Music That Speaks To You

[Chekov's Phaser]

I love songs that can create visuals. I've never been to Paris, but I sometimes imagine myself walking down the rue's of the City of Light. And as I'm strolling down the Champs-Élysées, what's always playing in my head is Edith Piaf's La Vie en Rose. It makes me melancholy but happy all at once. There are many versions that are wonderful, especially Louis Armstrong's, but Piaf's is both haunting and beautiful.

When I hear it, I'm in Paris.

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[Doom Shepherd]

My wife has never been a well person. In the time that we've been together, her health has fluctuated between its usual "marginal but mobile" and "death expected" several times. She's faced emergency spinal surgery with a 75% chance of death or total paralysis. She's been life-flighted to the hospital because of an accidental drug overdose, after I came home to find her unresponsive on the floor - these are just two of more than I like to think about. She told me a short time after we'd gotten serious (during a year-long span when she was actually a bit better than average) that she expected to be dead within the next 10 years. We're quite a few years past her expected date already, and she'll never be what she once was.

As a consequence, for some time, I've been rather preoccupied, especially during bad spells, with preparing myself emotionally for her eventual passing. I'm not good with feelings, - or more accurately, I provide a brave, stable front because knowing I'm upset upsets her and just causes her more stress she doesn't need - and what I end up doing is basically using my alone time to torture myself with songs that make me sad, or that in some other way make me confront those feelings in an environment I have control over. Once I've overloaded myself it's like numbing a sore muscle with cold, and I can cope with regular treatments. (This is probably psychologically unhealthy in some way, but it's been working for me for a while.)

The ironic thing about the song I've chosen is it's actually not about death at all - though it's about a life change, and saying a kind of goodbye - but if you listen to the lyrics with the right (or wrong) frame of mind, it can be. (I've found that this is true for a lot of breakup songs, actually.)

So anyway, now that I've made a hash of explaining my choices, here's a song that's been bringing tears to my eyes for almost 10 years.

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[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

That song was sad Doom Shephard.. and I think it is perfectly healthy psychologically to use music to feel and treat yourself. You get the emotional outlet without focusing on the real life pain.

 

[Pingfah]

This is one of my favorite newer artists, Janelle Monae. She is an absolute powerhouse, shattering stereotypes across race, gender, and genre lines. She's adopted a Bowie-esque sci-fi persona. In this video she playfully shreds hip-hop and R&B stereotypes, she is never sexually objectified, she questions gender norms, religion, and racial and class oppression, all while reminding us "the booty don' lie"! I live for the epic rap at the end invoking Philip K Dick: Will you be electric sheep, electric ladies? Will you sleep? Or will you preach?

OMG I love Janelle Monae so much, I don't listen to much in the way of R&B and hiphop, but the first time I heard her I was immediately transfixed. If I could ever say somebody's music spoke to me, this was it. Not felt like that since the first time I heard and saw Queen when I just a child.

I used to sport JM avatars on TrekBBS in the hope people would wonder what they were and look her up. I mean, what more appropriate music for Trek fans is there than socially aware, sci-fi concept? I had a couple of posters contact me and thank me, saying they were curious after seeing my avatar and I had just found them a new favourite.

She is so diverse as well, although there's an obvious R&B slant to her music overall, it takes in folk, electronica, rock, jazz and so much more. She should be much more popular than she is, her music can be an intellectual experience, but if you don't care for that it's just great fucking pop music too. The ArchAndroid is one of the most breathtaking albums I have ever heard, I've never heard an album with such a dizzying array of styles and influences that flows through without feeling forced or jarring. Electric Lady was also amazing, and I can't wait to see what she does next. Yoga was a great little one-off, although I think audiences rather missed the point of where she was going with that one.

I also saw her live on the ArchAndroid tour in 2010, she was just amazing, and as she was fairly unknown in the UK at the time it was a small venue where you were just a few feet away from her performing. One of my favourite gigs.

 

[HaventGotALife]

Echoing the sentiment, @Mr. Laser Beam , no one is spamming. I like that people are sharing a lot of songs. I only made the rule of one song per post (or a couple for exceptional cases, as I said in the OP) so that it would encourage more sharing and discussion.

@Ancient Mariner , I love that you chose something instrumental. I grew up playing classical music, and a lot of instrumental music speaks more deeply to me than anything with lyrics. The trick is thinking of a piece less than 18 minutes long.

