Entry #9 (Eng 102) - Music is the Breath of Life

It speaks the feelings we can't describe with our own words

 Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  All too often I would hear a song and follow along to the lyrics and get a sense of "this song is absolutely about how I'm feeling."  Whether it was a situation at school or at home or just personal to me, music became a way to find understanding, a way to feel as though I wasn't the only person feeling that way.  How could I be with someone who has captured that feeling so poignantly in the lyrics of a song?  

As I've gotten older I've come to realize that my feelings toward music isn't unique to just me.  I use it as a tool in a lot of ways.  Sometimes it's a stress-reliever.  Sometimes music becomes my inspiration.  Sometimes I crank it up in the car and start a playlist with heavy base music to help me wake up or 'pump up' for a long day ahead.  I've used music to relax or to psych myself up before a difficult test.  Sometimes I just play it and have it in the background while I'm working on things because it's soothing to have the music there instead of just silence.  

With the recent writing project we've been working on in my English class about the power of media, I pretty much immediately knew I wanted to write about the power of music.  It's fascinated me for a long time and in studying history as well I've seen how music has played an integral part of a lot of major movements throughout history.  Through my own experiences I've seen how personal and powerful music can make me feel, so in a way I wasn't surprised to find out that music could create such a powerful impact within social movements. 

 I've noticed, and admittedly I've been watching for this, how many people listen to music on their phones.  Around campus I see innumerable amounts of people with earbuds in, scrolling through their phones while listening to whatever playlist they have going.  I've seen the same at work, when CNA's go to the mounted computers to do their charting, more than a few play music on their phones.  Some even have music playing faintly from their phones in their pockets while they're working on getting patient's up and ready for the day first thing in the morning.  I've also noticed that what they listen to has a lot to do with their mood.  In the mornings the music is usually upbeat, something they play and work to, something which sets a pace for them.  Later throughout the day the music tends to end up shifting towards more of what I would call "disgruntled" music.  That is, music which tends to have a heavier beat and is a bit more expressive of emotions that lean more towards the angry and annoyed emotions.  At work, music tends to become a form of stress relief.  

I admit I'm guilty of judging some music before I really give it a chance.  I've discovered that if I stop judging music first and give it a chance, often I find myself pleasantly surprised.  Now, angry, screaming music isn't exactly my preferred choice in music.  However, when I've had a particularly stressful day, I have to say that when I can't scream, sometimes it helps to listen to someone else doing it. 

This is just a big no-no.  My 'favorite' song changes regularly.  Sometimes I'm in the mood for a certain sound and when that song comes on, woe onto any who reaches for the radio buttons.  Realizing this made certain interactions with my brothers and parents while in the car fighting over the radio stations suddenly make so much more sense.  I think I understand far better now why sometimes my parents wanted to listen to slower, more relaxing songs.  Lord knows with my brothers and me they probably needed all the calming influences they could get. 

When all the noise, all the beeps and random voices, and conversations, at work start to get to be a bit overwhelming, I've found myself replaying sons in my head.  Sometimes it's not even the whole song, just a line here or there or the chorus, something to focus on and keep my mind engaged instead of being pulled in all different directions from all that's happening around me.  For all the in-depth, grand scale ways that I have read about music being influential and impacting people and social movements and the sort, I have to say that the most immediate way that I see the power that music holds is how it applies to a person individually.  Then again, maybe that's what has given music the power to be so influential on a grander scale.  It isn't how it speaks to a whole group but rather how it speaks to the individual who becomes more engaged because of how the music reached to them and spoke to them on a personal level.  It just so happened that the music reached to a bunch of people in a similar way.  It's still fascinating to me, however it is that music reaches to people and impacts them and changes them and influences them.  I'm curious to know more about how it affects others, to hear from them how they feel when they listen to music.  If you read this and you have felt in some way similar to what I've described, I really would like to hear your thoughts about it.  Till next time.