Back before my family and I uprooted from California and came all the way across the country to "The Sunshine State", my dad worked in a really unique business. He was a Rock Radio DJ at famed KLOS in Los Angeles, as well as Nationally Syndicated through Westwood One. However, his best work came as Host of Rockline, which meant that he interviewed rock stars; talking to them about their lives and their music. This didn't set in for me until I was in my early high school years, after all I was only four years old when we moved to Florida.
I can say this, having my dad work with musicians handed me down knowledge about that world in a way that I can't necessarily describe easily. From the time I was young, I have been exposed to old rock and unlike most kids who are forced to hear their parents song selections, I LOVED it. Music is a large, large part of my life and a huge contributor in why I fell in love with writing.
One of the biggest things I've learned from my dad is that the credit does not always have to go to the lead singer OR the guitar player or any other single musician, it goes to all of them. To create a song, all components must be there and the synchronicity must be authentic, therefore all parts of the band have to be doing their job and that should not create a hierarchy. A great example is the Grateful Dead, other bands have tried to recreate the sound the Dead had but to avail because the original band was magic together.
When writing a song, there are multiple parts including the bass, the guitar, the vocals, the keyboard and or whatever else is necessary. I've noticed at times that people tend to lean toward appreciating either the lyrics specifically or the actual music itself, but I think both are important. You don't have to like both of them the same, but I think it's good to notice that a song is a mix of these things and that when together, creates the song. My dad has never talked simply about one or the other, he notices that the lyrics in "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac are amazing but so is the sound and the acoustics themselves. Due to my dad, I try to really listen to both.
Now, I am openly biased when it comes to music genres and that is not something I am proud of. My family loves rock and alternative but they also appreciate other types of music. My dad's taste goes beyond the music he played on the radio and that's something I think is really cool. In the past few years especially, I have noticed that he listens to things that are not what he would have years ago. He's shown me that even though he hosted a rock show, his taste changed over the years and I believe that relates to life. Over time, we connect with new things and change the way we perceive what is and what could be.
The most valuable lesson I've learned from my dad is that music can talk for you when words spoken, simply cannot. In my family, we have this game where we pick songs for each person based on who they are and what we think describes them. My dad usually picks "Little Miss Magic" by Jimmy Buffett for me, then cries and walks out of the room to reminisce on my childhood. Look, I got lucky, my family and I share a love for music but most importantly we share a love for each other. Maybe if it isn't your family, maybe it's a friend or someone you want to let know you love, music can be the words for that.
Music, to me, is the universal language and whatever dialect you hear it in, it comes through to you if you allow it.
