Image: Andy Newson / FreeDigitalPhotos.netWhere I work I can listen to music while typing away at the old keyboard, getting things done. I share this ominous responsibility with another coworker, while the third one in the room just contently listens to our shared playlists. That’s all find and dandy, until the day my third, silent coworker asks me if the music I listen to take me back? I had an idea of what she was talking about and had to clarify. “You mean, do I remember the past when I listen to music?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure, all the time.”
“Don’t you hate that?”
Okay, so our conversation wasn’t as boring as that, but I was paraphrasing. I can’t remember the exact words, it happened over a week ago! But it got me thinking about the music I listen to. I don’t listen to much of the modern stuff, whatever that means, and like to stick to quirky music and things from the 90’s and some of the new millenia stuff. But the newest music out there, I don’t think I could tell you anything about it, other than it’s catchy.
The more I thought about the music I listened to, the more I realized that I do listen to a lot of things that bring me back to when I was in high school or working at the movie theater. Then around the mid 2000’s, I either stopped liking what was out there, or it just didn’t have an impact. Because it’s not the memory of the times that get to me, but the feelings associated with them. I’ll remember a mood, or sometimes, just a single image of lighting (yes, like the lighting in a room or of a sunset), and colors form in my mind. It’s almost like a drug. Maybe music IS a drug.
Maybe it’s just me though. I’ve never discussed my music and why I listen to a lot of it. I mean, I love to listen to anything that evokes some kind of awesome emotion. It can be something made two days ago, or two decades ago, and if it plucks a string somewhere inside me, I like it. The lyrics don’t matter, the artist doesn’t matter, even the quality of it doesn’t matter, and maybe that makes me dumb. I mean I know so many people who appreciate “good” music. Of course, what’s good music? Well I’m not going to get into all that. What I want to know is how music effects you.
I talk about music a lot, or at least I like to think so. I’m no expert, I have no real background other than I used to play piano when I was a kid, and I can read some music, but that’s it. I’m a crap singer, I’ve tried to play other instruments to no avail, but I’m an ace at sitting there and listening to what I think is awesome music. So, people out there, how does music effect you? What does it do for you? How do you feel when you listen to something you haven’t heard since you were a kid? Are there things you avoid? I’d love to know your thoughts.
