Another Thought...

Does music create mood, or does the mood you're in choose the music?

I was going to say I instantly know the answer to this...then I started writing and realised it's not that easy.
Lately I've been a bit...down, shall we say. Lot's of things have happened, a good friend died before Xmas, another good friend took his own life in January. Sales have reduced drastically at my full time job, necessitating a temporary wage cut...just at the time when I'm investing a lot of money in my first exhibition. With that wage cut came a cut in hours - but still the same amount of quotes etc to be prepared...so I've been doing almost as many hours...just for less money! Add the stress of preparing for my first exhibition...and the worry no-one will turn up and you can see why I've been struggling.
The musical background to this has been a lot of atmospheric/melancholic prog/rock - Pink Floyd, Riverside, Opeth, Anathema...you know the kind of music.
Now, instantly you can say, well, he's chosen that music to suit his mood - question answered...until I actually thought about it I would have agreed with you.

But...
Listening to those bands relaxes me, enables me to clear my head space, to focus on something other than daily trials and tribulations - so it's not quite that simple...
Then factor in the other thought - that when I'm angry (actually, make that fuming) I'll often put something very aggressive on - usually a compilation of Slipknot, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit (Break Stuff being the best soundtrack to anger - bar none!) etc.....and after about 3 or 4 tracks it will often help the anger dissipate, as though singing along releases the rage....

So

Which is it??

You tell me........

First Post

Okay, so I was thinking - perhaps my first ever blog should be something momentous...and then I thought...since when does momentous happen in Wisbech!

Actually, I did then think of something else. I'm reading "The Polyphonic Spree" by Nick Hornby (again, I tend to re-read books I like ad infinitum...) and I came across his idea that our books are "the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal" with the thought that "our libraries are more and more able to articulate who we are". In Hornby's eyes his music and art tastes cannot define him - he has a narrow band of taste for music, and walls to small to show an art collection. Personally, whilst I agree with the library section (and have to think that people I want to know, and like knowing, on the whole are book fans), I also think that the other two categories apply as well. So you have a limited taste in music? Hornby is a fan of pop (not, it has to be said, the mindless drivel that Simon Cowell et al are insistent on force feeding the masses), personally I can take it or leave it. Surely though, that establishes some ground rules, some info, a part of the whole that we are. I'm a rock fan - rock at it's broadest church from folk rock like Mostly Autumn up to the likes of Slipknot...and a lot of places in between. Instantly, from that info, I've created a part of the definition of me, a definition that i'll then obscure by saying I also enjoy classical (but not really opera), the blues, folk, Irish music...and have a soft spot for delicate female vocalists/singer-songwriters...and that's just the start of a definition I'm sure will be expanded in future blogs.
Surely our taste in art is the same - I have limited wallspace (and even more limited funds as it happens), but this doesn't stop me viewing art, appreciating art, reading about art....and what I view and read about and appreciate also becomes a defining part of me...as the art I create defines me also. (If you want to see that side of me www.naturalbritain.co.uk is part of who I am)

Anyway, let me know your thoughts on the ideas...and what defines you...