I've tried to write this particular blog a bunch of times and I end up dropping it because it feels a little too personal... even though it's not really at all.
But it feels personal somehow, and I think it's because every example forthcoming seems deeply personal to everyone involved.
Music is an extraordinary powerful art like no other. It's a very rare person indeed who can stare at a painting and be moved to tears, and while many people will blubber away at certain movie scenes or TV shows, I'd gamble if you stripped away the music, you wouldn't feel a fraction of them feels - kinda like removing the laugh track from Big Bang Theory. You quickly realise they don't actually say a single funny thing throughout.
You might get teary eyed looking at a historical sculpture if you were deep into the history and tragedy that shadows it, but again, you'd be the exception rather than the rule. If you are one of the increasingly rare people alive who get so into novels to get into that state, well done.
But when it comes to music, almost everyone alive can be moved to tears by one song or another, even if they're one of those morons who say they 'don't like music'.
The power music has to connect us to each other as well as our own hearts is, in my opinion, unequivocal and unmatched.
And it doesn't even need to be a 'sad' song that makes you cry. It can simply be 'pretty' or even the total opposite, 'awesome' 'powerful' 'epic'. Even the jazzy music nerds will feel their tears well up at something technically awe inspiring.
For normal people whose lives aren't really connected to music, they'll still put on a particular song when they're going through a breakup, or the loss of a loved one/pet.
Music can and does save lives through its ability to commit catharsis. You can sit miserably alone and mourn whatever it may be to a song that relates to you, and let it all out under a blanket, and that music soothes like nothing else, even if it hurts.
It's hard to escape when browsing on YouTube. Almost every song I put on, a quick single scroll down shows a comment of somebody whose hearts are breaking and using the song to heal, or maybe deliberately be hurt by memories because, well, that's just what they need.
Check these comments out:
My wife loved Frank . Lost her in " 03 " This song really hurts. How many times have I turned over in bed at 2 am, only to find she's not there.
I have just lost my dear dad and we sang this record together the night before he died. makes me cry but I feel close to my dad when I play itx
My Mother loved this song. And in the wee small hours, I think of my Mom, daily. Rest in peace, Ma.
The day my grandson was born and I met him in the hospital, I sang this to him. When he hears this, now 2, I swear I see a little smile on his face ❤
This next song is about the artist's - Gotye - dog who had to be put to sleep. Obviously, people relate:
My dog was called Brontë and she died at 17. This song's captures every feeling I had at the end perfectly.
I was looking into my cat’s eyes when it happened. I saw his lights go out and felt him go cold. I told him I was sorry, and I’d find him again, over and over.
My grandpa bought me a puppy the day i was born. I was raised with this dog. When i was 21 I went off to college and my dog passed away two weeks in school. 1 week later my grandpa died. This song makes me feel like i want to break down
I sung this to my dog while he was dying in my arms, and now when I watch or listen to it, it makes me remember the precious baby I had in my life but now he's gone, and that he'll always be with me no matter what.
This one is from perhaps the most influential and impactful single moments in video game history - people are gonna relate to this exceptionally bittersweet moment, as demonstrated by the music astonishingly being performed at both weddings and funerals:
My baby sister took her life after battling with anxiety and depression more than half her life. We used to play FF7 when she was little and loved the epic music and story, she always reminded me of sweet Aerith. We played this at her funeral in her honour 15 days ago
My fiancé just surprised me saying that this is the song she wants to walk down the isle too. I almost cried, and I will at the wedding.
This hits a part of me that not much else in this world does. Reminds me of asking my mother if i could buy this game after reading about it. My mother that sadly passed away 2 years after that.
Today would have been my maternal grandmother 91st birthday, she passed in 1995. A day doesn't go by that I don't miss her, first time I heard this piece of music it reminded me of her.
Honest to God I can't actually listen to that last one while I'm at work or people will be asking me why my eyes are so red. But I can't actually say I relate to it. There's no specific event in my life that it curls its tear-jerking tendrils around. To me, it is the pure beauty, the essence of the music itself, rather than any contrived meaning behind it, that gets me fighting to prevent humiliation among colleagues.
I get the same thing with a particularly well-written movie score. For some still unknown reason, I cried my eyes out more than I perhaps ever have since I was a baby crying for sugar or something, when watching Bladerunner 2049, of all things.
When watching this, it was just coming out of me and there was literally nothing I could do. It was a confusing moment, and seconds after un-pausing it would come rushing right back.
I tried again a few days later to finish the movie and it happened again. I'm now genuinely scared to watch the movie again with anyone else in the room because I'm convinced I can't handle it. And yet, it's not exactly the saddest movie in the world. It's a frickin sci-fi about a robot Ryan Gosling, one that most people I asked about didn't even get through it because it was 'too long and boring'.
The key was the music. There was something about the 80's synth vibe, the haunting, dystopian nature of it, the hopeless, powerless desire to be something else perfectly depicted in delicate, eerie musical form.
And of course, entirely subconsciously at the time, the very deliberate callback to one of the most infamous death scenes in movie history - from the original Bladerunner, 'Tears in Rain', the replicant's death scene, you hear this angelic little motif. Take a listen at 1:50. This beauty of a theme symbolises a desperately sad hopelessness for the replicant, left with no choice but to come to peace with the reality of it as his mind fades to black.
It comes right back at you in the death scene in the sequel, the exact same emotion and situation being portrayed, one that is rarely portrayed in movies, generally. About 2:55 here.
I dunno, I just wanted to reflect on it. I think even the most mundane music out there is responsible for saving the lives of unknown numbers of strugglig humans out there, which is pretty cool to think about.