"What I've always appreciated about anger-driven music is its ability to vent those feelings without engendering them; I suppose the function is similar, in this way, to good songs about love or yearning. They enable a side of the personality to be tapped without making catastrophic life choices."Isn't that just wonderful? I've often wondered about what exactly draws me to Soviet music. The fact that I feel very connected to it is no question at all. But so much Soviet music is (and I know that I'm generalizing here) angry and tragic and fierce and impassioned, and my general personality displays none of these characteristics. I was born in the South. I was raised to be sweet and meek and mild. I am one Georgia-peach-accent shy of a debutante.
Despite all of that, I love this strong Russian music, and the above quote explains exactly why that is. I can perform music like this, and it enables me to tap into all these emotions which are new and unique to me. It is precisely because I'm neither tragic nor angry by nature that I get so swept up by this music. I can express all of these near-forbidden emotions without actually becoming tragic or angry. It's like riding a rollercoaster. You get the adrenaline rush, but then you get to walk away with nothing left but the exhilarating feeling. To me, there is something very stirring about that, and my performance of the music is better for it.
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