 years later and it still makes me say ‘WOW’ and not many other songs even today get close to this standard. I know this is more of an opinion rather than a fact.