Musical Taste: How is it shaped based on your own musicality

I've been around music for my whole life, whether it be singing, playing a guitar, making some noise on a drum kit, or just listening to a radio. In that time it has occurred to me that my perceptions of music, popular and otherwise, has changed dramatically based on an increase in my own personal musical knowledge.

As I began to develop as a guitarist, the way I perceived the music that I listened to began to evolve, seemingly coinciding with my musicality. For example, I listened to Steely Dan when I was a young boy but it was not until college that I revisited their repertoire. My taste back-tracked to a semi-familiar band of my youth, only the second go-round, I listened because I appreciated it for it's complexity and for the skill of the musicians that crafted the individual components of each song.

The appreciation for the skill involved is one reason that I feel musicality affects taste, however, it also parallels the music that one, as an artist creates. When I write songs, I not only draw from my musical influences, but I also choose the music I listen to based upon where my current creativity lies. For example, when listening to Mew's And The Glass Handed Kites (an amazing gapless epic from the Dainish rockers), I was, at that time, very interested in layering vocal melodies and harmonies in my recordings, often tracking my own voice five or six times. It was no surprise that I gravitated towards this album with its symphonic arrangements and layered vocals.

In posing the question to Double H friend Eric Summer, who is both a talented and knowledgeable musician (classically trained, yet also plays in indie rock bands) he felt, "musicianship is directly related to what sort of music a person likes", recalling metal as a favorite of some of the flashier classical musicians in his past (effing Violinists). He also believed the inverse to be true, stating, "the type of music one listens to influences what type of musician one will be" (a sort of "chicken and egg question" as he put it). There is proof of this in my writing as well. During a phase which I was listening to many male singer/songwriters, the likes of Emerson Hart, Howie Day, and Elliot Smith, I cranked out several songs that fall in to a singer/songwriter genre. What goes in, must come out, I suppose.

I believe that my experience in music has not only enriched and expanded my tastes, but it also makes it more difficult to weed through the schlock that one, unrelated to music, might accept implicitly. This often allows me to find many more rewarding artists and bands to sink my teeth in to, yet it creates a more involved process in my journey for new music.

There are many factors in play and I don't assume that any one thing I suggest here is the one. Certainly, since I've been a filmmaker, I've not watched films in the same light. Why should music be any different? There is a reason why I know there are 56 guitar chords in the song Gaucho by Steely Dan. Probably because I'm a nerdist and a "Dan Head". ~P