Dane D. Lion's Music Den ##############

2011 Lists: My Favorite “Musical Things” of 2011

It’s funny how music fan-dom is often fun/rewarding/meaningful for reasons beyond the music.  Heading into this year, I was feeling a little burnt-out as a listener & collector of music.  Ostensively, we can listen to any song at any time.  Have we reached the end of music history?  In a realm where everything exists at once, is evaluation and classification moot?  The only way to break out of my existential funk was to find ways to make music meaningful again.  Here are ten “musical things” that helped make music meaningful for me in 2011 (in no particular order):

1. The musical dialect & dialectic I share with my brother.  Hosting and writing about his mixtape, Endless Weekend, is just a small example of our continuing conversations.  See my essay from October for more details.
2. The Lana Del Rey debate.  Which side are you on?  LDR prompts questions of artistic authority, the politics of image, authenticity, music stardom in a post-physical music market, indie vs. mainstream, Nabokov, and plastic surgery, just to name a few.  I thought that the “rules” had been tossed out years ago: indie kids listen un-ironically to pop stars like Katy Perry, and no one bats an eye at the “provocative” lyrics of Kesha and “challenging” image of Lady Gaga.  I was wrong, though.  We/I still care about something(s), and Lana Del Rey has challenged this/these something(s).  Please read Nitsuh Abebe’s superb essay about the topic on Pitchfork.  Which side am I on?  I am deeply bothered and annoyed by LDR’s aesthetic, voice, and “story,” which is a good thing.  So, I guess I would say that I’m pro-LDR, but because her presence gives me something to ponder, debate, and/or hate.  Also, I think “Video Games” is a ho-hum song.  Lots of phrases sound poignant when set to reverbed-to-high-heaven, dramatic background tracks.  Especially when they’re cooed like a baby.  A 26-year old baby, with a millionaire father.  Whose album is titled Born to Die, like that’s some kind of epiphany.  Don’t get me started.  Don’t EVEN get me started.
3. Nitsuh Abebe’s music criticism.  See above. 
4. Evan Eisenberg’s The Recording Angel.  A birthday gift from Cy, this book is GENIUS.  It’s a tough read (and I’m only halfway through it), but every couple of pages includes a brilliant metaphor or particularly astute analysis.  From my current page, for example: “By finding and stimulating these exceptional performances and making them permanent objects, [ethnomusicologist Charles Seeger - Pete’s father, btw] and his good colleagues turned folk music into art music.  And his bad colleagues, by taking the typical and making it rigid, turned folk music into popular music.”
5. The Needle Drop.  Anthony Fantano is the most cogent and dependable amateur (?) music critic I know.  He is able to put words to my latent musical reactions and is quirky.  He’s also serious and passionate about what he does - but not about himself.
6. Robyn’s performances.  
7. Taran Killam’s imitation of Robyn.
8. Brian Wilson’s release of the original SMiLE.  This makes me think that Hell indeed may be freezing over (maybe that’s where all the snow is).  Though, if this is the soundtrack, maybe it will be okay. 
9. Shabazz Palaces on Yours Truly.  This performance blew me away.

   YTGVB: Shabazz Palaces “The King’s New Clothes Were Made By His Own Hands” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

10. This blog.  I’ve invested much more time and thought in this thing than I have in a while, and it paid off.  From day one, I intended for this place to be my musical journal, a way of marking my growth and development as a music fan.  This year, the real value of such an outlet started to become clear.  I’ve started to care less about completism and more about completing my own thoughts in the moment.  Laying out the bare bones, I would say that it’s become more about me than the music.  The irony is that this growing self-interest has led me to appreciate the music all the more.

Tomorrow: My top 25 songs of 2011.

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