What does music mean? (To me at least!)

Our second blog today sees Leo discuss all things music, particularly what it means to him personally. It’s fair to say music is a big thing for a lot of teens, you’ll see them all plugged up to iPods, boogying away in a corner or something. But without further ado, we shall hand things over to Leo…

Ever since I was little I had always been interested in music, I remember going through my dad’s vinyl record collection and picking out my favourites like Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley. Although people would usually associate my music taste with punk and metal, I’ve always loved other genres of music, like jazz and reggae for example. So we all know that we tend to prefer music that sounds good to us… but what does music really mean? In this blog post I’m going to try to explain what music means to me and why I’ve always felt so attached (almost addicted) to it.

First and foremost, listening to music always makes me feel more comfortable, whether that means listening to Machine Head and making me feel better when I’m down, or listening to Bad Manners when I’m in a good mood. Most people stick to genres of music that changes how they feel, in a positive way, or music that goes with whatever mood they may be in. This all seems fairly obvious, so now I’m going to try to explain how I feel when I listen to or play music – something I find very difficult doing since I’m not good at doing so with words…

Whenever I listen to music I really enjoy it, I feel almost as if my heart is burning, that intense feeling you get when you think about someone you love. I guess that means I’m in love with music…When I’m feeling really angry, I usually listen to metal – stuff like Slipknot and DevilDriver, which seems too tame and put of those flames inside (sounds incredibly deep doesn’t it?) That burning feeling I get when I’m angry isn’t pleasant and has often led me to do bad things (which I won’t mention in this post), so when the music I listen to or play gets rid of some of that feeling, it calms me down a lot. When I’m feeling down I tend to listen to… well… sad songs (didn’t see that coming did you!). These songs usually tend to be stuff like Bullet for My Valentine or even Tokio Hotel (well, their old stuff anyways…) So when I’m feeling really down, instead of having that burning feeling inside, I feel uncomfortably empty. There’s a song called “Deafening Silence” by Machine Head which describes this feeling incredibly well (and is one of my favourite songs to listen to when I’m in a bad mood…) So this emptiness just feels…wrong, it makes me feel uneasy. When I listen to a song that pretty much relates to feeling sad, the emptiness goes away a little, it’s as if stuff entered my brain so I can now have a distraction to the way I feel. When I’m in a good mood, I feel energetic and very hyperactive (something my teachers don’t seem to appreciate much!) In these moods I just want to DO STUFF whatever that may be. In these moods I like listening to Blues or Motown or Ska. Other genres such as Salsa and Zouk (a genre of music from the French West Indies) really get me going and emphasize how much I want to jump around and act stupid. Pop-punk like Blink 182 and Sum 41 also makes me feel hyperactive and…bubbly.

So that’s what goes on inside my head and body when I’m listening to music, but what about when I’m playing music? I play piano, drums, guitar and bass guitar (although my bass skills aren’t great yet). On piano I play mostly Jazz and Blues, on drums mostly punk, metal and rock and on guitar and bass, the same as drums. So yeah, I really enjoy my music. Playing music REALLY lets those little evil dwarfs inside of me, as opposed to listening to music, which just calms them down. When I play music I feel as if I’m high. Many musicians have described the awesome feelings you get whilst playing an instrument and it’s something that I start craving if I haven’t played an instrument in a while (that’s where I say I feel addicted to music). When I’m on the way home, coming from a two week holiday where I’ve only been able to listen to music but not actually play any instruments, I genuinely sit in the car… craving for the moment I’ll be able to bang on the drums again or go crazy on the guitar. You know those little dwarfs inside my head I mentioned? Well when I REALLY want to play music they’re banging on my skull and jumping up and down, telling me how much they want me to play an instrument (so I guess I always have an audience when I play music…) And when I finally do as they please, they calm down and just listen. Sometimes they make little tunes or background music that I’ll be playing along to, if I’m not playing along to any music playing out loud.

So to sum up everything I’ve said, not only are you readers now convinced I am insane, you hopefully also know how much music means to me, and what I see in it. To me music is the one thing that makes me feel like someone out there understands me, and understands why I’m feeling the way I do about something. Sometimes I find it hard to tell exactly what I’m feeling and why, but there is ALWAYS music out there that seems to sort the mess out and make me feel more certain about what exactly I’m feeling and why.

What does music mean to you exactly? Let us know! Have you ever had a concert like no other? A song that just gets you in a million ways?