Is Ne inspiring? Is Ne chaos? That is in the eye of the Ne-holder. But – to be true to the function – why can’t it be both at once?
Ne generally
Ne looks to the future through possibilities. The more possibilities, the better! And possibilities are multiplied by bringing in diverse things. So Ne guides present observations to the future through diversity. Something like that, anyway.
What Ne values in music – Variety
I named my first album There’s Much Left to Explore. I think the variety implicit in that sentence captures Ne’s relationship to music pretty well. If I feel like I’ve explored everything around me, you will find me quite sad. Anything to pursue that I haven’t thought about or heard before perks me up.
So Ne looks for things the person hasn’t heard combined before, and generally anything new and different. Whether that’s comparing to existing songs or whether that’s changes within a song, Ne is interested. How much Ne is interested will depend on the stack position. But that’s what Ne is thirsting for all the time.
In lyrics, Ne might combine two topics that aren’t natural bedfellows. One might be a metaphor for the other in a unique way. Ne also might just be all over the place lyrically.
In music composition, Ne displays similarly, maybe taking two instruments or genres that aren’t normally in the same song and seeing what happens when they collide (probably figuratively, maybe literally). Ne might also take two differently conceived songs and put them together in a suite and say “ta-da!” and go on to the next song. You get the idea.
When Ne is too dominant
In the midst of all the variety, Ne might forget to call on another function to have the song make even the tiniest amount of sense. If nobody goes back to fit the suite pieces together – by transitional passages or putting a melody from one piece into another – then it feels like three songs in one .mp3, which leaves a weird aftertaste.
Ne can be a bit…much. If Fe’s dominance yields blandness, Ne’s dominance yields dumping the entire spice rack in the stew. It’s definitely not bland! But it also tastes bad.
Some examples
If you want Ne that doesn’t make any sense, I’ll point you to Lionel Richie’s “Say You, Say Me.” In an attempt to spice up a piano/string ballad (at 64 beats per minute/bpm), there’s a rock part that’s not at the same tempo (99 bpm, mathematically unrelated to 64) with sudden distorted guitars – and it only lasts for about 16 seconds before going back to the ballad (the guitars don’t even stick around). I have tried, even with my #2 Ne, to try to get this to make sense, and I just can’t do it.
What has turned out to make a bit more sense – and it’s the most successful Ne song of all time – is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It’s several songs stapled together, it doesn’t have a chorus, and it only sorta comes back to the beginning in that the end is also slow and piano’d. (They also use the lyrics to tie some of this together, which is important to point out: sometimes a song’s music displays one function and the lyrics display another.) The lyrical theme having a fair amount of discussion of inner turmoil and voices in one’s head give a kind of permission to the music to be this Ne dominant.
The best (or at least the most accepted) Flaming Lips material uses Ne healthily, especially in lyrical subject matter. “The Spiderbite Song” is a good example. The music uses a strange rolling snare and unusual rhythm in an overall happy vibe – almost circuslike – while the lyrics are primarily about a spiderbite that allegedly happened to the drummer and a weird car crash involving the other band member. So the first two verses are about those incidents, with a chorus expressing that
I was glad that it didn’t destroy you / How sad that would be,
‘Coz if it destroyed you, it would destroy me
But even after these weird connections – a happy, childlike atmosphere with some very real, confessional lyrics phrased oddly – it then jumps to something more universal:
When you fell in love, it was so sweet
So devoted, completely swept off your feet
Love is the greatest thing our heart can know
But the hole that it leaves in its absence can make you feel so low
Which gives the returning chorus more impact.
“Do You Realize?” is one of their most loved songs for similar reasons. It has a bunch of random universe musings but ties them into telling people you care about them. It wears its Ne on its sleeve, but it takes it to some places and purposes that resonate with people. So then it becomes a unique, memorable resonance. You can absolutely count on healthy Ne uses to be memorable.
Next part: Ni (Introverted Intuition)
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