Do you have to like dark, scary music to be deep?

I've often found myself buying into the idea that if you don't actively listen to dark music, particularly the scary, aggressive stuff, then you aren't very deep. I remember when I was a teen I used to commune with people who felt a lot of poppier, upbeat music was fake and that only the demonic scary stuff was true. Of course I often felt resentment because it reminded me of some really nasty stuff but at the same time it was sort of an opportunity to explore something different. I don't necessarily buy into the life is all sunshine and rainbows philosophy, but I've often coerced myself into listening to this kind of stuff that I actually find a chore to listen to in general, just to feel intelligent. I think I like moody songs in moderation but definitely not the extreme 'satanic', violent, gory kind of stuff for sure. It reminds me of some stuff in my life that I'd rather forget, but I still struggle with these kinds of thoughts towards myself on matters of music taste.

Only listen to what you enjoy listening to. Who gives a shit what anybody else thinks?

P.S. - Teenagers are f*cking stupid. They aren't deep, they haven't been alive long enough to be deep. We're all idiots till we hit our 30s.

Obviously they never listened to the lyrics. There are quite a few upbeat poppy music songs(Jellyfish and Human Radio have a couple) with serious lyrics or with deeper meaning. R.E.M. comes to mind as well.

But yeah, what S.D. said.

What I've also noticed is that some of the most compassionate and mature people I know, especially those who are into humanitarian works of some sort, don't listen to this kind of music at all. There' always those who feel this is somehow a profound statement in making people understand suffering but from what I've seen people can still be creeps either way despite hearing this stuff that supposedly makes them "concious". In fact, from my experience people who listen exclusively to death/black metal or extreme music like this are usually pretty cold. I don't think music like this necessarily makes them like that but reflects how they are and how they relate. Plus, it's usually the younger individuals who do this because of hormones and insecurities in their teen years, and even the artists themselves do not actually suffer from a legit depression from anything other than undiagnosed chemical imbalances. Alot of people prior to becoming more aware of these problems often thought this kind of stuff was true but now we're finding out that generally it isn't. Some studies say people mellow out when they reach adulthood for some of the reasons mentioned and also finding better ways to cope with problems around them.

S.D. wrote:

Only listen to what you enjoy listening to.  Who gives a shit what anybody else thinks?  

P.S. - Teenagers are f*cking stupid.  They aren't deep, they haven't been alive long enough to be deep.  We're all idiots till we hit our 30s.  

What SD said

thejokeriv wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Only listen to what you enjoy listening to.  Who gives a shit what anybody else thinks?  

P.S. - Teenagers are f*cking stupid.  They aren't deep, they haven't been alive long enough to be deep.  We're all idiots till we hit our 30s.  

What SD said

Yep! You can't be deep until you're old and jaded like us!Lol

S.D. wrote:

Only listen to what you enjoy listening to.  Who gives a shit what anybody else thinks?  

P.S. - Teenagers are f*cking stupid.  They aren't deep, they haven't been alive long enough to be deep.  We're all idiots till we hit our 30s.  

I'll second this.

When it comes to serious/dark stuff, I was recently having a discussion with a friend over how tired I am of movies insisting on gritty realism. You can't (easily) go to a mainstream flick and just have a bit of fun watching a movie about some dude who treasure hunts, gets the girl, and punches people throughout the movie. Nothing at all wrong with a bit of wish fulfilment and fun, right? The problem isn't that gritty realism is bad, it's that sometimes it's unwelcome. When it's the only thing on the menu, you're bound to get tired of it.

So, ultimately, variety is the spice of life and all that. Sometimes you want light entertainment and sometimes you want to be challenged and face down some darker subjects, maybe get some catharsis or whatever. Keeping the doors open so you have a variety of things to choose from when you're reaching for music just seems the best policy. The kinds of people who have to keep their stuff "pure" to be taken seriously are usually boring knobs to take themselves far too seriously and who often can't do much more than regurgitate what they take in. Seriously, it's a bit of a drag. Really doesn't matter what it is you're keeping "pure," whether it's books, movies, music, religion, or whatever.

It's a pretty big world out there. Seems kind of stupid to turn a blind eye to the majority of it in the name of being "deep."

Music doesn't make you deep. Life experience, wisdom and emotional maturity makes you deep. If you are looking for song lyrics for this you are doing nothing more than taking someone else's' experience as your own, which isn't deep. Also if the only emotions that you are able to relate to are dark negative ones, you probably need to broaden your horizons/get laid.

One artist that i like is Devin Townsend because I think he's pretty honest in his lyrics and musical style, when he is in an angry chaotic messy place, he makes that kind of music, but he's equally capable of mellow, Spiritual,funny, happy, reflective when that's how he's feeling. I think that's more honest ans a lot deeper than some middle class Norwegians pretending to be dark and tortured all of the time.

Focusing primarily on any one thing is the exact opposite of "deep". That goes for music, movies, books, art, whatever. If you put the blinders on and just laser focus on one tiny aspect of this great big artistic world you're standing too close to the painting. It's like buying one of those large boxes of crayons but then only using 3 colors.

S.D. wrote:

Only listen to what you enjoy listening to.  Who gives a shit what anybody else thinks?  

P.S. - Teenagers are f*cking stupid.  They aren't deep, they haven't been alive long enough to be deep.  We're all idiots till we hit our 30s.  

Some people are idiots well beyond their 30s!

So when the King of Rohan yelled to "Helm's Deep", how deep was that ?

Rock and metal are still forms of pop music, or popular music. Listening to any of them doesn't make you particularly 'deep'. Goth teens and black metal kids are more laughable than deep.

Classical music is probably seen more intelligent, maybe not necessarily always deep though. But there's some pretty dark stuff there too. Then again, a lot of people like me just listen to classical music in the background. That doesn't make you deep at all.

I guess the best way to appear to be deep, is to claim everything everyone else listens to is shallow and of little value. And never name any bands when asked about your own favourites.

I'm reminded of a Peter Murphy show I attended a few years back. Now, Bauhaus was goth central back in the day, so you had all these scowling teenagers up in the balcony and Murphy was actively making fun of how seriously they were taking the whole enterprise.

He didn't make much headway getting them to lighten up, but it WAS good for a laugh to see their idol going, "Jesus, dudes, unclench a little."