Nick Hornby’s Novel High Fidelity

MUSIC

Rob Fleming is the main character in Nick Hornby’s novel from 1995, High Fidelity. When the woman of Rob’s dreams, Charlie, busts up with him, he gets obsessed with her. After awhile he realizes that he can’t have her back, and he becomes broken-hearted. Rob therefore listens to a lot of depressing love songs about being heartbroken and lonely, but this only makes him more miserable. Music has that effect on people. It can either make you jolly or sad. There are times when you totally neglect all your sorrows and broken dreams, by turning up the bass to turn down the pain. And then there are other times when you tune in your favourite song and laugh, sing and dance like a maniac without worrying about what people will think of you if they see you. I’m no exception; I listen to music all day long, although the music changes as my mood changes, my favourite songs remain, no matter what.

It is hard for me to make a “top 5”-list of my favourite songs because my taste of music changes a lot. The music I listen to does not belong to one special genre. I like everything from alternative and punk to pop and rock. I like music from the both the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and music from artists that are popular today. Some of my favourite bands/artists are The Rolling Stones, Beatles, ABBA, Michael Jackson, Ramones, Marvin Gaye, REM, Oasis, Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses, Franz Ferdinand, Aha, Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, Bon Jovi, Lenny Kravitz, Bee Gees, Mamas and the Papas etc. But if I was to narrow all my favourite music down to only five songs it would have to result in this list: Runaway Train by Soul Asylum, 74 - 75 by The Connels, Wonderwall by Oasis, Santeria by Sublime and You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us by My Chemical Romance .

The song I have chosen for the class is Runaway Train by Soul Asylum. It is a rock ballade from the late 80’s. The song does not only have great melody and vocals but the lyric also amazes me. I have always liked the song, but it was not until I heard what the lyrics were about that I really started loving it. It touched my soul and made me think of how awful some people’s destinies are. The song is about little children that get kidnapped and girl that gets raped. The song is called Runaway Train because of all the children that are missing in America, that have been kidnapped and never return. It is tragic that is can happen to people today, and somehow we need to find a way to get to the kidnapper and help providing the care and help that the little children in that situation needs. “Runaway train never going back. Wrong way on a one way track.” I’m not in a sad mood or anything right now, however I still like this song much because of its message.

It seems no one can help me now

I'm in too deep

There's no way out

This time I have really led myself astray