Music

Music: the key to who we all really are.

Whether you are a creeper, a love-sick soul, a heavy-metal headbanger, or just a subdued classical music aficionado, the music that we listen to and greet into our ears defines who we are. What's even more interesting is how it can explain us to people who we don't even know better than our actions.

Let's say that Ralph has a date with a man he recently met. Ralph drives both of them from his place to a fine-dining restaurant in the heart of Chicago, a great little Italian bistro. On the way there, Ralph engages in great conversation while consulting his iPod. He could go into many playlists, but he chooses pop music. The first song that comes on is from the Hannah Montana soundtrack. What has Ralph just done to the date? In my opinion, he just lost.

Why? Because Hannah Montana is not only a little prissy bitch, but also she is completely not right for a male that is age 20+. Ralph just said a lot about his personality simply by a touch of an iPod. His date, although he may appear to enjoy the music playing and laugh about it, makes a mental documentation that Ralph appears to be stuck in childhood in a very creepy way.

This extreme example can only hint at what music says. Mental documentations are made every day about us: our appearance, our hair, eye color, body contour. However, no one processes that what comes out of your iPod headphones, what blasts outs of your car speakers, and what your iTunes decides to serenade your parties with shares a piece of what you with everyone.

Music is empowerment as well as expression. I cry to music, sing and belt it out, and also cringe at some because the words that pour out of the notes and lyrics are so powerful that it makes me hurt. The artists that sing to us are some of the most poetic people out there. They have a gift of expressing the most happiest moments as well as the most painful. We sing to them, we sway to them, and treat the lyrics as if they were our own to nurture.

Music is definition. And it says a lot about all of us.