Music that creates distinct cultures

I’ve been doing a fair amount of walking recently, enjoying the change of winter into spring. Yesterday I borrowed Kim Blacha’s iPod to listen to on a three-mile walk to get the newspaper (rather than using the car and adding to my carbon footprint). Actually I didn’t formally borrow it – I just picked it up and gave it back to her afterwards.

Listening to someone else’s iPod gives you all kinds of insights into what sort of person they are. I made up my mind to listen to everything as it came up, even tracks I would normally skip through (Never Forget by Take That, Eternal Flame by the Bangles, some drivel by Jamiroquai). A lot of the music was fairly predictable for Kim Blacha – How To Save A Life by The Fray, Looking For Love by Karen Ramirez, Lovefool by Cardigans. I thought Who Knew by Pink was quite moving and listened to it twice. But I was stopped in my tracks (I literally stopped to check what I was listening to) by Branka Parlic playing Metamorphosis 2 by Philip Glass. This particular noise outclassed everything else on the iPod.

Later I looked at Kim Blacha as if seeing her for the first time.

Later still I listened to Branka Parlic playing Gnoissienne No 1 by Erik Satie.

We know that every distinct culture in the history of the world has produced music, but I think research should be done on music that creates distinct cultures (this is obviously happening on the popular level with the link between fashion and particular bands, but I think there might also be more subtle connections that are being missed).

I once read Image Music Text by Roland Barthes and didn’t understand a word. I read it again (after some prompting by a friend) and began to get glimmers of understanding. I then read it a third time and it became one of the books that changed my life.