Hi,
Not a hard topic for me, but one that ... explaining it is almost impossible, specially to try and get others to understand it.
I went from Portugal to Brazil at 9, to America at 16 (Madison, WI), and then at 22, to California.
Big deal, you say!
The problem is that it's four drastically different cultures and it feels like this ... in POrtugal it was the upper class thing and the lower class only knew the FADO and some crappy pop music! Brazil has music in its blood, and blood in its music, and their jazz/classical mixes are unreal. Their mixes with classical and pop music and artists is also very alive. Madison, was very hip, and the music was very vivid and alive, and influenced the huge campus of the UW (50K+ students), which makes for a very liberal school , and all arts come and go, and then people go think of Michelangelo! California showed me that there was a lot more music out everywhere, but everyone treated it like a FAD, because you can not suplant the "stars" and its "history", besides the fact that you will die immediately, if you do!
What did this leave me with?
An internalization of all music ... I lived through it in visuals and trying to comprehend things inside those pieces. As such, even though the singing is considered bad, "Ohio" has incredible meaning for me, since at the time I was working at the Rathskeller, and the fuzz planted the National Guard and "that" group of kids, to frisk everyone going in and out of the place! Neil Young might not be a favorite, but the words and feelings are pure truth, and I'm not sure many of us look at it that way. In Brazil during the coup and such, some music was used as a way to nail the military. I always thought (still not sure about it) that Maria Betania's "Carcara" was a vicious gun pointed at the government.
So I dropped out, of the fad scene, and stuck with the meaningful scenes, and they all went to Europe because America got stuck on the dope and sex and crap, and then the media did not waste its time making fun of it and put it down ... viciously ... I might add.
Over the years, music is the only serious "woman" I have ever loved. Language/communication issues with new language and schooling, made things really hard ... I became "self-taught", and it was the European Progressive music that carried me along the way. The likes of AD2, Can, Tangerine Dream, Banco, PFM, Ange ... because they were talking about exactly what I was having issues with.
That's the importance of music for me. You could say that it was my "GOD". Unffortunately, nowadays, and in a place like this, at times mentioning something else, is like another culture shock ... there are not many that have experienced those artists, and being able to say something about it is not easy, since it is (for me) so internal and so deep, that it would be totally surrealistic, dadaist, and insane for many folks here.
Such a surprise!
And when I write a lot of the small suggestions about this and that, it is in that depth that it resides, unfortunately, you can kinda tell that some folks will not look at it, as they are afraid to lose their footing. In the arts, you don't lose your footing ... you make it stronger! But tell that to anyone that lives and plays and works within a commercial/pop context. Their "God" is not even inside and the proverbial "father and I" can never be one because of it. If it "were", you would not be here at all!
My only sad spot inside? I never had a good chance to learn to play music or a friend that could spent a bit of time helping me take it a step further! And it gets worse as you get older!