Hyperballad: A Visual Playlist
Inspired by Aperture Foundation’s blog entry last April about The Photographer’s Playlist, I made a “mixtape” of songs on Spotify that inspire my visual expression, move my soul, and nourish my vulnerable emotions.
I have consumed pop music for most of my life. The only genre I haven’t really paid attention to, sadly, is classical music. My taste in music varies and depends on my mood especially when I need to concentrate while working or just basically zone out and get lost in my thoughts.
Music was my first love in a sense where I just purely enjoy listening rather than learning how to play any instrument. Photography came in the scene much later when I thought that the idea of pursuing a creative life for myself was still impossible. I am lucky to have met people who have eclectic tastes in music and influenced me to dig deeper and uncover old sounds and artists from different eras.
I am fascinated by how I still get surprised whenever I hear songs I didn’t know are from a different time yet are astonishingly fresh to the ears. Sometimes I just accidentally discover it because they are sampled in other songs.
As I grew older and mature enough to manage and filter my life choices, the complexities in the musical arrangement of some songs or sometimes its well-crafted lyrics started resonating to my senses. All of a sudden “old people music” such as jazz or ska started making sense.
This particular playlist is generally a glimpse of the artists and music genres that I listen to on certain occasions when I am highly emotional (Bjork, Radiohead), want to go on a meditative state (Talk Talk, Augustus Pablo, Kate Bush, New Order/Joy Division) or play a favorite album (The Skatalites — From Paris with Love, The Beatles).
I first heard Seu Jorge when he covered David Bowie songs in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The Selecter, on the other hand, is all about my fascination with ska music and its subculture.
