Alternative music: adressing a few common observations and debates

Music: a means of cathartic expression (psychological perspective)

Listening to an angry song to let out the negative feelings you may have collected over the course of a day really seems to help some people work with those feelings and “let them out,” as they say. Other ways people “let out” these inner aggressive urges are by punching a bag or screaming into a pillow. However, are these methods really the best way to go? Is catharsis healthy and helpful, or does it simply increase the aggression and negative feelings long term? The answer is………

Let’s do an experiment first. You listen to an angry, sad song and tell me if you feel angrier/sadder or relieved of aggression when you finish, then write down on a piece of paper what you feel so you can fully identify the feeling.

Your choice:
"Her tongue was tattooed on the back of her teeth" by Old Gray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQY5BokdtpY

"It’s cool we can still be friends" by Bright Eyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC-6saAHHYE

"I exist I exist I exist" by Flatsound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNrtbl6ddZM

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Have you done it?

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Okay, I’ll let you in on the secret: catharsis is a lie. Psychological experiments have shown that engaging in a “release” of aggressive emotions (like listening to angry or sad music) will not stop the feeling or mellow it out, it will encourage it further in the long run. This means of letting go of anger or sadness does not work as many think it does.

However, it’s always comforting to listen to sad or angry music when you are sad or angry. Just don’t delude yourself into thinking that it will make your bad feelings go away.

Radiohead and Muse: similar sounds?

Have you ever wondered if two bands sound too similar for their own good? There is much discussion over the bands Radiohead and Muse, as many claim that Muse, a contemporarily formed band, has copied the styles of Radiohead, formed in 1985. Let’s first see what you think:

Radiohead:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7bIYSVpYSU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMbNcdoFDRs&feature=kp

Muse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9LOFXwPwC4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek0SgwWmF9w

My opinion:
I recognize the similarity of the two bands, but I don’t think Muse has stolen Radiohead’s signature sound. The two bands have a lot of differences. Muse is generally more upbeat and in a major key, with more jamming on the guitar. Radiohead is a beautiful, but very depressing band, with lots of slow and minor sounds and lyrics of desparation, heartbreak, and depression. The main difference as I see it is the bands’ different tones. However, Radiohead’s debut album “Pablo Honey” illustrates the same upbeat signature and guitar jamming of a Muse song, so who knows what direction Muse will take next! Maybe they will end up even more similar to Radiohead.

Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead

Matthew Bellamy, the lead singer of Muse

The Sounds of a Musician’s Life

Getting paid to play music would be the greatest thing on Earth to me. In my most humble opinion, I choose to believe that this world would be hopeless without music, and that it will always be getting better. I can’t help it, I’m too much of a music nympho for my own good, but you know what? I love it because it’s freaking awesome. When I’m recording or playing in front of people, it’s like being in a whole different dimension. I don’t know what it is, but it’s fun. I just hope I can keep this up for the rest of my life.

            For as long as I can remember, I’ve been this maniac for music my entire life. When I realized that I may actually have a chance to DO something with my own music, I just blocked out everything else and focused on it. And that’s not me being cocky- I don’t think I’m the best musician- I just believe that my style and the abstract vibe of it has a chance to stand out, and there are many paths I can take to be what I call “successful”.

            To me, success is being able to pay my bills with my music. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in it for the money; I’m in it because it’s a blast and I want to have fun for the rest of my life. But let’s face it, this world revolves around money, and you need it to live. So all I want as far as money goes is to be able to live comfortably by financial means. That’s a goal of mine, and in my eyes, I don’t have to be a full time musician to do that (although that’d be amazing!). What I mean by full time is touring, performing, recording, day in and day out. That’s all I want to do really. But first things first; I want to get a bachelor’s in Physics, maybe even a double major of physics and music production. But that’s in a few years.

            I’m too much of a dreamer and I get super anxious after a while when things don’t change after all my hard work. I’m constantly trying to balance out school and music all day every day. I perform when I can and work my butt off to get people to go out and sometimes it doesn’t always work out as I hope, but at the end, performing is still so much fun. If I could put the experience in words, I would. It’s ethereal. But I’m going to be honest; recording an album and new songs is a billion times the fun. At least right now, I haven’t performed enough to say that I know what I’m doing as far as concerts go. Getting gigs and selling out shows is still a struggle.

            Recording a new song and hearing it as a whole for the first time after the countless hours of layering drums and finding the right key to play that one chord and chopping samples just right- it’s awesome, let me tell you that much.

            All this is basically a fragment of what’s going on in my head, daily. It’d be awesome if you supported my hopeful endeavor of being a successful musician. There’s the link; press play and enjoy. www.moestafa.bandcamp.com

Where I hope to go one day... Except without the hair and shorts.