Music (again)

I had some free time, since I was on vacation. Somehow it entered into my head to go on youtube and listen to music by the Jonas Brothers. I had already decided that I didn't like the Jonas Brothers, because the stereotype for people who like them are teenage girls, and many intelligent people I know have told me that they are awful.

But, I hadn't ever actually listened to them before, only heard about them. I decided that if I was going to have an opinion about the Jonas Brothers, I should at least do something to deserve having an opinion. So I went on youtube and listened to some of their songs.

Musically, they were okay. I didn't much care for the themes of all the songs I listened to, Romantic Love is okay I guess, but not my favorite lyrical theme. The one thing that really bothered me was their singing. It wasn't that they were bad, they could sing well... they just didn't have any passion.

My Switchfoot channel on Pandora makes me wonder what it is I like so much about Switchfoot. I know that I like their musical style, but Pandora keeps coming up with song in the same style and I don't like them nearly as much. I always thought that it was just because the lyrics weren't as amazing, but that really can't be it because listening to the song only once isn't going to allow me to figure out how deep the lyrics are. Same thing applies to my U2 radio on Pandora, I don't like hardly any of the non-U2 songs (Bittersweet Symphony is the exception)

Listening to the Jonas Brothers helped me figure out what it is that I like so much about Switchfoot, and U2, and David Crowder, and Kieth Green. Passion. You can hear it when they're singing, not just that they're getting into it, but that they're getting you into it. It's something that they care deeply about, and sing because they care deeply about it. I didn't hear that when I listened to the Jonas Brothers. I don't hear that when I listen to a lot of artist, a lot of Relient K songs lack passion, I guess that's why I don't like them nearly as much as Switchfoot.

I read something like this is Blue Like Jazz the other day.

"If you believe something, passionately, people will follow you. People hardly care what you believe, as long as you believe something. If you are passionate about something, people will follow you because they think you know something they don't, some clue to the meaning of the universe. Passion is tricky, though, because it can point to nothing as easily as it points to something... What people believe is important. What people believe is more important than how they look, what their skills are, or their degree of passion. Passion about nothing is like pouring gasoline in a car without wheels. It isn't going to lead anybody anywhere."