As I speak of music in this post I’ll usually be referring to the general, overarching and abstract concept of music as a whole.
Music is an amazing entity when you stop to think about it. Few things in this life can lift us to the emotional heights and plunge us to the depths as music does. Music spans ages, races, cultures and beliefs. It knows no gender and worships no god. What else but music will befriend you regardless of your past? What else but music will stand by your side, crying, praising, dancing, exploring and contemplating with you as long as you need it to? Nothing can reach into our psyche and our emotional core to pull at our heartstrings as effortlessly as music does.
I’m writing this as I’ve got my cheap Sony MDR-CD180 headphones on, listening to the Indigo Girls’ album Kid Fears. My favorite song off that album is Prince of Darkness. As proud lesbians many Christians won’t listen to them. Personally, their sexual orientation doesn’t affect their ability to reach me. They make gorgeous music that sounds sweet to my soul and even write lyrics that (gasp) bring me closer to God. To me music transcends sexual orientation. It transcends religion, beliefs or anything else. Music is part of us as humans. For some reason music is hard coded into the very fibers of our being; it’s inescapable. Life without music, for me, is not life but mere existence.
In this sense I suppose music is much like poetry. Indeed, a lot of the appeal of modern (i.e. since spoken language has been invented) music is held in the lyrics. But lyrics, if they’re good, can stand apart from the music and vice versa. They don’t depend on but instead build off of each other; they are the perfect couple. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy musicians such the Indigo Girls so much, they’re poets and musicians in almost equal parts. But then how do I explain my addiction to electronic artists like The Chemical Brothers?
Classical, Popular, Local sounds, Blues, Country, Electronic, Folk, Hip hop, Heavy metal, Industrial, Jazz, Punk, Reggae, Pop, Rock, et al. Give them to me! Let me have all or none! And don’t forget to throw in the smaller sub-genres on the side! It’s all music and it all reaches me in different ways, at different levels…with varying results ;).
While I may never understand exactly why music is so adept at taking my mind, emotions and heart, molding them like warm clay I’ll nevertheless continue to sit here with my headphones on, music playing; letting the beat of the ages pulse through my meager frame.
