The Sound of Music
Music- a melodious escape from our reality, a medium of expression, a source of further creativity and a great way to break the ice with literally anyone. Over the past few weeks, I have been listening to music for more than 10 hours a day. I know listening to music constantly while using earphones is bad for your ears, but I am not a huge fan of loudly blasting music and exposing my weird music taste to everyone in my lab. In fact, I’m writing this in the lab while listening to music. (Before anyone attacks me, I have an 8 hour wait time today and I got a lot of other work done before coming to this.) Now that I’m done defending my work ethic, let’s get back to music and why it is amazing.
I know I don’t need to write a blog post about how great music is, we all know and experience it on a daily basis. But being a dancer, being quarantined, now living and majorly working alone, I’ve found a new appreciation for music.
Let me break it down one by one:
1. Art and dance. This is what I meant when I said music can be a source of further creativity. As a dancer and choreographer, music is the reason I can create something I like and enjoy. The intricate beats, the lyrics, the rhythm, and the mood all contribute heavily to how a choreographer perceives the song. This, in turn, influences the choreography, the little movements to a beat or the expression to the feel of the song. Dance can bring out intricacies in the music that a layman can miss on the first listen. But a choreographer’s trained ear can catch those little beats and make it more evident through their dance. This is one aspect of choreography that amazes me the most, how one art form can shed light on another all while holding up its initial motivation.
But of course, we can’t ever forget the influence of music in theatre and movies. Visual experiences are bettered with the audio element. BGMs of many movies are as essential as the actors. In some cases, the BGM is remembered more fondly than the actor/director (*cough* Solo *cough*). The role of music in art is undeniably important to create the best audiovisual experience possible.
2. Being quarantined. So all of us were forced to live alone with our thoughts for a few months and if you’re anything like me you hate your thoughts and would do anything to drown them out. That’s when music helps. I listened to a shit tonne of music and even started singing a bit. It’s not any good but it helps keep my mind off of bad things and concentrate on the melodies of life (wow that was a line you’d only see in a middle-aged aunty’s WhatsApp forward).
3. Living and working alone. So, for the past 3 months, I have been responsible for waking myself up every day. And anyone who’s ever lived with me knows how hard it is to wake me up. In consistence with past grievances regarding my sleep, I found it very hard to wake up and stay awake at a particular time (especially before 10 in the morning). I am notorious for waking up when the alarm rings, turning the alarm off and sleeping for “5 extra minutes” and then waking up 2.5 hours later. This would usually not be a problem cuz I always had someone who would make sure that I woke up and stayed awake. When living alone, I had to ask Daler Mehndi to do this for me. No, I’m not living with Daler Mehndi as much as I’d want that. My strategy to wake up and stay awake is: as soon as the alarm rings, play some loud ass Daler Mehndi songs (Lena Dena from commando has been a favourite off late). And to blend in with the culture and be diverse, I usually play some Reggaeton. Bad Bunny and J Balvin aren’t just my fashion inspiration, they are also people who make sure I get to the lab on time.
Once I’m in the lab, since I’m doing an independent project and mostly work alone, I listen to music to help concentrate on my work. Due to some bad influences in my life, I have been listening to new Bollywood romantic music and I’m mildly surprised, I’m not gonna lie. There are a lot of dumb songs, for example, there’s a song with the lyrics “Manjha tera teez, dil ki patang to kaate hai”, do what you will with that information, but there are also many beautiful songs that have managed to charm my very pretentious music taste.
4. Ice breaker. My favourite way to get to know someone and connect with them is to ask about what kind of music they like. This is also the reason I’d post screenshots of my Spotify page back when I had Instagram. People I followed but wasn’t very close to would maybe find some song they liked and reply to the story. It’s an easy and quick way to start a conversation. (I’m also aware of how this can be used by creepy people to be creepy but for a second, let’s live in a perfect world where a random Bangladeshi dude does NOT sing to me every time I try to go home). But the ease and comfort are why music is the best ice breaker I’ve come across off late.
We all listen to music. Some more than others. Maybe we listen to different kinds of music. Maybe you’re more of a “Mareez-e-Ishq” type of person whereas someone else is a “Here Comes the Sun” type of person. But we all listen to some sort of music. In these dividing times, music may be one of the very few things connecting humanity together. My point being, music is a commonality in a world that’s constantly trying to divide us. It is very crucial for us to hold on to this thread that connects us all so we don’t lose the very thing that makes us human.
With ~groovy music~
Shreya ❤
