No I am not going to dance, and no I am not talking about that Britney Spears song (she’s hot but her music sucks). I am just going to talk about how music has inspired me at the most crucial times and how music takes me back to memorable moments of my life.
I might not be a big time music freak, as I have seen people who never take the headphones off their ears, and I might not have the most refined taste in music, as I have never listened to Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and so on. I have hardly ever listened to The Beatles. Nevertheless, music has been an important part of my life. Right from the old times when I used to listen to Indian movies songs mostly ( which I hate these days), I have been through phases of listening to Pakistani pop (vital signs, shehzad roy, etc), rock (junoon), dance music (don’t wanna name the bands here), pop (all those boy bands) and finally rock music when Coldplay becomes my favorite band. Not only that, there are specific songs that remind me of the specific times in my life.
Let me give you few examples.
Around 10 years ago, when I had completed my 10th grade in school, I went to Ziarat for picnic with my cousins. The trip was full of fun with all the ingredients of enjoyment. That’s when I first heard the song “Kehna hi kia” from the movie Bombay. That song attracted me so much that I listened to it over and over again and till date it is one of my favorite indian songs. Even today when I listen to the song it reminds of that picnic in Ziarat.
During the same days a TV show called Music Channel Charts (MCC) was very popular. MCC is actually responsible for promotion of pop music in Pakistan. If it wasn’t for MCC, bands like Milestones, Fakhar-e-Alam, Shehzad Roy and a lot others wouldn’t have got the recognition that easily. Milestones was one of the bands that was doing really good then. Whenever I listen to Milestones’ songs like Aag and Jadoo, it takes me back to the golden days of MCC.
Later, when I was in Buffalo (NY), I decided to move to Dallas (TX) in pursuit of better opportunities. I drove all the way from Buffalo to Dallas with a friend of mine. We drove over 1300 miles in 24 hours. At the end of the journey I was dead tired, and we still had to find a place to spend the night and I had no idea where we would live as we had no friends in Dallas (it might seem like a bad decision to move to another city without any prior arrangements for accommodation, but it actually turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made). When we reached Dallas we decided to spend the night at a motel. I was still not sure how we would be able to find a permanent place to live. Next morning I was flipping through TV channels and I saw the video of the song “By the way” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. I admit it’s not the best song by the band and the video is not a masterpiece, but it so charged me up that I was ready for another hard day of finding a place to live in a new city with no friends to help me out. Now, after all those years, whenever I listen to that song, I think about that journey, the night spent at the motel, the feeling of hopelessness the next morning, and the energy the song filled me up with.
There are countless songs that are associated with special memories and occasions in my life, I could go on forever. I don’t know whether other people are influenced by music in the same way, but music plays a very important role in defining my personality.
as a person’s music listening matures from pop to rock and industrial and jungle and house music, and when you learn to delve from listening into creating music (well in my case, learning about how it is created), you learn to appreciate it a whole lot more. the intricacies of a single song are sometimes so great that it’s mindboggling. once you get past that stage, you tend to go towards softer quieter music like jazz which gets even more complex and a whole lot more subtle. or some people like to move to listening classical music or even indian classical. some people on the other hand never change. my point is that music can be very refreshing. try moving past mainstream music into areas not explored before. i try and make it a point to appreciate all forms of music whether i like it or not. for example, i’m not a big fan of metal or country music, but i will definitely give it a listen. metal is an extreme form of music. takes a lot of energy and talent to perform some good metal tunes. some of the drumming i’ve heard in metal is near brilliance. my point is, give other genre’s a try. everything from billy holiday to ella fitzgerald, hank williams to cat stevens, u2 to rem, radiohead to pj harvey and bjork, manna day to kishore kumar, its all music. give it all a chance before you dismiss it.
You’ve hit the nail right on the head. I love your post, it’s brillaint. And it’s encapsulated the nostalgia and desire that music can stir up within a person.
All the best to you,
S
what memory does this song refresh?
“dhund… chaee hay dhund… kuch nazar… aaye naa… tum khoee ho… janay kahan… dhoond liyaa… saraaa jahaaan main naay… dhund….”
hahha.. i remember the whole song i think but am not typing it.
umm… nopes… never heard that song.
lol… kidding… i still remember the entire song despite the fact I haven’t listened to it after those days. The year was 1992 or 1993. I was visiting Karachi and this new album by Awaz had recently came out. Whe tried to copy the tape onto another tape using the fast copy feature which made the song run faster but decreased the pitch, making it sound much much better than the original slow version. ah… those were the golden days… really.
coldplay….rock? aaaa! Are you one of those people who consider Bon Jovi to be heavy metal?
fawad, coldplay is actually alternative rock… it’s really funny how music by different bands overlap the genre.