"Music makes pictures and often tells stories. All of it magic and all of it true, and all of the pictures and all of the stories, all of the magic, the music is you."-- John Denver
For me, there is no art that affects us more than music does. Other than Life and Love, music truly is the Universal Language.
A song can play in the background and when it strikes your ear, it can put you in an incredible space: A memory, another time, a person you miss, a feeling you haven't had since childhood, a longing for a time now past or place you wish you could be. Nothing I have ever experienced comes close to the emotions, feelings, wisdom, poetry, life changing power that music has had for me.
I was recently watching a reaction to a live concert by ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) and when the camera filmed the crowd I saw the power of music again so clearly.
First I saw a woman; perhaps in her 40s now, she recognized the song (Telephone Line) and instantly her body reacted. She wrapped her hands around the back of her head and her face gave this look that she was not there in the concert anymore (except physically). Perhaps it was a deep memory of an old love or a time and place in the past, or just a deep emotional feeling she had not felt in some time. She looked as if she were about to cry. A powerful, powerful moment to witness.
Next a couple; perhaps in their early 50s reacted as the woman grabbed her husband's shoulder and put her head there as they slow danced together. Perhaps their song, perhaps a song that played at their wedding or maybe even their first date all those years ago.
Regardless; all those in the crowd of an older generations were young again and all the young people in the crowd were enveloped by the true beauty of the song.
So my question to you all is: What is music to you? What does music mean to all of us in the Grand Scheme of Things and what can music teach us on these deeper levels of meaning?