You know all the clichés …music is the soundtrack of our lives…every song reminds us of a time and a place….. music affects our emotions…..blah blah…..? TRUE STORY…ALL OF THEM!!
However, I have always wished that music could be the background to our lives. So wherever you go, there would be some kind of P.A system which filtered music around the world every day…..perhaps The Seekers singing “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing”…. kind of all cheery and jolly, while we skip along going about our daily business…..aaaaaah bliss!!! Thinking about it now, this might be a tad problematic, as everyone has different tastes in music, and road rage might be replaced by ‘music rage’. So, seemed like a good idea in my head, but not that practical at the end of the day.
I suppose when the iPod made it’s appearance, that was the more sensible answer to my long awaited request! Aaaaaah….the cherished iPod. I would sit for hundreds of hours at night, downloading all genres of music. Being the techno geek that I am not, I would damn near physically carry it from my laptop to my iPod. For an illiterate techno bunny like me, ‘’physically’’ almost meant collecting each song in a box, taking it to the next room, and physically loading each song on the iPod. Well okay, I might be embellishing a little to get my point across, but you get the idea?
So shortly after my delicious Ipod was purchased, I opened a party venue. Then I became even more inspired to use, what should have been sleeping hours, to find even more songs to download. Then I progressed to playlists and genres….what with all the different ages, cultures and ethnicities booking at the venue…one had to provide the music for THEIR function to suit THEIR lives! I mean, this gave me so much more purpose….one simply cannot have anything without music….can one?????
When hosts would ask if they could play their own music through my docking station, I would be so terribly offended…..I mean, have you even heard my song selection, heffa?? Hours and hours I sat downloading songs, putting them in appropriate genres for the right crowd….and you have the ABSOLUTE AUDACITY to ask me to play YOUR sub par and inadequate music through my docking station, my head would think, and my face would reveal! On realising what my face was expressing, I would smile through gritted teeth and gently remove the love of my life from the connection, so that they could…well, listen to their crummy music.
Then…there have been people that would say that the music was not necessary. NOT NECESSARY???? But what is this ‘’not necessary’’ they would spoke of?? I cannot for the life of all trombones understand what ‘’music is not necessary’’ means. But nevertheless…customer is always right and all that….smiled through gritted teeth, and gently removed the love of my life from the connection.
Eventually along came Itunes, so much easier to navigate the downloading than before, and hence, I got a bit more sleep than before.
Now, I am yet to discover what I have been put on this earth to do….more than likely will not discover what it actually is before I die (so sad really), but I have always felt that I have two skills or talents in which I was more proficient than the average Joe.
The first one, is recognising voices…not with the aid of any type of voice recognition technology….. with my ears. If I have even heard your voice once, I would immediately be able to identify it again. Random, I know, but a skill nevertheless. Perhaps I could have become a world renowned voice identifier? However, that would no longer be of any assistance to anyone, as there is a machine that does that job now.
The other is my ability to identify music that would eventually appeal to the tastes of a large segment of the population…..you know….like a talent scout or kind of music agent kind of thingamabob.
I remember little about my teens, but what I vividly remember, was the first record I ever bought….Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall.
Now, when I had children, I just assumed that they would be as drawn to music as their mom. I also assumed that they would OBVIOUSLY do something ground breaking in the music industry. Naturally, I would be there to guide them every step of the way…I mean, my talent would finally be put to good use.
So when Pepper came along, he enjoyed music, until he turned about 3, and then it served little or no importance in his life. But on becoming a teenager, his love for music returned. Well, shall I say his love for Drake was ignited. All these years later, this child still only listens to Drake.
Now, because I love almost EVERY genre of music, I have been known to be partial to a few Drake songs. But please do not give me vulgar. When I hear vulgar, it immediately gets cut off.
”But just listen to the words mom, he is an artist, he is a poet, he is brilliant blah blah” he would plead.
Perhaps our parents thought our music was crude and vulgar too, but somehow, I think it was different. They did not listen to any of “our” music, they just continued to listen to “their” music.
At least Salt has a diverse taste in music. He enjoys all genres. So having missed the boat with Pepper, I naturally decided that I would be making Salt into a famous talent scout/musician/agent. But Nooooo, the little twirp had the audacity to think for himself, and had no interest in such things. Should have put that ‘’thinking for himself’’ to bed the minute I realized it was happening dammit.
During those midnight sessions of fishing for music to download, I would sometimes hear a song that had not yet become a smash hit, but I had felt like I had discovered a gem. The next day I would sprint off to Pepper, and play the song so he could listen to this discovery of mine. He reluctantly pretended to listen, grunted a “‘hmmmmmm”….as Pepper does, and continued on his way.
At that stage, I realised that this was not going to be the child that validated my supreme talent. So, I realised that I would have to move on to the obvious choice….my Salty…..lover of all genres of music. Should really have thought of him in the first place, I would think, reprimanding myself for my carelessness. I mean, if I was going to become a world famous agent, I would need to surround myself with the right team, surely?? So sprint off to Salt I did. He would make, what appeared to be, a marginally greater attempt to listen to this song, and then grunt ”hmmmmmm”.
There were more than a few times, when one of these songs that I received grunts to, became massive hits. Then Salt and Pepper would come running to me and ask me to listen to this awesome new song. Oh…..the frustrations of a not yet famous and successful music agent.
So, my children were not going to travel this musical journey with me…..what of my friends, you may ask? Well…nope…struck out there as well.
In my teenage years, my friends did not share this passion of mine either. I have spent the most part of my adult life surrounded by Mediterranean people. They have so much love for music, almost as much as I do, but bugger, they only truly enjoy music belonging to their specific culture. Having said that, I love their music, (don’t understand a word of it) and have many such songs on my playlists, to which I listen regularly.
So here I am writing an entire blog on the importance of music in my life, with people that can’t grunt ‘’hmmmmmm’’, or turn up the volume of music I do not understand …..at least that counts for something!!
Grumpymummy 