Open Mind, Open Ears

In the spirit of Valentine's Day (or what's left of it... the next 5 minutes, or so), here's what I love:


Some people say, "Music is music," putting all songs into the same box/category/group.

NO!

I hate it when people group all music together. That's like saying that the Mona Lisa is the same as the sculpture of the David. They just aren't the same.

Art is not art unless it is different. If art is the same, it's not art; it's mimicry. The definition of art is uniqueness, difference, specificity.

Having said that, I must also say that I have an open mind about music. I may not like all the music out there, but I am willing to hear anything before I judge. (I am currently listening to a chant from the Middle Ages, though, not by choice.)

I can tell you that certain genres aren't my favorite, but I'm still willing to listen... maybe I'll learn something by doing so.

If you've read my other posts, then you know that I'm a big fan of the singer/songwriter types (ie, John Mayer, Jack's Mannequin, Taylor Swift, Gavin DeGraw, etc). I love those artists because of their voices and lyrics.

Still, I also have a place in my heart for most any rock (but not a huge fan of heavy metal). Punk rock, Christian rock, Soft Rock, any rock, I'll probably enjoy.

I like some country. I love Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith, Shania Twain, and (since "The Voice") Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert. (Lambert's "The House That Built Me" gets me every time: "And I bet you didn't know, under that live oak, my favorite dog is buried in the yard..." *tear tear*)

I think that opera is just one of those things that was created to make you go nuts. It's just not my thing, but I know many people who love it. I'm a music major, so I have friends that dream of being opera singers, but that doesn't mean I enjoy listening to it all the time.

I love musicals, and like Emma Stone said in her movie Easy A, "Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80′s movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80′s movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life."

My favorite musicals include, but are not limited to Aida, West Side Story, Burlesque, Beauty and the Beast(which, by the way, was beast in 3D), Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Rent, and more. I love how theater and music come together and create even more magical, suspenseful, grand moments. I cannot get enough of those stories put to songs.

I love the "sappy love songs". Some of my favorite bands sing nothing but those and rock ballads. Secondhand Serenad, Dashboard Confessional, Teddy Geiger, Gavin DeGraw, they all have made careers off of singing those songs and I will probably listen to them 'til the day I die.

No matter who you are, you need to be open-minded when it comes to music. Don't put yourself in a box where you only listen to classical music or only listen to heavy metal. Don't restrain your ears from hearing new things, new genres, new artists. So many ears are wasted when they aren't used to discover new things.

Listen to new music and discover a whole new world (and not just the song from Aladdin).