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SurfGuitar101 Forums » The Shallow End »

Permalink Emotion In Music

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I participate on a lot of music based forums, and one thing that has always bothered me is that many people tend to describe music that doesn't have some sort of blues influence as lacking emotion.

When I started out playing guitar, it was urban electric blues. I ate, slept and breathed the blues for years, so I am obviously a big fan.

At some point I started an obsession with surf guitar. Yeah I still sometimes get in the mood to jam the blues, but surf has become my primary style of playing.

In my opinion, both the blues and surf are equally emotional, they just tap different emotions. While the blues channels sadness, surf is all about joy.

The sun, the surf, beautiful beaches and girls, youth and the rush of riding the waves.

Each have their place, but I fail to see how some consider sadness a more legitimate emotion than joy. With everything going on in the world right now, I would say we need all the joy that we can get.

Crank the reverb and let's go trippin'!

Last edited: Jun 04, 2020 21:07:54

Sadness isn't any more legitimate than joy, it's just more common. Especially among the folks who created blues music.

I was watching some Beach Boys stuff recently and found it charming and inspiring that Brian's (and the others') primary goal was to create music that expresses pure joy.

Hi Ray. Like you, I feel that surf is music that evokes deep feeling and emotion. For me, music is all about emotion; passion; feeling; or whatever you want to call it. To me, this applies to all genres of music, not just blues and surf. And within the various genres, many types of emotions are evoked. There is blues music that causes me to feel great sadness, some that evokes great joy, and all points in between. There is even surf music that causes me to feel great melancholy, although a lot of surf evokes euphoria, and all points in between. To my ears, music that does not stir feeling within me, is a waste of my time. Something that is incredibly complex, well-played and technically perfect, but without feeling, doesn't appeal to me. Something crude, simple and raw, that has feeling, is much more appealing. All that said, what evokes feeling in me, might not evoke feeling in someone else. It's very personal. It took me a while to get there, but there is no good, or bad, music. There is music that I like (music that evokes feeling, and /or makes me feel good), and music that I don't like (music devoid of feeling, and/or makes me feel bad.)

Bob

RobbieReverb wrote:

Hi Ray. Like you, I feel that surf is music that evokes deep feeling and emotion. For me, music is all about emotion; passion; feeling; or whatever you want to call it. To me, this applies to all genres of music, not just blues and surf. And within the various genres, many types of emotions are evoked. There is blues music that causes me to feel great sadness, some that evokes great joy, and all points in between. There is even surf music that causes me to feel great melancholy, although a lot of surf evokes euphoria, and all points in between. To my ears, music that does not stir feeling within me, is a waste of my time. Something that is incredibly complex, well-played and technically perfect, but without feeling, doesn't appeal to me. Something crude, simple and raw, that has feeling, is much more appealing. All that said, what evokes feeling in me, might not evoke feeling in someone else. It's very personal. It took me a while to get there, but there is no good, or bad, music. There is music that I like (music that evokes feeling, and /or makes me feel good), and music that I don't like (music devoid of feeling, and/or makes me feel bad.)

I feel the same. Unfortunately, too many people try to make it a competition. There is no better or best or bad, there is just what one prefers and I prefer something that connects to me on an emotional level. I like all kinds of music- jazz, blues, classical, rock, pop, country and bluegrass and play around with most of those on guitar at different times. One can find examples in all of those styles that are emotionally engaging.

I have no issue with someone saying that they don't care for surf, It just bugs me when it gets accused of lacking emotion.

Last edited: Jun 05, 2020 11:27:01

Redfeather wrote:

Sadness isn't any more legitimate than joy, it's just more common. Especially among the folks who created blues music.

I was watching some Beach Boys stuff recently and found it charming and inspiring that Brian's (and the others') primary goal was to create music that expresses pure joy.

Yeah the blues came about by those who were trying escape their bleak existence and it can be pretty effective at doing so.

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