Music, The 6th Sense

Music is my 6th sense. I can find the right song for the perfect occasion; and the best part is that I can decide on what the occasion is going to be, I get to set the mood. Sometimes it works backwards, if you feel like you want to change your mood you can change the song and then feel the energy of the music flow through you.

By the end of the day when I’m finally home there are a few things that I like to do to relieve the days stress from my mind. The first usually involves turning on the surround sound and hooking up my portable audio system, it might be my laptop if I still have work to get done. If I’m doing work then I usually listen to rock or rap music, I do this because most songs in these categories are fast paced and help me keep awake and motivated to finish my work, however sometimes I find myself rapping or playing the invisible guitar while doing my work.
A few songs that I definitely listen to while I’m doing my work
• Rage against the machine – killing in the name of
• Rise Against – Prayer of the Refugee
• Big Punisher – Still not a Player/ it’s so hard
• Nas - Ether
• System of a Down – BYOB/ Chop Suey/ Aerials
• Forever- Drake
Once my work is complete I usually follow the day by going into my “chill music” playlist, the songs in this playlist just set the mood for the rest of my evening activities. In this playlist I have anything from Bob Marley to Santana. These are the artists and their songs that help me relive my stress.
• Led Zeppelin – No Quarter/ Stairway to heaven / Kashmir/ Immigrant song
• Bob Marley - Various / Stephen Marley – hey baby/ Damian Marley – Welcome to Jamrock
• Bone Thugs N Harmony - Various
• AudioSlave – Like a Stone
• Santana – Smooth/ Maria

These are just a few of the songs that I listen to a on an almost daily basis. Music, I think, has to be used in context with what you are trying to achieve in order to get the most out of what your are listening. I love Salsa, Bachata and Merengue, but I don’t listen to it very often because it is music that you are supposed to dance to. You can listen to an Aventura (famous Bachata group) song, and relate to it, but unless you have someone to hold and dance the song with then you are not experiencing all of the songs elements. I think about it as buying the best sirloin steak available only to get home and eat it raw. You can listen to a great song but if you are not in the mood to listen to the song you will not enjoy it.

Many people never really stop to think about what they are listening to, what do the lyrics what do the lyrics actually say? I never understood the hook to the song smells like teen spirit by Nirvana until I looked up the lyrics. “A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido” its hard to understand it when Kurt Cobain, deceased lead singer of Nirvana, is screaming it right into the microphone. For some reason I liked the song better before I knew what the lyrics meant. But this is what I am trying to get at, most people don’t really know what they are listening to, they simply listen to the music because others are doing it too. When I listen to a song that I have never heard before I listen to what they are saying explicitly and implicitly. I think the best part of listening to a song is imagining what could have inspired the artist to write the song.