@HaventGotALife , there have been occasions for me personally, in my deepest depressions, when music was the only thing that kept me going. It was the only thing that reminded me there was beauty in the world worth staying around for. Thank you for sharing your story and song. I have a couple like that that I'll share soon, but right now I wanted to share an empowering song with you in particular, because you said you wanted something fun! Also, because you noted the problematic misogyny that plagues lots of hip-hop and rap, and that you appreciate the goal of exploring the power of music in this thread. So, I don't know if you've heard this, and even if you find it not at all to your tastes, I encourage you to listen to it!
This is one of my favorite newer artists, Janelle Monae. She is an absolute powerhouse, shattering stereotypes across race, gender, and genre lines. She's adopted a Bowie-esque sci-fi persona. In this video she playfully shreds hip-hop and R&B stereotypes, she is never sexually objectified, she questions gender norms, religion, and racial and class oppression, all while reminding us "the booty don' lie"! I live for the epic rap at the end invoking Philip K Dick: Will you be electric sheep, electric ladies? Will you sleep? Or will you preach?

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Sorry, I had to go to work and didn't have time for a response.

A very interesting song. I like it. It's not my usual taste, but I appreciated this:

I asked a question like this
Are we a lost generation of our people?
Add us to equations but they'll never make us equal.
She who writes the movie owns the script and the sequel.
So why ain't the stealing of my rights made illegal?
They keep us underground working hard for the greedy,
But when it's time pay they turn around and call us needy.
My crown too heavy like the Queen Nefertiti
Gimme back my pyramid, I'm trying to free Kansas City.

Mixing masterminds like your name Bernie Grundman.
Well I'm gonna keep leading like a young Harriet Tubman
You can take my wings but I'm still goin' fly
And even when you edit me the booty don't lie
Yeah, keep singing and I'mma keep writing songs
I'm tired of Marvin asking me, "What's Going On?"
March to the streets 'cause I'm willing and I'm able
Categorize me, I defy every label
And while you're selling dope, we're gonna keep selling hope
We rising up now, you gotta deal you gotta cope
Will you be electric sheep?
Electric ladies, will you sleep?
Or will you preach?

VERY socially conscious, and creative. I find pop music, most of it, to be repetitive, and until I got to the lyrics above, I wasn't going to like the song. I think the quintessential pop song, when I think about pop music today, is Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off." One, the tonal quality of her voice leaves something to be desired. Secondly, the song is VERY repetitive, a hook, that people can sing in the car, and feel good thinking she's talking about that fight they had with their boyfriend, or the boss that yelled at them at work, or whatever else is troubling you. I find Swift's music, on the whole, not very feminist, although she claims to be one. She is a good girl in today's world. She EXPECTED to sing about finding a man, or dating. Yes, Ed Sheeran does the same thing, as she pointed out, but his lyrics in "Thinking Out Loud," fully capture the experience of loving someone, and not for their body, but wanting to spend the rest of their life with another person. Musing about how others find love, and the thoughts are running together because he's simply "Thinking Out Loud," not caring if they are poetic or the right words, just telling the honest truth, sometimes painful truths like losing your hair or not being able to play the guitar, but still having each other. There is nothing like that in Swift's collection. She is writing the same 3 songs over and over again, and I do not like a single one of them.

I think this song wouldn't be in my collection, but the experience of seeing a pop song (which is what I would classify this one) that has some depth in its lyrics, some creativity, may show that the genre is starting to wake up...again. These things go in cycles, and the way I know that is I can go back to 2005-2007 and see piano EVERYWHERE. It's in every song. With the rise of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, instruments went into the trash. There is very little acoustic value to their songs. The lyrics are not all that bad, especially songs like "Firework," "Born This Way," or "Roar." I just want something more organic than that. It's not my taste. This song doesn't suffer from that problem, but it still feels to pop-like, for me to add it.

That said, we are here to celebrate music, not necessarily, tear it down. There's a song I mentioned before, just in a list, of my favorites from this year. I think the simplicity of the arrangements of the melody, as well as its pointed moments as her voice crescendos, improve an already well-written song. The fact she has yet to release it yet, is baffling to me. Before last week, this was my favorite song of the current year:

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[thestrangequark]

@Doom Shepherd , I agree with @teacake -- music is one of the purest things humanity has to offer. I use it to treat myself, as it were, all the time. Of all the coping methods you could be choosing, I think you're making a wise choice. No words are worthy of your situation, but I hope that you keep finding strength.

@HaventGotALife , I'm glad you appreciated the Janelle Monae song. @Pingfah is right, she's a wonder. She's a leader in the Afropunk music scene, blending multiple styles and sounds and really saying something with her music. Personally, I actually love pop (I've never met a genre I didn't like), but it serves a different purpose. Her music serves a social and artistic need. And now you see why I said I live for the rap at the end!!!

Now, to illustrate that meaning is what you make of it, and that everyone's tastes are allowed in here (with kind and honest commentary and criticism welcome, but no mockery!), I'm going to share a shit song by a shit band that is awesome and that I love. And here is why:

I was born deaf. Starting at age 2.5 I began having surgeries to repair my ears. Sound started to filter in, but I spoke in sign until 4.5, no one could understand my speech until I was 7, I had over 20 surgeries in all, the last at age 12.

