I write about love a lot. It fascinates me. The mere concept of it baffles me. To trust a person enough to bear your soul to them is the most remarkable thing that a person can do. It is among the most valuable aspects of the human experience. I understand the science behind it, and yet, something never makes sense. The emotional, spiritual aspect of it for starters, but more than that how easy it is to market astonishes me. The sheer number of love songs in existence is enough to boggle the mind, famous ones unpopular ones, even songs that don’t seem like they are about love.
There is form to the music. Power lies behind it. I learned years ago that music is able to influence the mind because the frequencies of a chord; mirror almost exactly the wavelengths found in the mind. So that is why when certain chords are sounded, certain emotions can be evoked in the mind. Naturally this means that if your mind is already resonating at a particular frequency and you input more of that sound it is amplified. That’s why the same few chords are played in our love songs. They work.
Now it should be noted that when I say love song, I do not mean the latest garbage published by One Direction or Justin Bieber. I am speaking of music that has musical complexity and flowering, powerful, and poetic language at its back. I am speaking of songs such as “Just a Kiss” by Lady Antebellum, “The Rose” by Bette Midler, and “Something in the Way She Moves” by James Taylor. These are the songs that can move me to tears. These are the ones that make me grateful to be a member of the human race.
And the few times that I have been in love, these are the songs that have guided me through the torrential tidal wave of emotion that comes as a result. I surf on the melodies of “It’s Your Love” by Tim McGraw, and fall into an eternal cloud drifting away on the lyrics of “Annie’s Song” by John Denver. Not only are these wonderful songs by amazing artists, they are some of my favorite songs to ever be written. If you have not heard of any of these songs or artists, I very strongly encourage you to explore them for the musicality alone.
How to bring this article back to port? I think that just like Bobby Darin in “Beyond the Sea,” I will follow my heart and instincts. I apologize if you have felt preached at reading this article. Music has been a driving factor of my life since I was a child sitting on my father’s knee. Without it I would be a very different person, and it hurts me to see people growing up today not knowing that real musicians lived and died by their art. These are the men and women that should be admired more than any other.
