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| 3:01 AM, Thursday, July 03, 2003 |
Trying to explain music is like trying to explain color to the blind. You can fight, and push, and pull, and point, and scream at the top of your lungs, you can spend three hours talking your head off. But in the end, it comes down to a very simple fact of life:
If you understand it, you understand it; and if you don't, you never will.
It's not just comfort, or relaxation, or a stress reliever. It's all that and more. It's not about having a better mindset, outlook on life, better mood. It's something transcendental. It's not about the human condition, it's everything that makes us human and not human and in the end it blends everything together. It's insight. Music. Life. Sorrow. Pain. Love. Joy. Happiness. God. People. Community. Fate nature grief comfort rapture loneliness friendship solitude noise quiet loud suffering relief sheer bliss. It is everything and nothing combined into five minutes of melody, harmony, lyrics, and humanity poured and combined.
Here's an example: "Champagne High", both the Sister Hazel and Extreme Measures versions. Most people who share my taste in music like CH. They may like it a lot; it may be for them one of the better songs they've heard. But it's still just a song to them. They may pick up on part of the grief, longing, sorrow, loneliness in the song but it's clinical, cold, immaterial. It's just not ... personal. When it is, it looks something like this:
*listens intently* Vocal..... oh my God. NO WAY!!!!!!! *leaps up and paces*
*cranks it* where did you GET this? *sits in awe* Holy....
They understand the song, and.... they got all of it. They ... oh.
Insane. Should come with a warning: "Don't drown in this" |
And when it isn't, it looks something like this:
| It's a nice song, but I like "Change Your Mind" better. |
No. I'm sorry, but no.
There is no more final reckoning of human nature and understanding than music.
-David
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