[Magic Wheel Memory]

I was in college when I first started listening to Sonic Youth. As with many of their fans, one of the things that really struck me about their music was the dissonance. Just think of the guitar chords in the opening of Schizophrenia, for example. I had never heard chords like that before. The notes just didn’t seem to “belong” together. The chords conveyed a feeling of tension and awkwardness, and that was part of what I loved about it.

Around that time, I took a music theory course (simple, introductory stuff), and the professor spoke about dissonance. He said that the reason why something sounds dissonant is because you are not used to it. He said there is no such thing as certain notes “naturally” belonging together and other notes not belonging together. I didn’t believe him. To me, Sonic Youth was proof that beautiful music could be made by putting together notes that do not naturally fit each other.

As time went on, and I listened to listen to more and more Sonic Youth, I came to believe that the professor was right. The dissonant chords in Schizophrenia started to sound very normal to my ear. More than 20 years later, Sonic Youth is still my favorite band, and I expect they always will be. But the dissonance is mostly gone, and that was a part of what made their music so appealing to me.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

[Pinkunicornnx]

Yeah when I first got into then, about a year ago, when I was fourteen, (yeah I'm young...) I wasn't sure if I liked them or not because I thought they sounded weird. I didn't even like Kool Thing because I thought it sounded really odd. I discovered Sonic Youth because Kurt Cobain mentioned them as an inspiration in his diary but I was abit confused because it was the first time that I heard noise-rock and at first, I must say that I HATED Sonic Youth. But then, I listened to some of their most famous stuff on youtube (the most viewed videos are generally the most poppish songs) because I was drawn to Sonic Youth even though I hated them, it's hard to explain. So, I listened to Schizophrenia, Dirty Boots and Superstar and BOOM. I fell in love with this band.

[dasx]

The first time I heard Sonic Youth was around 1995 when I found Experimental Jet Set Trash And No Star from my friend's record collection. I had heart about band and it made me curious. There was some parts I liked but the noisy stuff sounded too weird and I didn't like it. Something happened in my head though, 'cause Sonic Youth stayed in my mind and in fall 1998 when I moved to another city, I found Daydream Nation from library and that album blew my mind. Library's cd was in so bad condition I couldn't listen to whole album (Silver Rocket, Candle, Total Trash & Eric's Trip did not work well) but those songs I was able to listen to, were awesome! 'Cross the Breeze sounded the greatest song I had ever heard and The Wonder, what a song! I noticed the dissonance and it sounded weird, but I kinda liked it. I got addicted those strangely tuned guitars and after few years I had to find a different tune for my own guitar too (and re-learn to play it again). Sonic Youth is a perfect mix of punk attitude, avantgarde/jazz aestethics, poetry in lyrics and progressive songwriting.

[Rob Instigator]

I was a serious metal-head in my early years. the around age 15-16 I bought DDN. The simple cover art made no sense to me, being used to extravagant and overwrought metal covers The music inside was so different from the heavy riffage that megadeth, and metallica, and Priest and Maiden and Kiss and all tyhose bands I loved were playing. The aggression was inexplicably raised up to 11, and the dissonance was so skronkalicious, it forever altered what my mind wanted to hear. I still enjoyed the Metal, but I was on the hunt for more music like DDN, like Sonic Youth. Soon, within a few years, the "out of tune" dissonance no longer seemed "off" in any way. In fact, it seemed much more interesting to my mind's ear than any normal guitar sounds.

Through my love of SY and their sound I got into Naked City, Polvo, Unwound, Butthole Surfers, early pavement, etc... It really was more about that sound to me than about the band's subculture and affiliations.