hmm.....well I was trying to come up with something clever to say that could some up the answer to the question in a few words that would leave an impact...buttt, like you said, there are some things in life that don't have clear answers. the only way to answer this question for me, is to try and think of a life without it. could you really comprehend a movie without a soundtrack? days without something to hum? a culture deviod of such greats like the beatles, the meters, miles davis, van morrison, eric clapton, etc.? It would be like a painting without color. music... its like trying to describe how present love is in everyday life; it's everywhere, yet so hard to precisley articulate. what I can say with utter confidence, however, is I can't live without it.
-tiki    

I think it's kind of cheesy when people say things like, "music is life," "I breathe music," or "music is the window into my ever-changing, too complex for thou, aching, and wonderful, soul." OMAE! Who gave you the right to make such general statements about something so big, so shared, so global, so varied, so new, so ancient, so hideous, and so beautiful at the same time??? --That "omae" isn't you, btw. Demo I kekko mae heard Maana say "music is my life, man" once and..mah, ichiou omochatta. :-P sorry maana.

But I agree with you, how it connects us to each other. At CA it's something that brings the communuity together. (...haha sounds like the Madonna song. shit.) Everybody has a different relationship with it. A tribe can use it for rituals, ceremonies, or just for fun. A pro musician can use it for his/her life, for food, for shelter, for all the friends they have. Someone like me, or maybe you, can use it as something like a pastime, a hobby, not necessarily their craft, but a way to make life more esthetic and...well, healthy. That's my take, without hopefully sounding too sure of myself, since it's a vague answer. It's what you make of it. Sondake. Un. Jaaaa! ---ellie    

yaa, its easy to say, "Music's my life." and stuff. But the thing that is important for me, is that, it brought me to so many new people. Near, far, whatever they are, they became a "part of my life" so to say. And I think (despite it being so distant from the reality) it becomes a place for me to run away and hide once in a while. Yeahh like,, whatever-,,,. The thing is, its like, so hard to get away with stuff in music, while at the same time, its so easy to get away with everything. Hahaha, ya, Like I know what I'm saying ******* (fill in the blank with imagination). Ok, anyways...
If music is life, then what is math? People say music is a language, as well as math. I guess everything is all relative. Cause for me, I like math (yaa, some people may have weird looks on their faces), I like music. Well,, like,, enjoy? Desire? I don't know,,, but it just becomes a part of a life style. Think in terms of math. Think in terms of music...
----
Getting long.. sum it up. Similar to what Ellie said I think, all relative. And for me, I look music as another,,, place I can look at. Just lliek the way I look at the society of Japanese, Americans, athletes, musicians... and its a place I enjoy being in. I don't know if I belong here, but its a place I really enjoy, atleast for now. And maybe till I die. Who knows? Who cares? Cause the future comes soon enough (a part of Einstein's quote)    

deta deta~~~~!!! my kind of topic~..tte iitai tokoro dakedo..same as every1 else, im not realy sure. ill try 2 make it simple(sori if it sounds dasai)music is lyk a/the...:
-mother, nurturing me and being there wen i just need sum1 2 take care of me
-home(it's broad, i kno)wen u panic wen ppl ask u the simple question "so, where r u from?", u start 2 desperately seek a home. cling 2 the idea of a home, u kno?
-friend, aaggh wakatteru its been said b4...but seriously, cus its lyk a shoulder 2 cry on as wel as sum1 2 hav fun with and just b stupid with.
-high. u reeally do get high on it.wel i do anyway(abuna).
-internet. u kno wen ur just surfin the net, and then u discover a cool site, and u learn sumthin. and then that site contains a link 2 another cool site...and so on.

shit, uchi mecha uzai na. gomencho~ hahaha    

I LIKE ELLIE'S COMMENT! can i replace her name with mine under it? hehe... j/k.

one of my favorite parts of music is how it shows other sides of people.... such beautiful, talented, emotional sides. and it is just... (simply put) beautiful. but i think there are different types of singing/music. to me, when you are watching someone performing, whether it be on the CA stage or at a concert, and you can tell that they are really into and it means something to them in the moment, that is the best form of music (like when kenji plays the guitar and you can tell by just watching him that he is so into it). i love watching people who are close to me performing and just being blown away by their talent- so many of our friends are talented. i like going to a concert and jumping around to my favorite song and then closing my eyes during another, just letting the music flow through my body. maybe one of my favorite parts though is that certain songs bring back memories... it could be something that you experienced while a certain song was playing in the background, the first song you danced to with your boyfriend (kayne), one that a friend used to sing to you to put you to sleep (heheh ellie), or one that friend performed really well (too many names to list here). and yes, like everyone else said it brings people together. and it is a unique way of expressing emotion that i don't think can be captured in any other form.

love,
natalie    

Im truely impressed by all these comments. honmani. Not in some condesending way. I really want to publish these responses. All so insightful. Thanks a lot guys. This entry ended up a lot better than I thought it would.    

