Vienna for Newbies

[strilfidez]

Hey, I'm a newbie here. aaparallel introduced me to VT's music about 2 weeks ago or so, and now I stay up late because I just have to hear My Medea one more time...and St. Stephen's Cross...
But seriously, for the past few years, I've had the feeling that music is...running out? That there are only so many permutations of notes, only so many emotions to express..that anything "new" is actually either trash or a copy of a classic. You know, just like how Shakespeare's themes are replayed over and over again...

But I've discovered an exception in VT's music. And that makes me very genuinely happy :)

It's funny that I thought that before...it's not as though there's a limited number of chemical compounds in the universe, or a limit to the digits of pi...well, there is a speed limit, but that's not the point. The point is, I guess, that music isn't like the speed of light, it's like pi.
If you search through it long enough, you can find exactly what you're looking for, like your best friend's phone number. Or a song that reminds you of your best friend, and not of anyone else that ever existed before, or ever will exist in the future.
That's the way good music is supposed to be, right? It has always existed in the void, it's just been waiting for someone to find and embody it. The hard part is sifting through the dense fog to find it.

Or maybe music comes from within us, and it's good when others find that same feeling in themselves as well.
I dunno. Maybe I should just enjoy the music, haha :)

[battlemagick]

Haha my mum actually introduced me to VT with The Atheist Christmas Carol on Youtube. Pretty odd, huh? I wasn't exactly an immediate convert, but somehow as I went about doing my own stuff for the rest of the day, it just kept replaying in my head. In the end I gave up and went to HMV and bought the only VT CD they had in stock, which happened to be Inland Territory.

I've been hooked ever since

I managed to get a friend interested by first quoting lyrics from Antebellum and Stray Italian Greyhound, then letting her hear the songs. And just two days ago I caught another friend's interest with City Hall, which I was randomly playing on the piano.

Actually, I think most of the songs would work because her melodies are very strong, and they catch on without people realising. Which is pretty damn awesome!

Welcome to the forums, battlemagick! You're so right - almost any song would work, really. I recently turned a friend into a big fan, and he says Youtubing Vienna's stuff is so addicting because every song is just amazing. She's got a perfect track record.

Thank you! I posted Eric's Song on my Facebook page a couple of days ago, and it's already made at least 3 people pay enough attention to go Youtube and discover more of Vienna's magic. I get this inexplicable bubble of happiness when I know that there are more people out there who are as enchanted as I am by her music, haha. Quite the ultimate awkward fangirl I am, at times. ._.

[aaparallel]

Hey, I'm a newbie here. aaparallel introduced me to VT's music about 2 weeks ago or so, and now I stay up late because I just have to hear My Medea one more time...and St. Stephen's Cross...
But seriously, for the past few years, I've had the feeling that music is...running out? That there are only so many permutations of notes, only so many emotions to express..that anything "new" is actually either trash or a copy of a classic. You know, just like how Shakespeare's themes are replayed over and over again...

But I've discovered an exception in VT's music. And that makes me very genuinely happy

It's funny that I thought that before...it's not as though there's a limited number of chemical compounds in the universe, or a limit to the digits of pi...well, there is a speed limit, but that's not the point. The point is, I guess, that music isn't like the speed of light, it's like pi.
If you search through it long enough, you can find exactly what you're looking for, like your best friend's phone number. Or a song that reminds you of your best friend, and not of anyone else that ever existed before, or ever will exist in the future.
That's the way good music is supposed to be, right? It has always existed in the void, it's just been waiting for someone to find and embody it. The hard part is sifting through the dense fog to find it.

Or maybe music comes from within us, and it's good when others find that same feeling in themselves as well.
I dunno. Maybe I should just enjoy the music, haha

Dude, you're on the forum! Welcome! "Music is like pi" should be a bumper sticker or something.

[aaparallel]

Quite the ultimate awkward fangirl I am, at times. ._.

Oh, trust me - that doesn't make you the ultimate awkward fangirl. Not that there's anything wrong with being an awkward fangirl! I hope you'll enjoy the forum. I like to think we're a crazy-but-likeable bunch of ultimate awkward fans.

[battlemagick]

Quite the ultimate awkward fangirl I am, at times. ._.

Oh, trust me - that doesn't make you the ultimate awkward fangirl. Not that there's anything wrong with being an awkward fangirl! I hope you'll enjoy the forum. I like to think we're a crazy-but-likeable bunch of ultimate awkward fans.

Heh thank you! Been reading through, and it sure seems like it lol

[Fred]

Quite the ultimate awkward fangirl I am, at times. ._.

Oh, trust me - that doesn't make you the ultimate awkward fangirl. Not that there's anything wrong with being an awkward fangirl! I hope you'll enjoy the forum. I like to think we're a crazy-but-likeable bunch of ultimate awkward fans.

Heh thank you! Been reading through, and it sure seems like it lol

Vienna herself has told stories of being an awkward fangirl, so it's all good.

[Cooler Near The Lake]

No new votes for about a month, so it's probably time to close the thread. Here are the results - tadaa!
(I simply counted all songs named, no matter if they were actually mentioned in the context of first exposure or not or if one or you covered the song himself/herself. The order represents no own preference.)

5 votes:
Gravity

4 votes:
Harbor

3 votes:
Idioteque (a little surprise)
Antebellum
Eric's Song (I took the liberty to identify "love song without the word love" with this one and to add one own vote because I recently converted someone into a fan by using a YT version)

2 votes:
My Medea
No Gringo
City Hall

1 vote:
Grandmother's Song
Hope on Fire
Whatever You Want
In Another Life
Augustine
1 BR/BA
Brooklyn Blurs
Passage
Soon Love Soon
Atheist Xmas Carol
Stray Italian Greyhound
St. Stephen's Cross

.. in another words, quite a good cross section through Vienna's work.

Thanks to everybody for participation.

Cooler

[Fred]

Wow, very interesting outcome. Since voting, I've converted 2 fans (not to the point of going to a show--yet) by posting the Soon Love Soon video from the Highline Ballroom last summer; not my vote, so you never know. Really interesting that nobody picked The Tower.