Music and what it means to you

[The Arcane]

I should mention before I start this thread that I'm just a little not sober right now (just had a REALLY good night out with some old friends) so any typos have to be excused. 😉

As I just said, I've just come in from a really good night out with a bunch of mates that i haven't seen in a while. My old band in fact. We formed in college and I was the singer for the first year or two but life dragged me away in another direction and they carried on without me. Whilst never becoming more than a popular local band they have done pretty well for themselves and they are still together today, althought with a new lead singer, obviously! 🙂

They were playing a local gig tonight and so I went to see them and ended up doing a couple of songs with them. The first was one we wrote way back in our college years and the other was a cover of REM's It's The End Of The World As We Know It, a song we used to do a lot in the early days.

It got me thinking about how much music really means to me. I don't regret taking the path I took but there are times when I wish that I had stuck to my original plan and stayed with the band. Maybe we would have made it big, maybe not, but at least I would have been doing what I really loved.

Music is still a massive part of my life. There is very rarely a time when I'm not listening to a cd (right now I have Alice in Chains on) and half the time I'm watching television it tends to one one of the music channels. Well, either Kerrang, Scuzz or MTV2. Y'know, the ACTUAL music channels! 😉

So is anyone else around here as musically addicted as me?

 

[Randy Giles]

I love music. If I'm not watching television or videos or something I'm probably listening to music. At work, I listen to my iPod all day (I'm a valet, so since I have to talk to people a lot I only use one ear bud of course and the volume has to stay pretty low. But it helps the day go by faster.)

I think music is very important. I mean, it can completely change your entire mood and state of mind. Supposedly, classical-type music can even raise your IQ and make you think more clearly. Music can also help me cope with whatever mood I'm in. If I'm upset, I'll listen to songs that relate to my emotion. It usually makes me more upset at first but I still like to listen to the song, but then a while later I'm over it.

Right now my latest music addictions include Muse, Breaking Benjamin, 30 Seconds to Mars, Metallica, E.S. Posthumus, Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, Evanesence, Lostprophets, and Enya. Nope, those are not just my favorite bands (which is a much, much longer list) but the bands that I'm REALLY, REALLY into right now and that I listen to all the time. All of them have songs that really connect to me right now.

 

[Angels baby101]

I'm in love with music. I love all the different types depending on my mood, I find that when i'm angry i listen to pop rock or metal, when i'm sad i tend to move more toward country, when i'm feeling artistic its classical, when i wanna relax its jazz or blues and when i just wanna have fun its normally Oldies lol. Every type of music has its own vibe and personally some songs you just cant help but love. I used to say i hated Metal but now that i've been with my boyfriend (he loves the stuff) and i've been semi forced to listen to it, Its just like any other type its just a bunch of talented people comming together to do what they love, and its not half bad.

I was in my school choir for 6 years, and when we did the concerts or shows for everyone, expecially when we'd go to the nursing home its amazing to see the joy it brings to someones face when you sing just alittle song and it like empowers you to sing alittle louder or dance to the beat alittle more because the happier you are and the more you enjoy what your doing, The more people around you listening will. Music is such an amazing thing, how it can change someones mood in an instant, so yeah i pretty much try to appriciate all kinds because its all worth at least a good few minute listening.

 

[Joamna]

Yup I'm addicted to. Since both my parents are music teachers, I grew up in a house full of different instruments, and it took a long while before I realized that was not the case for everyone. I don't play as much instruments as I used to, but I still love picking up the guitar and just play some random stuff. I love the piano more though, but I don't have one at home so I can't play that as often.

Not so long ago me and my dad started playing stuff together whenever I get home, we try to learn some song we like, or just jam all night long, it's really great, I love that.. Just last night he thought me some new song on the guitar, and apparently, I learn quick.

The thing about music for me is that I have never wanted to become a pro musician or anything, I've never had the strive to have concerts or perform in any way, I just wanted to play beacuse I think it's fun, and sure it's fun as I'm getting better, but I just wanted to do it because it makes me feel good (this is something many music teachers have found weird over the years. "What?! You don't want to do this concert? Why? You don't like the song? ...) But no, it's just me, wanting to have some fun, mhm.

 

[The Arcane]

This won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me around here but for me it was always rock. From listening to my dad's Neil Young, The Who and Queen albums as a kid to really getting the rock bug when the grunge era hit in the mid 90s, rock has always been the music that made me feel alive.

