30 Days of Music

Shamelessly cribbed from Matthew and Mark – let’s just call this attempt number 765 in the long, long series of me trying to establish a regular writing pattern. Oh yeah, the newsletter, I’ll pick that up again soon.

Thing is, whenever I’m writing something, I’m overcome by massive self-doubt – that what I’m doing is self indulgent, irritating and so on. Twitter is, for some reason, probably the only exception to the rule, and yet most likely to be the most irritating. Anyway, with this series of blog posts, I’m going to say this up front – I’m giving myself permission to be self indulgent. This is an exercise for me, primarily, with the hope that others might find it entertaining too.

Matt was worrying that he was writing too much about himself, and not enough about the music. With the greatest respect – have you seen the categories (below)? Each trigger is pretty much a shot across the emotional bows, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using the music as a stepping off point for something more personal. That’s what I’m planning to use it for. Yes, there will be some discussion of why I have a particular emotional reaction to a song, some attempt to describe its’ musical mechanics, but it’s also an opportunity to tell a quick story, a snapshot of where I am now.

Music has always been a big part of my life. Playing and composing, much less so – brief excursions into playing the recorder, violin, keyboard and guitar aside. But every commute is soundtracked, music is everywhere for me. So much so that the security guard in my previous job, when asked to identify me, called me ‘the bloke with the headphones’. My tastes may be more mainstream than most – if I offend you with my populism, I’m sorry – it’s just a stepping stone for something else.

I’ll do my best to post on consecutive days. The most difficult part, I fear, will be nominating a single track – but it can only ever represent my reaction to the prompt that day. Which makes future iterations of this project even more interesting, I hope. So, here we go.

The categories are:

day 01 – your favorite song – Sometimes (Miami Horror)
day 02 – your least favourite song – Just a Little (Liberty X)
day 03 – a song that makes you happy – Don’t Falter (Mint Royale & Lauren Laverne)
day 04 – a song that makes you sad – Exile Vilify (The National)
day 05 – a song that reminds you of someone – Robin The Hooded Man (Clannad)
day 06 – a song that reminds of you of somewhere – Suzie (Boy Kill Boy)
day 07 – a song that reminds you of a certain event – Map of the Problematique (Muse)
day 08 – a song that you know all the words to – Breaking the Law (Judas Priest)
day 09 – a song that you can dance to – Disco Down (Shed Seven)
day 10 – a song that makes you fall asleep – Agent Orange (Depeche Mode)
day 11 – a song from your favorite band – Enjoy The Silence (Depeche Mode)
day 12 – a song from a band you hate – Aqualung (Jethro Tull)
day 13 – a song that is a guilty pleasure
day 14 – a song that no one would expect you to love
day 15 – a song that describes you
day 16 – a song that you used to love but now hate
day 17 – a song that you hear often on the radio
day 18 – a song that you wish you heard on the radio
day 19 – a song from your favorite album
day 20 – a song that you listen to when you’re angry
day 21 – a song that you listen to when you’re happy
day 22 – a song that you listen to when you’re sad
day 23 – a song that you want to play at your wedding
day 24 – a song that you want to play at your funeral
day 25 – a song that makes you laugh
day 26 – a song that you can play on an instrument
day 27 – a song that you wish you could play
day 28 – a song that makes you feel guilty
day 29 – a song from your childhood
day 30 – your favorite song at this time last year

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