i am so lucky.
I'm alive at a time when there is so much variety.
I'll use music as an example.
I was just listening to Dubstep while sanding a trunk in the studio. The crazy "hypnotic beats" and scratchy repetitive spastic bass lines are very motivating. I've always noticed that men on job sites listen to rock music, often the harder the better. The strung out and exciting guitar riffs with the sudden drops to simple drums and guitar. The male vocals, often screaming about difficulties in love (without ever using the word of course).
I don't identify with hard core rock or metal, although when I had the opportunity to stand side stage at a heavy metal concert I admit to feeling the energy and really wanting to rock out hard with my hands in the air. My deeply buried inner goth girl was totally tapped.
But back to my point.
As I sanded I began to wonder if Dubstep was the new Metal for EDM girls. Its very hard and masculine. Deeply vibrational. Its like the moment after you slam on something. The whole room shakes emotionally if not physically. Sometimes its a good vibration, like progress or accomplishment, such as moving in a heavy piece of furniture. Other times it's anger, like throwing down a book or slamming a door.
Anyway, I needed a change from the Dubstep, the songs were all ones I knew and rather tired so I thought about Frank Sinatra and that naughty, respected, high brow stuff. I opted against it and instead went for my mixed station. Passing by Billy Joel and a few 80's rock songs, I stopped at Genesis and let it play.
Recalling a quote from an article I read in paper Magazine earlier today about EDM "And If you can't understand it, that means you're old. And you probably are. But its a very big tent, and if you want to come inside, you'll be welcomed with open arms. because EDM, like the younger generation, is inclusive."
That rolled into a consideration about how many types of music we have available to us today. I often envision the old western towns with the single dirt road and the people who all know each other in comparison to today's way of life (I know that's weird, don't ask me why but that's where I go, maybe an influence from a past life). I think about the piano and everyone gathering for the singular or limited forms of entertainment. Then I flash to the Sinatra age and the technology available at that time. The growing accessibility and the genre's that were about to be birthed.
I'm alive at a time when diversity is at its widest. We've created it. We've branched out in so many extreme directions. There's dancing, like the simple bounce we do in a club, there's ballroom, there's street style, there's latin, there's so many ways we can move our bodies. Interpretive dance is not quite as mainstream as Snooky, but its reaching a wider audience now than before. Its only a matter of time before I can post my solo interpretive dancing video of me in my livingroom on youtube and no one will blink an eye. But right now it's still something that's hidden in the catalogs of my computer, because I'm not ready to help interpretive dance become mainstream. First off I didn't even know that's what it was called until I read an issue of Time Out NY. Before that I would have merely posted it as "Crazy Dance Video". Now if I choose to share it there is a genre that will accept it and make it serious, because someone was once dedicated enough to "Interpretive" dance to create the genre.
EDM and Dubstep genres have a place in my home. So does Genesis, and Billy Joel. So does Dolly Parton and Elvis and Lilly Allen and ZZ Ward and Post Modern Jukebox and Ray Lamontagne. The Boston Pops, Nat King Cole, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Billy Idol, The Beatles, Otis Redding, Queen, and Janis Joplin, and don't get me started listing the Hov's and Lil Wayne's and pop princesses and crossover successes. Lets just say, I'll take all the mainstream genres and their wildly obscure sub-genres as well. Who can pass up Balkan Beat Box?
I am one of the youthful inclusive. And as I go back into the studio to finish sanding (Sting is currently playing) I can recall my dad's voice when I first started to accept techno into my musical rotation "It sounds like a broken record".
Dad, you're old. But that old man instilled in me a love of music that I just can't shake. If it weren't for him I'd never like half of the music that I do, and I surely wouldn't be as inclusive as I am, so yeah I think I'm lucky.
Being inclusive keeps you young. Accepting new trends and new technologies keeps you hip. Embracing that the world is changing and that we are creating new varieties, new cultures, new rules of etiquette and new lifestyles keeps us alive.