OT: Music Question

I just caught part of a fascinating documentary on PBS with Dr. Oliver Sacks, the popularizer and philosopher of neuroscience who wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and who was portrayed by Robin Williams in the superb movie "Awakenings." In an FMRI scanner, Sacks's amygdala (a.k.a. the lizard brain, the most primitive part of your brain, the center of smell-memory and raw emotion) lit up while he was being played Bach, but not when he listened to an outwardly similar piece by Beethoven. I've long suspected we have a "personal chemistry" connection to certain kinds of music, even certain composers or songwriters. My brother has an almost mystical connection to John Coltrane's music, for example, but Coltrane has consistently left me cold over the years—I have "aColtrania," I guess. That's a neologism from amusia, defined as the inability to perceive music as music. Well, it's not that bad—I can hear and "get" Coltrane. He just doesn't grab me, is all I mean.

So I have a question. Let's say you were off to the proverbial desert island—or not a desert island, but a very beautiful and pleasant island where you're going to spend the rest of your days, but where there would be no music except what you brought with you. You can bring all the music you want, but only in one specific musical genre—classical-period classical, Jamaican reggae, 1950s doo wop, Renaissance plainsong, heavy metal, like that—for you, if you're a music lover, what would that genre be? What's the one style and kind of music that's truly your favorite, that you could least do without, that lights up the emotion center of your brain like a Christmas tree?

Mike

Featured Comment by juze: "Well, how about if we take a different approach. In mathematics, there is the so-called Erdős number. Anyone who ever co-authored a paper with Erdős has an Erdős number of 1. Anyone who co-authored a paper with someone whose Erdős number is 1 has an Erdős number of 2. Etc.

"Basically, I'd take anyone with a Tom Waits number of 3 or less."

Comments

[Wilhelm]

Romantic (Beethovan to Rachnamanov). It would be nice to have a little Willie Nelson and The Beatles, too, though.

[Ted Johnson]

I'm not sure what genre they are, but The Battlefield Band would keep me feeling like I was home.

[Kevin]

Baroque.

[Dwight]

Baroque. Period. Nothing else.

I envy those who can enjoy the pop music that plays in public places. I shop online to avoid spending time in stores with loud music. About 15-20% of the population is like this.

(Business owners take note. One person in five will walk out of your business if you play loud music.)

[Max]

I'd take a guitar. Really, it's too hard a choice to make.

[ctein]

Jazz.

More specifically, "modern" jazz (which ain't so modern any longer). But most of the lights'd still be on if you 'forced' me to take any other subset of jazz.

And, yeah, it just *works* for me, no explaining it.

pax / Ctein

[Jim Simmons]

Early electric blues - not so early that it's electrified delta music, and not so late that it's become R&B or rock and roll. Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans. Highway 61.

[mike]

That was an excellent Nova program. For me it's definitely baroque.

[dale]

Easier than that, I decided decades ago that I could easily survive on Beethoven and Chopin Piano music alone. I also feel that Chopin keyboard works are in the direction where Beethoven was heading.When Beethoven's later pieces 109,110,111 are played not as showboat pieces but as mature works (Schnabel)The lead in to Chopin is staggering.
On the other side I could easily live without bluegrass, Doc Watson aside. Personal mystery? Tom Waits is astounding and No mystery that Oscar Petersen has never misplaced a note.
dale

[Pete Myers]

Americana

John Hartford, David Bromberg, David Grissman

[Sherlock Holmes]

Mozart. I know it's not a genre per se, but anything by Mozart.

[Paul]

I'd bring Glenn Gould's 1981 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. If I could bring more, I'd bring all of Gould's recordings of Bach's keyboard works. No one has ever played Bach like he did.

-paul

[Jerred Zegelis]

Hardcore heavy metal - like Hatebreed and the like. I can't get enough of it.

I shoot lots of weddings, and I wonder what the brides would think of me editing their beautiful moments while jamming out to the most intense, heavy, hardcore tunes out there.

[Janne]

I have a couple of candidate genres I guess. But to be honest, right now I would not bring any at all. I would bring silence. Enforced non-music, other than what you can make yourself.

I've been feeling a sort of music overload for some years now. There's music everywhere I go, at all times and all places, and whatever I do. Everything from the supermarket to the local electronics district to the news to the subway to the bar have their signature and mood music. I spend most of my day hearing music not of my choice.

After hearing that all day long, sometimes I just don't feel like listening to anything at all. But this latest period of non-interest have lasted for years now. I've come to associate music - any music - with stress and annoyance as much as anything joyful. When I'm at home, the last thing I want is to add even more of it.

