Take What?
It started in the nineties. With Take That. In the year of 1993, loud boybands appeared in a summer that sounded so much like Take That. But they were not Take That. They were called Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, Caught in the Act, or East 17. All stupid names. Everyone looked like the freshly-blown United Nations gymnastic group. In woman, there was also. They were called Spice Girls, Tic Tac Toe or No Angels.
It started with me. Suddenly I did not enjoy remembering the names of these pop bands. For what? The name did not mean something special anymore. Rather the opposite. He called the general. As with the detergent, where it does not matter which brand is on the pack, when everywhere the same powder is in it. I used to hear a song from The Smiths, and it burned deep into my brain. It took information that had nothing to do with the song. What the weather was that day (drizzle), who I was in love with at the time (Kai), my blue corduroy pants (sewn at the sides) as well as the hairstyle of guitarist Johnny Marr (with a long pony hiding his eyes) as with me).
The music of pop bands always sounds similar
The brain researcher Ernst Pöppel says, without emotional evaluation, you can not remember anything. Anyone who feels nothing does not save any memories in the brain. Does that mean I do not remember anything because I do not feel anything anymore? Or do not I feel so deeply anymore? Or just different? One thing I know for sure: As it was then, many things never happened again. Being for the first time in love. The fear of the first kiss. The first lovesick. I used to be able to memorize the songs of my favorite bands by heart. At least I had an opinion or a feeling about the others, knew the names and faces of the musicians.
Nothing is left of pop bands like the backstreet boys.
Sometimes I had to cry, sometimes I got goose bumps or just a good mood. When I listen to music while driving a car on the radio today, nothing happens to me. At first I thought, that's up to my ears. But that's not true. It's up to the music. The sounds are processed on the computer until they sound as similar as possible. A hit like the other. The music should not irritate anyone. More precisely, nobody should notice them.
Boy George once said: "In the eighties, maybe we all could not sing, but at least we did make up ourselves." Today it is the other way round. Everyone thinks they can sing. Nobody has a face anymore. There used to be just as many scrap bands as today. Only then you did not get anything from them. They did not come out of the sinking, so to speak, and the good ones prevailed. Today there is the internet and myspace.
That's why everything is everywhere. The fast-anywhere-ability has produced many one-song artists. They're called that because they only produced one audible song and you can forget the rest. For people who love music, they are like one-night stands. Today, music is bought on the internet, just as a single person worries about cold meats. A little bit of it, a corner of it. You buy songs, not albums. Of course it is good if an author for his work still gets money from anyone today, on the one hand. On the other hand, a song on iTunes has become the essence of the art form of music. It is invisible.
There is no album to hold in your hand. No photos of the artists you look at while you hear them. Not an eternity to look for on the shelf until you finally find one or two discs. Just a few clicks, and then the air starts to swing. But that's not enough for the brain. It is easier to remember something when you can touch it and look at it.
Anastacia gives me a headache.
The older I get, the more reliable I can say what I like and what I do not like. So it is with the music. Do not get me wrong: you're never old enough to know in advance if Timbaland's new track will not blow you away or if a song by Dolly Parton will make you cry. Nobody can figure out if Radiohead's new single sounds like an earthquake in the heart or a buzzing in the ear. Music is a staple food. But now I know what I like and what I do not like. From musicals I get heartburn. And from Anastacia a headache.
That's why, for example, I do not have to know what this band is called, that makes hip-hop with funk, with the woman with the pigtails that sound a bit like the fugees, but looks like Arrested Development, who once won a Grammy and better dance as they sing. First of all, I can explain the Black Eyed Peas without a name, and second, I do not want to hear them, to be honest.
A clever person once said that replacing the word "can" with the word "want" makes life easier. I tried that. It works.Instead of saying, "I can not remember any band names anymore," I say, "I do not want to remember any band names anymore." And this is the truth.
