Image Copyright Jean Burman 2008
If our daily lives were put to music… what would be the soundtrack of your life?
Not sure if it had anything to do with the recent celebration of (yet another) birthday… but this was the question I put to friends and family recently with some “surprising” results. After some thought… most said that there was more than one… (soundtrack that is). That depending on the mood… or the day… the soundtrack they might choose would be entirely different.
But surely there was some enduring theme? A song or a piece of music that defined it all? I am still awaiting answers here… (chuckles)
So what is the soundtrack of YOUR life?
No… I’m asking… seriously!
I love music. It makes my world go round. I love all kinds… from rock to opera to classical to new age. You name it… if it’s got a beat… some heartfelt lyrics and a half way decent melody… I’m in! Music shapes the world in which we live… whether we know it or not. We are in fact… the sum of what we listen to. Surprising… but true.
Music has the capacity to lift us up… and to drop us right back down. It can fire up the imagination and transport us to a place even beyond our experience. It can change the way we perceive the things we see… hear and do.
Years ago I remember watching a documentary about the role of music in film. It looked at the varying emotional responses we have to the same scene when different music and sound effects are applied.
The scene was a quiet leafy suburban street. The first piece of music was edgy suspenseful and slightly sinister. Viewers were immediately placed on guard… expecting the worst at any moment.
Then the same scene was shown with different music. This time the music played was bright and happy… innocent and playful. It surprised me how quickly and effortlessly we viewers were manipulated and coerced into a dramatic shift in perception!
To me… the saddest piece of music ever written was this [Gymnopedies No. 1 played by Jean Yves Thibaudet]. Achingly beautiful… but I can’t hear it without feeling as though my heart is being sucked right out of my ribcage through a thin plastic straw… urghhh
And after much interrogation the consensus here for the happiest song ever written (amongst a vast array of potential contenders) was this [This Will Be - (An Everlasting Love) sung by Natalie Cole]
Hmmm… I might have said “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves but hey… that’s just me… (had a chuckle at the funky 80s film clip)
I reckon the ultimate “power” song (and one I love to paint to) is Push It by Garbage… but the film clip is just too weird to put here in this otherwise happy [relatively] well-adjusted space! LOL
So come on… what will it be? What’s the soundtrack of your life? I’d like to know…
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