After I posted this thread last night I decided to stick on an old REM concert that I've had on video for years (really need to get it on DVD now). Hadn't listened to it for ages and having sung one of their songs earlier on last night I felt like giving it a look again. REM have always been one of the bands that influenced me the most and seeing them perform live always reminds me why that is. They are such an incredible band and the music they create is just amazing. Everything from their early stuff like The One I Love, Driver 8, So. Central Rain and Finest Worksong to their more popular songs like Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts are just perfection. Michael Stipe has one of the greatest voices of all time and can switch from rocking out on Orange Crush to a ballad like Find the River in seconds without losing any of the intensity needed for either type of song. Really stunning band to listen to.

Reckon I'll pimp some of their albums over in my other music thread later on. 🙂

 

[freakydorky]

Music is my escape from this hell-world.

 

[Harley]

I'd try to explain my love of music to you but really, words dont do enough. (There should be a whole new dictionary that has those words no one has thought of that would explain what you cant say...you know? I digress...)

I think there is a song for every feeling, situation, etc in life. A lot of people say they listen to hard or lound music when they're upset but I dont. I listen to that music when Im in a great mood. The only music that even slightly puts me off is country and i can even listen to a few of those songs. I listen to everything.

Ps. Just look at my banners in my gallery or my usertitle. Almost always lyrics. Have you looked in the lyrics vault thread? I have like 10000 posts there (i.e music addict).

 

[The Arcane]

Okay, how slow am I? It took me noticing that Kryptonite's location was in Man U's locker room to realise that it was Sin with a new username.

I'm still a little wiped from a busy holiday period. Yeah, that's my excuse! 😉

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

I'm quite odd with music.
It's very rare for me to find a band/solo artist/whatever combination that I latch onto and want to buy their albums.
I can't explain why, but I get bored with alot of the bands very quickly.
I tend to latch onto a song instead. I can use a song to associate something with something else and it comes in handy.
The oddest example would be that intolerable, cheesy piece of crap called Barbie Girl, by Aqua.
Anyone of sound mind should instantly hear that song and turn it off...but for a very strange reason, I adore it.
Lyrically it's shite, musically its worse and do not get me started on visually BUT when this song was released, it was the Summer of my GCSE exams.
I loved English as a topic but hated MacBeth, which had to be the play we were doing for our exams.
I need music to revise, and as this was a 'big' hit at the time, it was played alot. So often infact that when I sat the English exam about MacBeth, someone in an adjacent room turned on Barbie Girl too loud and EVERYTHING I needed to know about that play came back to me. I sang that song in my mind for 2 hours straight...final grade expected B...achieved A.

But, what i'm getting at is the music was associated with something.
Then it hit me, as far back as I can remember, songs and events have gone hand in hand.
I can't listen to 'The Last Waltz 'by Englebert Humperdinck without remembering when I was 8 years old, playing Rainbow on the Atari STE with my family around me actually enjoying ourselves, or 'Never be the same again' by Mel C and Lisa 'Left eye' Lopez as that was the song that I kissed Lindsay(my deceased love) to for the first time.

I do have some bands/groups that I like. I think there was quite an interesting music scene in the 90's creating some of my favourite music from the likes of Alisha's Attic, Space, Blur, Rupublica and the Divine Comedy to name a few.

With me, it's always been that music is the perfect way to express and feel emotion.
There are some songs I can't listen to because they evoke something really painful but on the whole it's good to feel anything, so any song that posits a reaction on that level is good, and I really don't care what genre it is in.

As an addition, there are some songs that no matter what my mood will get me on the Karaoke or Dance floor.
Examples of them are Bon Jovi - Living on a Prayer, Bryan Adams - Summer of '69 and Queens - Don't Stop me now(this being a TRUE contender for my all time favourite song).
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Mr. Pointy agrees: I can't believe you hated Macbeth...do you like it now?

ONLY in the sense that I got an A.
Personally, I feel its one of the 'Bards' most overrated pieces.
Its symbology was too much, it's basic premise was pretty boring in comparison to some of his other works.
I felt nothing for any of the characters and the Witches were laughable.

Its ONLY reprieve in my book is Lady MacBeth....nothing else.

 

[Randy Giles]

This is my third tangent in a row on this board, but...

Macbeth is probably my favorite Shakespeare play. His most overrated is Romeo & Juliet, which is just not very good at all.

I loved the witches in Macbeth, but I wish they'd had bigger parts. But overall I like the play, it's so dark. And I like Lady Macbeth too. The evil bitch.

Overall though there's only three or four Shakespeare plays I really like. The rest are not interesting to me at all.

 

[Kali]

I love music - it's my mood setter and emotion settler. (e.g. Queen is great to drive along to, and if I'm really p**sed, Break Stuff by Limpbizkit played VERY loud seems to sort me right out!)

