It was at this moment that I became very interested in Disco. One of the most famous comedic scenes of all time. I remember exactly what I was doing when this scene came on. It was during the summer of 2008, on a Baseball trip to Spokane, my musical identity encountered a new genre. Apart from being the most classic comedy of all time, this scene changed my outlook on life completely. It wasn't the first time I had heard the song. However, it was the first time I had seen anyone dressed in 70’s outfits and dancing to disco.
Perhaps that is why this moment resonates with my memories. That moment is always in my mind whenever that song plays, whenever I throw off my jacket, and whenever I dance to disco. I might have never found the curiosity to explore Disco without the help of Airplane. But you know what? Music is full of experiences like these. Sure, they may not always be to the extreme of what I experienced with Disco. However, these experiences happen all of the time, whether it be through movies, friends, hobos with radios, marching bands, girlfriends, or any other life experience. Sometimes music is inexplicably placed into our lives and changes us forever.
 |
From TV series American Dad,
Roger doing "The Hustle"
|
Since then, disco and I have had pretty lovely relationship that I have never been afraid to hide. I know it’s very weird, and I understand.
I don’t believe any passer-by in the world would imagine my earphones playing Saturday Night Fever’s soundtrack. But that’s just who I am. I don’t know how to Dougie, nor do I have an urgent desire for someone to “teach me how to Dougie.” But if anyone wants to join me in dancing to Van McCoy’s “The Hustle”, just let me know.
Destination: Music
Just like everything else in life, music is a journey that's longer than the "Free Bird" guitar solo. I’m sure a lot of artists agree with me, music isn’t meant to be something you discover all in one night. That would be too easy and would take away the essence of it all; the enjoyment; the emotion; the adrenaline; the peace; none of it would feel as perfect if it didn’t take time to discover. It is rare that anyone ever discovers or accomplishes anything in one day. For instance, some people don’t grasp their ideal career until they’re over 30 years old. Others don’t meet their soul mate until they’re on the Stairway to Heaven. Maybe life cannot be explained through the conscious mind, but rather through the realizations that only appear when the perfect job or woman is actually discovered.
Every day, my taste in music rotates like a Four Tops album on a record player. Currently, here are my top 10 favorite artists in random order:
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Jack Johnson
- Mumford & Sons
- Bee Gees
- Adele
- Alicia Keys
- Marvin Gaye
- The Eagles
- Eminem
- Van Morrison
- Aerosmith
- Boston
- Jackson 5
- Phil Collins
oops, I did 14 instead of 10. Even 10 is too hard. I can't decide. There are so many different options out there to choose from. How does anyone ever pick a favorite?
Music with Emotion
 |
| Eminem connecting with his audience |
Music is like magic, there's a certain feeling you get
When you're real and you spit, and people are feeling your shit
This is your moment, and every single minute you spend
Trryna hold on to it because you may never get it again
So while you're in it, try to get as much shit as you can
....sound familiar? It comes from Eminem's "till I collapse," a song full of emotion, passion, and most importantly radicalism. From my musical standpoint, radicalism can be defined by three things:
 |
| Prince performing in concert after his album Purple Rain released in 1984 |
- It is change in youth culture made to impact how people think of their daily lives
- It involves a search for emotion or new thoughts
- it is met by some sort of resistance.
This song has such provocative and radical thoughts that it is basically censored from all radio, or at least I have never heard it on any station. As arguably the most poetic rapper of all time, Eminem produces a lot of radical music. It is how he expresses his thoughts and emotions. In "till I collapse," he doesn't care about whether or not people are offended by what he says. In the 1980s, artists like Prince produced their own radical emotions. Through Prince's unique perspective on life, he was able to connect with his audience. Moments like this image on the right helped him react out to youth culture.
The article “Listening to Music and the Physiological and Psychological Functioning: The Meditating Role of Emotion and Regulation and Stress Reactivity” discussed many of the most updated studies on music and stress. This article explains, “cost-efficient interventions, such as music therapy,” have been declared as incredibly successful in coping with “stress and stress-related issues,”(Thoma 2). It can’t really be argued, have you ever met anyone that has grown more stressed from listening to a CD with songs echoing the sound of waves? What about Jack Johnson or Enya? I mean really, listen to this work of art.
 |
| Justine Timberlake |
But what about sports. Have you ever realized you cheer for an athlete because you enjoy the music he/she listens to while they play? I know I’m often inspired to listen to Imagine Dragons “Radioactive” after seeing Lebron James’s commercial going through basketball practice listening to that very song. But what about in politics, have you ever considered how big of an influence music has in the person you vote for? Believe it or not, it does have an effect. Radical music has often been performed at political demonstrations and collective festivals.
