Music Emotes

Music induces emotion. It seems that when certain sound vibrations tickle our eardrums, our souls are touched. This can bring to life memories of love received or places where we've laughed until we cried or remind us of great pain. We've all got songs that have special meanings to us. Sometimes it doesn't even have anything to do with the song itself, but rather the circumstances in which we heard that song. Canon in D comes to mind for me. What is it about music that influences us?

I've heard an idea that God created the universe through song. I like that. Music is powerful. It can create and destroy. In stringing together notes in certain ways, we create moods, we create passions, we communicate raw depths of our hearts in ways that mere words cannot.

For me, I love music that rises and falls, that hits the high climatic note but also goes low into the bass. I love feeling the rhythm beat through my chest. I love lyrics that mean something, that don't just sing words, but that require you to think. I love songs that are fun, but not always. I love songs that weave with an intrinsic rhythm like waves of an ocean, (usually they are in 3/4 time.) I love songs that speak truth with honesty, that don't shirk from pain, but speak to life and joy through the pain. I love songs that are complex, that took skill to write and skill to play.

I hate songs that are shallow, that speak only about sex or relationships as things to panacea. To sing about love is one thing, and I would argue, a necessary thing, but most popular songs lack any amount of depth, or strength, or sacrifice required for true love to fulfill. People fall in love all the time, and I'm convinced that a lot of times, it is real. But most people turn in inwardly on themselves, and forget how to work at the relationship. That sort of thing is rarely sung about.