When I was 7 or 8 I had the hearing restored to my left ear for the first time. The first thing my mom did when I was recovered was to sit me in front of the record player with those giant cans headphones. This is the first song I ever heard in stereo. I heard sounds from every direction! Circling my body! Lifting me up! I know she picked it because all the synth effects would make an impression. We sat there all night with her playing record after record just watching me as I listened to all the wild effects I'd never heard. I never realized I'd been missing half the music!
SO HAVE SOME STYX, HATERS!

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[1001001]

@Doom Shepherd , I agree with @teacake -- music is one of the purest things humanity has to offer. I use it to treat myself, as it were, all the time. Of all the coping methods you could be choosing, I think you're making a wise choice. No words are worthy of your situation, but I hope that you keep finding strength.

@HaventGotALife , I'm glad you appreciated the Janelle Monae song. @Pingfah is right, she's a wonder. She's a leader in the Afropunk music scene, blending multiple styles and sounds and really saying something with her music. Personally, I actually love pop (I've never met a genre I didn't like), but it serves a different purpose. Her music serves a social and artistic need. And now you see why I said I live for the rap at the end!!!

Now, to illustrate that meaning is what you make of it, and that everyone's tastes are allowed in here (with kind and honest commentary and criticism welcome, but no mockery!), I'm going to share a shit song by a shit band that is awesome and that I love. And here is why:

I was born deaf. Starting at age 2.5 I began having surgeries to repair my ears. Sound started to filter in, but I spoke in sign until 4.5, no one could understand my speech until I was 7, I had over 20 surgeries in all, the last at age 12.

When I was 7 or 8 I had the hearing restored to my left ear for the first time. The first thing my mom did when I was recovered was to sit me in front of the record player with those giant cans headphones. This is the first song I ever heard in stereo. I heard sounds from every direction! Circling my body! Lifting me up! I know she picked it because all the synth effects would make an impression. We sat there all night with her playing record after record just watching me as I listened to all the wild effects I'd never heard. I never realized I'd been missing half the music!
SO HAVE SOME STYX, HATERS!

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I LOVE that song.

The Grand Illusion was always close to my turntable. Wore the grooves off it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There are a few Styx songs that I really like...I wouldn't exactly call them a shit band (sorry tsq ) but I would call their record company shit, because it basically forced them to fire Dennis DeYoung when he got sick - they were perfectly willing to wait till he recovered but the record co. made them fire him so they could get a new singer and go on tour right away.

Oh and I bet the cast of the series Mr. Robot are all tired of the inevitable Styx jokes that probably are popping up on the set.

 

[thestrangequark]

My sister and I make a habit of doing "Renegade" at karaoke.

We're metal like that.

 

[Sindatur]

I pretty much do karaoke* on all Styx, I'm listening to my "Styx Come Sail Away The Styx Anthology" album right now actually, Crystal Ball just started, (I typically play it at least once a month, and often a couple/few weeks in a row)

*Not at a Karaoke Place, just along with my stereo

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If I did karaoke, I would likely be arrested for causing the audience to stampede for the exits.

The only songs I can actually sing decently (given the fact that I have a voice that sounds like a 45 rpm record played at 33) are "Convoy" and "16 Tons".

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

That's not the point of Karaoke. The point is to be in a big group and everyone yell at the top of their lungs and have a blast

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Actually, now that I think about it, "16 Tons" really does speak to me, because it's about putting in a good solid day's work, and (even though my own job is not anything like coal mining, which was the original subject of the song) I can relate to that.

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[lurok]

Like others here, there's sooo much music speaks to me. Emotionally, intellectually. I could post loads. Not even including the stuff that just makes me want to dance . But I've chosen this for a specific reason. Love all kinds of music, but especially opera and classical. Discovered Shostakovich as a student when living with a cellist, and avidly consumed everything about him: all recordings, films, books. In a nutshell, I was moved by the story of a shy, nervous but incredibly gifted artist who lived through a tumultuous era and was forced to make compromises but never lost his passion for life.

This is the finale of his 6th Symphony, which came at a difficult time after criticism of formalism in his avant-garde 4th, and then his rebuttal in now classic 5th (A Soviet Artist's Reply To Justified Criticism). But just when the state thought they'd broken him, he ditched plans to make the 6th a grand ode to Lenin, and instead produced this poke-in-the-eye. This finale is so full of life and joy; jaunty, humourous, slightly bawdy. If ever I feel down, I just listen to this and puts a spring in my step! The final section starting 6:15 is just sublime and celebratory in a way much music lacks...

