Uniting the World Through Music
My friend Joe Heuer, the “Rock and Roll Guru“, has an awesome music blog. I enjoy his Rock and Roll Dictionary posts, and recently he shared five tips to enjoy music more.
I like the idea of listening to a variety of music. As I may have mentioned before, I’ve been called a human jukebox! I listen to almost every type of music. It all depends on my mood. Not a day goes by that I don’t listen to music.
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Music…gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything — Plato
Browsing through the Music Blogs Catalog today, I came across Kim Kinrade’s blog titled “Music Before the Money“.
The title caught my eye because I’m sure many musicians who have become very successful can probably say that they had a love of music before the money came into the picture. Of course you would think Well, it would be nice to make money with my music, but no matter what happens, you still create music. Even if you never get that million-dollar record deal, you still have that love for creating music.
And that’s the beauty of musicians….Rich, poor, young, or old, they continue to create music. It’s rare to come across a musician who gives up playing music just because they don’t make it big.
Thank you to all the musicians out there who share their songs with the world!
Photo Credit: Curran Kelleher
Because music is generally more accessible than literature, critics tend to be less forgiving and more finicky with artists who put out an album. They are ready to pounce at every opportune moment, poised to pick on every nitty gritty detail such as contrived lyrics or cheesy chord progressions.
But Kelly Clarkson is the kind that breaks all rules. She perfectly fits the image of a bubblegum pop star while coming off as totally out-of-the-box. She can belt out a ballad in the tradition of Celine Dion but at the same time beat the dickens out of rousing anthems like “Home” and “Hear Me”. In interviews, she’s usually her bubbly self, putting on the aw-shucks face that earned her the distinction of being America’s Sweetheart, but there would be moments when she would transition to someone else, as if in a trance, and say something really insightful about music. For instance, when describing Melissa Etheridge’s voice, she said that it’s the kind of voice that “has really lived.”
Whoever said that Kelly Clarkson is a case study couldn’t have been more precise. Here is someone who stayed strong in the business despite the fickle nature of pop music. How did she manage to weave longevity and a valid career out of her Idol background?
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When Scott MacIntyre sang Michael Jackson’s “Keep the Faith” during the top 13 round of American Idol, he earned negative remarks from Simon who said he should have chosen a more popular, mainstream tune off of MJ’s catalog. Scott tried to defend his stance, saying that he wanted to be more “artistic” to which Simon blurted out a not-so-subtle condemnation of artistry on the show.
“It’s fine to be artistic,” Simon said, “Just not on this show.” This single, smug statement, however valid, perfectly defines why music in the past 5 years or so has been racing downhill. Kudos to Scott, although his performance is hardly something that would qualify for a more in-depth categorization of the word “artistic,” he managed to elicit a response from Simon that would explain the show’s premise since its inception.
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It was only last year that everyone was buzzing about Miley Cyrus’ controversial photo that she took for Vanity Fair magazine. However, that picture surely hasn’t been detrimental to her career. This past week her movie, Hannah Montana: The Movie debuted in the theaters. No doubt that young girls everywhere will be begging their parents to take them to see it.
This begs the question….Should famous young singers be good role models?
Our better judgment would say that yes, young and famous singers should be good role models for their fans. However, if you really think about it, these young people are human…and humans do make mistakes. Furthermore, as an artist, they are free to be who they are and express themselves how they want to. Sure, it would be nice if every young singer would stay innocent and be good role models for our children, but ultimately it should be up to the parents to be good role models.
If you’ve spent any time in a dance club, you know how important the DJ is to a club’s success. People count on the DJ to play songs and mixes that inspire and get them groovin’, right?
I appreciate DJs who add twist and turns to their mixes. It’s boring to hear the same songs every hour day after day…and there are many radio stations that do this!
In this video, the one and only Diddy shares his thoughts on DJs and offers some advice to them…
Let this be a challenge to all DJs out there – or to any other artist out there…Stretch the limits and be more creative with your work. What can you do differently?
Being the creative people that we are, we can probably all agree that listening to music is inspiring and unleashes the creativity within us.
There is something about music that touches the deepest corner of our souls and stirs up all kinds of emotions within us. One thing that music does for me is that it ignites this certain energy within me. I love painting while listening to music because I am able to just be in the moment. The paint brush becomes a catalyst for this creative energy and takes on a life of its own. Sometimes I don’t know what the final product will look like. The painting becomes another expression of the creative energy…but it all started with the music.
I like Vincent Tan’s theory on music and creativity:
Genius and creative imagination are of high frequencies of vibration (“The mystery of sex transmutation” in Think and Grow Rich). You can think of listening to music to increase your thought frequency, bringing you ever higher to the place where creativity runs freely.
I took a painting class during college and my teacher would always play music as we painted. That was probably the most fun I’ve ever had out of all the classes I took in college. Of course there are certain classes that music playing wouldn’t be appropriate, but I wonder if music would make a difference in students’ productivity.
What does listening to music do for your creativity?
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