Cos nobody loves me, it's true, not like you do

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

- Do you listen to miserable music?

- Did you listen to more (or less) miserable music than when you were a teenager? Or is the balance still about the same?

- What do you 'get' out of listening to miserable music?

Definitions of 'miserable' open to interpretation, of course.

(Guess who was listening to the new Portishead album last night!)

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I can't think of anything I listen to that makes *me* miserable - what would be the point?

I often like listening to sad songs though, and I like pop which has an edge of melancholy or misery or bittersweetness.

When I was a teenager I used to relate to misery sometimes, like everyone, but the thing that's changed most is that I don't relate much now to anger at the world for misery: the sad songs which move me now are ones involving regret, or disappointment, or lost potential. Which are obviously feelings most adults can relate to, sometimes at least, though if they obsessed on them the way emo kids obsess on favourite tracks they would go mental.

My favourite acts, like ABBA, are often very good at the above two things. (So is Glenn Campbell who I was listening to last night!)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I can't think of anything I listen to that makes *me* miserable - what would be the point?

This is an excellent question to which I wish I had the answer! I dunno... sometimes there's just this inner bit of yr brain which is in a permanent sulk, and needs appeasing every so often. My method of appeasing has definitely changed over the years, instead of angry spiky indie/rock it's now doom-techno like the Lex mentions above. Mellower but more menacing.

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

"I don't relate much now to anger at the world for misery"

To me this has always been the dividing line between sad personal music, which I like a lot, and cosmically gloomy music – Floyd/Radiohead/Joy Division – which I have never been that keen on. From what I've heard, the new Portishead stuff, like later Massive Attack, is drifting into the second category. It's where the apocalyptic sci-fi/1984 (and what a truly awful, overrated book that is) bollocks kicks in...