I like to listen to music as I work, and particularly while I write. For the past month or so, I have been switching between a Blues/Soul playlist and one that could best be termed mellow/romantic. You know, Sinatra type stuff. Now here’s the thing: everything that I have written in the past month has felt hollow to me.
Oh sure, I said all the right things, things that I truly and deeply believe, but within me there was an emptiness that I felt reflected in my writing. It was like I was going through the motions, rather than actually acting on my beliefs, even though these are my beliefs. Does that make any sense?
When I write from the heart, it is always while listening to music that is distinctly not loving, romantic or mellow. If I were to be totally honest here, I would probably describe my favourite music as angry, guitar driven rock. Hard rock with an edge. Papa Roach and Linkin Park kind of music. It has always been a mystery to me how I could write so well about love and romance while listening to unromantic music.
The answer may have been delivered to me while watching this video from YouTube.
While the music didn’t inspire me to write great tracts of powerful prose, it did move me and I wondered why? What was it about this piece that stirred my soul? Then it occurred to me: it was written and played with passion! Anger, love and music share this in common, a thing called passion. Sinatra is nice, but really, it’s feel-good Vegas music designed to sell tickets, not move souls. When I want to feel alive, give me passion!
In my lexicon, love is not a selfish declaration of “I Did It My Way’ (Frank Sinatra) but rather a universal declaration of “I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real /
I wanna find something I’I have wanted all along / Somewhere I belong ” (Linkin Park). It is a wild passionate fire that consumes you, then raises you from the ashes to shine, a beacon in the night proclaiming, “Here I Am!”
And so I listen to angry music while writing loving prose, for it seems to me that this is the music of passion unrestrained. It is the music of my life, my love and my spirit. Though I have to admit, Beethoven Virus sounded pretty good. Maybe I’ll start making a new playlist, one based on classical music played with passion. Any suggestions?
2 Comments
Try Michael Buble.I think you would enjoy his music a lot
Now that you mention it, I think my daughter has one of his CD’s. Thanks Bunny, I’ll give him a whirl