Mistress Music Has a Whip

Music is my favorite mistress. -CSS

I confess. I'm an addict. A hopeless worm who will never escape this lifestyle.

I am... a melomaniac.

Melomania, n. "Excessive or abnormal attraction to music."

But then again, who isn't? Every other person on the street has an iPod plugged into their head, everyone in the computer lab has iTunes open, every person in their car has some kind of bass thumping (or banjo twanging, whatever). The 'Notes' section of my cellphone is full of band names and songs. Every time I hear a snippet of lyrics I like, I write them down. Every time a friend mentions new music, that too. I could easily fill my harddrive with mp3s.

My tastes are a crazy jambalaya mix. Shiny Toy Guns is currently playing; a NIN song just finished; Sarah McLachlan is up next. Overall, I have a fairly pronounced lean towards Electronica and Industrial, but basically every genre is represented somewhere in my collection. Coheed and Cambria to Bon Jovi, Rasputina to Darren Styles, E Nomine to MSI. I may make sarcastic comments about other peoples' tastes, but deep down I do respect them.

What is it about music that affects us so strongly? Is it music's ability to transcend time and space? (Doc Brown, eat your heart out.) Is it something more intrinsic in our brain chemistry? All I know is that every culture on this darling planet of ours has music in it somewhere. Music goes back forever; who knows, maybe the dinosaurs disco-ed it up when they weren't chowing down on eachother.

I'm always taken aback by how drastically a song can change my mood. No matter how down I'm feeling, there is a small group of songs that can always cheer me up. And not just to the point of maybe smiling a bit, but to the point where everything inside me rushes around and I want to laugh and dance. On the same token, though, there are also songs which can make me sad even on the sunniest of days. It is music's emotional qualities that make it so dear to us, I think.

New melodies will always be invented to string us along. New lyrics will always be written to move our lips in sync. New beats will always emerge to stomp our feet. I can't imagine my life without music, and I know I'm not alone. There is much more I could say on this topic, but I'll leave you to your own thoughts and conclusions. (That and I have to go to work.)

P.S. My apologies for the four-day-late post. To say it's been a long week would be like calling Katrina a spring shower.