Today's Topic: Your Mind and Music There's just something that turns your mind on when you hear your favourite song or the latest trending hit on the radio, your ipod, a dance club or what I consider the best: a live concert.
This was my concert weekend of the summer: Lynyrd Skynyrd on Friday night, Three Doors Down on Saturday night and finally, The Goo Goo Dolls tonight. I like to think I cross the music genres much the same as I cross the movie genres. I will listen to anything that has a good beat, great instruments or just simple lyrics. Rock, Alternative, Contemporary, Country, Rap, R & B, Jazz, Indie, Oldies, or even Classical, Yup, I pretty much listen to them all. If I put my ipod on shuffle, I could being jamming along to Jay-Z or Frank Sinatra.
The Lynyrd concert absolutely blew me away. They were incredibly spectacular. I can honestly say that Simple Man has to be one of the best songs ever recorded. And when I heard it live, it gave me goosebumps.
I know most have experienced that feeling....when you're at a concert, you nod your head, you tap your foot, you sway or maybe just clap your hands. The music gets inside you and it takes control of your body. Every movement, every beat of every second. You can't resist it or deny it. To me, it's that rockstar inside of all of us. To not be judged, to sing it loud, to rock out on the air guitar...if you love music, there really is no greater feeling. Over the years, I have witnessed a lot of great musicians do their thing. Mind you, their job. They have the responsibility of contributing to society with the gift of music. The one common denominator that connects the world. And it been proven time and again. Live 8, Young Artists for Haiti, The Hurricane Katrina Benefit and so many others before them.
Bob Marley once believed that music could actually cure all human suffering and hatred amongst us. He was so strong in this theory that he died leaving only a legacy of people who at some point, tried to connect with what he was trying to say. One love, one heart. We all come from the same blood. I think Mr. Marley was really onto something.
I was having a really hectic time about two weeks ago. With so much on my plate and the temperature outside exceeding 35 degrees plus humidity, I needed to de-stress. I took about a 45 min rad trip because I had to pick up a package for work. And in my air conditioned vehicle, I flipped through the Sirius Satellite radio channels to find something that would help me find that comfort zone. And all at once coming through the speakers, there was one of Beethoven's symphonies. It was one of those times when I was so hot and frustrated that I didn't even want to sing along or nod my head. Now I have never been a big listener of Beethoven but I listened to his second symphony for almost 45 mins. And then is struck me, how brilliant the strings were. For a man to compose such mind numbing music, such rare beauty. And he was deaf. He didn't hear the music he shared with the world. He just wrote it. He lacked what we believe to be the single most important part of creating music. And somehow, it made sense to him. Somehow without even listening to a single sound, he was able to create masterpieces and open the door to revolutionize the sounds of music into what we label today as an industry.
Yes, the mind just sometimes knows too much. Think of every song you have listened to in your life, and what that means to you. Every lyric, every beat, every single detail of a song. Music has the ability to lift us up, release the anger, the hate, the love and any other human emotion that you attach or connect to with sound. And it's something that almost everyone has the ability to enjoy at some point in their life.
Whether you create it, listen to it, sing it, shout it and just enjoy it, know that music changes with the times. There will always be a newer song and you'll never outgrow those songs that make you who you are. After all, the art of music allows us to express ourselves and someone, musicians speak to us through their words. They put it perfect harmony what we all feel. And at some point, even Kanye West, Jay-Z, Ke$ha, Kenny Chesney or Tim McGraw will be found on the "classics" channel. I just hope you can realize that music ages with you. It simply is, what it is.
Even when the radio isn't playing - I always pass the day by with a song. People will often tell me, "Is there a song you don't know?" And I think that's the beauty of it because I can reply, "YES! There is a whole assortment of music out there I don't know."
ReplyDeleteMusic has a way of making people feel good. I think you make a very interesting comment on it. Keep writing Donnie