On the Importance of Music

Music is important to me. REALLY important to me. I’m not sure I could live without it.

My musical tastes vary quite a bit. My iTunes has everything from classical, to heavy metal. I’ve got 80’s pop music, and modern hip-hop; Techno, and a smattering of country. I collect it everywhere, and it isn’t always easy. The Internet has helped tremendously, but I consider SHAZAM the greatest invention in the history of music, since it has allowed me to identify and track down most of the music I have eventually purchased in the last 5 years or so.

I find most of my new music in movies and tv shows; friends have introduced me to many great songs and artists over the years, but if you pay attention music is everywhere. I’ve found amazing songs in doctors offices, fast food restaurants, and grocery stores. One of my favourite songs I found in a Nintendo commercial.

I am an emotionally bottled up guy. I repress a lot. Music is one of the ways I deal with all the repressed emotions I have. Which helps to explain why my musical tastes are so varied, I suppose. The right song can dredge up just about any emotion you care to name in me. Even right now, literally as I type this, I’m listening to a song I rediscovered recently in a movie I hadn’t watched in a while, and it has me incredibly inspired.

I will occasionally share my music, but I don’t really like to. Sharing the music, and sharing the emotions that the music has provoked in me don’t really equate. It usually ends up being a bit disappointing. No matter the reply, there will never be a way for a friend to speak to my soul the way the music has. So, generally speaking, I keep my music to myself.

If I have shared music directly with you, you should know that I did so with the intention of sharing something that has touched me. I didn’t just share the song, but also the emotion that is tied to it. In that moment, I felt something; something that has over-ridden my usual reluctance, and decided I needed to share it and (maybe) feel it with you.

That adds a bit of pressure, I imagine, but if you get a text from me with a link to a song, don’t worry yourself, I don’t expect much. Not because I don’t expect you to be able to share the moment with me, but because I know you can’t. Music moves me in ways that are honestly unknowable to anyone but me.

But please, enjoy the song.