Music has been a key part of culture for as long as we know, and has come to be what some call an escape. Two key things that must be understood to answer why music is such a powerful escape. It all starts with a sound played in rhythm and beat. That’s all it is. But an escape is a bit more complex, according to Merriam Webster Dictionary it is: “An act of breaking free of confinement and control.” Now that those two terms are understood, answering the question, “Is music an escape,” is possible. When do people mainly listen to music? Based on surveys from around the internet, people listen to music when they are doing chores, homework, or driving more than any other time. People also listen to music heavily when they are feeling down, or stressed, or just want to be alone. Think about it, after just getting in a fight with your parents, wanna pump up your vibe, or be able to remember a memory? Chances are you said that you turn on some tunes. It’s natural. Obviously, back in the times of Beethoven, Mozart and Bach they didn’t have Drake or Amy Winehouse, but they had instruments to play, and utilities to make music. Those people relied on music for entertainment, or emotional help, just like you and me. People have been expressing their emotions through music since as long as history has been recorded; the most profound reason we want music in our lives is because it is an escape from our issues and an entrance to the emotion of the music itself.
Scientists have delved deep into the brain to try and find an answer to the question: “Why does music change our emotions and mindset?” Maybe there is no scientific answer. But then again are emotions scientific? No, they are not. Music affects emotions depending on the person, place, and time at which the music is being listened to. Scientists will always try to find a practical, logical solution or answer, but in this case, it does not work like that. But maybe it’s simple; music is a mystery of the world and so are emotions. Sometimes when a song pops up in my shuffle playlist, it’s so easy for me to be pushed back into that memory, almost like I’m looking at a photograph. If anyone is a Grey’s natomy fan like me, you always saw Christina and Meredith boppin, jumping around on the couch to some music to pick themselves up. Music makes us feel all kinds of things. Music understands when no one else can. It’s one of those things that just has to be let go and accepted.
Music has the ability to calm minds, and help climb out, including myself, of dark, difficulty, scary places through music therapy, or even just simply listening. Relief is the only way to describe how I feel. This is how powerful music is. It changed my life. I have been a “band-aid” for years, but have never felt passion like I did then, and I now understand what it feels like to find the one thing in life that makes me smile everytime I do it, no matter what I feel like going into it. For years I tried to become one with music by playing it, but it just never felt right. Every instrument I picked up and played the entire neighborhood's dogs would be howling from pain of me playing an instrument, and every glass object in a mile radius would break. Playing was never my vibe, but appreciating was. While in rehab, there was an elective class called dance movement therapy, DMT for short, (very ironic name for rehab, since DMT is a drug and all.) DMT was a place where I could bop around, and forget about my pain of my disease, and could also be a place where I expressed my pain where words couldn’t describe. DMT was spectacular in all aspects. Fun fact - reactions in general are 80 percent physical and 20 percent internal, and man did I really get that 80 percent out in DMT. I could hear a beat and all of a sudden I was in the present moment feeling great.
Music is the greatest escape ever discovered, with the ability to change lives and emotions as time has proven. I will never set music aside in my life. It will always be forefront. My goal is to one day be a music manager, hell, maybe own my own record label. I’ve been told by my parents that job “isn’t practical” or “realistic.” Well f--k realistic and practical. Music has been there when no one else was, and I hope one day I can give back to music one day.