I may snap out of it one day, or I may not and my music collection will remain unplayed. But right now there is nothing so luxurious as sitting in silence.

[Andre]

Hello Mike,

If I bring "Jazz Impressions of French Classics: by Debussy - Faure - Ravel - Poulenc and Satie" would that be cheating?

EMI CDC 7 49561 2 Fred Hersch, piano, Eddie Daniels, clarinet, Kevin Eubanks, guitar, James Newton, flute and Toots Thielemans, harmonica.

[Emmanuel H.]

Easy answer for me: classical. There's nothing else that really lights up my "emotion center" like it.

[Bill]

One style? Easy.

James Brown.

Ain't it Funky Now, Live at the Olympia.
Catfish Collins will melt your face.

And if you'll give me Funk, I will add George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic, Lonnie Smith, Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, late King Curtis, Sharon Jones, Lee Fields, and a thousand unheralded funkateers whose one or two singles were magical but never quite enough.

Funk. Free your mind, your a** will follow.

[aizan]

sadly, i don't know.

[Jeff]

My musical tastes are very eclectic. So, I'll narrow it down this way...tenor sax pieces if jazz (Rollins, not Coltrane) or cello pieces if classical (Bach Cello Suites, for example). In the right hands, either instrument is capable moving me like no other. Some say each instrument produces sounds closest to the human voice...so maybe that's the company I need on my desert island.
Jeff

[Michael W]

'60s garage band music would be my pick, i.e. songs off 45s made by the thousands of mid 1960s teenagers who formed groups after hearing the Beatles/Rolling Stones/Kinks/Byrds etc. I do like jazz & classical, but '60s garage is #1.

[Marty McAuliff]

I say "late 1970s hard rock", but what I mean is the Osbourne-era discography of Black Sabbath and AC/DC 1976-1986.
...and if the desert island has electricity (which I have to assume it does, or what would we listen to the music with) I'd like to bring along a Gibson Les Paul and an Ampeg V4 and 4X12 cabinet.

...no current? my Vantage 6-string acoustic.

[Joe Sawicki]

80's indy rock: Replacements, Husker Du, Pixies, Happy Mondays, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain ...

The list alone makes me smile.

[Franz A.D. Morales]

Manouche or Gypsy Jazz ala Django Reinhardt or Romane.

I'll be ok with the complete recordings of Django.

[fernando]

I will buck the trend above and say post-punk (1977 to early 80s) — should I even mention groups?

[Ernest Theisen]

I have for many years is loved anything by Beethoven or Mozart and do to this day. Dave Brubeck, Les McCann and Stan Getz sneak in there often as do much of the music of the great slack key guitar players in and around this state of Hawaii. E

[Christoph Hammann]

Jazz, specifically Bebop and Free Jazz. And yes, 'trane would be prominently featured, as would be Coleman.

[Robert Billings]

Hi Mike, On this topic, check out "Desert Island Discs" on BBC Radio 4.

[JK @ Studio Hatyai]

Música popular Brasileira, c. 1958-1984 or so. Nothing else comes close for me.

[StevieRose]

For me, answering this question is kind of like asking which of my hands I would be wiling to have amputated...I love almost every kind of music except for most hip-hop. But my answer would have to be Classical music.

I actually participated in this kind of exercise during the early 90's. I had appreciated classical music and attended many concerts during my life. The music affected me both emotionally and aesthetically, and I really enjoyed it. However, I did not understand it from a structural, historical, or intellectual standpoint. So I walked into SKR Classical Records in Ann Arbor (of blessed memory) and told Jim Leonard (the manager, and later the owner--a walking encyclopedia of the nuances of every classical recording in existence) this very question: "If you were going to a desert island and could only bring 20-30 classical recordings with you, what would they be?". We spent the rest of the day discussing this question and choosing CDs. I then listened to those recordings over and over again, until I knew every aspect of every note played by every instrument. At the same time I immersed myself in books about classical music theory and history, and attended as many live performances as I could. I came out a few months later a changed person.

Now when I am lucky enough to hear a performance of one of those pieces either live or as a recording, I am transported in a way that is hard to describe. Like meeting a very old friend, or lover again after a long absence, and renewing my acquaintance. I am sure my amygdala is dancing....

[Alun Carr]

Romantic -- particularly Mahler.

[psu]

Either Jazz of the modern style, esp. the 60s "Blue Note" style, or the middle to late Romantic composers, Brahms to Mahler.

[Dave Kee]

Jazz - Oscar Peterson.

