Music. Life's Bookmark.
Jan0209:46 AM
Filed in: Indie Advice
It's a wonderfully strange world we live in. Our time on earth is such an incredibly short footnote in the history of mankind, yet our memories still seem to escape us. They're stashed away and filed into the dark depths of our memory, often lost forever and never to be recovered. However, we do have a unique emergency backup to recover our lost memories - our senses and their amazing memory recall abilities.
Life's journey is bookmarked by our senses and the mental associations we attribute to each of our unique experiences. Much like how the smell of home made chicken soup can remind you of when you were ten years old; lying on the couch in your pajamas, sick with a cold, snuggled up with your favourite blankie, watching Sesame Street, while your mom nursed you back to health.
Our senses have the ability to bring us back to an exact time and place, and music is no different. What emotions and thoughts come to mind when you think of Michael Jackson's "Thriller"? For me, it was tuning into the much-hyped World Video Premiere of the breakthrough video on Friday Night Videos (before everyone had access to a music video channel like MTV or Much Music). Or watching him moonwalk across the stage at the Grammies.
What do you think of when you hear The Beatles' "Hey Jude"? For me, it was my first co-ed slow dance in elementary school.
Or when you think of Suzie Q, your first girlfriend in high school, is there a particular song that pops into your head? Do you think of her whenever you hear it? Even though your "relationship" only lasted for 5 days?
Music is the soundtrack of our lives. It makes every experience that much more fulfilling, unique, and special. A song has the unique ability to bring a tear to our eye as we reflect on a lost loved one, a smile to the face as we laugh to ourselves at the silliness of past shenanigans, or a private moment of reflection on thoughts from our past.
As an artist, your job is to create music that connects with people. That's your job. To create bookmarks for people's lives. A good song, one that connects with your audience, is more than just a cool riff. It's an emotion unto itself. When you're writing a song, what emotion are you trying to convey? Have the lyrics been given enough attention to reflect that feeling? Every element is as important as the next.
Perhaps thinking of music in this way can help the next song you're working on achieve a special place in someone's life, truly connecting with your audience and capturing a raw emotion, bookmarking that moment and memory forever. That after all, can be the most precious rewards of all for an artist.
posted by Brian Thompson
