What Is Your Favorite Kind of Music? (Question of the Month)

       Why do you like what you like?   This is not always an easy question to answer and sometimes there is never one answer that will be consistent throughout ones life.  In my case I've gone through many stages of preferences.  What we like can change throughout our lives.  The quest in this post is to consider questions like "why do our preferences change?"

         For this month's Question topic I'll be discussing musical preference.  However, before you go on, if you haven't voted on my most recent Battle of the Bands post then I hope you will go back to do so.   The song that I've used is one that I like a great deal performed in two styles that I also enjoy.   Listening to this song doesn't answer the question of this month as it applies to me, but it offers a clue.   Well, maybe it does, but then again maybe it doesn't.

        After all, the question of preference can be a complex one that is not easily answered in a few words or paragraphs.   I'll try to keep my answer somewhat brief.

          Did you vote on my Battle?   It's here if you didn't visit yet.

           Now let's move on to the business at hand...


Question of the Month

The Question of the Month is hosted by Michael G D'Agostino from A Life Examined. The first Monday of each month I'll be answering a question posed by Michael prior to event day. Click on the link to his blog for more participants. 

This month's question

      Suggested by Alex J. Cavanaugh, here is the question for this month:

“What kind of music best speaks to you?”

         The subject of preference is one that I've explored many times with no absolute conclusion ever drawn.  Even when it comes down to the specific topic of music I can't name just one specific kind of music.  My ears perk at just about any kind of music since I'm a musically inquisitive person by nature.  Music was a integral part of my upbringing and has played a huge role in my life.  

          Some of my earliest memories involve music and music has been a soundtrack of my life.  Place, time, and circumstance play a role in whatever music I might be listening to.  The company I am keeping or what I need to feel within me can determine what music I am listening to at any given time.  Even an arbitrary intrusion of music will cause me to pause and listen--and ultimately decide if I like what I'm hearing or not.  Rarely do I associate music with any bad memory.  

          Taking for example, as referenced in my current Battle of the Bands post, I have an affinity for Latin flavored music--especially the music of Mexico.  When I was a child my parents often played Latin style music around the house.  I can recall often listening to an album of bullfight music.  My mother used to do housework listening to Perez Prado.   My father was on a continual quest to find catchy fast-paced juggling music which typically would contain lots of Latin style percussion.  Part of my musical fabric was dyed with music from South of the Border and now hearing any of that style of music catches my musical attention as well as takes me to some comfortable emotion within me.  

          Similarly classical and pop music is something I was weaned on from an early age to the extent that listening to either style is now a steady part of my musical diet.  Years of listening to rock music has instilled within me a deep appreciation for all forms of that style and other related styles of music.  Now I long for music in the same way that I feel a need for food, air, and a comfortable place to sleep.  Sometimes the music sets my mood while at other times I decide the playlist. The music is almost always there.  And when the music is not there in the physical realm then it is often playing in my mind.            

            So what specific type of music speaks to me best?  This is a case where superlatives are variables.   The music that speaks best to me depends on me at the moment.  There are times when I don't want to hear any music at all--a rarity, but it has happened.  But then one might argue that this is when the music seeps through the silence--the wind, nature, street sounds, industrial clanking, or even the beat of my own heart and the blood coursing my veins.  

            The music that speaks best to me is whichever music happens to be speaking at the moment.

             What types of music are you most drawn to?    What is the most specific part of music that appeals to you?   Did you ever or do you now play an instrument?  

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