Music is perhaps the biggest love of my life and that will never change. From the time I wake up in the morning, to the time when I fall asleep (usually in the early hours of the morning) I have spent hours listening to music. It's my constant companion, even more so than my depression, feelings or the people in my life. Everything else can come and go, but you will always have music from decades ago to make you feel connected to people you have never met or a time when you never existed. I believe my discovery of the Beatles is the most religious experience of my life, because it changed my perception of people, time and what kind of person I was. Music has the power to do all those things.
Everyone has songs which they love to listen to at certain times, music has that ability to adapt to any situation. For me, my feelings at any particular time will always influence what I choose to listen to, but at the same time, music will always answer back to me and change what I feel. That's what music is to me, it's my motivator, my way of expressing to the world how I feel when words fail me. It's like reading a novel and suddenly realising that this person you have never met, has written in words what you have felt your whole life but could never express with words. You always remember those experiences, because they change you.
For every important instance in my life, I remember it not through dates or by the actions of people, but by the music I heard on that day. It's a bizarre way to measure your memories, but it has always been my way. I remember picking up my sister from school with my mum, listening to the Cranberries and Oasis (it was the 90s) and I know that I was content and calm. When I was at my cousin's 7th birthday in Queensland and we listened to Aqua's new album and I was happy, because we danced all day and all sung rather poorly. When my parents separated and all my Dad would listen to (for the next few years) was Bruce Springsteen's album Born In The USA and U2's hit With or Without You, I knew my father was angry and hurt and I felt that through his music.
The lyrics, the chords and the changing rhythms of songs are perhaps the best expression of human emotions, far more reliable and expressive than words, and are something that we can universally understand. I know that the people closest to me can judge my mood based upon what I listen to, from being happy and energetic listening to The Beatles, to being sad and withdrawn when I listen to any track by The Velvet Underground (especially Pale Blue Eyes and I'm Set Free). Angelou said that 'music was my refuge, I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness,' and that resonates in my own life, because that is exactly what I do. Music offers a refuge for those of us who don't want to think about life for a while or who want to feel more connected to like-minded people. What I choose to listen to is not random and is a way of telling the rest of the world what I feel, without actually having to do it.
I could not imagine living in a world without any music. I have never met a single person who did not love it (apart from David Mitchell, apparently) and who did not partially base their identity around what they listen to. We define people or label them into a particular group once we understand their tastes, from indie groupies, to hipsters, to metal fans (I would say avoid those if you're faint-hearted), we all fall into some group. I think I would be an oldie, just based purely upon my love of sixties music and that decade in particular.
I'm not a big fan of quoting Nietzsche, but in my opinion he did not write anything more important then when he wrote that 'without music, life would be a mistake.' Life would be a mistake, it would be bland and boring and we would be trapped into using only language to communicate with each other, and we all know that's not the most efficient form of communication. Music opens the mind and the soul to people, to thoughts and ideas which you could never conceive on your own and connects you to the minds and the hearts of people you have never met. I can't think of a more powerful way to unite people, even more influential than any religion on this Earth, because it's the sentimental value, it's the feelings and thoughts we invest into a particular song, which makes it so great and so beautiful.
So whether you are a hardcore Beatles fan like myself, or a Led Zeppelin fan (shudder) or even a fan of clubbing 'music,' enjoy it to the fullest, don't take people's criticisms to heart (people are idiots) and explore the possibilities it opens for you (not sure clubbing 'music' does this, but each to their own), because at the end of the day you'll always have your music to express yourself, to live with and to be connected with. If anyone has a problem with that, just call them a hipster and tell them where to stick it.
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