Music in our lives

Music, it’s one of the most prevalent aspects of our society. We have it on at work, we often hear it when we’re shopping, whether it’s for clothes, appliances or groceries. We hear it when we’re on hold on the phone or in restaurants (that aren’t distracting us with whatever is on TV). We can call up a list of songs on the small computers we call phones, tune it in on the radio, pop in a CD or to be truly retro play a vinyl record. It’s the way things are. And it’s the way things have always been.

Nope, until a century ago with the phonograph record, the only place people heard music was at a concert or a dance or if a family or friend could play an instrument or sing. Yes, I know for anyone who was paying attention in history class, this is pretty basic. Think about it though, in one century we’ve gone from a time when a dance was the highlight of a week because a band was needed, especially one that could play a wide range of music, to a time where a person can gather a group of friends, using social media, and then call up a mixture of songs for an impromptu dance party. Also at this time, a person can do a search on their computer and choose from a vast array of musical genres or pieces from around the world. It could be Folk by an American duo to Chamber by a European orchestra to Korean Rock by an up and coming group.

I like to think while there’s more music in the world because of our different technologies, that it hasn’t quite oversaturated us. There are still those pieces that can bring us to tears or light a fire in us. It also is still powerful enough that when we can hear a favorite group live, many of us try to jump at the chance to go to a concert. For me, more than once, I’ve traveled to the Dakota Jazz Club in the Twin Cities to see pianist Hiromi Uehara perform. Perform is a more apt description of her style, because she isn’t sitting and swaying a little. She’s standing over the keys and the energy she displays, it’s as if a storm is about to break. I’ve also liked the fact that she doesn’t like to put her music into one neat little box. There are those who will describe her pieces as jazz, jazz fusion or jazz with a rock twist. I can understand that, take Rock & Roll as an example. Today, there has to be more than a dozen classifications or sub-genres to that style of music. I wouldn’t even be surprised if there are subsub- genres of it. I can understand why some want to do that, it’s easier to classify, but do we really need to devote a separate radio station to each of them? I liked the stations that had a mixture of music, you never knew what a DJ may play. One song may be about deer hunting, the next may be about a piano man. Today there seems to be far fewer stations like that.

Of course, some may turn to the internet, but even it doesn’t have a complete library of the world’s music. It also seems to suffer from occasionally having only certain types of one song. I’ve read of people who have had a special live version of a song that was released on a limited album that can’t be found on the world wide web. So, it might be a good idea to figure out how to make a backup of that special piece of music.

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