Nine Inch Nails.

If you have never listened to this band – do yourself a favour. Now I know a lot of people say it is not my type of music but how do you define what is your type of anything. Take art for instance, you don’t need anyone to tell you if a piece of art is good or not. You know if it is good, but people feel that they are not “qualified” enough or inexperienced to make a decision. But once again I say you are. Art is not good because it was painted 5 decades ago or because of the artist’s lifestyle or his reputation. Also you don’t need to understand art, I would go as far to say that contrary to  popular belief there is no meaning behind a piece of art. A piece of art is good because of the way it makes you feel. If it sparks any feeling in you, it is good. Hence good art is emotive! Granting the feel is good to you. The artist is not trying to tell you something, s/he is trying to make you feel something. Now take this a step further and imagine the feeling or state of mind of the artist at the time.

Now when you listen to NIN (I recommend The Fragile – CD2), keep the above in mind and take note of how you feel and what they felt like at that time. Don’t worry about the words, feel the music, try listen to each “noise”, try and take them in separately and reconstruct it in your mind.

Apply this to anything and everything.