Let's Talk About @LindseyStirling
(I've noticed that I haven't written anything about music since my second essay, so allow me to mitigate this neglect).
As a teenager, I hated the music of my generation. Well, most of it.
While I was in high school the four great sensations in pop music were Lady Gaga, Katie Perry, Kesha, and--the bane of my adolescent existence--Justin Bieber. My contemporaries loved the music of these three, along with others. But not me. I couldn't stand their music.
A third of this loathing, I'll admit, came out of snobbery. I was going through my dilettante musician phase learning about "real music," meaning Classical, Baroque, and Romantic-era music, and I was playing it. So I thought anyone who just sung cheesy, bubblegum pop lyrics based around three or four chords wasn't a real musician (as if I, having no natural talent in the area, had any room to pass judgement. I was a teenager though, and after texting friends and talking about sex, passing judgement on subjects over which we had no authority was one of our hobbies). Teenagers are prone to such pretentious affectation and thought because they're trying to figure out who they are. I was not different.
The other two thirds of this loathing, however, arose out of different feelings.
One was simple annoyance. The music of these artists was played on repeat, on the radio, all the damn time. Now, from experience, I know that even if you like listening to a piece of music, or an artist, or a particular album, sooner or later, you're going to want to listen to something else. But when you can't stand it, and the song persists, that feeling of repetition-induced nausea only intensifies tenfold.
The second was a recognition of a pattern. The more I listened to the pop music of my generation, the more I began to realize that every song, no matter the artist, was usually about one of three subjects: Love, Sex, or Money. All I say about that is this: the only reason you should sing about any of these subjects or listen to songs about these subjects is if you're lacking them in your real life.
That's right. This was one of Lindsey Stirling's earliest, professionally filmed and edited videos for her song "Spontaneous Me." It was my first salvation from my music-less state. Immediately, I subscribed to her channel, the first YouTube channel to which, I think I subscribed. I watched all of her early videos as she released them. Some of which were covers and mashups of popular songs of the time. But my favorites were the originals, each dramatizing a song that would eventually show up on her titular first album, Lindsey Stirling. A couple of my favorites include:
3. Elements
3. Transcendence (Orchestral Version--which she's never released as an MP3, to my great chagrin)
But what was it that Lindsey's music had that I found so attractive? What quality did she have that I found so enamoring and enjoyable to listen to?
Well, for one, she played the violin. Even as a fake musician, I always had a respect for old-school musicianship and musical accomplishment. Lindsey is a classically trained (which merely means she's been educated by an actual music teacher) violinist, and, though her style of performance and playing is unorthodox, the skill set she learned shines through. Additionally, the violin, when played well, is one of my favorite classical instruments. Had I not been forced by circumstance to learn the trumpet instead, I would've wanted to be a violinist (which I'm sure I wouldn't have been any better at).
Her attitude of overflowing optimism and enthusiasm was also a plus. Having been a cynical asshole of a teenager, listening to her music had a great balancing effect on my personality.
Another added bonus was that her music lacked any lyrics. She wasn't playing songs about desiring love, or sex, or money, and that was a great relief. Instead, her music was music at its purest: absolute abstraction from which you, the listener, had to derive some kind of meaning. Her music videos--works of art on their own that gradually used more fantastic imagery as time passed on, which appealed to my sensibility as a lover of fantasy--tended to give you some idea of what the songs were about when coupled with their titles, but the sounds were what mattered to most.
Above everything else though was that Lindsey was simply unique. Many great groups, like Simply Three, The Piano Guys, and Taylor Davis, have come up through the YouTube ranks with their unique sounds because mainstream music was so specific. You had to sing, and if you couldn't do that, you had to play a mainstream musical instrument, like guitar or piano. Lindsey didn't fit that mold. It was because of this nonconformity that she got booted off America's Got Talent (something I found out years later, because I don't watch AGT). Yet, she persisted. She started a channel. She gained a following, and since then she's toured the world time and again, and she's released five albums (three original albums and two Christmas albums).
That singular quality, combined with her positive personality, incredible skill, and drive to succeed, is what not only endeared her fans (Stirlingites, as we're called), but is also what's lead to her success.
I hope one day to be able to see her live in concert, and I'm eagerly awaiting what she'll do next in her own artistic journey.
Comments