What Does Music Mean To Me?

Music….. such an amazing, beautiful, wonderful and creative thing. Since the beginning of mankind music has been in our lives. Humans began by whooping, hollering, and chanting. Since those times, men and women alike began creating and using all sorts of new contraptions. We have evolved from simple vocals to drums and wind instruments. Then on to string instruments and then electronic keyboards and guitars. Every known civilization in history had signs of or wrote about music.

What does this tell us? Music is a universal language. Everyone understands it. You may not understand the language the artist is singing in, but you understand the music. You know the emotion in the song based on the melody and the vocals that are being poured into your ear canals by the singer. If you’re like me, you love a multitude of genres. Even if you are not fond of the music that is being played at that moment, you will still find yourself tapping your fingers or your feet. A true music lover can find the smallest thing to love in any song. Maybe it’s the haunting vocals from the lead singer. Maybe it’s the electrifying riff or solo played by the lead guitar. It could even be the rhythm that is kept perfectly in time by the drummer and bassist. There are so many nuances to music that can make you fall in love with it, or even tolerate it. 

I’ve been a big music lover since I was a little tyke. My memory goes back to listening to Wipeout by the Surfaris in the family minivan during the weekly grocery run. Locomotion by Kylie Minogue at the family BBQ, or mimicking MC Hammer’s You Can’t Touch This while wearing the baggiest PJ bottoms I had available. I can remember with vivid clarity singing The Right Stuff by New Kids on the Block with my sister and rocking out on my little blue Smurf guitar to Chicago’s song Look Away. These are all amazing childhood memories and there’s so many more that I cannot fit them all into this blog. We’ll dive into those with more detail in the future. 🙂

Now into my teen years, things got interesting….. Some “experts” say that what you listen to in your teen years, think Junior High and High School, will become your “favorite” genre of music. When you think about it, it really does make sense. These are some of, if not the biggest, years of your life when it comes to growing and learning who you are. In my teen years I was gravitating towards Hip hop, Rap and R&B. My older brother got me into this type of music. All of my friends were into it in Junior High through High School. I actually turned out to be a fairly decent “rapper” if I do say so myself, but that’s for another time. I was listening to the tracks from Outkast, Nas, Notorious B.I.G., Bone Thugs n Harmony, and we can’t leave out the long reign of No Limit Records and Cash Money Millionaires. On the R&B side it was Montell Jordan, 112, Jodeci, Blackstreet, H-Town and many others. 

Hip Hop and Rap carried over into my 20’s. When I was 19/20 I would pick up my friends and we’d go cruise around listening to music. At this time in my life I had a sound system in my car. A full Rockford Fosgate setup really rattled your teeth loose back then. So many memories of cruising listening to Kurupt and Daz, Tech N9ne, X-Raided and then started getting into bass heavier music like Ludacris, Nelly, Chingy, Ying Yang Twins (not proud of this one) and I hate to say it……. Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz. 

Around 21/22 I started hanging out with more car guys that were into going fast rather than sound systems. This is where I started moving towards rock. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always liked rock, I just never bought albums or went hunting for it. To give you an idea at age 22 it was 2005, I heard a song for the first time and I loved it. That song was Man in the Box by Alice in Chains. I thought it was a new song. I remember talking to one of my best friends, we’ll call him Tissimo, one day while wrenching on cars….. I told him I heard this new song and it was awesome. I sang some of it for him and he made fun of me. That day I found out that the “new song” I heard and loved so much came out in 1992. Yes, that’s right, the song was 13 years old and I had no idea. From there my love for rock only grew.

Throughout my mid-twenties and into my early 30s I started to listen to more and more rock. I really got into Classic Rock. I made it a goal to learn a new band every week. These were some of my most favorite years of finding new music. I had office mates who were…. well we’ll just call them…… seasoned, and they would give me bands to listen to. These weren’t the obvious ones like the Beatles or Stones. No, they were Molly Hatchet, J Geils Band, Georgia Satellites, The Cars and many others. I was really building my repertoire of Rock songs at this point. I was also diving back into Techno/Electronica and even getting into Dubstep with my son. Hey, I warned you that my music tastes are very….. Uhhhh…. eclectic. 

As I grew, my life started to take a turn. You see, remember back in my early 20s when I mentioned I was really into Rap and just started dabbling into Rock? Well another best friend of mine, we’ll call him Otis for this story. He tried to get me into the Metal genre of music. He showed me several bands back then. Atreyu’s album Suicide Notes and Butterflies Kisses was one of the first albums he ever suggested. I remember at that time thinking that it was “too heavy.” Well when I was in my 30’s, “heavy” was what I needed. So I reached out to good ole Otis and asked for some Metal Medication. I began listening to Killswitch Engage, Fit For A King, Trivium, Architects and All That Remains. I then slowly started listening to Meshuggah, Bleeding Through, Lorna Shore, August Burns Red and Memphis May Fire. Out of all of these, the band Currents really drew me in. One of their songs I listened to a lot was How I Fall Apart. This song is all about giving everything you got in a relationship and getting nothing in return. Stating “Now I know that I’m all alone, and nobody will come and save me.” Unfortunately this song hit the nail on the head at that time of my life and I could relate. The vast majority of Metal songs really brought me out of some very dark places and times in my life. 

Now we jump to the present. Music is in my life more than ever before. I met the woman of my dreams. She has the voice of an angel and she loves to sing. We both love all genres of music. Well she may not be fully into the hard metal music, but I’m working on it. 😀 I’ve never felt so much love and passion in my life as I do now. Love songs have meaning. I listen to them and it’s no longer a fantasy or make believe. I can hear a song and send it to her and she hears it and knows I mean what the song is stating. We’ve moved in together, she supports my extreme love for music. I’ve built up quite the home system for listening to records and streaming. We throw on a record, such as Nat King Cole, and dance to our song Unforgettable. Notice how that’s in our company name!? What a coincidence! Now our record collection is around 140 and growing and now we’re working on our first business venture together. We enjoy going vinyl hunting and researching new bands or old bands that are “new to us,” and listening to a sample of a song and if we like it, we’ll snag a copy. We have found a lot of new music this way and it’s exhilarating! 

So there you have it. I know this was a very long blog, but I felt the need to explain every instance of my life where music was a major influence and even a savior. At the ripe age of 41, I know music will take me even further and continue to play a huge role in my life. 

So after all that, if you made it this far, I think I can finally answer the question. What does music mean to me? 

Everything…

Written by: Josh