Experiencing music in everyday life How do you experience music in your daily life? In what ways do you experience and interpret music as a part of culture and music as an art form?

The way I experience music daily really depends on the day, ha! For instances, some days, I don't want to listen to music or watch TV. I want the quiet. This is very rare. Most of the time I need some sort of music, whether it's on a movie I'm watching (like Phantom of the Opera) or just playing of music. I do listen to music that reflects my mood, but sometimes I want to change my mood. For instance, if I'm sad and down and I want to change it, I'll listen to a song I know that makes me happy, and in a way it will reverse my mood. I like music as a background noise type of thing, right now I'm listening to music to drown out the silence that is around me. I like music in the car, and there I can discover new music without trying too hard, in the car music acts as a companion for me. More often than not, music for me is preferred than people, for a simple reason. If I'm in the car with people, and there is music on, some people feel the need to just yell over the sound instead of turning it down, and that irritates me to death, especially if I want to hear the song. But then again, music in the car with friends can be the best of times; driving down a dark road sing a song that everyone knows the words to at the top of your lungs. Essentially, my music in everyday life is as diverse as my musical taste. Sometimes I want music all of the time, other times I don't want any. It is a bit complicated, and weird, but that's ok with me.

Music is a part of culture, pure and simple. One does not exist without the other. In the way back past, tribes could communicate with each other with drum noises. From that sprang dancing to the noises in order to communicate. In today's culture it does that too, communicates a feeling or a message between the artist and songwriter with the listener. I do think that different cultures can have different types of music that is indigenous to their roots. For instances, Native Americans have a particular type of sound that is related to their communication with their gods and with different tribes. It is full of drum beats and other handmade instruments with seemingly random yelling or chanting noises put in. Even though that is their music culture, the probably have been artist that have taken some of that sound and remixed into their own, but it still has its roots in the Native American tribes.

Music is an art form. It is so tempting to say that it can be an art form, only if it creates some sort of emotional feel or connection, but different types of music communicates different feelings to different listeners. There are types of music that I wouldn't categorize as being music because I can't see the appeal, but someone else can. That's why I think that music is an art form because it will touch someone somewhere.