One of the biggest concerts of all time occurred during Woodstock Festival of 1969, with over twenty musical artists performing to over 400,000 members in the audience. Britannica Education Publishing’s Disco, Punk, New Wave, Heavy Metal, and More: Music in the 1970s and 1980s explains the festival was billed as “Three days of Peace and Music." Woodstock was a way for youth culture to express their troubles and frustrations with the war. As Ron Eyerman explains, "the ideas, images and feelings were dessimated in and through popular music." The form and content of popular music of the time were dramatically changing. Festivals like Woodstock was just one of the ways in which artists were able to rebel against “the dominant cultures, against those in control of the wealth and power in this country and the world at large." According to Eyerman, the anti-Vietnam War movement “was more divisive” than any other movement before it had ever been. As a result, it altered, “the forms of interaction between politics and culture that had been so intimate,” before the Vietnam War. Music was the counterculture’s way of rebelling from society.
Music as an Idol
Because of the spread of Madonna through music, it became rather easy for her to express her radical ideas to the youth of American culture. As Jose Prieto-Arranz describes in his article, “The Semiotics of Performance and Success in Madonna,” Madonna became the first televised: “professional prostitute” in America. With the use of MTV, Madonna was quickly portraying a new movement of sex-religion interplay. One of her most famous works in this movement is her song “Like a Virgin” coming out in 1984.
 |
| Madonna in her Like A Virgin album cover photo |
Every new artists add a different dimension to the lives of our youth culture. It is what makes American radicalism in music so appealing. Often times it is the young generation that feels the frustrations of the country but have no other way of protesting away from music. In Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” he describes further, “this is your moment and every single minute you spend trying to hold onto it ‘cause you may never get it again.” Every line he writes has an important purpose in it. It is as if he is specifically announcing to youth culture that the time to act is now.
Music, Sweet Music
Humanity can argue the differences between the harmful songs and beautiful songs. It doesn’t matter to me, as long as I know what I like listening, dancing, and singing to in the shower. Music is a part of my identity that I don’t consider a problem. I know every word to Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On.” But guess what? I love that song:
Society fluctuates and rolls with the tides of time. Music is sweet. It is art. Music is Poetry. People deny artists because they don't understand them, because they can't relate to them, or because they once enjoyed the pleasures of their work but have now, "seen the light." But that's all just a normal part of life. Some music isn't meant to be for everyone.
Listening to modern artists like Alicia Keys, Mumford & Sons, Florence & the Machine, and Adele force me to believe that music is in constant discovery. People who don’t understand them will tend to disapprove, just like society has done in the past. Maybe my thoughts on music will change six months from now, I’m not sure. But what I do know is music is part of my everyday life.
Learning, I could almost call it researching, a library of music artists has been a very long process that still hasn’t been fully completed. I love it. It is all part of the pureness of Music, sweet music. You could imagine one of these days when I wake up I will have reached everything in the world of music. But with sweet satisfaction, I don’t think my musical journey will ever be completed.
And if you feel, like I feel baby
Then come on, oh come on
Let’s get it on, oh baby
Let's get it on, let's love baby
It’s all part of the sweet rhythms to a journey called life. I would like you to listen to this lovely song by Alicia Keys as you finish these last few paragraphs.......
Society fluctuates and rolls with the tides of time. Music is sweet. It is art. Music is Poetry. People deny artists because they don't understand them, because they can't relate to them, or because they once enjoyed the pleasures of their work but have now, "seen the light." But that's all just a normal part of life. Some music isn't meant to be for everyone.
Listening to modern artists like Alicia Keys, Mumford & Sons, Florence & the Machine, and Adele force me to believe that music is in constant discovery. People who don’t understand them will tend to disapprove, just like society has done in the past. Maybe my thoughts on music will change six months from now, I’m not sure. But what I do know is music is part of my everyday life.
Learning, I could almost call it researching, a library of music artists has been a very long process that still hasn’t been fully completed. I love it. It is all part of the pureness of Music, sweet music. You could imagine one of these days when I wake up I will have reached everything in the world of music. But with sweet satisfaction, I don’t think my musical journey will ever be completed.
