Silence encapsulates what we cannot express, but it has a rival. And this opponent is pulling ahead. Regardless of its construction, its origins, its practitioners, this opposing force has muscles and flexes them with ease and with grace.
I believe in music. I believe in stripping myself raw and diving into the music head-on. I believe in standing, sweat-drenched and heels blistering, in the middle of a crowd of people at a concert hall and feeling nothing but drum beats, guitar riffs, lyrics shouted, whispered, or crooned. I believe in believing in the ability of music to make into noise what we can not make into words.
I believe in the feeling at a concert when your mind is wiped clean and smooth and all that is left is the music and an undying respect for those making it. Also deserving recognition: the tidal wave of like minds, all at once feeling something that ties them together, regardless of whether or not it’s the same exact emotion. I remember arriving at a concert alone and leaving feeling like a meaningful part of a single entity, an energy-charged factory of ecstatic screams and raised hands – united by a place, a time, and a sound.
This is proof of how music is all of us at the same time that music is each of us, individually. Regardless of what each person felt from the music, we all felt something together. A moment for one manifested itself into a shared moment.
This idea pours over into the fact that different cultures have different music to express different ideals and beliefs. I have no doubt that music would have died out like an extinct species had humanity not believed in its worth and capacity for remarkable effects on listeners. Instead of withering, music thrives in modern times, expanding its wings with more styles than can be counted, listed, or recited.
I believe that the best thing about music, no matter what genre it is classified as, is that it can be waded through, explored, and picked clean by the listener. Nothing is unreachable in a song, but everything is sacred. The ‘right’ song has the unparalleled ability to give a hug, shake a hand, kiss a cheek, slap a face, and more often than not: move an entire body. To be lifted from a mood or to settle seamlessly into one – a song allows this transition.
Music is solitary and music is social. Music unites and music divides. Music fuels obsessions and solves problems. Music makes heroes out of outcasts and gives hope to the forgotten. Music is the reason I’m still here.