Music is one of those universal things that no matter where you go, you’ll find in droves. Some are grand productions taking years to perfect, others are crude stories told on amateur mixtapes. It’s a key to many regions self-identity and image, such as Samba is to the colorful Brazilians. Such a powerful concept is something that, I don’t believe, should be taken nearly as passively as it seems to be for many people.
I was introduced at a young age to the stories and piano riffs of the Long Island legend Billy Joel. His tales evoking times of war, times of desperation, times of nostalgia, times of self-reflection really kick-started for me a love of music that endures to this day. I started in the past, with the music my parents grew up dancing and rocking out to. Led Zeppelin was always met with an neck-breaking head-bang, Bee Gees always resulted in a strut deserving of a cameo in the official music video, and Bill Withers always caused a soulful sway from side to side. As time went on, I found Spotify and hence my exploration of the world of music began. I found relaxing ambiance in the sounds of Hammock, I found a reflection of my oddness in the strange melodies of twenty one pilots and Glass Animals, and caveats for my angers in the pulsing tours-de-force of Woodkid and AWOLNATION. I have forged many friendships based on mutual music tastes, and explored ends of the internet I never figured existed for it. The most important take-away from that all is a love and kind of symbiotic relationship between the songs and I. I give them the listens and the recommendation to other people and I receive a kind of therapy from the songs. There are timbres for any kind of mood so I can find peace, find comfort, find a relatable tone to reflect myself in. Music really is far more than a pretty or funky tune to dance along to every once in a while. It’s almost it’s own living being, complete with its emotions, its goals, its means of communicating, its uniqueness. The artist creates this kind of special form of art to make a connection with us, we just have to accept it.
“Oh, I just listen to what’s on the radio!” If I had a dollar for every time someone said this, I’d be a very rich man. As a result, music has been limited to the things that are most popular, that are most commercially successful at the moment. Radio has become a business of getting the most listeners by playing the most commercially successful song everyone knows and likes over and over because it works. It takes a song and beats it into the ground until you’re so sick of it that you scoff and flip to another station. It makes the span of music you listen to so limited to only the biggest success stories. It leaves you oblivious to the underdog stories, the rising stars, the grassroots efforts across the world. What’s most sad to me, is that you miss out on all the comforting and therapeutic melodies that never make it to the radio. You miss out on such a living, breathing being that is the whole world of music. If you find you do fall in this category, I challenge you to take just some time out of your day to search through music platforms such as Spotify or Soundcloud and just explore. Start with a sound you like, something you find comfortable and familiar, and start creeping into the unknown. Pick a song and listen to it the whole way through and really listen to it. Try to feel what the artist is putting forward, try to learn the lyrics, or pay attention to the intricacies of the instrumental. Keep doing it and you might just be surprised by what you find.
