"Music is What Feeling Sounds Like"- I am Thankful Day 28

It is hard for me to even describe how thankful I am for music. (I can already guarantee this is going to be like my longest post ever so you may want to just give up now.)

I think the thing I love the most about music is that it can make, change or amplify any mood. The title of this blog post says it all; "Music is what feeling sounds like."
I mean how can you not get excited when you hear House of Pain shouting JUMP!!! JUMP!!!! JUMP!!!! How can you hold back the tears when you hear someone sing Amazing Grace? How can you not release all your rage when Linkin Park belts out One Step Closer? How can you not want to dance around the room when Justin Timberlake is telling you he brought Sexy Back? And I am pretty sure Bob Marley has the power to put anyone in a mellow mood (drug free of course).

The music that is played on the radio right now drives me soooo crazy. My teenage son told me I need to realize that music isn't about talent anymore but about production and image and it just about broke my heart. You can't even tell who is singing because they all sound the exact same. Then they get invited to sing live on American Idol or at some awards show and unless they lip sing you realize that they honestly can't sing. I hope this phase of over production and auto-tune doesn't last forever. I have seen some of my favorite artists become "popular" and put out albums that I don't even recognize. SAD! But I will leave these ramblings for another post.

Okay back to my gratitude for music. I love to listen to orchestras. I can never get enough of the classical station. I especially love string quartets. There is a group called The Vitamin String Quartet- they do string tributes to popular artists. I always listen to them when I grocery shop. I love anything with a cello solo. There is something about the cello that just makes me feel good.

I love Soundtracks. A good soundtrack can make or break a movie for me. I love it when a certain song reminds me of a scene from a movie. And the total music nerd that I am- I make soundtracks for my favorite books and honestly I think my Twilight Soundtrack is seriously comparable with the one they put in the movie (I actually like mine better).

I love musicals. I could listen to the music from The Newsies a hundred thousand times and never get sick of it. I hate to admit it but I even enjoy the High School Musical soundtracks LOL.

I love ringtones and ringbacks.

I love genius on Itunes.

I love American Idol.

I completely adore my Ipod.

I love mix CDs and playlists. I love giving them to people. I love coming up with silly titles for my CDs. I took a road trip to Ohio once and I made myself like 20 CDs. They had names like Rest Stop, Road Kill, Are We There Yet? and Over the Hills and Through the Woods.

I love lyrics. I love music that tells about something real and makes you feel it. If you have ever listened to an artist like Matisyahu or Blue October you will know what I mean. I wish I could express myself half as well.

I love that there is a song for every situation. I love it when I hear a song I can totally relate to what they are talking about. This example might seem kind of strange but there is a song by Mathew Good that says "That trailer trash pedigree is calling..it rats you out when you're down on all fours" Yeah I totally know what that feels like.

I love it when punk bands redo songs from hip/hop or R&B artists. Bowling for Soup's remake of Fergie's London Bridge is pretty fantastic.
I love it when I make someone listen to one of my favorite obscure undiscovered indie bands and they love them just as much as I do. I love it when I find a new obscure undiscovered indie band to listen to. (suggestions?)
I love Eminem, there is something real about him that is endearing to me. Too bad there are only like four of his songs that are clean enough for me to listen to.

I love concerts.

I love it when the choreographers on So You Think You Can Dance use one of my favorite songs for a dance or when because of a dance that is performed on the show a song becomes my favorite.

I love Reggae, the Blues and crazy sit down singer song writers. I love grunge and rowdy British Indie Rock and anything unplugged. I love Folk Rock, Punk Rock, Alternative Rock and Classic Rock. I love pretty much anything from the 80's- one of my favorite stations on Pandora is called Aqua-Net Radio. I wish I had an ounce of musical talent but alas I do not. Maybe someday I will take piano lessons or something lol.

Well if you made this far and you are still reading you are pretty amazing.
In closing I would just like to quote one of my favorite songs;
"Yeah whatever....rock out"