How does music make you feel?
Does it invoke feelings of passion, a yearning for the past or do you get chills running up and down your spine? Whatever feeling music brings to you it can be agreed that everyone loves it and wants to hear it.
That may be so for most people but, I have never been a fan of hip hop or rap simply because it made no sense to me and did not appeal to my romantic side. To my mind romance is not the topic of most of these types of music.
I am sure that there are some people who will disagree with me and try to persuade me that music must grow, change and evolve into distinctive expressive modes. That may be so. But when you listen to some of the music of today what do you hear? Well I will tell you what I hear. I hear brashness, innuendo, insensitivity and violence. What kind of music and moral values are our children listening to? I shudder to think, and what kind of role models are our children trying to emulate?
Give me the old tunes of yester year the smooth sultry music of happiness, expectation and love. The songs of Ella Fitsgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jnr. who through their understanding of the craft managed to create and develop all aspects of their trade while at the same time made it look so easy. These singers and I emphasize “singers” never failed to get on with the romance in their music. They had talent and took the time to learn the business, and took pride in what kind of music was made.
In those days it was not all amount money as it is with the “entertainers” of today.
Frank Sinatra, when he sang “Strangers in the Night” made us wallow in the sounds of romance and love and in so doing allowed us to enter the world of love and the expectation of love. And all this could not be accomplished if he had not expressed feelings through melody of the music.We all enjoy listening to music whether it is Jazz, Mozart, Swing, Hip hop, or Rap because to each and every one of us we feel something when we hear it. This feeling may not be the same as others when played but we all get some level of enjoyment from its self expression.
So, when I listen to music I want to hear feeling, and a melody that reminds me of moments in my life that I cherish.
We could all live a lot longer and be a lot happier if we listened to music that soothed our minds and relieved the stress of our daily existence.
