What’s the weirdest music you’ve ever listened to? Was it a new genre you experimented with, something oddly stimulating? Do you still listen to it or does it make you cringe now?
I love asking people these sorts of questions because I think that your music taste really reveals a lot about a person. There actually is science to back this up, according to a study in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology your musical taste is not innate wiring — it is formed by one’s early listening experiences and cultures. I can relate, my father is an immigrant from Scotland, and I grew up listening to a folk band called The Corries. I also have a Yiayia (my Greek Grandma), so I listened to Greek folk too.
Our music is not only formed by the culture we are raised in, but by the ones we adopt during our lives as well. Some may like to think that certain types of music are superior to others, but it might just depend on lineage. For example, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University found that while Westerners preferred consonant chords, an Indigenous group in the Amazon, with little to no exposure to Western music, had no preference. This dismantles the idea that there we can naturally tell good music from bad, but that all music has subjective value.
A study from the University of Cambridge also found that our musical preference will often change over our lifetime: as youth we tend to gravitate toward more intense music, and as we age this mellows out and we begin to listen to more emotionally layered and complex music. This would explain why we can’t stand listening to some of the music we used to, and while I certainly will come back to music I listened to in my early days, there’s some I cannot bear.
While my musical taste has changed as much as I have over the years, there are a few artists that have stuck with me. I want to give them a shoutout as well as explore why I listen to them, and why you should too!
Cosmo Sheldrake, an artist I hope everyone will go look up after reading this, is an experimental folk artist — at least that’s how I would describe him. His music often utilizes sounds of the natural world, like a bird chirping, a river bubbling, or a cedar creaking.
The HU is a folk/rock/metal band from Mongolia, and if you ever played Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order (2019), you would recognize them for “Sugaan Essena” which plays at the opening of the game. The feeling I get when listening to one of their songs is indescribable, I love every moment. Their music can be soft and fun, or angry and powerful, sometimes all at once!
And a final shoutout to Fever Ray, who perhaps takes the place of my favourite artist. Their work is incredible, heady, queer electronic music. They are incredibly weird and genderfluid, I really recommend checking out “If I had a Heart” and “What they call us”, as those are two of my favorite pieces of theirs.
Artists like Cosmo, The HU, and Fever Ray appeal not just because they are unusual, but because they engage with me on an emotional and cultural level. With these artists in particular I feel that my life experiences contribute to the musical experience, they reflect me and the things I care about.
