About Me in....(3)

MUSIC


Music has it own undeniable history and power. That's why nowadays a lot of dreams always got a thing or two to do with music. So many talent contests are surrounding with music background, the whole world can go crazy about it, follow every minutes of it, up and down by it... We are paying, dont know how million billions into music industry. Yet it all so worthwhile cause happy or unhappy, hateful or loveable feeling, music still and always been a silent friend with us.

Okay, I was just talking general small talk about this topic.


I love it when people can be passionated about one kind of music. By their taste of music, you somehow can define their personalities if you know enough and care enough.


I tend to listen to anything. Saying I'm the greedy type wouldnt wrong you. I love to be greedy, admit it always yet complicated when you know someone like that as well, if you look close enough, there would be easier to tell what inside but in general, I feels like I got no personality, no character, and that's been the impression of so many people around me.


But to be honest, I just love everything so much that it's so hard to actually put anything on top of all. I do things with moods and music taste change within moods every seconds as well. There are people I know, they so passionated about Rock or R n B, pop or classic, new age... There are some taste changed as time went by, but I would have to say, once that kind of music grown into your blood stream - it will always stay, still defined your best character above all.


When I was little, I would listened to all the '80s pop music, when my big mum (my mum's oldest sister) and her husband had this old playing machine which played the vinyl record. I loved the way it turned round and round, loved the look of it with all black disc inside colouful colour big cover, loved that I can place the disc in and put it on playing by a tiny record reader looks like a needle. And through that I learnt to love The Carpenters even I didnt know who they were, love the sound of Top of the world or Yesterday once more. My grandparents would have a black and white TV in early 90s, mostly played a lot of classical music with a big orchestra that my blurry memory still has some blurry image of them, I used to like to be the leader, took out one chopstick or pen, then started swinging my hand around with it, imagined I can tell a whole big group of people with many lovely instruments to play a beautiful tune. Always wanted to learn how to play piano or more likely violin, but yet it remained just dreams of a little girl.

When I turned 8, we lived abroad with dad, that's when MJ and pop music started sunk in. I learnt and talked fluently Russian at that time so couldnt understand a word of English they were singing, just love the melody of them all. Dad used to translate it for us about the meaning of the songs in his Very Funny way of translation - which by the way I knew I get some humour tips from him by now - whenver it was ' I love you ', he would say something like ' tao yeu may ', and the whole family would know that sentence and told him off because he was making it so unromantic.


Back to Vietnam by '94. A lot has changed by then.

I used to listened to Thuy Nga a lot back in Russia as well, my mum loves Trinh. and other composers in the old time. Must be inheritated from her that I can learn a few things about old old music, the ones before and during war time. Mum only listen to Khanh Ly sings Trinh., I was 10 by then, carve in my memory was this image of out tiny little house in the middle of summer, hot and sunny, the old cassette player kept playing the same tape of Trinh. over and over, it would be Diem xua, Phoi pha, Nang' thuy tinh, Nguoi con gai da vang,... Or it would be some nights when all 3 of us, watching these music video with lyrics playing on the screen, sang along with those, forget about the world outside.



I started learn English since 4th grade, loving every minutes of it cause I can tell I was quick at it with my Russian experience. Begin to get the hold of it in 6th grade, loved my English teacher at the time when half of the class didn't, like her way of teaching us from tiny things to big grammars. That's when MTV got the hold of Vietnam as well. We started having some shows from other countries, sing and dance or movie soundtracks, even though it wasnt the best at the time but I was settle and happy with what I get from there. Still remember I taped every music related shows at those time, listened again and again, improved my listening a lot through that.


By high school, more than half of population were obssessed with Rock. I despite it, always wonder til now, how many of them truly get the meaning behind the names of any types of music or they just go with trends, others like it so you gotta follow it, I totally against it and never mind saying it. I didnt listen to Rock or Rap or Hip hop when it became a trend in any group of people I know. I believe only when you can feel the rythm of it that's when you truly love it. So it took time, years to develop layers of music feeling with me.

I still wouldnt say I know Rock, it's something I listen to once in awhile, when I like the sound, the breaking up in tunes, the singers' voices, the deepression in their composing way - somehow it goes with my craziness once in a long long while - the feeling of rules breaking or such.


I got this close friend in college, he studied to become a DJ. He talked about RnB, about drum n base, about ghetto, about his passion with beats, with rythms whenever he felt like mixing up some music - old school ones or new tunes catching somewhere in his mind. He made the love for rapping and hip hop sunk in me. I learnt about their histories, learnt what behind all funny lyrics, learnt a new culture in music and through its own way of telling life story, lot of stories. Yet still unacceptable the way some guys can curse through the songs with some beats and earns millions.


I always write with music playing. I put music on 24/7 with my comp on 24/7 as a natural thing in my life. Sometimes leaves me wonder, how would it be like if there's no music, no records, no music players.... It must be pretty depressing.

Oh well, that's it for all the memories and feeling for music, for now.