What We Love About Music

            Music is all around us. There's no getting around it; there's no getting away from it. Music is our whole life; music is our livelihood and I'm excited to finally be a big part of making it. Music has been the cornerstone of many cultures and civilizations and can be traced back to prehistoric times (Tecumseh, 2006). There are many things about music that we love, enjoy and make us the people that we are today.

            For one, music is a therapeutic outlet and an avenue to channel our strengths, weaknesses and full range of human emotion. During my research for this assignment, I discovered many stories on how music has touched people and helped them heal from a variety of ills. A recent story from BBC News Northern Ireland documents how music has helped Cuan Mhuire centre participants kick their drug and alcohol addictions. About 80 individuals got together for a total of eight weeks to assist in their rehabilitation. "There is no mood-altering substance that can ever make you feel the way we did after the concert and while making this CD," says participant Mavis Scott. Another recent story came from the Capilano University Music Therapy Student Association, who spearheaded Music Heals: a new program that consists of gathering unwanted iPods that gather dust and putting them in the hands of music therapists, senior homes, rehab centers and even at-risk youth once a year. "We want to educate the public on what music therapy is and that, hopefully, will get them more invested and will allow us to do fundraising," says executive director Chris Brandt (McPhee, 2013).

            We love music because it allows us to be ourselves and it allows us to enjoy being around like-minded people. As musicians, producers, bands and the like, we find ourselves in a familiar place when we find ourselves in a group of individuals that are like us in certain ways. When we find ourselves doing something that we enjoy so much, it becomes more of an obsession than simply a means to support ourselves; who needs a job when you're doing what you love? "Playing bass made me feel good," explains Brian Minato, Vancouver-based musician, producer and bass player for Sarah McLachlan. "Learning how to figure out songs made me feel good. Hanging out with other like-minded musicians made me feel good."

            With so much competition in today's music industry, it remains crucial for an individual or group of people to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, in order to set them apart from the rest of the music community. Creativity is limitless and just so happens to be another thing about music that we love so dearly. Progressive rock group Coheed & Cambria did something no other band before them ever thought possible. Coheed & Cambria's musical concepts are derived from "The Amory Wars", a comic book series written by lead singer Claudio Sanchez. Every album is part of the overall science fiction story based on persons, places and events from the successful series and has spawned countless graphic novels and a large following; if you don't grab Coheed & Cambria tickets right away, they are prone to sell out crowds with tons of energy (Harding, 2010). In 2011, progressive dream rockers Angels & Airwaves released a deluxe edition double album called Love that included their award winning independent film of the same name. "It's super conceptual and highbrow in many ways, very artistic, very Stanley Kubrick," explains front man Tom DeLonge, who also fronts pop-punk band Blink 182. "It's not a rock opera. It's a very modern version of what could happen when you blend the film industry and the music industry together in a very...arty, kind of cool way with professionals involved all along the path." (Graff, 2009.)
            Last but not least, music is everywhere and we love that! There isn't a day that goes by or a place in the world that music can't be found. Some of the best places that I like to find great music are in video games. Bioshock Infinite, which was quite arguably the best game of 2013 thus far, wouldn't have been the storytelling epic it was without the score to amplify the experience (Goldfarb, 2013). Then, there are games like the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises that consumers can play to foster competition between one another or encourage them to learn how to sing or play real instruments. "Anything that advances music is really interesting. It's better than all of those shoot 'em up, blow 'em up, kill 'em games," exclaims Roger Daltrey of The Who (Halperin, 2008).