I believe hearing the right song can give you the same feeling a hug can. To me, music has the ability to change someone’s mood or a specific moment or memory or even life. Music is powerful. It’s home and an escape all in one. It’s comfort. It’s risk. It heals, protects, rebuilds. It often tells you more about someone than their mouths ever could. It gives sound to feelings and that is why, to me, music has become everything.
The appreciation I have for music has made me both isolated and connected at the same time. There will be times when all I want to do is put headphones in, put an album on repeat, and block out the rest of the world. First day of freshman year of high school, I could have tried to make new friends on the bus ride to school. However, instead of this, I put headphones in (the universal sign for “please don’t talk to me right now”) and blared “Fifteen” by Taylor Swift repeatedly.
I’ve tried to do this less as I get older as I think it’s more important to further my relationships with people instead of with music. Still, there are days where I let music serve as my rhythmic sanctuary and my shelter from the world. Had a bad day? The logical thing to do would be to talk it out with a friend, but at times I find it more comforting to let the music do the talking. I’ve never been good at expressing how I feel which is why I like when artists can do it for me. However, confiding in friends helps further trust and thus, the relationship as a whole. Because of this, my preference of advice from music instead of people occasionally has made my friendships feel incomplete. I don’t believe that an album can act as a friendship, but I do believe that each song can provide a kind of comfort that a friendship may lack.
On the other hand, though, I’ve furthered many of my relationships with people through the bond music provides. There’s nothing quite like playing your absolute favorite song for your best friend and having them love it as much as you do, jamming out to an album on a long car ride with them, or screaming your face off together at a concert. Sharing these experiences builds a connection that wouldn’t have been there had that song not been played, that album not been released, or that artist not gone on tour.
You don’t truly know someone until you know what kind of music they listen to when they’re alone. I like lots of styles of music, but I tend to hide the fact that I enjoy country as it’s kind of a controversial genre. There are people that either really hate it or really love it. The day I found out my best friend secretly really loved country as much as I do was the same day I realized the friendship would be long-lasting. To have the same taste in music as someone is to understand them musically, and that’s a kind of connection that should be celebrated. Ultimately, I believe that music aids us in both isolation and connection. It’s up to us as listeners to decide how we use it.
For me, it’s all about the diamonds in the rough, the songs that aren’t quite singles and don’t make it to the radio. It’s about the beauty you find in things that not everyone finds beauty in, those songs that most people haven’t even heard but you know you’ll never forget. In my opinion, those are the songs our hearts beat to.
