• Home
• Portfolio
• About

I'm a designer in Vancouver, Canada. I work at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, am a director of the 221A Artist Run Centre, and a member of Fieldwork design collective. I'm an Emily Carr and University of Victoria graduate and have worked in the Philippines, Indonesia and the Netherlands. I'm a cycling advocate and race on the Garneau Evolution team.

film Music Reading, June 16, 2004 8:44 AM 2 comments

A review in tabs: Nick Hornby's Songbook

This review is more like a summary of my response to passages I recently tagged with little coloured sticky notes in Nick Hornby's pleasant Songbook (2002, McSweeney's Books)---short musings of some of his (the author's) favourite pop songs and the genre in general.

My format below is:
passage location,
chapter title (which in the book is the name of the song Hornby discusses, which is somewhat superfluous to my tagging it as much as they act as simple starting points in Hornby's musings),
quote,
and why I tagged it.

Page 16 – Bruce Springsteen - "Thunder Road":
"When I was first beginning to write seriously, I read Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, and suddenly knew what I was, and what I wanted to be, for better or for worse."

Hornby mentions Tyler's book (I've never heard of it) in discussing "songs and book and films and pictures [that] express who you are, perfectly." I too have encountered this rare feeling with popular art. A recent example: the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which had a line about feeling anxious that you live every minute of your life to the fullest. I'm also constantly thinking about what I want to do for a career, which may include writing. You think and think and worry and worry and forgot there are others who feel just like you, that you can relate to, and thus there is a place for you in the world. I want to read this book Hornby likes; there's a good chance I'll like it, too.

Page 25 – Nelly Furtado – "I'm Like a Bird":
"Dave Eggers has a theory that we play songs over and over, those of us who do, because we have to ‘solve' them…"

I'm not sure who Dave Eggers is---a popular writer, anyways---but I appreciate this idea of playing songs over and over, which I'll do with a tune for a month and then drop. However, I had never thought of consciously beginning such a repetitive process in order to solve the song, but certainly feel that after listening to a favourite song (or more often, album) over and over I continue to discover and formulate new ideas about it, and pity and laugh at my former naivety. Examples include Eno's Another Green World, Tool's Ænima, and Philip Glass/Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line. I listen to a song repeatedly because it sounds great, inspires me. I think the word "solve" is a big part of it I haven't considered, or else just another way to describe why I keep coming back.

Page 80 – Ben Folds Five – "Smoke":
"[Ben Folds] is writing songs at a time when nobody equates music with social change…"

I tagged this passage for a couple vague and unformulated reasons. First, A friend of mine, whose opinion and taste I take notice of, and who doesn't make recommendations to me often, mentioned Ben Folds Five a number of years ago but I never got around to listening to him (Ben Folds) much.

Second, I don't think I've considered any music as a real agent of social change before, not even as a Bob Dylan fan, or his period of music, which I suppose I feel was more a reflection of social change. It's interesting and worth a second look at an era (1960s/70s) when, if the music wasn't the instigator, the people of the time firmly believed it was. And more to the truth: though Hornby may be dragging on a bit too much about the lack of conviction and substance in today's music, it's true I've never thought of any music today, pop or otherwise, and equated it with social change. People felt something with music back then I don't feel today. Seems sad.

Today's pop music just wants to pacify and entertain, or more rarely, act as a safety valve and only voice political views rather than charge them. It's common to glorify and get nostalgic about music of the 60s, and even easier to discount it as ultimately ineffective and self-indulgent. But maybe there's more to it, and more to today's music.

Page 96 – Van Morrison – "Caravan":
"…this book isn't predicated on you and me sharing the ability to hear exactly the same things; in other words, it isn't music criticism. All I'm hoping here is that you have music equivalents…"

It's always frustrating when you introduce an album or song to a friend and they don't get it the way you do, or worst-case, never listen to it at all. I like the approach in Hornby's book: he spends more time on tangents and theories of why he and we like certain songs, rather than defending a particular song. And the feelings he describes I can relate to. But I still want friends to appreciate the music I like. I should start giving more reasons why I like it, something a possible listener can relate to.

Page 127 – The Velvettes – "Needle in a Haystack":
"One tries hard to avoid exemplifying cliché; looking at the art on your walls and the books and CDs on your shelves, you see only a well-rounded and uncategorizable human who has successfully avoided stereotype all your life."

This is so true. Many a times I've taken pride in the span of genres and pop-to-obscure albums and songs I keep in my CD binders and on my hard drive. The movies and television one watches. Yes, avoiding stereotype as the greater priority over giving mass-appeal art a chance. I see this form of elitism and trepidation in myself, hopefully decreasing, and in friends, often increasing.

Page 145 – Patti Smith – "Pissing River":
"…burning up in their desperation to communicate whatever it is they want to say."

Hornby is referring to advice he'd like to give to kids (likely teenagers) about to listen to their own style of music: emphasizing that they should listen to whatever they want as long as it's genuine. But it's the "burning up" sensation; ya, I totally relate to the "desperation," a feeling I'm always getting, as well as it related forms, anxiety and frustration. And the only difference between the artists and myself is that they're constantly saying.