Gomen I don't know if this has been exhausted yet but I was reading some responses and it got me thinking again (and I don't want to study).
If I may contradict myself for a sec, and relating to what Natalie said, sometimes music can be life...or at least another way to document it. Psychologists say that smell is the strongest sense that tunes into our amygdala (place where emotions come from) to trigger our memories...but that's SO TRUE about sound and MUSIC too. You hear one song and you can REMEMBER exactly what your life was like in one era, or just a certain week when you listened to that one song over and over and over....desho? Wow, sugee na. It connects with the brain, like, of course, so many other things. Like when we eat donburi or pizza or spaghetti or peanut butter and jelly or whatever other childhood comfort foods that can immediately calm down our senses.
Ok, I'm going way out here...so I'll come back to music.
It's EVERYWHERE!
(hahah. crap general statement of life. but there are lots more like it.) Did I achieve anything here? Ok, sumimasen if I wasted webspace. This is the last comment, I promise.--ellie    

okay, one LAST comment from me, but i really felt the need to say this when looking at the other comments- I COMPLETELY agree with Natalie when talks about the performace aspect of music. There are so many countless times that I've stared up at the CA stage with this overwhelming sense of awe that our small little community could produce such talent; the auditorium for a moment fills up with this raw emotion that translates from the passion of the performer with his or her instrument, flowing with this...I can't explain, but this feeling of "shit...this is fucking amazing" and just to see the pure joy and seemingly euphoric state that the performers are in...now that has to be one of the best parts of music.
-tiki    

yaaay everybody agrees with me!!! heheh...

it is amazing how much people have to say about what music means to them and the part that it plays in their lives.

love,
natalie    

Everyone's saying LAST COMMENT! LAST COMMENT! Nooo! Keep writing! Its a discussion! haha. Anyway, yea Natalie, ur right, It amazing how much people have to say about music. You really feel the importance of it.

Through these comments I was also reminded about the connection music has with ones memories. The other role music plays in my life:

My personal soundtrack    

My friend Lille actually wrote something really profound about music!

http://hickypox.blogspot.com/

Check out her May 4 entry ...    

yeah music is sooo deep....

I mean, there's just tons of stuff that you could say about it,,,but it really is something that unite's ppl...
Watching my dog, I sometimes wonder if animals close to humans like dogs and horses like music...i suppose thats a another long completely different story...
Gen    

Hey Chris! This is Shinsuke, this is such a great discussion topic! haha, I agree with you about how music and performances in our daily lives connects up people and as natalie said, how it brings back memory with it. I kinda forgot about that stuff so it was really nice being reminded again. Well I've always thought about what music and performance meant to me, but more importantly the purpose of art including music. Why do people create works of art, and why do they perform and share it? I think everyone can have his or her own answer to this, but I thought I’d share you mine.

What I believe is, if we live our ordinary lives, we as individuals can never experience and feel everything that other people go through. If our experience of different emotion is so limited, how can we understand each other and their feelings? Well I think that’s where the role of art comes in. I think art, especially music for me, can express feelings and images that we might not be familiar with. By being exposed to art, I think we are able to feel and experience things that we cannot experience ourselves in our daily lives. For example, can you imagine how Beethoven must’ve felt when he became deaf and almost commited suicide? I don’t think many people go through those experiences and it’s hard to imagine how he felt, but the music he wrote often reflects those feelings that he went through at that time, and it directly touches my heart and resonates with me although I have never been in that situation. We can experience so much more through music.

I also believe that music can express feelings and images that are indescribable by words. For example, can you describe that feeling of dreams and nightmares? Or that feeling of passion/agitation towards something? It sure is hard for me to describe that in words, but music captures all that and by a fine performer, it can be expressed and allow the audience to feel it. That is why I wanna become a performer. How wonderful it would be if I can share those feelings with others!I believe that the more we feel different feelings, the more sensitive and imaginative we become towards other people’s situations, which will enable us to really care and understand them more. I think music helps you do that!

