What Is Music To You

A few months back, I asked a couple of my friends a question. Before I asked them the question, I tried to think of some of the most important things in their lives. Some of them were into watching Soccer, some were into girls, another bunch was into going out with friends, and let's get real, to some people there isn't anything more important than sex. So the question was--and we'll be using the one I ended up using the most--if you could only choose one thing to do the rest of your life, what would you choose: sex or music. So if you chose the first option, you will never hear or have anything to do with music. Everything related to music will just be silence. And if you chose music, well...you get the idea.

I wasn't surprised that most of the people responded by not choosing music. But I was surprised that had the question been asked to me, I would have chosen music over anything else. But I guess, people that were into Soccer or something else would have changed the question to say, let's say..."choose between sex or soccer." I found out that by the nature of my question (music vs something else), I had already revealed what music means to me: everything.

What intrigues me most about music, is that it can be interpreted in many ways, well, at least the best songs are. Also, depending on the artist, the music part of the songs sometimes drives the lyrics part of the song to a higher level. For example, the song I'm listening to right now, is called Airbag and it's from a band called Radiohead. The song was written from the point of view of a driver and from the point of view of an airbag. On this song, the music sounds mechanical, in some places it sounds broken. You can almost imagine airbags about to deploy, or a car crash waiting to happen. "In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe," the airbag declares. "In a fast German car I'm amazed that I survived--an airbag saved my life," confesses the driver. Though the true meaning of the song is debatable, my interpretation is that this song is about life, and how in one moment we can lose it. It's about appreciating life. But keep in mind that most songs have different layers, and so does this one I think. Another interpretation could be that we've given too much power to technology that we don't know what it means to live life without it, but then again, technology is there when we need it (airbag) so it's hard to go back to a period before technology.

Just like this song, there are many. And that's why I choose music over anything else. Next time you hear a song, try to find an interpretation. If you can't find one, then you're probably listening to bad music, which unfortunately there is a lot of it out there.

So I ask you this question, what is music to you? If you had to choose one thing to do the rest of your life, what would you choose: _________________ or music?