Music is so much more than notes on a paper or tunes meeting your ear. Music is a healing, soul reaching experience.

Musicians are like artists in the way that they are able to create something beautiful, yet imperfect, from nothing, and somehow make it relate to so many people, in many different ways. They just use different tools.

Instead of using a paint brush, musicians use instruments and their voice to tell their story. Don’t be misconceived, this is no easy feat. Learning to play an instrument or train your voice takes time. However, their patience will be rewarded by the music they produce touching so many hearts, even the ones that have bled so thoroughly they are hardly beating. Music is life. Music is worldwide. Music is everything.

Audrey Jose (9), a theater student, further explained why music is able to connect with so many people. 

“I connect with older music and musicals because there is a story behind every song,” Jose said. 

Music can lift your spirits even when you’re at your lowest and make you want to get up and dance. That simple feat should be celebrated. Nonetheless, the capabilities of music today are so underplayed.

It’s almost as if people don’t even care to understand what music means to people, what it symbolizes, how it connects to them on such a deeper level that no piece of art, book, TV show, or movie could ever hope to reach.

The fact that it has brought joy to some of the toughest times of people’s lives should not be overlooked because without music we would be lost, unable to express ourselves, caught within our own storm. But we still continue to give shiny awards to the undeserving and recognition or fame to songs are insignificant in the long run. 

“Most of the awards given show that they look past the more obscure things so it is more popularity than it is talent,” Jose said. 

Music can also give you comfort in the sadness that you feel because you know that you’re not alone. Even if it seems like you’re in a never ending, uphill battle of misery, trapped within your own mind, or confined within the walls you built around yourself. The peace and calm that music brings to even the most troubled of souls is immeasurable. 

Jose had some intriguing ideas on how music fosters a sense of community as well. 

“It helps people connect to ideas that they couldn’t before, there is a shared understanding between the audience,” Jose said.

However, music today is losing its subtense, its meaning, and ultimately its heart. Music used to be so raw and captivating but now songs are just a muck of cuss words and slang, with no real meaning. What place does it have in this world if it has no purpose? 

Camerym Emberton (9), a band student, expanded on how music has been cheapened. 

“I feel like people rush the lyrics more and don’t put enough time and effort into their songs,” Emberton said. 

The real music I have heard is like a real, breathing, living thing. It consumes you, takes hold of your body, and transports you to this safe place where you’re untouchable. But most of all, it makes you feel things you didn’t even know you are capable of.

Music is almost like a disease because when it starts spreading you can’t stop it. For one tap of the foot, one snap of the finger, one bob of the head, and you’re already entranced by the melody. You willingly walk into the mouth of a monster who knows you all too well, who holds the key to all of the thoughts you won’t voice because it feels safe, like home, like you. What could be more tempting than that? 

Emberton also shared their personal experience of how music captivates them.  

Songs today are fun because they are a joke. They leave no lasting impression. They don’t leave tears in your eyes at the depth of the emotion and honesty that the musician was able to convey in a mere composition of words, a harmony of tune. The bravery that a musician had should also not be underestimated because they are basically laying themself bare for the world to see and judge.

Emberton further elaborated on what good music entails. 

“A good beat, singer with a strong range, and powerful, heartfelt lyrics,” Emberton said. 

At the end of the day, music is an open book to someone’s life and hearing their art might even change yours. It’s such an eye opener because it shines the light on you, your true self is finally being reflected back to you in the mirror.

The things we can learn, the messages that are expressed from music are sometimes so intricate and delicate, but somehow harsh, that they are beyond comprehension. Perhaps, they are not for us to understand, only to experience. We may not know what we were a part of at the time but the bigger picture will be clearer to us in the future. 

“You can really only understand something if you relate to it. People interpret things in different ways, and like themes in literature; there is not one set meaning,” Emberton said.