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[thestrangequark]

That's not the point of Karaoke. The point is to be in a big group and everyone yell at the top of their lungs and have a blast

Three words: Cheap Trick - "Surrender"

@lurok I'm so happy you brought in some classical! And a beautiful choice, too.

I was lucky to be raised by people who truly celebrated music. I was exposed to all genres, and I started cello so young that I could barely manage the schools half-size -- though, to be fair, I was a tiny child and stayed on a half-size until I was twelve!
Though we were poor as a kid I got exposure through luck. A wealthy uncle who was a pianist (god, I miss him) who took not of my interest and would bring me to the Seattle Symphony, scholarship programs to orchestra camps and the Seattle Youth Symphony, and an anonymous donor who wanted to celebrate the memory of her mother by giving season tickets to the Seattle Opera every year to a disadvantaged teen girl and her mother -- I was the only one in the group at the YWCA that they thought would want them, so all through High school I got to go.

Pieces that speak to me? Oh, so many. Ironically, so much of what speaks to me most is the religious classical music (so much of it was, for obvious reasons). I've always been atheist, but I think the reason it speaks to me is that it reaches so much deeper than religion. These songs are about what makes us human -- in this case about how our loves and fears manifest in faith, but they are loves and fears that all humans share no matter what, if anything, they believe.

I love classical. As long as it's not Pachelbel

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Note, this dude beat Axis of Awesome to the punch!

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

Like others here, there's sooo much music speaks to me. Emotionally, intellectually. I could post loads. Not even including the stuff that just makes me want to dance . But I've chosen this for a specific reason. Love all kinds of music, but especially opera and classical. Discovered Shostakovich as a student when living with a cellist, and avidly consumed everything about him: all recordings, films, books. In a nutshell, I was moved by the story of a shy, nervous but incredibly gifted artist who lived through a tumultuous era and was forced to make compromises but never lost his passion for life.

This is the finale of his 6th Symphony, which came at a difficult time after criticism of formalism in his avant-garde 4th, and then his rebuttal in now classic 5th (A Soviet Artist's Reply To Justified Criticism). But just when the state thought they'd broken him, he ditched plans to make the 6th a grand ode to Lenin, and instead produced this poke-in-the-eye. This finale is so full of life and joy; jaunty, humourous, slightly bawdy. If ever I feel down, I just listen to this and puts a spring in my step! The final section starting 6:15 is just sublime and celebratory in a way much music lacks...

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Ah I love the 6th! Fantastic piece.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Awesome song list so far. And quite a few of my favourites among them =)

A song that has always touched me as being sort of my personal hymn is "Ferry Cross The Mersey".
I'm not British, but I'm pre-Hippie generation and this song manages to sum up the general mood of that time incredibly well. It was in the middle of the cold war, the economy boom was starting to wear off, unemployment rates rising, drugs being invented, the oil crisis was already in sight, the Near East was one big warzone, America was involved in a war at the other end of the planet (isn't it always?), my country was under occupation of 4 foreign nations who still quarrelled with oneanother and might possibly start WW3 at any moment, making our country the main battlefield.

And in the middle of all this chaos someone sang about peaceful life and the love for one's hometown and his neighbours. About what we desired most: normality.

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[Rincewiend]

I was born in 1973, so my musical formative years where the 80s. Disco and Punk where out and EDM was just starting as a genre. My musical taste was very much Top 40 stuff at the time, but later i expanded my taste, including stuff like Ska or Hard Rock and i still discover new artists on a regular basis.

One of my favourite EDM songs is the 1st big worldwide EDM hit "Pump Up The Volume" by M/A/R/R/S because it took all these samples and sounds and created a song that was strange and different but it all worked together beautifully.

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[thestrangequark]

Naturally, a lot of people are talking a lot about the era in which they were born having great influence on their tastes. I was raised in Seattle in the late 80s and early 90s. So, have some grunge.
This song is more personal than that, though. In my OP I mentioned those songs that give us the feeling they could have been written specifically for or about us. I don't know if anyone else has experienced that, but it's all at once unnerving, comforting, and cathartic. How could these men (looking back, those boys, because they really were so young then) know how I felt? And as I mature, I only identify with the song more. Maybe it seems sad that this song speak to me as if it could've been written for me, but for me it's truly a comfort: someone else gets it.

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[1001001]

This album came out when I was 14 years old, and desperately in love for the first time. Do you remember how intense that was? It was like I couldn't breath without her. It's so bizarre looking back on it now and realizing how out of proportion everything was. I was only a high school freshman! That first love is so powerful, so overwhelming.

Anyway, whenever I hear this song I think of that time. I love this album so much I still listen to it all the time, 36 years later.

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