humanity
Humanity topics include pieces on the real lives of music professionals, amateurs, inspiring students, celebrities, lifestyle influencers, and general feel good human stories in the music sphere.
Musical Catharsis
Pain sunk its teeth into me like a rabid dog. It leaked out of me like crude oil, marring everything. Corrosive and excoriating. Napalm on virgin forest. A thousand incendiary bombs. Roaring unhappiness metastasizing like a malignant tumour. A haemorrhaging blood vessel. It was an anguish against which I had not been inoculated, and one that I was feebly trying to understand. I was 19, addled and aching. This was one of those contemptibly soppy adolescent moments, in which everything feels grand and towering and electrifying and consequential; every syllable of conversation imbued with cosmic importance. At some ungodly hour of the night, assailed by adolescent melancholia and emotional aches, my friend Joe tenderly pulled me into his chest. Scruffy puffs of jet black hair tumbled artfully over his face. Strawberry blushes shyly crept onto my cheeks as he held me. Two souls tethered for a moment. Two humble terrestrial creatures unified against the fickle and capricious world. His embrace mellowed me. Hot tears rippled down my plump porcelain cheeks like the tributaries of a river. He held me. The inky harbour sighed below us. We were stationary in his car at a charming Sydney spot. His soulful bambi eyes looked wistfully into the inky jet black of the night, and the sticky, salty wind licked my cheeks like a giddy Labrador. Joe was singularly kind, wide-grinned and supremely gentle. It was at this moment of emotional weariness and emotional maelstrom – the apogee of my stress – that I first listened to Go Farther in Lightness. The music that complimented this moment could not have more apt if it had been curated for a soppy Richard Linklater film. Go Farther in Lightness is an achingly beautiful and affecting album by Gang of Youths. It is an album punctuated by moments of bleeding sadness, roaring excitement and unfettered glee. It is a masterful rendering of the vicissitudes of life, in all its turbulence and swooning pleasures. The prevailing themes of love, lust, estrangement, intimacy and tumult are artfully and deftly weaved into this album. Cascading, thumping, dizzying emotion prevails. It is musical alchemy, a stirring album that is indelibly impressed into my mind. Go Farther in Lightness still hits me like a freight train, even though I am not a blubbering nineteen year-old anymore. It conveys me back to the intimate moment I shared with my friend. It reminds me of the fiery love I felt for him, and of music’s capacity to ameliorate pain, to mellow and to illuminate. It’s enrapturing, and continues to buoy me at times of head-spinning stress. The lurid cameo I presented was intended to elucidate why this album is meaningful to me, and how music can connect us to our emotions and transmute them into something beautiful and artful. Go Farther in Lightness is not mellow or especially sunny and cheerful. In fact, much of the album howls with sadness. In my humble view, its therapeutic value is in its sobering and, ultimately, life-affirming rendering of raw human experience. Elegiac and wistful moments of fiery emotion are bookended by crescendos of sublime and soaring pleasure and enchanting beauty. It provides a sort of musical catharsis by connecting the listener to his suffering, and then transmuting it into something supremely beautiful. For the hot-blooded, brooding twenty-something person, this album is a deliverance from the pacey, wearying and cluttered world. For the jaded and dispirited – for waning spirits - it is a not-so-gentle but frank and firm reminder that life is messy and turbulent, and an injunction to live it more wholeheartedly. It is energising and soulful, and the perfect companion for musing.
By Rory Parker5 years ago in Beat
Back to Center
When the intrusive thoughts enter, whether they're sad or anxious, a knee-jerk reaction is to want to get rid of them immediately. But just like our body needs time to heal, so does our mind. I think that's where music comes in. Instead of running from the thoughts, we can recognize they are there, slowly replace them with new ones and coax our mind back to center.
By Alexis Pulmano5 years ago in Beat
On Repeat
You ever hear that perfect song that you to have hear over and over and over? No matter what other songs that follow, they just don’t measure up. Something about that certain melody. Their voice. Beat or bass. Harmony. Maybe you can’t figure it out, you just know that you want to hear it on repeat. Releasing something in you. Cleanses a part of your inner war, creating peace. Eases a storm within. It simply soothes you.
By Tabatha Ann/ Tee Mee5 years ago in Beat
The soft sadness
There’s a soft sort of sadness that I grew up with. It can be hard to describe to people who haven’t personally been acquainted with such sensations. It’s quiet and gentle. It wrapps it’s soft arms around you and welcomes you to cry when you need to, or just to be. Whatever you need it gladly offers without judgment. This sadness isn’t like its relatives, it won’t stand in the way of your happiness, it won’t hold onto you any longer than you need it to, its embrace is calming and warm. It is like a warm bath on aching joints and muscles.
By Guillermo Jatzek5 years ago in Beat
The Journey to the Stars
Playlist Overview: 8 Songs: Runtime - 42 Minutes I've broken this playlist into 4 parts, each with its distinct mood and background. This is more than just a playlist; but rather, it is a poetic soundtrack to the play of our imagination.
By Keane Neal-Riquier5 years ago in Beat
MY Day With Music
Music is like a drug. I'm sure you've heard this saying before but it's true. There's even research looking at how certain frequencies or wavelengths affect the human mind. Personally, I enjoy listening to music for most of the day, but I have different preferences depending on what I'm doing.
By Nicholas McKenna5 years ago in Beat
The One with the Jazz🎷
Reaching a place of zen for me means clearing my thoughts of anxiety and being in the present. Sometimes, that means getting out of my head to appreciate the world around me while I go for a walk. Other times, it means creating a rhythm and flow as I clean up around my apartment, continue working on stories I’m writing, or meditate. Music can be fun to lose myself in as I feel the rhythm and beats and let myself be emotionally transported to the world that the artist creates. When it comes to reaching a place of zen, though, I prefer jazz. That most jazz songs are instrumental is soothing. But even when they have lyrics, the style of jazz vocals always brings me a sense of calm and relaxation.
By Kiona Jones5 years ago in Beat
Running into the wind
It was the fall and I was at One Life fitness, across the street from my old job at the Chiropractor. It was either an evening or afternoon and I was kind of going through the motions. I mean both the motions of working out and the general motions of life when things aren’t quite where I think they should be. My playlist ran up and Spotify decided to play a radio based on it and I thought that was fine-- I was in the cool-down/cartwheel phase of my workout anyway. This song by Sleeping At Last came on called Pluto, and let me be the first to tell you it’s one of those almost perfect songs which knows exactly how to give your brain a little serotonin push in the right direction. I say almost because it could be a little bit longer but I digress. My day was made, my week was made, and I still freak about it to this day.
By alan pierce5 years ago in Beat
Following the flow
Sitting and meditating is great, it has it’s place for sure. To me, nothing quite compares to following the rhythm of my body and dancing myself open. It’s even showcased in the hit tv drama Grey’s Anatomy. Meridith and Christina encouraging the ‘dancing it out’ method to figure out what to do next. I may not have as many dramatic events to navigate through as they did, but navigating through the ordinary is a trick all on it’s own.
By Calla Lily5 years ago in Beat