I only get to play it in the car now. Probably not a good idea to listen to what I do in the car (should really be some chilled easy listenin'! but at the mo its AC/DC, G'n'R, Foo's, Janes Addiction, Love/Hate, Soundgarden and Buckcherry) but as Hubby just got me an iPod for xmas, hopefully I should be back to listening like I used to, and if I ever get around to networking the mac with an Airport Extreme or get a sound station i'll listen all day every day again.

Since having the Demon Spawn, unfortunately I can't trust him with the amp (he is a button twiddler) and I fear he would blow the speakers! So it's turned off, and all I have is Thomas the Tank engine on repeat all day. But I do get to watch Kerrang when I can distract him with his train set.

 

[Wanabee-slayer]

Music to me is an escape from my otherwise meaningless life. No actually music is a big part of my life. It calms me down, it pumps me up, it makes me feel like me and sometimes that's what i really need.

 

[killerdwarf]

But, what i'm getting at is the music was associated with something.
Then it hit me, as far back as I can remember, songs and events have gone hand in hand.

Yup. There are some songs you will always associate with a specific place/time/event. There are many for me, being very very old and all...This is why I dislike videos for songs and why I avoid watching them at all for the most part. I don't like someone else's view of a song imposed on mine. Good example (for me): Night Moves by Bob Seger. The video was made almost 20 years after the original release of the song, and I absolutely refuse to watch it. That particular song has resonances I do not want interfered with in any way...it'd be like putting a mustache on the Mona Lisa for me. So. I guess we all have a soundtrack to our lives, in a way. If you think about it, you could probably put a song or songs into pretty much every stage of your life, even right down to the month! Music is important, no matter what the genre. It gives background and context for everything we experience. It can even say what we are feeling when we can't express it ourselves.

 

[zombie.apparatus]

Music is a big part of my life... it helps me through my meaningless and pointless life :silly: ... and as Jess said it will calm me down.. it makes me wanna dance.. it helps me think... and im the sorta person that doesnt love a particular genre.. but more like a list of songs or artists i like... music as such meaning.. 😀 and i love it... you should see my wall.. its like full of posters of all my fav bands and artists... my parents are from like two differnt countries.. my dad from israel and my mum from here in Australia.. so my dad has got me into cultural music.. the best kind if your meditating or relaxing.. and my mum she loves all the modern stuff as well as the oldies music 😀 which rocks.. the only music im not really into is Heavy Metal... to me it just seems they are shouting into a microphone giving themselves a chronic headache.. DAM... i dont really like all that RAP stuff either.. except i dont mind some of Eminems music.. depends .. yeah so music is great.. and its made an impact on my life ... hands up for music x

 

[The Arcane]

the only music im not really into is Heavy Metal... to me it just seems they are shouting into a microphone giving themselves a chronic headache..

In the case of some metal bands you are probably right, although metal on the whole is a lot more than that. You definately have some bands out there today that think that all they have to do is shout loudly and that gives them a claim to greatness in the metal hall of fame but the true metal gods actually do know something about writing a good song.

Listen to Metallica's Black Album a couple of times, and I mean properly listen, and I bet you would be surprised just how good they are. 😉

 

[zombie.apparatus]

In the case of some metal bands you are probably right, although metal on the whole is a lot more than that. You definately have some bands out there today that think that all they have to do is shout loudly and that gives them a claim to greatness in the metal hall of fame but the true metal gods actually do know something about writing a good song.

Listen to Metallica's Black Album a couple of times, and I mean properly listen, and I bet you would be surprised just how good they are. 😉

oh i like metallica... 🙂 but i mean HEAVY metal.. ie. slipknot

 

[The Arcane]

oh i like metallica... 🙂 but i mean HEAVY metal.. ie. slipknot

Actually you might even be surprised there. I was always a bit of a fan of Slipknot but their last album, Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, was something special.

I'll admit, Corey does go to the louder end of the scale as a singer but his lyrics are excellent and the music is quality. I think you would be shocked if you heard the album from beginning to end. It's pretty damn impressive.

Alternatively, if you wanted to experience Slipknot-Lite, then have a listen to Stone Sour's first cd. You probably know that Corey is the lead singer of that band as well but their music is just a little less loud. Still with the great lyrics though. Bother is one of my favourite tracks ever. 🙂

 

[Nix]

winnie the pooh's lullabys give me 45mins of peace lol

 

[zombie.apparatus]

winnie the pooh's lullabys, that would probably put me to sleep 😉 sounds... like some good bubba music

 

[Schillaci]

I probably listen to music more often than I should. I find that as I get older I listen to it more and more, which is odd because I think the reverse is more often the case.

Where once I enjoyed the quiet I now find that I fill up that emptiness with music. I don't listen to new music, when I get into a band it is usually an old one.

Sometimes I listen to remember, sometimes I listen to forget.