Several weeks ago, a good friend of mine posed a question to his readers: What do you like about music? After reading the post, and thinking more about the question, I realized that its answer, at least for me, is quite meaningful. My response to his question, is below.
So what do I love about music?
Well, to quote Almost Famous (a true music lover’s movie): “to begin with: everything.” Cheesy as it might be, that one line does an astounding job at not only encompassing my answer in its entirety, but doing it in no more than four words. Unfortunately my true answer, however, will not be as succinct.
In order to best qualify what it is about music that I love so much, its important to first quantify how big a part of my life music really represents. As a conservative estimate, Last.fm reports that over the last 16 months I have listened to roughly 25,000 tracks, which, at about 4 minutes per track (which is reasonable for my type of music), comes out to around 20% of my awake hours spent listening to music. Twenty percent!
Luckily, both for me and my status as a productive member of society, I am able to do other things during this 20% of my life, in addition to listening to music. Which brings me to my first, and most significant reason for loving music: music embodies my soundtrack for my life, whether it be at home through my Macbook, at school through my iPhone, at the gym through my Shuffle, in my car through my iPod, or any other time – my music travels with me, and allows me to cater my soundtrack to my mood, my surroundings, and my current disposition. This is a nontrivial achievement, and I can honestly say that my days are brighter, more comforting, more tranquil as a result. The power of music to affect my outlook on whatever is facing me is staggering, and it is this very ability that I love so much.
But music’s power isn’t limited to the aforementioned attributes – it goes beyond that. Music represents a proverbial vessel, a time machine, a path, to not only a different time, but a different place, and a different view. This time travel ability is a double-edged sword however, which, while able to remind me of the best of times is dually able to take me back to the lowest of lows in my life. Regardless of where it takes me, I perpetually stand in awe of the ability of a random combination of notes and meter to impact my life in such a profound way.
Finally, I love music because of the connections its able to create, between friends and strangers, between the closest family members and the most distant of relatives. Music brings me closer to my friends, allowing me to share what I have found with them and they, with me. It brings me closer to my family, for just as my dad strums the guitar on holidays and get-togethers, I find myself missing the bonding strength of those songs he sings, now more than ever. Those songs come from a different time, a time that I cannot and will not ever relate to, and yet they are as dear to me as they are to him, albeit for different reasons.
I think I better stop and stick with what I wrote, but suffice it to say that I love music because even writing about it just now with no soundtrack other than the tap of my fingers against the keys, has made me thoroughly content.
