This blog will be about Music and everything related to it: music culture, music people, music instruments, music venues, music news, music everything. Get the picture? Music is a big deal. If you're a fan of music, this is the site for you. To be quite honest and frank, I have no idea where this blog will go. But what is great about this blog, which is also one of the great things about music, is that it will constantly be evolving. There are ideas right now in what direction Music is going in and right now I have ideas as to what direction this blog will go. But stick around, watch the evolution, and maybe you too will learn to enjoy and think about music in the way I have. As corny as it seems, it also seems fitting to jot down some general thoughts about why music is so freaking great at the outset of this blog.
Great things about Music
1) The human need for music stretches back a long time. A really, really, really long time. Music can theoretically be traced back to the paleolithic era coinciding with the development of stone tools, which for the non scientists (including me) means over 2 1/2 million years ago. Tells you something about human beings, doesn't it? Humans had the capacity, drive, and desire to mess around with sounds for their own pleasure or other reasons before the following things happened:
- Cave paintings (earliest known painting - 32,000 years ago)
- Agriculture (earliest forms of planting for the future probably occurred 6,000 years ago)
- Domestication of livestock (earliest signs of domestication probably 4,000 years ago)
- Civilization (modern civilization requires the advent of cities, which started in Mesopotamia , China, and probably Egypt 4000-3500 years ago)
2) Music is timeless. Music was originally passed down orally from parent to child for countless generations. Once we invented writing and music notation, music was passed down to posterity reasonably accurate to how the original composer wanted it heard and performed. Think about it. Mozart died 218 years ago, but we still regularly play his pieces, or go to Mozart conferences, or study his works in higher institutions, talk Mozart with other aficionados, etc. Mozart may have died in 1791, but he is not dead because what people enjoyed back then people still enjoy.
To use another metaphor, this time from literature. Have you ever read Shakespearean comedies? Or if you're a history nerd like me which I'm certain you aren't, have you read Aristophenes (Greek comedian) or Petronius (Roman satirist)? That shit is STILL funny.I mean it's not timely and relevant like great standup comedy today, but the things people laugh about have been the same since people were people. And people have been doing people things for at least the past 6,000 years.
Another example, I remember reading Tacitus one time (bear with me on this history stuff) cramming for a paper I had due the next morning. It was like 3am, the coffee and cigarettes were wearing off, and I'm cramming through this particularly boring segment about Roman emperors and whatnot and Tacitus pauses his narrative and says essentially this, "Dude, my bad. I know this garbage is boring. It's boring to me now and I'm certain future generations like you will also find it boring. But this is what was going on when I was alive and this is what I have to work with. So I'm sorry." I LOLed in my apartment by myself at 3am because I was like, you're damn right about that and all is forgiven because you owned up to it 2,000 years ahead of time. That comment was timeless. So think about my point about music again. John Lennon is dead, but people still worship him and listen to his stuff. People still talk about it, enjoy it together, bond over it. Which leads me to my next point...
3) Music brings people together. A party is not a party without music. Otherwise its just people standing around drinking. You can't dance without music. And dancing is a big part of human culture, in almost every human culture. Some of the best conversations I've had with people are about music. Sharing a common taste in music can be an extremely solid bond between people. I know that for myself, all the people who at one time or another I considered my closest friends shared a common taste in music with me. People change, tastes in music change, but regardless I feel the closest connection with people who can relate to me on the music that I like. I feel like what genres of music a person is into says a lot about the person. I can anticipate their values, history, personality, and other attributes based on what kind of music they like. A pretty obvious example - If somebody has a picture of Bob Marley in their room, there's an extremely high probability that person smokes the reefer. And if the person smokes the reefer, I can extrapolate other attitudes about life that the person probably has.
Have you ever been to a live show? Ever been to a hardcore/metal/punk show/been in a situation where circle or mosh pits happen? People beat eachother senseless in those things. Especially in a very special event called "a wall of death" most often seen at Lamb of God shows, but we won't get into that just yet. In these pits, sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes people fall. And shit like that is dangerous. I know I've fallen and been crushed in pits and every single time I fall, somebody random picks me up. People look out for each other. I always thought that stuff was great. Beating people to pieces is not the primary goal - enjoying the music through (I use the word loosely) dance together is the goal. Moshing in my opinion IS dance in certain musical scenes. And like I said before, you can't dance without music.
4) Music can express emotions without words, and reaches people in ways literature doesn't (anymore). Case in point is classical music, which a lot of people don't have any exposure to, which is a huge travesty. The message I get from a lot of popular music these days is that the average person needs lyrics or words combined with background music in order to extract meaning from the song. As a classically trained musician myself, I actually prefer music without words because I believe that they are not always necessary to convey the artist's message. When there are no words or lyrics with a song, the listener is forced to focus on the intricacies of the melody, harmony, pitch, timbre, and other tools an artist may use to convey meaning. I don't mean to say that I dislike music with lyrics, because that would mean I'd be hating on some of my alltime favorite groups like Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and Led Zepplin (expect lots of posts on these groups soon) where not only the instrumental music is key, but the lyrics are very thoughtful and complement the audio perfectly. The point I am making though is unlike written word, music has the ability to convey meaning without words, and can create meaning inside of people of any language background. That's pretty awesome in my opinion.
I really could keep going on and on with different reasons why music is fantastic, but I feel like this is a good place to conclude this opening post. As this is my blog, I am obviously going to be writing about music that I like and not writing on music that I dislike. If this becomes a successful blog, I may recruit a writer to write on topics that I'm unfamiliar with but for now it is just going to be me writing about things I like. No worries, I have a pretty eclectic taste in music that is part mainstream and part underground. On the topic of electronic music for example, you'll see me writing about well known mainstream groups like MGMT as well as lesser known trance groups like GMS (Growling Mad Scientists). You'll see me write about Metallica but also lesser known Canadian guitarist/producer Devin Townsend and his groups Strapping Young Lad and The Devin Townsend Project/Band. I hope you enjoy reading about things that you know something about as well as being open minded about things you haven't.
-RJW
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