Music wears many masks.....

What does music mean to you? Why do you listen to music? I'd say ask yourself these questions and you'll find much deeper answers than you'd bargained for.

I got to thinking about this the other day while listening to my own cauldron of sonic bliss (Ipod, I know, poor metaphor) on the way home from college. When the goosebumps started to hit for the umpteenth time over the course of that long walk, I realised that is the reason exactly that I listen to music. Nothing beats the conclusion of a massive period of build up into an explosive climax, and the resultant shivers down the backbone. Whether this be achieved through listening to Scandinavian extreme metal, 90's grunge, techno or plain ol' folk rock, this build up and climax can be found all across the board in music.

For me, the ability of an artist lies not in the technical mastery of their chosen instrument, but with a genuine composing talent. Someone who can deliver moments of musical bliss with the simplest of chord progressions or riffs is a true talent in my eyes, something which no fast-fingered, virtuoso musician will ever really achieve. To put what I mean in simpler language, it's music that grabs you by the gonads, no matter how passively you may have been listening to it. When you're walking down the street, with music playing merely as a backgrounf thing, and a song that is so powerful/beautiful/intense rips you out of yourself to make you think "Wow, that was unbelieveable" is true music in my eyes.

Of course I don't base all of my music taste on this, and I doubt many people actually do. Some music has its merits on simply making you smile with its upbeat tempo and catchy riffs/whatever. Some songs drown themselves in complication that you can't help but listen to to attempt to decipher what f-in time signature it's in. And, speaking in terms of the general public, a song can simply make you just want to get up and thrash around the place. There are a whole variety of other reasons I'd wager aswell.

I hope what I've managed to convey (poorly, I concede) is that music affects all of us, albeit in drastically different ways. We all have our own particular tastes to conform to what we expect music to deliver. But all of it is, I think, essential to modern life. I've yet to meet someone that simply just doesn't like music. Some people stick purely to chart music and don't pursue it further, others pride themselves in having the rarest of albums from the rarest of bands. It's odd in the way that a general liking of music can unite us all, yet when we even begin to get into specifics, it divides us, sometimes drastically. But I can guarantee you one thing - music can get all of us talking. Even if for different reasons.