Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Co-Managing Editor
I do not believe that I am alone in saying that certain songs or pieces of music have flashed through my head throughout different emotional moments within my life. I mean, who has not imagined the Rocky soundtrack playing in their heads when about to thumb-wrestle someone? Who has not heard Hans Zimmer’s music play as they play hide and seek in a corn maze? Who has not listened to four straight playlists of breakup songs when they are feeling lonely?
Okay, that one might just be me, but you get the point. Needless to say, music is often the unnoticed narration that goes on in our minds as we progress through life. For music is not just simply blank sound, but a gateway to so many deeper human emotions and feelings.
Throughout history, music has been a quintessential aspect of many distinctive and unique cultures. From the Spanish guitar to African drums, every piece of music holds some sort of value to the listener.
Even more emotional than listening to music, is the act of playing it. Most of us have taken at least one music-related lesson in our lives. Whether you stuck with it or not, you can not deny that human beings are naturally drawn to the magical allure of creating beautiful sounds.
This desire has evolved from the very first etchings of music thousands of years ago, to what we know as modern music today with musical sensations such as Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar.
With that being said, humans are drawn to music not only for the unique and pleasing sounds that they provide to our ear, but for the vast array of emotions that they produce in our heart. Whether you are listening to music that makes you feel happy, sad, angry, or any menagerie of emotions, music has a strange ability to elicit such feelings more so than almost any other piece of artistic human culture.
To experience these emotions, all one must do is be open to the impact that the music is intended to have on them. If someone is not open to actively listening to or actively appreciating what they are hearing, it is unlikely that music will generate the same response in them as in someone who is open to finding the deep meaning hidden behind the notes.
Even if someone is open to the music, it might not affect them in the way they intended. In fact, It may very well not affect them at all, and that is not at all a bad thing. The incredible part of music is that it affects everyone differently depending on who they are and what experiences they have gone through in life.
For example, a song about a man coming home from a war to his family may not resonate with a high school student, but it is likely to resonate with an adult who has gone through similar trials and tribulations.
Whether a song was intended to portray a certain message or not, everyone can relate the meaning in music back to some aspect of their life. Music can also carry tremendous memories, and as such the same emotions that those memories come with.
Whether that be the slow song they played at prom, the song playing during your first kiss, or the song you dance to at your wedding, music is able to channel all the memory and emotion that comes from these moments and release all in one beautiful sympathy of melodies and rhythms.
Music can profoundly affect and impact us all in some way. As is the case with life, all you have to do is open up your heart enough to let it.