Music makes the world go ‘round

Music is one of the most universally accepted and understood things in this crazy world of ours. It speaks to us on so many different levels and calls to each person in such a different way that it would be impossible to discover exactly how music affects people. However, I can say for certain the effect music has on me, and it is probably quite different from the rest of my millennial brothers and sisters.

First of all, my taste in music is not the norm for someone my age. I do not listen to music that is younger than I am. This means that I do not listen to Justin Bieber (can’t STAND him! Even typing his name just made me cringe), Rhianna or even the Queen Beyoncé.

Blasphemous, I know! Now, this doesn’t mean that I have completely ignored the music industry for the past twenty-something years. There are some songs that I will listen to, say, if I have the radio on. However, this is not music that I will go out of my way to find or even pay money for. No, if an artist is going to take my hard earned money, they are going to have to sing to my soul!

Like I said, I am not the typical millennial, but not just in my taste in music. I have always been more mature than others my age. People are shocked to find out my real age, thinking that I was much older than I truly am, and I take this as a huge compliment! I love everything vintage.

I don’t go out to nightclubs and party until the next day or use Tinder or Snapchat (though I did download Snapchat for the funny face filters). I am a wife, an Introvert, and an ‘old soul’ with a love of everything old. The music that is made today simply isn’t created for people like me. Today’s music is geared for the person still looking for love but having careless sex with strangers after going through a bad break up.

The person who is ‘in love with the coco’ and goes to clubs looking for Mr./Mrs. Right Now.

The music made in the past two decades doesn’t speak to my soul.

I have a lot of intrinsic needs that music must meet for me to listen to it. Unlike many people who listen to music to “make them feel good” or so they can “dance their troubles away”, I listen to music to take my soul on a journey (also a great band!) and to help my mind drift off to another dimension. I know this sounds ridiculous, but this is what I need music for, and why today’s music simply doesn’t do it for me.

The music of yesteryear, however, does all of this and more for me. I love anything from the 1960’s-1980’s. Any kind of rock (especially classic rock) and metal are the types of music I listen to the most. Not to say that I only listen to these two kinds of music, but they definitely make up a majority of my playlists.

I write this as I flip between listening to Dark Side of the Moon and The Best of The Eagles on vinyl. This sentence alone should tell you a lot about me. Thanks to my dad, my husband and I have slowly been building up a vinyl collection that, along with these two great albums, includes albums from Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and a plethora of Pink Floyd.

The art of creating an amazing album that can be listened to from start to finish died decades ago. I want my musical journey to last hours, not 3-5 minutes. I want my soul to feel warm and lifted for as long as possible before it crashes back to to reality. For any album that I buy on vinyl I need to be able to lay on the floor with my eyes closed and let the music take me until it’s time to flip the record.

What I want out of music is so niche and so lost in time that I feel it will take at least another twenty years for the music industry to make it full circle back to a time where artists actually sang AND played instruments. Where the focus of the industry wasn’t on singles, but on creating albums and careers that spanned generations.

I suppose the reason older music speaks to me is because those people who created it put their heart and soul into everything they produced and, somehow, my soul feels and appreciates that.

“Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it a rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.” - Author Unknown