In class last week we watched the movie High Fidelity. This movie tied into our discussion of using art to forge an identity. The main character in the movie, Rob, and his two friends seemed to characterize everything by songs that would go into a “Top 5 List”. Everything in his life he categorized by what song evoked a certain emotion. For example, when his ex girlfriend’s father died, they made a playlist of the top 5 funeral songs. Getting into the aspect of art as identity, at one point in the movie he decides to characterize his records in a very unusual way. His record collection becomes a musical autobiography. For each record he has a feeling, emotion, exact time and place that takes him to the first time he heard the song. It is interesting the way he uses his art, music, to identify himself. I think it would be very interesting if I arranged my itunes library the way he arranged his record collection. It would take a great deal of thought. Sometimes there is definitely a certain song that makes you think of a specific time and a specific memory, but other times, I don’t necessarily identify my life with music. What would be even harder is to make a list for someone else, like Rob does for Laura. At the very end of the movie, he says he is making a “mix tape” for her. Trying to think of songs that remind you of yourself is one thing, but trying to do it for others is a whole different issue. But I think it would be a very fun to see what I would come up with, or how people would use music to identify me.
Art as Identity
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