So what catches your attention when you're listening to music?

[jennythereader]

For me it's the singing. I tend to like pretty female voices (think Sarah Brightman) and "interesting" male voices (think Bob Dylan), although there are certainly interesting female/pretty male voices that I like too. Also, a powerful, passionate voice is intrinsically interesting, regardless of its other qualities.

The words being sung are also very important to me. If the songwriter has something important to say, or even just a clever way of phrasing things, I'm likely to get hooked. Good lyrics can make up for a mediocre singer, while a good singer can compensate for mediocre lyrics.


Instrumentally... it's harder to pick out what grabs me. I love intricate, complex drumming; piano & guitar playing that makes you wonder if the player has extra fingers; and energetic horn sections that play off each other as if the players were sharing a brain. But purely instrumental music, while it can catch my attention, doesn't seem to hold it. I tune it out if I don't hear a voice within a few minutes.

Comments

[purpura.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons I like The White Stripes, Jeremy Enigk and the now defunct Rustic Overtones is the lead male singer has such an interesting voice.

When I am in the mood for Rush too, Geddy Lee's voice is what draws me in.

(Rustic Overtones is local to the capital Region. They broke up and became Paranoid Social Club.)

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

The Rush songs that I like, I like in spite of Lee's voice. They fall into the "good lyrics can make up for a mediocre singer" category.

[dwarven-brewer.livejournal.com]

I go for a good electronic beat, like what you'd find in good 'House' music. If you've got iTunes look up "Techno Trance Anthems Vol.2" Most of the stuff on that album isn't bad for my tastes.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I don't have iTunes. Mostly, I've found that "House" and similar styles of music just turn into background noise.

[gwenlianna.livejournal.com]

Interesting/amusing lyrics, preferably that make you think if you listen too carefully. pleasant/catchy tune and vocal quality. Most of the songs I like, have some sort of memory or personal association connected to them.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

We are in accord!

[siderea]

"A beat you can dance to." Which is to say: a driving energy. (ETA: To be clear, that's not the same thing as a fast tempo. Insistence can be in a slow, gentle piece. e.g. Loreena McKennit's "She Moved Through the Fair".)

I like musicians -- vocal or instrumental -- who play with conviction and authority and sprezzatura.

I like in-pitch shaping (pitch, texture, timbre, anything) which means I tend to dislike overly mechanical instruments (piano) and prefer more organic sound production (winds, bowed-string, voice, hand percussion) which allows the musician to do interesting things within each instant.

I like interesting sounds better than "pretty" (i.e. too pure) ones. I can really appreciate an abrasiveness to a timbre.

A question for you. You say, "But purely instrumental music, while it can catch my attention, doesn't seem to hold it. I tune it out if I don't hear a voice within a few minutes."

How does song in language you don't know fall? (Or nonsense words? Or scat?) Is it instrumental or vocal to you? Is it the meaning for you, or the timbre of the human voice?

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

Meaningless words (whether nonsense or another language) seem to fall in the "a good singer can compensate for mediocre lyrics" category. I can listen to Ella Fitzgerald scat, or Pavarotti sing in Italian, and they will hold my attention.

On the other hand, when you combine a mediocre voice with lyrics that have no meaning I tune it out as quickly as I do purely instrumental stuff.

[nounsandverbs]

It's hard for me to figure this one out, because what grabs me is often as vague as, "it sounds different." I like a good voice, but I also think Bob Dylan has one, and I'm in the minority on that. I like clever lyrics, like XTC's and Elvis Costello's, but I also like lyrics that are like, "I don't know what they mean, but I feel like the singer does." (See Steely Dan, REM, and the New Pornographers, speaking of singers with unusual voices.) But sometimes it's just a guitar lick or an unusual chord change that catches my ear. I also don't listen to music as a totality -- I tend to pick it apart and analyze it. So a good bassline might be enough to hold my attention even if I don't like the song -- which is how I feel about most of Rush. :)

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I'm not any sort of musician, which I think is why I can listen to music as a totality. Some elements stand out, so they become what I base my liking on.

It sounds like you listen to music the way I read. I can almost always find something to admire, even if I don't really care for the book as a whole.

Intelligent lyrics grab me, but so do ones where it's just the songwriter playing clever tricks with language. Unexpected rhymes, unusual similes and metaphors, things like that.

[nounsandverbs]

That is how I listen to music, whereas I seem to read the way you listen.

Elvis Costello is the example I keep coming back to of someone who has both intelligent lyrics and an amazing way of playing tricks with the language. (Sometimes he sacrifices one for the other.)