Music is everywhere. It stretches all the way around the world, reaching out to the full range of cultures and civilizations. It's the universal language, and everyone can understand and enjoy it. And just that is astonishing to me, how something so diverse and differing with songs in every language, genre, instrumentation, and so on can be understood on an intellectual level by anyone who hears it. No matter who hears it, the song still gets it's message across.
The power of music is something I've thought about often. I've had a committed, long-term relationship with music for my entire life, and I've realized that music is something we seriously take for granted. I mean, could you imagine a world without music?
It's enjoyable to listen to and lightens the mood when played in the background at a restaurant or store. It gets people hyped up at a sporting event or in the zone during a workout session. But it's more than that.
Music hits you in ways that nothing else quite can. It can create feelings inside you just with a few simple notes and sometimes words. When you're down, listening to a song that brings you happiness can turn your whole mood around.
There's been many a day where I've felt very 'blah.' I lay in bed and listened to sad, sappy songs and pretty much just threw myself a pity party. I heard every word of those songs, and they hit me deep. It perpetuated my emotions and kept me feeling down. Then it hit me that I needed to cheer up, and that I was wasting the day being like that. So, I turned on some high-energy songs, and after a little struggle, I was out of bed and dancing with a smile on my face and energy to take on the rest of the day. Music has that power, and sometimes it's even saved lives.
I have so many memories, both good and bad, that somehow involve music. Like what song I played the first time I drove my new car, or the song playing when my friend's boyfriend broke up with her at the high school dance. Everyone has a special song or two that takes you back to a certain memory. Maybe you hear that song on the radio when you're driving to work, and all of a sudden you are filled with joy and love and happiness just the same as all of those emotions you felt when the actual memory happened. Music can bring back those emotions just as strong as the first time.
There's a reason people say that music is what feelings sound like. Music is my personal favorite way of expressing myself, whether it be by listening to it and sharing it with friends, or actually creating it myself. I've been able to channel feelings of hurt or anger, or even joy and happiness, into writing a song, and it really helped. It put things into perspective and I understood why I felt the way I felt. Music is an outlet for emotions and creativity that can be shared with others or utilized by your own self to relieve those emotions. What a beautiful way of healing and sharing your self with others, right?
But, what if all of that didn't exist? What if we never had music, and we never experienced these ways that it has power in our lives?
There would be no sad songs to bask in your sadness to, and there would be no happy song to save you from being down. What would we turn to instead?
Memories would never involve music, and there would be no music to remind us of these memories. Only thinking really hard about them could bring back the feelings and emotions, but would they be as strong as if you heard that song that brings it all back?
There would never be that perfect song that describes exactly how you feel about someone, or that song that finally heals your broken heart. There would be no song that you wrote for your high school girlfriend, telling her how much you love her. None of that would even exist. It would be a bland, bland world without music.
Next time you hear your special song, a song that makes you breathe a little easier, or even a song you've never heard before that just makes you feel awesome, embrace it and cherish that moment. Music is a beautiful, powerful thing, and I never want to know a world without it.
