Whats the deal with music?

I have been an active consumer of music since about 1993. My interest in music goes back much further. I can still remember when I was sitting in the back seat of the car when my parents gave me my first tape without a book. It was The "Chipmunks." Although, I listened to music and bought tapes after that, the album Dookie by Greenday is what I can pin down to what made me start to love music. From 7th to 9th grade was a very exciting time for me as far as music was concerned. I expanded my tastes into many varied categories. Today, I believe I have a very eclectic taste in music. To put that into perspective, a couple of years ago I owned the albums that won Grammys for best rap album and best bluegrass album. When people ask me what type of music I like I generally just answer, "Good music."

For me, I think the way a certain guitar riff sounds or a harmony in a song makes me feel helps prove that I (and therefore other humans) have a soul. It is not a biological response; its not a memory response. I get a near euphoric feeling from the guitar solo in the Who's "Pure and Easy" and I know I had not heard it until I heard it the first time. I had that response the first time I heard it.

I bring this up now over some reflection during the Thanksgiving Holiday. I spent all of Thanksgiving Day around a baby. Every time music played, that baby danced. I got me to thinking that all off the babies I have ever seen do the same thing. Babies dance, seemingly unconsciously to music, like a knee jerk reaction. And its the same dance every time. Knees bend, hips swing, and arms flap.

I don't know what it is or why, but it is obvious to me that music occupies a very special place in the human experience. Whether it speaks directly to our souls or some kind of collective human memory (see Carl Jung), it causes a near automatic response for us when we are children and creates special feelings in us as adults.

So, if you think you don't really like music, I, respectfully, think you are wrong. You just need to listen to more music and find something you like. Whether its Wagner, Brittany Spears, Steel Pier, or Hank Williams does not matter as long as you like it, and as long as it makes you feel like part of our shared experience (and I don't have to listen to it if you are listening to Brittany or Steel Pier, sorry Nicole on the Steel Pier).

-J