cycle of cool

"It's a shame that the people who are listening to you the most are only interested in you because they want you and your peers to buy their product."
this is true, genius, and evil. The companies make you feel cool, take you in for a few questions, then turn everybody else into you so you lose what made you cool in the first place. In the process they make lots of money. I think its interesting how it actually works like that. I dont think its unfair though its kinda like its part of a natural cycle of "cool." The trend has to die eventually so new trends can sprout. The one who can somehow beat these marketers at their game is the true Cool Kid.

Lets pretend we dont exist...

Its hard to point out just one Of Montreal song but one of my favorites is Wraith Pinned to the Mist. its simple poetic and chill:



Let’s have bizarre celebrations
Let’s forget who forget what forget where
We’ll have bizarre celebrations
I’ll play the Satyr in Cypris you the bride being stripped bare

Let’s pretend we don’t exist
Let’s pretend we’re in Antartica

Let’s have bizarre celebrations
Lets forget when forget what forget how
We’ll have bizarre celebrations
We’ll play Tristan and Izolde but make sure I see white sails

Maybe I’ll never die
I’ll just keep growing younger with you
And you’ll grow younger too
now it seems too lovely to be true
but I know the best things always do

let’s pretend we don’t exist
let’s pretend we’re in Antartica



this song is kind of about a getaway or escape from every days problems. lets just sit back and relax and pretend we dont exist. if we dont exist, we can have celebrations about the world around us rather than complain about whatever tough situation we're in. antarctica has two connoations as it is a cold place. it means lets pretend we're cool if were feeling kinda lame and unwanted. and lets cool down if we're pissed off at something.

this song definately has to do with my personality and way with dealing with things. i do celebrate bizzare things that others dont really take note of. whenever im really mad or sad im usually able get away for a while and think about a solution and come back cool refreshed. i guess i never really considered this song having much to do with me or way of life besides the shirt i wear that says "i dont exist." i got the shirt before i heard this song.

Not Of America

Values of our generation:
-money
-excess
-status
-beauty/appearance
-sex
-pop/low culture
-bulk
-technological advances

Topics that Of Montreal covers:
-love
-depression
-Self realization
-nonconformity
-drugs
-death
-beauty


Although the band Of Montreal is classified as Pop, it doesnt seem to fit in with actual Pop culture. I feel like were still in a generation where everyone just wants to get rich and live in a mansion. in fact like 2 seconds a go i overheard the disney channel in the other room and a girl was complaining dramatically and said "im so tired that no amount of money could get me off this couch." ...as if money is the greatest thing in the world. so with wanting to become rich people want to buy things they really dont need like heated bathroom floors or a 5 headed shower. in the song Lysergic Bliss the singer Kevin Barnes sings "Wonder how I'm managing to smile oh when I can't even pay my rent." yes it is possible to be happy without money.

the values of American people are very much based the media's messages that are forced into peoples unconscious minds. People in this country stongly value tv shows, film, music, internet, etc that are the sources of these values and thus become conformists without even meaning to. in The Past Is a Grotesque Animal he sings about how he feels like he has trouble fitting in to society "but it's like we weren't made for this world, though i wouldn't really wanna meet someone who was." he doenst conform to society or fit in but he doesnt care because he'd rather have his individuality than his social comfort.

his view of beauty his also much differnt than this generation's take on beauty. We look to magaizines like cosmopolitan, tv shows like America's next top model and various other sources and connect all the dots to try and idealize a perfect beauty. most of what america finds beautiful these days is artificial and, in a sense, logical. kevin barnes is more interested in aesthetic beauty as we can see when he sings "Come disconnect the dots with me poppet come disconnect the dots, Come disconnect the dots with me poppet, come disconnect the dots. It's so beautiful, Our lunacy, It's so beautiful." what it means is that in order to appreciate beauty we must look past rules and logical "connections" and standards and see everything for what it actually is. what this means that that EVERYTHING is beautiful if you look at it for long enough. i think thats much different than how america classifies with beauty. for example i cant imagine a tv show trying to portray an abandoned shoe factory as beautiful when kevin barnes would argue its a work of art.

Music and Psychology?

no matter what the generation is, it seems that the parents are never really ok with what their kids are listening to. how annoying it is. but they do have a reason to worry. like any work of art, music has underlying connotations that the artist put there consciously and intentionally. for example off the top of my head the line"come on baby light my fire" from The Doors song can be seen as subtly but intentionally sexual. thats where the parents worry, they think its teaching their kids a lifestyle other than the one they wanted for them. every lyric that you have ever heard in your life has at one point entered your conscious mind but most of the words are considered not worthy of interpretation so they are repressed into your unconscious. theyre not ever forgotten, theyre just stored so deep that you could never recall all of them for conscious interpretation. without knowing it, a different part of your mind is putting all the meanings together and coming to conclusions that you are unaware of. we often times dont understand why we think what we think, or do what we do, or come up with seemingly random concepts and ideas. the answer is that the unconscious is constantly trying to find its way into the conscious mind and when it succeeds, we act upon its message without even knowing it. so these underlying messages in music are always being processed and used throughout our daily lives and decisions without our even knowing. its scary thought for parents who feel responsible for forming their childs character.
another factor that adds into the mix is the fact that there is more meaning in music than the lyrics. theres the tempo, style, mood etc that project the artists emotions and thoughts without even the artist knowing. basically the artist unconsciously puts their Self into a song, the song is listened to by the fan, who unconsciously picks up on parts of the Self that the artist put into it, and is unintentionally influenced by the artist and their standards, moralities, and beleifs.

so going back to pop culture and how rock & roll changed america, thats how^. african americans put their Self's and their cultural beleifs into their music and when it became popular among white americans (through the means of elvis) they started picking up on new beleifs and ideas that they never wouldve considered because they isolated and themselves from such a large race. these beleifs were stored into the minds of a whole generation (our grandparents/parents), who raised us with some those beleifs unknowingly. since they have been stored in our collective minds for our whole life, we find it humorous that it was once considered scanalous to see gyrating hips on tv.

childhood music

hmm the first actual band i was into was probably the beatles. i started listening to them around the age of 7. i think my music teacher from 1st grade was the one who got me into their music cause she made the class memorize and sing Yellow Submarine. this of course begun my infatuation with them and led to me making my parents buy me a few of their albums. im not really sure why i was so attracted to the music at that age but it might have to do with some of their simple, catchy, yet meaningful lyrics. i guess i liked it because i could go around repeating the chorus "we all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine" and be overjoyed. now taht im older i can see that their lyrics are much more profound than i was consciously aware of at age 7 but i still enjoy them just hte same.

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