# The Strange Magic of: Björk Gudmundsdottir



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I dislike music videos. The Kabuki-like insincerity of the posturing, lip-syncing artists seriously reduced my pleasure in whatever song was being perceived in that distorting mirror, so that I wondered if the artists themselves had lost their own belief in the value of their work. The YouTube live concert video clip, by contrast, is in some ways even better than the Real Thing of being in the concert audience--one sees the artist perform the work with the Eye of God, close up & personal in a way that would be almost impossible otherwise. A wonderful example here, as Björk, the literally bouncing and eager child-woman, sings to us all about _Human Behavior_.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Shes a genius, no doubt! Especially in the song you posted that was kinda soundtrack of my teenage years in the 90s...But behind her energy and loudness the message is one of sadness and melancholy, deep trip...Kind of like Nirvana or Alice in Chains did, in totaly different genre of music, ofcourse


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

So true. A song like _Violently Happy_ sticks in my mind. But my favorite Björk song is _Venus as a Boy_, a chill-inducer for me.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm just discovering her after reading the article on her in Alex Ross' Listen to This, where he follows her around as she makes the Medulla album.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Björk - well worth exploring for anyone who enjoys music and song.


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Manxfeeder said:


> I'm just discovering her after reading the article on her in Alex Ross' Listen to This, where he follows her around as she makes the Medulla album.


As a fan since her DEBUT album, I think MEDULLA is her best:angel:


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Wow, 90s were years of such a deep hole of darkness and people didnt realise they lived in last happy and carefree years...


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Flamme said:


> Wow, 90s were years of such a deep hole of darkness and people didnt realise they lived in last happy and carefree years...


The 90's were great years for alternative music - Bjork, Radiohead, Beck, The Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple:angel:


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## Grizzled Ghost (Jun 10, 2015)

I've always liked (most of) her early songs with The Sugarcubes − Birthday, Deus, Motor Crash, Regina, and my fave Coldsweat.

Those were the days. Her solo work is hit-or-miss for me. I do like All Is Full of Love, I've Seen It All, and Bachelorette though. Maybe a couple others.

Nice dress, by the way:









She gets bonus points for literally laying an egg on the red carpet.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Iean said:


> The 90's were great years for alternative music - Bjork, Radiohead, Beck, The Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple:angel:


They were indeed. The 90s marked the enormous explosion of women as serious contributors to rock and pop, and also gave us so many alternative/grunge great songs and groups. Who knows what will pop up next as an example of musical Strange Magic?


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Bjork has always relied on producers to shape her sound. Give her a guitar or piano and she wouldn't know what to do with them. Her 'music' is nothing more than production.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Morimur said:


> Bjork has always relied on producers to shape her sound. Give her a guitar or piano and she wouldn't know what to do with them. Her 'music' is nothing more than production.


I'm no Bjork fan, but I believe she does a lot of mixing and stuff herself. In fact, there was a bit of a hubbub about how reviewers would always credit men for the stuff that she does.

I believe she does play the flute.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Morimur said:


> Bjork has always relied on producers to shape her sound. Give her a guitar or piano and she wouldn't know what to do with them. Her 'music' is nothing more than production.


Should we not like her music?


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Morimur said:


> Bjork has always relied on producers to shape her sound. Give her a guitar or piano and she wouldn't know what to do with them. Her 'music' is nothing more than production.


Even if she is surrounded by a million producers, Bjork's MUSIC will always be her own - she composed all her songs..she even mix some of them..and yes, she plays the piano and the flute.:angel:

Extra Information : Bjork also composed songs for other artists such as Madonna and Tricky. So much for "production".:angel:


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

She's a pop star. Sure, she's mildly talented but having a taste for 'exotic' production doesn't make her music any better than Taylor Swift's or Rihanna's. Bjork isn't edgy or innovative—she's as boring and conventional as a 4/4 techno beat.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Strange Magic said:


> Should we not like her music?


You can like whatever you want. I am just voicing my opinion on Bjork's music.


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## Guest (Dec 28, 2015)

Every time I read an article on her I think I should check her out. And every time I do I hear this absolutely dreadful voice. 
IMO.