Not to advertise…but I will be performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto next Friday. It’s a piece when Beethoven wrote when he was 25, when he was already famous and successful, and was full of energy and had infinite hope towards the future, which I think is all reflected in this piece. I hope I can make all of you feel those things through my performance! Anyway, this became way too long, and just wrote it from the top of my head so it’s probably really repetitive so sorry about that! And although I said “music” in general, it is mainly about classical music, so the purpose of music will probably differ with different genres of music too. Anyway, that’s how I feel about music and what it means to me!
-Shinsuke    

"without music, life would be an error" — some guy

- APEMAN    

omg. obviously music is something that touches everyone really deeply, enough to return and make more comments.
I agree with lots of people here. You guys..wow some deep deep stuff. long coments. anyhow..

I tend to think of music as therapeutic. I love the feeling of discovering and listening to something incredibly incredible for the first time, or just playing something..it just feels really good and i'm instantly happier. Its a mode of expression which i like because my moods instantly elevated. not performing tho.. that aspect of music is somehting that i will not really enjoy so i dont think ill be a performer when i grow up haha. its just very pressuring to be one. but some ppl are just great at and love preforming so thats cool too.    

hi~ just dropping by~
music ne- hard topic i say
but for me, haha i bet im gna piss some people off since some ppl think music should b super valued n what not, which i agree but im just not too much into the whole entire preforming thing (enjoy others do it tho) but for me music is....

something that hypes da parties

haha come on dont hate kris, u know u cant go to sam and daves and just take a shot and sit around.
so for ME music is something that i need for my favorite thing partying- or just even listening to it- for instance if i want to feel so "aww" then ill listen to "aww" music...

and one thing i know for sure is that whether people realize it or not it just influences ppl one way or another

music for me is kinda like....

the perfect state of drunkness, with my friends on the side, a hot guy in view, strobe lights....

but no hang over

love, tOuka    

and by the way....

louis is hard core hatin on you:)

hehe maybe u need to get him drunk

tOuka    

music ne. many people are saying this, and i'll say it too.

I seriously can't say anything about it. i just don't know.

I mean, music been a part of my life for.....10 out of 14 years? kedo yappa i haven't lived long enough to answer this question. But i can say I can't live without music with 自信. I can't, I mean, the world's gonna turn upside down for me. My life would have something really missing. I wonder though, i didn't feel like this when I was small, but like nowadays, from about 8th grade (last year), i so feel it. Music's such an important part of me, so maybe sometime, i'll find an answer....'sometime'. I wonder if anyone really found an answer though.

...gomen ne, i'm really bad at writing my thoughts down,,,    

wow, so many long comments are posted so youre prolly not gonna even read mine which is gonna be at the very bottom but yah you got me thinking so i'll right some. well well, if it was the impact of music, i think it depends on the person really, its pretty simple than what it seems. if there was a person who says music is there life and they know nothing about music, it still had that impact that made him think that way, so its probably equally as valid as other ppls. in high school i used to think "psshhhhh what do you know about music?" kind of, but its there for everybody its actually made so that people can link themselves to it. the origin of music was either religious or for dancing or both. these both exist today but as society got more complicated the role of music kind of branched as well. so people come up with this complicated theory but it comes down to what you make of it really. it has different meanings to everybody really. some people think its great because you can feel the same emotion as the lyrics. some people would say thats bull crap because its made for millions of people to link to one single song. valid statement actually, i think. so what i would say is, music is simple and easy to enjoy in a smaller community smaller scale, basically i think if you love music you really shouldnt be famous. it ruins the purpose it used to have. oh well oh well, what do i know about music.
sota    

I bet no one's gonna read this, but oh well...

wow! very insightful things here. Natalie thank you for your nice comment and everybody for their statements about how they enjoy music at CA.
I think all of you said something which is true about music and i guess it has something to do with all the manifestations and capabilities of all the music out there. But as sota said, What do we know about music anyway? Well this is music for me.

on good days when I'm really in touch with it (music and sounds), i can create a world of sounds which are representative of who I am and what I know. I have a feeling i am i touch with myself in a very deep place and I am able to share things which otherwise i cannot. As shinsuke said, this piece of yourself that you can share with other people, is what makes music meaningful I think. Music for me is a way to connect to other people, both as a perfomer and listener in a way that truly enriches your life.


All the best,
Kenji    

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