[Spiny Norman]

Oh, man. A crushingly hard choice, and so many great suggestions so far. I'm especially sympathetic to romantic classical music; as much as I love Bach, it would be harder for me to live without Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert. But such a collection would have to get me up in the morning. I'll have go with alt-rock from 1977-1987.

A set of everything that Brian Eno produced or played on might serve as a useful proxy for this era, and would include much of the best work by U2, Roxy Music, Talking Heads, and several other bands, and Eno's own solo work as well. There is enough conceptual coherence that you could call that a genre.

[Ken White]

Miles, Late 50's early 60's, with and without Coltrane. The music comes to my ear with just a thought.

[Frans Speur]

Bebop! Or "modern" jazz from mid- 1940's to the mid- 1950's. I first heard it at my parents' home over fifty years ago. Being a kid then, I didn't pay much attention to it. 40 years later it hit me: I have always liked this music. So I could pack three quarters of my collection of CD's and have a great time on the island.

[Michael Coviello]

No doubt, it would be Salsa for me.

When I used to do all night coding sessions, I would tune the radio to a Latin music program such as Con Salsa! ( www.consalsa.org ). I do not understand a word of it, but the code flowed from my fingers like magic.

[Bryce Lee in Burlington ON Canada]

Anything playable on a theatre pipe organ;
oh and the vinyl discs with a tubed amp,
preamp and electrostatic speakers.

[roger]

West Coast jazz.

[Michael Coviello]

Oops - regarding my previous post: It is the _lyrics of Salsa_ that I do not understand. The code that I wrote with the help of Salsa is easy to understand.

[James McDermott]

Pre-Reformation polyphony. But I'd soon hate it for not being all the other types of music I love but would never hear again.

[Ron in Brookings OR]

First of all, I love the way you've posted this question. It's tough to wriggle out of.

I'm going with Early 20th century classical. Gershwin/Copeland/Shostakovich/Rimsky-Korsakov, et al.

My wife can't live without lyrics, and I think that's terribly limiting, but she's decided to go with '60's rock. That way she'll get the Beatles, Hendrix, the Stones, Janis, and all the rest. It was truly a revolutionary moment in music, so I won't argue.

[Rana]

Great question!

My answer would be Celtic fusion, heavy on the harp, guitar and hammered dulcimer, light on the fiddle. I love the stuff!

[Nicolas]

First a comment...
> In an FMRI scanner, Sacks's amygdala lit up while he was being played Bach, but not when he listened to an outwardly similar piece by Beethoven.

Another variable in the equation, especially for Bach : the performer - more especially for some instrumental works that are very demanding (cello suites, keyboard toccatas...).

For the desert island, I'd hesitate between bach and Renaissance vocal music (I'm especially fond of Josquin Desprez)...
But as James McDermott, I'd hate not having a bit of trip-hop, some good Chopin or Noir Désir at hand for other moments.

[Alex A. Naanou]

Well, I can try and cheat my way to get a real answer to this question and, define my own category (keeping it neither too broad nor too narrow) ;)

So here it goes: strong-rhythm-energetic-with-strong-but-not-too-harsh-vocals-and-not-too-simple. this would fit things like: Sting, Metallica, Byonce, Cesaria Evora, Michael Jacson, James Brown, Synergy, Appolo440, Skriabin, Musorgskiy, Backh (yes I love opera and choirs) to name a few.

[erlik]

Something with guitars. It includes lots of different people, from indie-rock like Pixies and The Hives to heavy rock like Guns 'n' Roses and Shiny Toy Guns. But if we can agree on "guitar rock" as a meta-genre, that would be it.

[Damien]

Renaissance, early Baroque, early XXth century and Black Metal.

Bach and Mozart leave me completely cold!

[Marten Collins]

Baroque, or more simply "there is great music and then there is Bach!" No idea who said that (or something like that) but it's certainly true for me.

[Dierk]

The Beatles - hands down.

OK, they are not a genre of their own, just the best Pop has ever brought to light [consider this: apart from their very first album anything they published could be done today without being in retro mode or on the oldies circuit]. To include a genre:

Southern Soul

Has the big advantage of being very varied even with only one label [Stax, of course] but has the advantage of several more, like Malaco and Hi Records. Very extensive body of music with a lot of variation, having something for every mood.

[Robin P]

Schubert, Ravel, Rolling Stones, Dexter Gordon or Grappelli/Reinhardt all vie for attention but if it really has to be one genre then 70's Reggae (especially raw dub) always moves me.

[Paul Bradforth]

For me, the works of Ry Cooder, who is a kind of genre all on his own.