We all wandered around, lost amongst the many, at a loss in grief and in support of the grieving. We had just seen Angus driven off for that last ride, boxed up in the back of the car. The whole scene strange. During the ceremony ‘Degenerate’ by Blink 182 and ‘Why Don’t You’ by Gramophonedzie helped us understand who he was and underscored the tragedy.

It was 35 degrees, stupid hot, but the trees provided a kind of relief. Not the kind we wanted, nothing substantial. The mourners greeted each other, hugs and handshakes. Nothing to say. Lost for words.

‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’, by The Offspring, on loop, still playing, still vital, still connecting us to the formality of what had just played out, became a backdrop, a context. “The kids are grown up but their lives are worn”.

I’d probably heard it before but didn’t remember it. Not my kind of music. But here I liked it. Actually, here I loved it. It worked. Context is important.

I experience that every so often: being surprised by a genre or a song that I previously spurned. Finding enjoyment where I least expected it.

My taste in music changes all the time, but not much. Not so much that I notice it on a daily or even monthly basis. But my favourite bands in 2000 are not my favourites now. The change is glacial though. I loved REM. All of REM. Now, I cherish a couple of their albums, hardly ever play them, and respect their legacy immensely. I hadn’t rushed to hear their new releases for a decade.

It’s easy to stick with what you know. Mostly I get to choose the music I listen to, although teenage daughters increasingly challenge that. Sometimes, in a very controlled manner, I explore new sounds. Usually music that relates to sounds I like. But sometimes context sweeps all of my preconceptions away.

Context shreds our status quo, laughs at our taste-limitations, and overrides our crafted reputations. That country song playing in a café – magic! What was that drum & bass track playing in my friend’s car? These surprises sometimes get through our defences because the context finds us with our deflector shields down. And they’re not always, perhaps not often, pleasant, but when they are it’s glorious. It’s pleasing. It at least makes the next 3 or 4 minutes bearable, but at best it may open a whole new realm of music for us.

The Cinematic Orchestra used in a goofy dog video on You Tube? Thanks spiro1098, I’ve bought every recorded minute and had hours of enjoyment from their music. And I really didn’t expect it.