Music is Medicine
Dancing to Jump around with one of my favorite artists, Asher Roth, as he closed a spontaneous free show in Dallas.
I am a passionate person. I tend to go all out and expect the best. One of my passions has always been music. I found it to be more of an escape than ever during a stressful Freshman year when I overextended myself.. This is the first of a series of posts that are love letters to the art that takes me on vacation every time I press play.
Sixteenth century theologian and Christian reformer, Martin Luther, said, “The devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles, flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God…. Music is a gift and grace of God, not an invention of men. Thus it drives out the devil and makes people cheerful. Then one forgets all wrath, impurity, and other device”.
What child doesn’t grow up wanting to be a rock star at some point in time? I know I did … and still do. Music takes our souls on a journey, lets our imaginations go outside to play and encompasses every emotion we feel while amplifying it tenfold. It gives reality a rest and grips your emotional stirring wheel taking you anywhere it pleases.
In times of great sorrow we all turn to two things: God and music. In times of great joy we do the same. It’s a universal language; an item the Greeks captured with the lyre and our generation tries to bottle it with guitars and 808 drum kits. Music puts some of the world’s greatest stories to the winds of Pandora. It moves us; it soothes us and inspires us.
I am on stage at a gig one of my friends was playing at a downtown Dallas venue, October 2011
From Bob Dylan to Kanye West Internet sourced music has helped my generation taste almost any piece of music ever recorded (for the better or worse). Every culture has a backbone, and I would argue that the backbone of the world’s culture is music. The existential philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, the man who believed in nothing said it best, “Without music life would be a mistake.” Music is one of the things I cherish most in the world. It is a passion that fuels my creativity.
Here are three of my favorite tunes to brighten your day:
American Baby by Dave Mathews Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU8SbHTVavA
Time to Pretend by MGMT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9dSYgd5Elk
Mr. Rager by Kid CuDi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCLBGY0huVE
Things We Said Today (live) by The Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DcV1UI1B6M
Related articles
- Rolling Stone: Best Cover Songs Over The Past Decade (chwomp.wordpress.com)
- MGMT- MGMT (Self Titled) Album Review (straightfiremusic.wordpress.com)
- Music Lovers (lmelton1.wordpress.com)
Cameron Colan 