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Morimur said:


> She's a pop star. Sure, she's mildly talented but having a taste for 'exotic' production doesn't make her music any better than Taylor Swift's or Rihanna's. Bjork isn't edgy or innovative-she's as boring and conventional as a 4/4 techno beat.


Sir, you are the first person to ever use the words "Bjork" and "conventional" in one sentence. For those uninitiated to alternative music, you may find her music "boring" but never "conventional". :angel:


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

My experience with Morimur's opinions so far is that he is an almost infallible guide to excellent music--if he doesn't like it, I'll love it. I'm sure I serve the same useful function for him. Björk, Led Zep....., we'll see who's next.


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Strange Magic said:


> My experience with Morimur's opinions so far is that he is an almost infallible guide to excellent music--if he doesn't like it, I'll love it. I'm sure I serve the same useful function for him. Björk, Led Zep....., we'll see who's next.


from my experience, people who dislike Bjork's music are those who only heard one or two of her singles..I want to ask Morimur if he's done listening to even one ENTIRE album of Bjork..especially MEDULLA and VULNICURA... Because unlike Taylor Swift and especially Rihanna, Bjork IS NOT a singles artist..her albums were made to be listened as a WHOLE..:angel:


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Morimur said:


> She's a pop star. Sure, she's mildly talented but having a taste for 'exotic' production doesn't make her music any better than Taylor Swift's or Rihanna's. Bjork isn't edgy or innovative-she's as boring and *conventional *as a 4/4 techno beat.


The only thing I think of reading this thread is an interview with Stockhausen were he said that Björk´s music was conventional.


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Sloe said:


> The only thing I think of reading this thread is an interview with Stockhausen were he said that Björk´s music was conventional.


a lot of music critics, especially those who ARE actually listening to alternative music, will never call Bjork's music "conventional":angel:


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Iean said:


> from my experience, people who dislike Bjork's music are those who only heard one or two of her singles..I want to ask Morimur if he's done listening to even one ENTIRE album of Bjork..especially MEDULLA and VULNICURA... Because unlike Taylor Swift and especially Rihanna, Bjork IS NOT a singles artist..her albums were made to be listened as a WHOLE..:angel:


I am 35 years old which means I grew up in the 80s and 90s. I don't recall much about the former but the 90s are replete with musical memories. At the time I loved grunge but when Cobain blew his brains out I began listening to 'electronica'. The Chemical Brothers became superstars and so did Björk. I was quite taken with her image and music because I thought she looked and sounded like nothing else. Anyway as I got older and my taste in music broadened I realized that there wasn't anything particularly interesting about the whole electronica 'scene'-it was just a bunch of kids with grossly underdeveloped (in a lot of cases-non-existing) musical talent and a lot of gear.

To this day I think Björk's best album remains 'Post' but I was also fond of 'Vespertine', 'Homogenic' and 'Medulla'. Though once one has heard Stockhausen or Xenakis (among others), Björk's music sounds incredibly antiquated and irrelevant. But then that's what pop music is-disposable music. I suppose that one shouldn't compare a puddle with an ocean.


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Morimur said:


> I am 35 years old which means I grew up in the 80s and 90s. I don't recall much about the former but the 90s are replete with musical memories. At the time I loved grunge but when Cobain blew his brains out I began listening to 'electronica'. The Chemical Brothers became superstars and so did Björk. I was quite taken with her image and music because I thought she looked and sounded like nothing else. Anyway as I got older and my taste in music broadened I realized that there wasn't anything particularly interesting about the whole electronica 'scene'-it was just a bunch of kids with grossly underdeveloped (in a lot of cases-non-existing) musical talent and a lot of gear.
> 
> To this day I think Björk's best album remains 'Post' but I was also fond of 'Vespertine', 'Homogenic' and 'Medulla'. Though once one has heard Stockhausen or Xenakis (among others), Björk's music sounds incredibly antiquated and irrelevant. But then that's what *pop music is-disposable music.* I suppose that one shouldn't compare a puddle with an ocean.


