Graceland.

I’m a huge fan of country music.

What an opening line! I could end the blog post right there, sit back, take a swig of coffee and nod slowly and appreciatively, before opening spotify to prove my own point by listening to Brad Paisley jam on guitar.

In actual fact, I experience a great deal of cognitive dissonance when it comes to country. On the one hand, I find solace and wonder in the relaxed melodies, castaway lyrics and promises of sun, sea and sand (yes, Zac Brown is certainly up there in my favourites list). On the other hand, however, I resent the manufactured simplicity and thematically conservative nature of the music, which is a point of derision for many that I know. As a result, I find a place of safety in the humour of Brad Paisley, in the beautiful landscapes and sentiment of Zac Brown, and in the thoughtfulness of Johnny Cash.

Last night, I found myself sitting alone in an RV resort by a dam in the middle of northern Utah, listening intently to and reading about Paul Simon’s album Graceland, released in 1986.

Without going into any semblance of detail, Graceland was recorded in South Africa with the help of South African musicians during the Apartheid era, after Simon discovered South African music and despite the existence of a UN-sanctioned boycott on South Africa designed to deter foreign musicians from performing there. Simon went to great lengths to ensure the South Africans were well reimbursed for their efforts, and pledged to share the royalties of their music.

Understanding the background of the album expanded my appreciation for the album itself and for Simon, although I can’t really say it directly augmented my enjoyment of the music itself. I feel this raises the issue of what causes us to enjoy certain types of music. A lot of people I ask respond to questions of what music they listen to with answers like ‘Anything, really’, or ‘All kinds of stuff’. I have always found this to be a perplexing and thoroughly unsatisfying answer, because in my own experience, I dislike a vast amount of music relative to the amount that is available. I thought for a while I was onto something in speculating that enjoyment of music is linked to what kinds of emotions and memories it stimulates, but the prevalence of answers stating enjoyment for ‘Anything, really’ suggests this may not be a definitive reasoning.

Even for me, my enjoyment of Pink Floyd’s album The Wall – which I enjoy enormously – is, admittedly, difficult to tie to the awakening of any particular personal emotion or sentiment. I cannot say whether enjoyment of a greater variety of music is objectively a good or bad thing, or whether it is not, or whether it is indicative of a more disconnected relationship with music, or what. I cannot say whether there is a correlation between types of music enjoyed and average number of tasks performed during music sessions.

The only things that I can say for sure are that I love country music; Graceland is fantastic; and that Pink Floyd’s The Wall is hauntingly reminiscent of a dark and disturbing place that Trump’s America is seemingly searching for fervently.