La musique est mon poison ...

We all fall into it. We all share a connection with it. Music. It is my poison. It is the first thing I turn to after a bad day, a triumph, a spiritual moment, or a heart break. It's my refuge, my happy place.

We all label music, and often times we are labeled by the music we enjoy. But when you take away the music artist, strip off the music behind it, and just read the lyrics... you most likely wouldn't be able to tell what genre it went into. The interior of each song is where you find the heart, and soul of that song. Just like people. Look past the exterior, and what you first see and listen to their heart song... I hear a song, and I look at it from my perspective. "Oh my gosh, you have to listen to this song... it describes me perfectly!" That is when I halt and I have to remind myself that song isn't about me. It's about the artist, and what they see, but that is the magic of music. It is universal. It is something that can, and will be likened unto everyone. When you listen to a song, take a step back and try to listen to it in the way the person sitting next to you is listening to it. Watch as that song takes on a whole new meaning...

For me personally I didn't used to stop and wonder what the story behind the song was until I was about 10 years old. I grew up listening to my dad write music, writing lyrics, and figuring out the right guitar chords to express what he was saying. I remember the night I asked him what he meant by the lyrics to his song 'The Road' and the story he gave me behind it. I started to look at my daddy a bit differently. He became a bit more human to me. Listening to Not An Addict by K's Choice once again hit me with a different side of the world. Growing up in Bountiful Utah I was sheltered from just about everything. Going to K-mart was a night on the town. For the most part I sang to myself outside in the backyard up in one of our apple trees, or under the peach tree. I wrote most of my poetry beginnings hidden in this corner of my yard that was completely encased by ivy, and sun flowers that grew to impossible heights. My childhood was spent in this jungle, and all I remember is the music that filled my head. I had my own soundtrack. I didn't realize there were really drug addicts, or suicide. There wasn't such a thing as murder, or rape, or death... outside of old people. I didn't realize there was a sadness or pain outside of listening to parents fighting, or falling out of trees. Listening to this song opened my eyes to a new side of things. It wasn't until I was in high school that I realized these things were real, and to have someone who had fought a real drug addiction was incredibly powerful to me. I remember the first night I looked at a song I connected with on a high level from someone elses perspective. I had played a specific song to try and say something to the person next to me in the car. He heard the song and it made him laugh because of the context of the song. Instead of hearing my side, he heard his own. After dropping him off I replayed the song to figure out why he left my car laughing at how perfect the song was. The song was Boys Don't Cry by Plumb. I heard the song from a whole new perspective, and it changed the way he and I interacted because I finally understood why he felt the way he did... it had been an argument we'd both tried to argue, believing we were right, but being un-able to fully express why to the other person leading to more frustration... But to step out and listen to his side I understood his side and I changed what I was doing... and it made us better.

When we feel as though we aren't the only one in the world going through something, we smile. We learn. We grow. When we feel validated, and understood... We smile. We learn, and we grow. When we step outside of ourselves and are able to look at something from another's perspective we smile a little bigger. We learn a bit more, and we grow into that much better of a person. Music does all of that... it fills us with emotion, conviction, desire... no matter the genre. Music is universal... Music is my weakness. Music is my poison.

...I learned at a young age music speaks to all people. No matter race, age, religion. Music knows no barrier. Put a word to a rhythm and you've created a magic everyone can experience... So, Step outside yourself and... See their side, their story...