Life moves to Music

Last week, I discovered The Current through my Tune-in Radio app. I cannot believe I haven't discovered this app and, consequently, this amazing radio station sooner. Anyway, I tried to tune in to this station while I was writing some work e-mails, but soon enough I realize I couldn't listen to music while I'm doing "real" work, i.e. work that requires actual brain power, because it's so hard for me to hear music without really getting into it. It won't be too long that I'm listening to a song before I'm singing along with it, or at least bopping my head, tapping my feet, drumming my fingers. Which could look pretty odd to the random passer-by to my office cubicle. I don't necessarily have to understand all the lyrics (heck, took me about 5 listens before I realized what "Pumped Up Kicks" was all about. Yikes.); sometimes it's as simple as a rhythmic hook or a catchy melody and I'm lost in the song. Even right now, I'm writing this in stops and starts because One Republic's "Good Life" is playing, which is my newest (albeit not a new) album purchase. Gotta love Amazon's MP3 store. Boyz II Men Legacy album for $5. Um, yes please!

I hate silence. Which is weird that I like living alone. I always do have some type of sound going on at all times until I go to sleep, whether it be the TV blaring, the internet radio playing, or the podcasts streaming to help put me to sleep. Which I realize is pretty futile because I can't exactly not listen to the content, because they're pretty damn interesting. Take yesterday; it's 1 AM and I put on "Wait, wait don't tell me..." to help tire me out enough so I go to sleep. Before you know it, it's 2 AM and I'm laughing my ass off to Peter Sagal's joke about Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Plan (best line ever: "Cain's 9-9-9 plan is meant to...stop German tourists in their tracks." Genius). Result: I had a short sleep but a happy heart. 

And there's no sound more beautiful and enlivening than music. I love how there's a song or musical piece for pretty much every single human experience, even for something as mundane as checking your credit report (and it's a pretty catchy tune, too!) I know there are even some songs that I play in my mind for the fantasy version of my life, like "Save the Best for Last," or "Party Rock Anthem," in which I am the champion of a post-apocalyptic dance-off. I'm not super pretentious about my music choices, and it kinda irks me how this is the one subject that normally level-headed, agreeable people can be super snarky about. I admit, I've done it myself once or twice... "Ew, you like the Backstreet Boys?" Um, yes, bitch, I do. Why can't we all just appreciate all types of melodies, harmonies -- or deconstructed, experimental versions of it -- rhythms, beats, chords, choruses, modulations, I'm-just-spitting-out-random-music-terms-now....and get along?