Tag: urban

#oneaday, Day 237: Town and Country

I've experienced both town and country life for significant proportions of my life, now. My childhood and teenage years were spent living in a country village which had a shop, a couple of pubs and not a lot else. Then I spent my university and beginning of my "adult" life in various urban areas, mainly Southampton. In said urban areas, there were lots of shops, lots of pubs and lots of over things too. Now I am back in the former place. (The country. Keep up.)

I'm in two minds as to which I prefer. On the one hand, it's nice to live in the city and be able to walk to anything you want to do. On the flip side to this first hand (there may be a few hands, so be prepared) are the things I've commented on before; the casual rule-breaking, the dirt, the filth, the chavs, the people who think it's acceptable to talk shit at you in the street when you've never met them before, the fact that the police come out any time there's a football match, the fact that dogs shit in the street… wait, there was something good in there, I'm sure…

On the other hand (that's two, keep count) the country is quiet, peaceful, serene. You can go for a walk outside and not meet anyone else, least of all someone who wants to call you something unpleasant. As a matter of fact, if you do run into someone in the country, they'll probably politely say "hello" or "good morning" to you, which is a practice that would probably get you a punch in the neck in most built-up areas around the UK. They'll probably also be walking a labrador or golden retriever called Horatio or Barnabas (whose poop they will always clean up) and have a walking stick, even if they're only in their twenties. On the flip side to this second hand (so that's the back of hand number two) living in the country comes with its own downsides. Having a village shop is all very well, but some places don't even have that. And there are plenty of times that the shop here has come under threat of closure due to the "scandalous" way in which some owners have run it. This being a tiny country village, of course, someone running the village shop in a way which is different to how it used to be run by people who were liked by the village is seen as a crime roughly equivalent to raping a kitten whilst butchering orphans and laughing maniacally. I apologise profusely for the mental image you may have in your head right now. Pervert.

Then there's the fact that you actually need a car to get anywhere. This village I'm in now did, for the longest time, not have a bus stop. The nearest bus stop was two miles away. Meaning you had to drive to it. And said bus stop went to the nearest town (seven miles away) once a week for market day. And then once back again. Meaning that if you missed the one coming back, you were either stuck in St. Neots for a week (which is not a place you want to be stuck for an hour, let alone a week) or you had a long walk ahead of you.

I don't know, though. I've been here for a day and a bit now and it's been relatively peaceful. Granted, I have been housebound while shifting heavy boxes, setting up computers, TVs and consoles so I haven't felt the need to go out and do anything just yet. Perhaps the stultifying boredom will come soon. Or perhaps I'll feel the urge to become one of those people with a massive house, three dogs and a roaring log fire. You know, like a proper English person.

Hmm. After checking my bank balance, that may be some time off, yet. Oh well. It's something to aim for, right?

#oneaday, Day 226: Crossing the Musical Pond

Being in contact with people from all over the world is cool. You get to learn all sorts of interesting things about other people. Granted, the vast majority of people I know from "other" parts of the world are in the US and Canada. But despite the fact that many people believe the UK and US in particular to have a lot of similarities, one thing often comes up that reminds me that we are, in fact, different. And that's music.

I was talking to a new friend the other night. She lives in the mountains in Georgia (that's Georgia, US), a place where she says they didn't even "discover" rock music until very recently. Up until then, it was country, country, country all the way. I found it strange to contemplate the idea that an area would just be completely without a style of music that I take for granted.

But then it occurred to me. This happens all over the place. She educated me a bit in the ways of country—a style of music she'd only grown to appreciate recently herself—and I realised that over here, barring occasional anomalies like Shania Twain's brief incursion into the UK charts a few years back, we really don't "do" country over here. At least, not in any sort of mainstream way. We have other things instead. And we have equivalents for different areas.

Okay, so rural English accordion-based folk music isn't exactly the same as country. But it's music from rural areas. The intent is the same, if not the execution. Similarly, urban music in the UK shares some stylistic features with urban music from the US, but comes out rather differently. (I don't like either of them, which at least is something constant.)

In fact, about the only thing that is the same, as I allude to oh-so-subtly above, is the bland, manufactured pop crap. Some whiny twat with a stool and a spotlight bleating on about "oooh, girl" and probably pronouncing "you" as "joo" because that's how cool and/or non-white people do it. It's the same here as in the States.

These musical styles help people form a sense of identity. From the line-dancing country fans up in the mountains to the chavs blasting Dizzee Rascal at 0.5W out of their mobile phones ("blasting" probably wasn't the right word there…) on a street corner, these pieces of music give people a feeling of "belonging". They can attach themselves to it, identify themselves by it, bond with other people over it.

I don't have a particular style of music that I call "my own". As a musician, I've always been pretty fascinated by all styles of music. By exploring them, I've developed fairly eclectic tastes. I know what I like, and what I don't like. I tend to feel more strongly about the things I don't like than the things that I do like. And I don't feel particularly pressured into feeling that I "should" or "shouldn't" like a particular style of music just because of who it is. I've listened to Ke$ha's album, for example, and enjoyed it. (I believe I described it as "what would happen if Kelly Clarkson were forcibly inserted into a NES", which I think is a compliment in my world) I enjoyed the country that my friend introduced me to the other night (Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" is a lovely song, incidentally). I don't find myself screaming over R&B and generic-sounding "urban" music because I've listened to it analytically and don't find any appeal elements in there for me personally, though I'm sure it has its uses. In fact, I almost appreciate it in the whole "darkened club" situation, but then if you drink enough you can come to appreciate pretty much anything. Get low, low, low, low.

So in summary, then? Music is good. Listen to whatever the hell you like and damn what other people think of you if they find out.