W I L C O (specificity matters a great deal)

[janejellyroll]

I went to Memphis (okay, technically Southhaven, Mississippi) tonight to see Wilco with corkyelmendorf and my pal Nick, who has no LJ and so shall not be linked. stldude14 was supposed to go or something but he didn't "feel well

Comments

[22by7]

somebody could want both types of music in their life
well, yes! i highly doubt that anybody who listens to a fair amount of music falls entirely into the first or second camp. and then sometimes i listen to music because i like the chord progressions.

as for reasons... i'd imagine that there are a lot of them that are extraneous to the actual musical content/quality.

[corkyelmendorf]

While Klosterman has a point about why some artists achieve popularity, I also know that sometimes it is just the "poppiness" of a song that captures listeners--a catchy phrase (or not, as in "Hey There Delilah") or a certain rhythm. Sometimes the lyrics are wonderfully simple (not to be confused with simply wonderful). People respond to music on many different levels. I usually think about the music I'm listening to. I can, for instance, run to music but I can rarely read while listening to music. (This wouldn't necessarily be true of strictly instrumental pieces).