Music is my radar

I was thinking last night about how I'm not really into 'older' music. I pretty much constantly listen to stuff that I've recently bought, which is nearly always a new release. Or I'll go back and listen to an album that I was really into when it first came into.

This is something specifically to do with albums really, not music overall. My favourite ever song (Ceremony by New Order) was released long before I was musically aware, and if a hear a Rolling Stones song I'll generally turn the volume up rather than off. Even though I like the music of the Stones, the Kinks, and all that jazz I have absolutely no desire to go back and listen to Exile on Main Street or whatever.

Its not the same with films - stuff like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Apocalypse Now, the Godfather, Once Upon A Time in the West, Citizen Kane and Gone With The Wind were all released before I was born, yet still had a profound effect on me. Books as well, like On The Road, and Confederacy of Dunces, heck even Lord of the Rings were all written long before I popped into existence, and set in a context foreign to me, but they still mean something to me.

And there's the issue. Its all to do with MEANING and CONTEXT. Albums that were released before I was born I struggle to relate to. I think songs are different, because they're smaller and more digestable. Everyone is exposed to them, but how often do you hear an album on the radio, or when you're out. Almost never.

When someone of a more mature age than me listens back to their old Beatles or Dylan EPs, they're probably transported back to those days, and reminded of how they felt when they first heard them. They have a context for them. I don't, and for that reason they don't mean anything to me. As I mentioned above, Ceremony is my favourite track, but other than a singles collection and the album they put out in 2000 (which I bought at the time), I don't own a New Order album. Nor do I even want to.

Music is literally a soundtrack to your life. I suppose its because its something you do, while doing something else. When i reread my favourite book, or pop Star Wars in the DVD player, the only memories it inspires are memories of having read the book the first time or watching Return of the Jedi as a 4 year old. When we go on holiday we come back home and make compilation CDs on the music that reminds us of the experience. We don't make a compilation of the books we read. I don't remember what books I was reading when I worked and travelled in America in 2002, but I can tell you that the three songs on repeat on American radio that summer were Complicated by Avrila Lavigne, A Thousand Miles by Vannessa Carlton, and the Middle by Jimmy Eat World.

The albums I like listening to the most are albums that I have context for. There are albums in my collection that I don't remember buying - stuff by the Deftones, Stellastarr*. I relistened to them both recently, and while I liked them, they left me feeling slightly cold and uncomfortable because they lack a context. Contrastingly when I put on an album that reminds of an experience I get that warm and cosy feeling that comes free with a bottle of nostalgia.

Take Futures by Jimmy Eat World. Few would argue its their best album, many would argue its not that good at all. But I love listening to it. Because it reminds me of Winter living in Zaragoza, and walking the streets exploring at night. Every day I hear it I was to put on a warm jacket and a scarf and go wondering in the cold. Perversely when I hear it on a sunny day I don't enjoy it as much. It feels wrong. A Rush of Blood to the Head reminds me of a two week period between buying it on the day of its release in New Orleans, and seeing them in Las Vegas.

There's lots of albums like this, and nearly all of them have a small story like those two. That's why music is brilliant. Its autobiographical. Things that you can't contexualise, lack any personal relevance to you. They're biographical. I guess the difference between the two is that with Exile on Main Street I'd be on the outside looking in, and with albums like Futures or Rush of Blood to the Head I'm on the inside looking out. And that's where I prefer to be.