More Music Videos of Taiwan

Timing

and here is a little thing I've been writing up.

Timing

Timing is everything, we all know this. Unfortunately over the last 100 years and even more so in the last 20 years 4/4 timing seems to be the only meter you can find. Of course! What better way to keep the rhythm then the timing that people can learn by 3 years of age? It's almost like an international chant. The steady THUD… THUD… THUD… THUD... and repeat, 1... 2... 3... 4... and repeat. It's easy to understand why it feels so right. 4 corners to a standard room or wall, it reminds us of the rhythm of our own heart, you don't get disoriented by that pesky 5. It’s the timing that we whisper to ourselves while we’re waiting to make a run for it, the 4 being replaced by “GO!”. We hear it in our cities when a large truck is backing up, when someone is hammering away at their latest project in the yard, or we’re crossing the street with the green man flashing in sync with the ambient beep across the way. You may say, “you could count that out to a 3 or a 7!” But let's be honest, going through the day to day of these events are you really carrying it out to 7 before you repeat back at 1? I didn't think so.

Strange that the genres of music that most entail this sort of redundant Housewife thump are Folksy/Country Esq. music and “Electroknorap” That's right... I threw all those genres together! Nowadays some of the most technology dependent music relies on the same redundant foot tapping beats that minimalist folk artists do. I can almost hear some of you now “common dude, don't be so elitist!”, “It's just music man, who cares if it's easy, as long as it feels good.” Of course these are legitimate statements with value and a point. At what point does the near absence of variety become a good thing? When you can hear a new song and immediately tell when the hook will show up is a depression that I've rarely felt with any other art form.

For a little bit of background on why I'm going on this seemingly pointless crusade I'll set it up where this thought began to nag at me. I was at my local coffee house in my quaint little Mormon mountain town. I was a single 20 something young man watching a gaggle of teen girls with backachne surround a 20 something young man with Fabio hair in the corner as he clumsily strummed his guitar and crooned like a basset hound about how “reality TV and Politics control his life”. He was attempting to replicate the singing fashion of those heartland poets Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson. And even though I'm well aware that my 20 something young man jealousy of him keeping the attention of all the girls in the joint is not lost on me, I can honestly say he was failing miserable at replicating the proper notes and emotion that those great musicians could pull off on a bad day. It was embarrassing to watch him squirm strenuously, trying embody the image of the wandering poet. “No care in the world, just walking the road and strumming the guitar to the beat of his own footsteps.” It was also infuriating to watch the gaggle of whimper junkies not pick up on any of this. They were almost enraptured by his ineptitude with the guitar. This scene was smacking me in the face as I stirred my coffee slowly in the corner window seat, waiting for my chess buddy to arrive. Each song (or if he could call a bunch of meandering riffs a song) involved him stating that Society would not hold his spirit down. All this pouring out of his mouth as multiple brands and logos plastered across his chest and equipment seared right through the fawning fan club into my wide confused eyes. Now don't get me wrong, in this day and age of free downloads and shitty record companies I can't blame a musician trying to work the capitalist system a little and advertise him or herself. But when you're talking about Society as one large evil, and that we should all return to the days of the pioneers and the settlers in order to save our souls I can't help but have a question for the musician who thinks this way, “what's the weather like up your own ass?”

I was about to give up waiting for my friend inside and go wait out on the bench outside in 20 degree weather, but then Fabio snapped a string and ruined the moment that wasn’t quite there to begin with. You could almost see the glaze on the tweeners

For the most part we attained that ability to have consistency and an ever present 1... 2... 3... 4... in our day to day lives. Unfortunately I also believe that humanity through our collective mental evolution over the last few decades has let go of an important aspect of music, life, and rhythm. The aspect of randomization, a kick, a hook, a tempo change, a mood shift, a good ol‘ fashioned melodic kick in the head. I mean really! How often have we walked down the street and the car alarm that goes off down the road switches from down beats to upbeats on a ¾ timing sequence? Never! How many times when we’re getting ready to sprint to the finish do we start counting and cycle back to 7? When have you looked out your car window and seen someone walking outside the rhythm of the community? Sliding across the concrete with an extended lift to their left foot step while the headphone cord dances wildly at their chest, caught in a tornado of music? 4/4 is not bad, don't get me wrong, it's just easy. Our consistent embracing of this easy path is ignoring how random and difficult our lives can be, and isn't music, or art for that matter, supposed to be an expression of humanity at it's best as well as it's easiest? It's a matter of taste, placement, and context. When it's you and your lover, staring into each others eyes across the fire, 4/4 makes sense and feels right. But if the song is supposed to be about drive, skill, the evils of society, or sheer craziness. for god sakes leave the god damn techno beats at home with the cozier moods. Variety is the spice of life, Variety IS life.