The Concert Experience

Anticipation is building with every second as the crowd chants.  Excitement is practically spilling out of your body as you wait for the band to enter the stage.  You’ve been waiting for this moment since you bought the tickets 6 months ago.  From the first strike of the drums and the strum of the guitar you can feel the sound waves travel through your bones.  Tomorrow you might not be able to hear but this thought doesn’t even cross your mind because you are too busy enjoying the band you love.

                Concerts are one of my favorite ways to spend my time, because music is such a huge part of my life.  This past summer I went to see Fall Out Boy, Wiz Khalifa, Hoddie Allen, Plain White T’s, 5 Seconds of Summer, and One Direction.  While I love to just listen to music at my house from albums it’s so much better to hear it live.  The first concert that I remember going to was a Paul McCartney concert at the Palace of Auburn Hills with both my parents and my sister.  I can’t tell you what song was my favorite or how crazy the arena got when he came out on stage but I remember looking at both my parents face when that happened.  They lit up and I knew that this was definitely something to remember. Even at my young age I knew that the moment a concert starts was a magical one.

                To be able to see the artist’s enthusiasm or lack of, gives you a sense of who they are.  When you go to a concert and the artist is jumping around and creates an amazing show for the audience you know they really care about what they’re doing.  You can see tell if they really love the music they are making and you can see how much they love their fans. 

                The atmosphere at a concert is so fast pace that sometimes it seems like the show lasted 5 minutes even if it was 2 hours.  But, in my experiences, those were close to the best 5 minutes of my life.  To think that almost every other person in the venue is there because they love the band or artist just as much as you do or maybe more is crazy.  You could look at the person next to you and even though they are a complete stranger you have a connection. 

                But after a concert it’s not as great.  There’s this thing called Post Concert Depression and while it sounds made up it is very real.  The infected may experience moments of deep sadness followed by long hours of watching YouTube videos to try and relive the experience.  They may also cry unexpectedly at things that make them remember the best night of their lives and may show signs of hearing loose due to the decibel levels during concert.  This will fade but if I’m being honest I’ve had this after almost all of the concerts I want to this year and last.  It is not fun.

                

Why Listen To Music?

In my opinion music is the best motivator when working out.  When I go out for a run, (doesn’t happen very often) the best way for me to stick with is to listen to the most up-beat music I have.  The music acts as a distraction and I end up forgetting about how out of breath I am and instead focusing on the lyrics to one of the many One Direction song I have on my iPod.  Because the music is up-beat the brains biochemical stress relievers are triggered your body is forced to relax the muscles in your body.  This will also help you stay loose and not get cramps.

While on your way to work you hear your favorite song on the radio. By the end of the song your mood has been dramatically increased and you’re ready for whatever your boss has to throw at you when you arrive.  This isn’t just because you like the beats in the song or even the uplifting lyrics it has.  It’s because when you hear that song your body releases more Dopamine and the reward center in your brain lights up like a Christmas tree.  Hearing your favorite song will also help you to relax and feel at ease.  This might even help your road rage.

            Listening to music can also help reduce physical pain.  Doctors now are telling patients to listen to music the evening before they undergo any surgery where the patient will go under Anastasia.  This is because they were able to prove that patients that do this will ultimately use less pain medicine after the procedure.  They still aren’t sure why this is happens but many theorize that is has to deal with the Dopamine levels in the body.

             I recently stumbled upon a developing therapy approach called Music Therapy.  It is used to help kids with special needs, in cancer centers, and even drug recovery centers.  They have used the music therapy to even help people develop motor skills after car accidents.  In just the past few years it has been proven music therapy has helped people cope and even overcome illnesses better than conventional therapy’s.

            It doesn’t matter what type of music you listen to but it’s most definitely a big benefit to your health to listen to more of it.  Music is also one of the least expensive ways to improve your mental and physical health and is quite convenient.  Now I have an excuse to blare my music.

There are places I remember all my life, though some have changed. Some forever, not for better, some have gone and some remain.

“There are places I remember all my life, though some have changed. Some forever, not for better, some have gone and some remain.”  This is a quote from one of my favorite songs by this band.  This band’s first album stayed number 1 on the U.K. charts for 31 weeks until it was replaced by their next album.  This band is arguable, the most influential band to rock the music world.  They would be the Beatles.   

                I’ve been listening to The Beatles since I was born.  I have memorized almost all of the bands lyrics and own everything from their albums to mugs, movies, and shirts.  This band hasn’t just made a huge impact on the music industry but my life.

                I could spill the facts of how many number one albums the band created but that doesn’t even begin to show the change they made to music.  Their rugged (at the time) and long haired look was so different from everything that was going on at the time.  Parents didn’t understand the attraction but the younger crowd was intrigued.  Girls would flock to see the 4 boys play and they began to take over the air waves.  Their sounds was something people had never heard of but they wanted more. 

                The Beatles began to take over the world.  They would be chased on the streets and on some occasions were even grabbed and scratched by girls.  When you watch clips of the band playing you see young girls screaming and some fainting because they got to see the band in concert!  One fan even went as far as climbing a ladder to the second story and climbing through a bathroom window just to meet the boys.  This was their inspiration for the 1969 song “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”.  This craze spread all around the world, from The U.K. to America even to China.

                The band used inspirations from all different genres to create a new sound.  They channeled inspirations from Reggae, Jazz, Country, Blues, Rock, and even Psychedelics.  Now many bands use the Beatles sounds and inspiration in their own work. 

                This band had 21 Number singles in the United States alone.  They were constantly working on new sounds and perfecting albums in the recording studio.  They created a standard of work for other artist to match at the time and nobody came close to beating them.  The drive these 4 men had were part of the reason for their popularity. People never knew what would be next for them. 

                John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Star created something that still to this day is the most influential music career to walk the earth.  Beatle mania took the world by storm and even today it’s hard to find a person who doesn’t know who they were. 

                

The Importance of Music

No matter what mood you’re in, there’s a song for you.  Maybe you’re sad because your significant other broke up with you or maybe you’re nervous for a big presentation.  Whatever it is, someone has wrote a song about it that you can connect with to make yourself feel a little better.  In my case that’s how I’ve gotten to the point I am now and why I am devoting this whole blog to music.

                My obsession with music started when I was born into a family that revolved around it.  My dad is the lead singer for a band here in Saginaw called Sinister Footwear.  With this being said I was destine to love rock music.  It was normal as a child to listen to the Revolver album on the way up north or to go see Alice Cooper at some concert venue with my parents.  As I got older I began to explore different genres of music other than rock.  I am proud to say my music taste includes things from The Who to One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer to Blink 182 and even extends to a few local bands like Forest Green and Operation 13.  It shouldn’t matter the Genre of music but the Quality of the message and the amount of work put in.

My sister has always been about facts.  She will be able to remember the exact date an album came out or how many number one singles a band had. But to me music is about what the person’s message is.  It’s always been about what lyrics and the feeling of the melody.  Someone poured their feelings and heart into something. My favorite thing about music is being able to feel the devotion others put into it.  If I have the ability to connect with what is being compelled by the writer then they really have reached success.

Music is one of the only things in life that is constant and reliable.  The dependence people place upon music is so heavy that it acts as almost a psychiatrist.   There is a song that you can connect with in any thing you’re feeling so inevitably you’re reminded that someone else went through the same thing.   To be able to connect with someone without even talking to them is such an important thing and that’s what keeps people hooked.  Music creates a momentary escape from problems in the world and sometimes that’s really all we need.