I was in a mood on Saturday night. The type of mood where I have to wander aimlessly around the streets of downtown Athens in search of a good show or decent conversation. My day job keeps me sequestered indoors away from sunlight so when I want out, I’m pawing at the door like a hungry dog. Get me out of here. I need something good to do. I need an escape.
That’s what music is, right? An escape. For those who make it, music is an escape into what they wish music could be. For us listening types, music can take us away from life for a while or at least let us know that we’re not the only ones out there that feel this way. It’s why love songs endure, why there will always be punks and rebel yells, why hymns and soaring music will still exist after we’ve gone.
A small perk of my windowless day job is that I’m allowed to wear my iPod while I work. What a wonderful thing! I’ll take a bit of time each Sunday night to come up with new playlists for the week. Some are “I feel rather badass today so here’s a bunch of swaggery songs.” Others are “I really don’t want to be here someone kill me please or at least convince me to use a sick day.” And then sometimes I’ll just pick something at random.
“Oh, great, Jordan,” you’re saying to yourself right now. “You’ve mastered the basic purpose of the iPod. Yay Bloody Hooray for you.” Well Mr. Sarcastic, I’m simply trying to demonstrate how music can get me through the day and if you’ll hold on a bit, I’ll get to the point.
Point being, we live in such a strange time that we have pretty much all of recorded music at our fingertips. Anything you want to hear, any emotion you want to evoke, any dance you want to do, most, if not all of it is available if you look. The fun part comes when you finally find THAT BAND that you love.
THAT BAND is the one you’ll eat ramen for a month so you can save money to go see. THAT BAND is the one that seems to have a nightly probe of your brain and hopes and dreams. Sometimes you’ll disagree, true, but for all intents and purposes, you are the number one fan of THAT BAND. Isn’t it wonderful when you find your band?
And the best part about THAT BAND is that as you age, it sometimes changes. Maybe THAT BAND releases a bad album or you just fall out of love with them. This is natural and you should feel no guilt. But for a time, you felt every note, every lyric and that’s what music is supposed to do. It’s supposed to make you feel. And if you find THAT BAND, enjoy it. Don’t be ashamed.
Be shameless. Shamelessly fawn over THAT BAND. Our culture can be so fickle about such things. You can only like this and you’re supposed to hate that en mass. Bullshit. Yes, there is a difference in quality but if you truly like what you like, no one can talk you out of it. Own the music you love. Be open to new music because one day, you may wander about downtown, hungry for something more, and there it’ll be. THAT BAND.
And now your Monday morning wake up call.
athensmusicjunkie.com 