I don't agree that pop music is disposable music - otherwise, the Beatles will not be selling millions of CDs even after more than 40 years of their "disposable stage" ( in the 60s, self-proclaimed critics also considered Beatles music as disposable since their core fanbase were screaming teenagers ...probably the same critics who predicted that Madonna will have at most 5 years in her career since she has "no talent" and is "just dependent of her many producers" ):angel:

As for me, the more I listen to the different genres of music (including classical music), the more I appreciate Bjork's music and her singular vision to offer something new in the already diverse field of alternative music..her latest CD, Vulnicura, is another testament to her unique talent - a break-up album with so much beauty.:angel:


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

It's 100 years from now--2115 to be exact--and assuming the planet is still habitable, I weigh the probabilities: which name(s) on most everyone's lips as a musical presence in their lives.....Karlheinz Stockhausen or John, Paul, George, and Ringo? Gotta be Stockhausen, right? I'm humming a few bars now....


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Strange Magic said:


> It's 100 years from now--2115 to be exact--and assuming the planet is still habitable, I weigh the probabilities: which name(s) on most everyone's lips as a musical presence in their lives.....Karlheinz Stockhausen or John, Paul, George, and Ringo? Gotta be Stockhausen, right? I'm humming a few bars now....


If ever the people in 2115 will research on the beginnings of Facebook (most probably just an artifact during that time), they will hear "Baby, You're a Rich Man" by the Beatles after watching the biopic of Zuckerberg:angel:


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I've never heard a note of Bjork's music, so I listened to a few things on YouTube. Not my cuppa tea. I don't like her voice or her vocal style, and the music is not very interesting. I'll go with the Beatles, and Stockhausen.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

One way of looking at it is to say that, in this case specifically, Iean and I are the audience for which Björk's work is intended, Morimur used be of that intended audience but is no more, and that Starthrower never was the intended audience.


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## PJaye (May 22, 2015)

Bjork is one of the few artists I still listen to from the 90s era. I think she was hugely influential in taking pop music outside of its over-formulaic structure and ideas. She didn't do sentimentalism, which is a go to of most pop music, but she had dramatic emotional content in songs like Isobel, bachelorette, etc. Her songs have philosophical, scientific, nature, paganistic, and mythic ideas, personal/imaginative and/or learned that are intriguing and thought provoking at the least. Bjork has a lot more going on than some surface sensationalism. Vespertine is a great example of pop/electronica verging on modern classical styles. And if you get a chance, check out her one acting role in ‘Dancer in the dark’ –a kind of modern operatic tale of working class people and their dreams that is a harrowing and great film. If Bjork doesn't sell you on it, Catherine Deneuve is in it too.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

At least she had a crack at performing Schoenberg's _Pierrot Lunaire_, so good for her, I say. I can't say I'm a fan of her music but her desire to transcend the usual strictures of pop certainly made her stand head-and-shoulders over much of the dross which passed for it in the 90s and beyon(cé)d. Pity she didn't sanction a recording of _PL_ - it could have been interesting.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Helenora, I'm bumping this relevant Strange Magic thread on Björk.


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

Strange Magic said:


> Helenora, I'm bumping this relevant Strange Magic thread on Björk.


yeah, thanks for finding it. Good to know different views.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

Björk, boy does that bring back memories of the 90s. My first encounter with her music was, oddly enough, on a film soundtrack. _Tank Girl_ was the film, _Army of Me_ the song. I think I need to dig out my DVD of _Tank Girl_, and be transported to the 90s with the likes of Bush, Portishead, The Magnificent B as tards , and even, ahem, Verruca Salt.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Revisiting this Björk thread, I note that her irresistible early Glastonbury video concert clip of _Human Behavior_ is no longer available, though other songs from that same venue are(?). So, here I substitute another performance--not as magical as that Glastonbury clip, but nevertheless the same fine song that introduced Björk to that portion of the world not already familiar with her as lead singer of the Sugarcubes......


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## Capeditiea (Feb 23, 2018)

I am suprized no one has mentioned her first album. title Bjork. 
although it sounds horrible in my opinion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Björk_(album)

But my favourite albums are Vesperitine, Homogenic, and Post 
I haven't listened to her most recent album much yet... (been on a classical binge...) Utopia.

she is one of my main non-classical inspirations. :3


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## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

I don't really like her music but I admire what she does. 
One thing I do like is 'Prayer Of The Heart' written for her by John Tavener.






It starts with the sound of a human heartbeat.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

She is one of the most interesting popular music artists. I dig the harmony and production. Debut is a masterpiece.


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