Music, My Life

Alpha101 I know what I am about to say will come off as cheesy and predictable, but I will speak my mind, nevertheless. Without music, life would be incredibly dull. As obvious as this sounds, this topic is not brought up that often anymore. Today, anything with a catchy beat and is popular among a large group of people can be considered "art." Today, most people have not ever heard of legendary groups, old and new, such as Dream Theater, Tool, Radiohead, Muse, Judas Priest, Alice in Chains, etc. Instead, they idolize "artists" who do not have a talented bone in their entire body, just a lot of money, a lot of time, and nothing to do. I don't want to give the impression that all of today's music is bad, for there are many new groups that I, and many others, consider to be exceptional. But there are far more groups today that lack the emotion that was so common years ago.

When I was little, I was not very fond of music. I listened to the most popular artists from time to time, and I did enjoy a select few of classic songs, but music never really intrigued me. It was not until the fifth grade, when I discovered my first rock band, "Guns N Roses." Granted, their lyrical content can appear bland to many, and they are not wrong, but this band had something special. The chemistry of everyone in the band was amazing, though it did wane away, obviously. Every member of the band could play their instrument very well, and Axl Rose, no matter what you might say, is an excellent singer, though he screams a lot more than he sings, I will admit. Once I was introduced to this band, I started listening to other legendary bands, similar and not so similar, such as Queen, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, etc.

It was at this times that I finally realized what I was missing out on. The lyrics of these bands weren't about teen crushes, not being able o wait for the weekend, not about parties, etc. These bands tackled harder subjects, such as depression, love, life, death, beauty, evil, light, darkness, etc. Art in it's truest form. I started getting obsessed, listening to music for hours a day. To this day, I cannot perform most tasks without music playing in the background, such a cleaning, playing basketball, walking the dog, and so on. I can clearly remember hearing "Stairway to Heaven" for the first time, which, over the years, has become one of my favorite songs. I can keenly remember hearing "Comfortably Numb," "A Day in the Life," "Snowblind," and "Sympathy for the Devil."

I do not want people to think that the only exceptional genre in music is rock. That is completely false. I have heard many fantastic jazz, folk, country, pop, and even rap songs. I started listening to Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Ben Folds, Michael Jackson, and other relatively good artists.

I have been ranting for quite a bit, so I will cut this a little short. Music has helped me so much. Before I started getting into music, I just kind of went through the motions in my life. I would wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, come home, watch a little TV, then go to sleep. I would then repeat the cycle the next day. I never questioned anything. I would think of life as "going to school and hanging out with friends." I now find that life is much more than that. Life is about meeting new people, making and observing art, improving your life, and leaving the world better than it already was. I now find that life is not just a continuous cycle, for it is much more. Life is the exact opposite. It is random, beautiful, tragic, amazing, horrible, all rapped into one. I did not make this discovery by going to school going to church, or spending time with family. While all of that is good, I discovered this only by listening to music. I do not think that one can get the same experience as I by listening to Taylor Swift, or Ariana Grande.

Yes, music is a beautiful thing. As Marilyn Manson once said, "Music is the strongest form of magic." I completely agree, and I'm sure that you can too. I owe a lot to music, and I have not replayed the favor. Not yet, anyway. If you truly love music, why not contribute to the very thing that you love? That is why I want to work in the music industry when I grow older. It doesn't matter if I am in a band, a producer, a critic, or some guy that just hooks all of the equipment up. I want to contribute in any way that I can. Music has given me so much, and I owe it a lot.

Thank you so much for reading my post. It's been a while since I've done one. If you agree or disagree with anything that I said, feel free to comment or send me a message.

~Alpha101

Comments

Now you need to completely plunge off the deep end of the musical pool and try some experimental music. - PetSounds (10/12/2015)

Axl Rose is a very talented ass - bobbythebrony (10/12/2015)

I like this post - it pretty much describes my own experience. Music is a very powerful thing, it's an international language and if you really understand music, you can relate to songs in languages you don’t know. Even though I’m not a Marilyn Manson fan, I have to agree with him - yes, "Music is the strongest form of magic." - Metal_Treasure (10/13/2015)

Bootifull I say - visitor (7/19/2017)