Putting up my defences.

There are many things that I am defensive about. I am just a defensive person. Some people poke fun at me and I usually put up my defences instantly unless I know that too well they are just trying to stir me up. But I am especially defensive when it comes to the music I like. Yes, I understand that everyone likes different genres and sounds and most people have an opinion on music but today I have become irritated after doing some YouTube research on Joanna Newsom and Last.fm research on one of my favourite Australian bands, Dardanelles. Both of these artists are an acquired taste, understandably because they do not follow the mundane mainstream cookie-cut-outs of pop and rock bands, pretty much because neither are mainstream and both defy these genres.

Joanna Newsom.

When it comes to Joanna Newsom some think she has a voice that makes the listener want to clench their teeth and grate their skin, but like many others I see more to her than just her vocals. Everyone knows that she doesn't have a smooth singing voice but some people are stupid enough to just focus on her singing and be ignorant of the fact that she is a classically trained harpist which in itself intrigues me already. Her lyrics are story-telling in poetry form and reflect Romanticism along with the magical elements that contribute to the dreaminess that embodies her. After I listened closely to her music and watched interviews of her I realised that although she is mannered and gentle (reminiscent of a little girl) she is idiosyncratic which is where the eccentricity of her singing voice fits her perfectly. Then there are jerks who post comments on her videos on YouTube who say that she's "retarded" and think she sounds horrible. I believe people can have their own opinion but that irritates me because people like that are so quick to criticise and post comments like that to spark up everyone elses defences. Like my own. Really, if people like that have nothing nice to say then they shouldn't say anything.

Then a few hours ago I stumbled across an article someone wrote on Last.fm about Dardanelles, accusing the Melbourne band of being "unoriginal" and "stealing" the main guitar riff to Scott Walker's 'Cossacks Are' in their newest track 'Mirror Mirror'.I had a listen to the guitar riffs and both are simplistic and jolt in and out during the tracks but it is extremely lame to think that one is copying the other, especially since Walker's riff is longer and has a miniscule pause in the middle of it. For someone who doesn't study music even I can tell there is a difference between both riffs. I just think some people cannot understand the fact that sometimes other people's intellectual property can be similar to others without intention.

Dardanelles-'Mirror Mirror'

I think that Dardanelles debut album 'Mirror Mirror'is one of the best albums released recently that I have listened to mainly due to the fact that they have a consistent and innovative post-punk sound with impressionist lyrics that separate them from the indie-electo sound that has emerged everywhere in the past year. It is clever in the way 'Mirror Mirror's tracks blend into one another, making the album into a personality of the Dardanelles at that particular time instead of just being an album of singular tracks with no purpose to the flow as a collective.
But who am I to think that when they are quote,"..talentless hacks who steal guitar riffs from Scott Walker". I just discovered the author of that journal even wrote about "people who make defiant stances against people who get e-angry when someone doesn't like a band that they're fond of". Am I now too predictable?