Discovering Music

If ever there was something so personal that it seemed as if it was created for just one person, yet so well-known that it could captivate an entire culture, it would be music.  Music is a phenomenon that can evoke feelings for one person that are completely different from the next.  In a way, music is a type of code that each individual can decipher in a unique, personal way.

Because of this, there is no right or wrong process of breaking the musical code, as there are multiple outcomes for the same text.  Take a love song, for example.  Depending on the person listening, the context of the song could have a myriad of meanings.  Say the listener was recently proposed to by her life-long lover.  Obviously, the song will evoke sentimental, bubbly feelings of love and happiness and she will think of her fiance as she sings along.  On the other hand, a person who has just ended a long-term relationship with the man of her dreams might hear the same tune and break down in tears, unable to stand thinking about her lost love.  She would probably change the station and spend the next few minutes, hours, or days in a sullen state of depression.

But just as music can single us out, it also has the capability of bringing groups of people together.  All the individuals who find ways to relate to certain types of music find themselves congregating at events that revolve around their common interest, such as concerts, bars, performances, etc.  These people are drawn together as cryptanalysts of the same melodies, as code breakers of identical lyrics.  To some, music may just seem like noise, but to others, it is a language just waiting to be uncovered in one of many ways.  Music speaks, but it is up to the listener to hear what it is saying.