Posted By BillHeise on August 10, 2009

I missed posting my usual “What I’m Listening to This Week” entry last week on account of being on vacation. Because of this, one of my friends who actually reads my blog—yes, I have readers; it’s good to have friends—said he was wondering where I was, since he missed last week’s (and I quote) “posting of obscure music.”

This is the music that I actually listen to. When I’m listening to music, it does not seem “obscure” to me. What’s seems odd (from my perspective) is that anyone else think that it’s “obscure.” But I guess I know better.

The thing about the sort of music I’ve been listening to as I get older is that it is experimental. I’m not alone in my attempts to push the boundaries of musical taste. In fact, it is one of the things that many talented musicians have done after working within confines of the genre that made them famous: they push the boundaries of musical taste in many ways. They do not think they’re being “obscure” when they do this. They think they are expanding their musical vocabularies.

Among the ways that musicians push the boundaries into new avenues are these. Some musicians turn outwards from the limited confines of genre music to the larger world, as these famous musicians have done:

Others travel backwards through time and history, as this famous musician has done:

So, yes, I suppose that I have “obscure” musical tastes, but I actually like this music. I like it precisely because it pushes musical boundaries. And more than that, it means that I am in the company of greatest musicians of the age.

Categories: What I'm Listening to This Week
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