Whenever we watch a
movie or
television show, music suddenly is played to
underscore the emotional events. Sometimes, it is music from nowhere that only we, the audience can hear. At other times, the music is part of the
scene - a
radio in a car or guy playing guitar on the
park bench or a
jukebox.
The music playing often helps us get just a bit more into the head of the character - does the music make us feel happy or sad? It is strange that we - our emotions - can be manipulated so much more easily with music than with words.
So much has this idea of music somewhere that helps people around you feel the emotions that you are feeling that at times we can almost hear it ourselves - why can't they hear it too?
Even more so, there is a relationship that we build with the music we listen to. There are songs that when I hear bring me back to a specific time in my life - whether I want to or not. I can still see the pages turning of a book I was reading ages ago when I listen to Travelers & Thieves (Blues Traveler), and I the song Yesterday (Beatles) takes me back to standing in front of the Hard Rock Cafe, wondering what had went wrong.
Everyone has heard the words to Bittersweet Symphony at one time or another - and almost everyone who listens can identify with it. Popular music permeates the radio and television and we can't help but hear it at times - it may be from a car radio in the next lane, the music of a too loud party next door, or standing in the elevator... and sometimes something clicks when we hear the music and our state of mind at the time. This is by no means a trait that popular music has a monopoly upon - it is safe to say that every piece of music has at least one person who can identify with it.
If a man does not keep peace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music he hears,
however measured or far away.
--Henry David Thoreau