Blog
Dissecting Frogs
Written by Mike Park
When you live in a house with four musicians, boring debates about music will inevitably ensue. What triggered the latest one was an old Stereophonics song, Dakota, coming up on shuffle, followed by my innocuous comment “This is my new favourite song in the world, it’s amazing.” Cue carnage…Cue carnarage, sarcasm and stubborness from all involved, myself included. The main counter-argument was that the song was incredibly simple and had some seriously unoriginal ideas, my response to that being a wholehearted “who gives a s**t?”. I could transcribe the dialogue but it really boiled down to variations on those two themes. My housemate was insitent that the music was mediocre and didn’t offer anything new, I didn’t think that was relevant.
Fast forward half an hour and we hadn’t got anywhere. I stubbornly insisted he was being stubborn, he did the same, and we just got into a bad enough mood so that all music sounded terrible for the rest of the day.
My conclusion approximately comes down to something quoted by Jimmy Carr on QI this week. While he was referring to explaining jokes, I think the metaphor applies to arguing about music. It’s like dissecting a frog; Nobody’s that interested, and the frog dies. Now I need a new favourite song.