|
I was in college when I first started listening to Sonic Youth. As with many of their fans, one of the things that really struck me about their music was the dissonance. Just think of the guitar chords in the opening of Schizophrenia, for example. I had never heard chords like that before. The notes just didn’t seem to “belong” together. The chords conveyed a feeling of tension and awkwardness, and that was part of what I loved about it.
Around that time, I took a music theory course (simple, introductory stuff), and the professor spoke about dissonance. He said that the reason why something sounds dissonant is because you are not used to it. He said there is no such thing as certain notes “naturally” belonging together and other notes not belonging together. I didn’t believe him. To me, Sonic Youth was proof that beautiful music could be made by putting together notes that do not naturally fit each other.
As time went on, and I listened to listen to more and more Sonic Youth, I came to believe that the professor was right. The dissonant chords in Schizophrenia started to sound very normal to my ear. More than 20 years later, Sonic Youth is still my favorite band, and I expect they always will be. But the dissonance is mostly gone, and that was a part of what made their music so appealing to me.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
|