Music leads to major debate at my house
On many subjects my wife, Erin, and I have similar views — which is probably why we have been able to handle six years of marriage without wanting to kill each other.
When we discuss politics there is a little bit of difference, but not much. When we watch television and movies, we like much of the same stuff.
There is one subject, however, that does spark debate in our house — music. I can only imagine what it would be like for an outsider to watch our conversations about music since they draw such passionate responses from each of us.
She has her favorite bands and I have mine. Unfortunately, we can’t stand the other’s favorite band.
Her tastes tend to be more contemporary while I enjoy older music. She loves Nickelback and I love the Beatles.
Out of kindness I took her to a Nickelback concert a few years ago. It was awful — at least for me. I enjoyed it because she had a good time and I knew it was a great experience for her, but I had the experience of standing there like an idiot since I did not know the lyrics to many of the songs.
Sadly, I can’t take her to a Beatles concert to make her understand the suffering I endured.
I gained some bragging rights recently when VH1 ran a series of the Top 100 musical acts of all time. The Beatles were No. 1 while Nickelback didn’t make the list.
I laughed. She said the people who were surveyed didn’t know what they were talking about. It didn’t help when I told her the Beatles were probably an influence for Nickelback since nearly every band since 1970 said the Beatles influenced their work.
It also didn’t help when I told Erin all of Nickelback’s songs sound similar while the Beatles songs, especially those on the albums from 1966 and beyond, have a wide variety of styles.
She still disagreed with my assessment, which was verified by VH1.
Not all of our conversations about music center on our favorite bands.
Erin talks about how many songs stir her emotions. There are not many songs that have that effect on me, but they do bring up memories, which is probably the reason I prefer older music.
As a child of the 1980s, I have several songs in my music library from that decade. I remember the songs fondly because I enjoyed watching the videos of those songs on MTV — yes, younger readers, MTV showed music videos a long time ago (it wasn’t called Music Television for nothing) — and they remind me of the good times I had as a kid.
The bulk of my library contains several songs from the 1990s since those were my teen years and a few from 2000-05, but not much since then.
I simply do not care much for most of the music that has been released in the past five years. Sure there is a song or two I like, but those are usually performed by artists that have been in the music business for at least a decade.
I don’t know if my tastes are shaped by the fact I do not listen to Top 40 radio much anymore — I usually listen to sports talk radio — and have not had the bands drilled into my head.
Erin, on the other hand, listens to Top 40 more often and has gained an appreciation for newer acts, which leads to interesting conversations.
One thing we can agree on is that neither of us like Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus — although that could be because neither of us are 15-years-old anymore.
Maybe 10 or 20 years from now I will download music from 2011 since I will have memories attached to it, but right now I’m not wasting space in my MP3 player.
One thing I do know is that 10 or 20 years from now my MP3 player will still be full of Beatles music and there will not be a single Nickelback song to be found in my music library.
